Gadon slams High Court for bias

Presidential Adviser on Poverty Alleviation Secretary Larry Gadon said on Thursday that he did not expect the Supreme Court (SC) to act on his complaint when he filed a disbarment case against Vice President Sara Duterte.

"The SC is highly political and biased," Gadon stated, citing several incidents involving Vice President Duterte and other anti-Marcos personalities.

"I do not expect the SC to act on my complaint. VP Sara punched and inflicted injury on an officer of the SC when he was implementing an order of the court, but the SC did not lift a finger to disbar or suspend her," Gadon said.

In a video message sent to the DAILY TRIBUNE, Gadon also noted that the high court "did not punish Leila de Lima when she admitted during a Senate hearing that she was having an immoral, illicit, illegal affair with her driver/bodyguard."

"Yet the SC did not bother to sanction her," Gadon added.

"Leila de Lima DEFIED a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) issued by none other than the SUPREME COURT, but she was not sanctioned," he continued.

Another example, according to the Palace official, was the case of Chel Diokno, who "submitted forged and falsified documents in a hearing right inside the Hall of the Supreme Court. But he was also not sanctioned."

Gadon stated that, as a Marcos loyalist, he, too became a victim of SC bias when he was immediately suspended without due process "on a mere letter from the Journalist Association."

"Without asking for any explanation, and after a year of suspension, they issued a disbarment on the day of my appointment on June 27, 2023, publishing it ahead of time in contravention of the confidential nature of such actions."

He added that the SC disbarred him even though the case filed by Raissa Robles last year over his profanities against a journalist was "DISMISSED for lack of evidence."

Gadon's disbarment complaint against Vice President Duterte, filed before the SC on Wednesday, concerned her statement that she had contracted an assassin to target President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos and House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez.

In his letter to the high court, Gadon urged the SC to take action against the Vice President, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Gadon noted that Duterte’s live online press conference on 23 November was broadcast on numerous social media platforms, seen by millions of Filipinos, and reported on television, radio, and in newspapers, thereby becoming general public knowledge that the court may take judicial notice of.

“Such statements coming from the second-highest official of the land, seen and heard by millions of Filipinos, are undoubtedly illegal, immoral and condemnable. As a lawyer herself, she should be disbarred,” he said.