Gesmundo: No stone-written court decision

Though it has already been decided with finality by the Supreme Court the reopening of the P203-billion estate tax case against the family of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is still possible.

Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo stressed this during yesterday's Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum, saying a decision that has attained finality may still be reopened depending on the composition of the Court and the reasons raised by the requesting party.

"No decision of the Court is written in stone. The modification of the Court's decision primarily depends on its composition. Like in America, there are conservative (magistrates) and there are liberal (magistrates). If the majority are conservative it would be difficult to seek a reversal of its decision. If the majority are liberal it would be easy to do that. Our set-up is similar, each of our magistrates has their own opinion about a case" he said.

Gesmundo pointed out that one of the valid reasons that may prompt the SC to reopen a case that has been decided with finality is if there was a blatant violation of the constitutional rights of the requesting party.

"The Court is always guided that cases should be terminated at a certain point in time, it is called res judicata. But, if there are reasons so unique and the parties are filing a reconsideration or sometimes (a request) that the case be heard from a division to the En Banc, there is a possibility that a former decision or a prior judgment can be modified or reversed," he said.

"So it's actually on a case to case basis, what is important are the issues being brought by the parties before the SC. Is it a question of constitutional rights so blatantly violated? Then we have to take a second look. It really depends on the situation and on other considerations that would be presented before the Court to justify the modification or the reversal of the decision," he added.