A conspiracy that exists only in her mind.
Officials of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), the Supreme Court (SC) and the Judicial and Bar Council denied outright Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s emotional “me-center-of-the-universe” theory of an alleged concerted effort among the three agencies to ensure her ouster from the JBC shortlist of hopefuls for the chief justice position submitted to President Aquino.
“We cannot fault Secretary De Lima for being emotional at this time. But the IBP simply applied the laws and rules in her case,” explained lawyer Trixie Angeles, spokesman for the  IBP.
Another IBP official, president Roan Libarios, reiterated that De Lima’s conspiracy theory exists only in her mind.
“There is no conspiracy. The IBP acted on the case based on the rules,” Libarios said.
Supreme Court (SC) acting spokesman Victoria Gleoresty Guerra for her part pointed out that  “all three bodies, SC, IBP and JBC, are just following rules. There is no conspiracy. We are just following rules,” Guerra said but pointed out that “every person is entitled to his own opinion. That’s her opinion.” Guerra said of De Lima’s outburst.
“All three offices simply followed the rules. The SC has referred  one of the three disbarment complaints against De Lima to the IBP as early as April. So as far as I know,she did not file a motion for reconsideration of the referrals.” Guerra reiterated yesterday to the Tribune.
The SC  denied the accusation the SC, IBP and JBC  conspired to disqualify  De Lima and excluded her from the shortlist of nominees for the next Chief Justice.
However, Guerra refused to comment whether the statement of De Lima against the SC can be considered “contemptuous,” and  pointed out she would not want to pre-empt the SC if ever someone files contempt charges against De Lima in connection with her statement.
“We only follow established rules when acting on disbarment complaints,” Libarios said. De Lima has at least two pending disbarment cases before the IBP because of her alleged defiance of the temporary restraining order issued by the SC on the watchlist order against former President and now Pampanga (2nd District) Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Nov. 15, 2011.
“We have nothing against the Secretary (De Lima) except (that) we have to abide by the rules,” Libarios said.
A member of the JBC for his part said  De Lima was disqualified in the shortlist of nominees for the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because the JBC decided to adhere to  its own rules and not because she was singled out.
Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., JBC ex-officio member representing the House of Representatives, said De Lima was disqualified from the position vacated by impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona by virtue of Rule 5, Section 4 of the JBC rule.
Under the said rule, any nominee with pending criminal or regular administrative cases, pending criminal cases in foreign courts, convicted on any criminal case or administrative case with a fine of not less than P10,000, is disqualified for appointment in any post in the Judiciary, Ombudsman or Deputy Ombudsmen.
Voting for nominees to the shortlist was postponed several times due to the issue on disqualification and that De Lima stood a fair chance of being included in the shortlist.
Besides De Lima, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Teresita Herbosa were also in danger of being disqualified also due to pending cases against them before the Supreme Court.
Tupas said this brought about an impasse wherein it was suggested that the JBC proceed under suspended rules, a situation where a rule or several rules would be disregarded in order to come up with a decision. As it was, he said the voting on Saturday (Aug. 11) was evenly split 4-4 on the issue of suspending the rules.
Tupas said that it then became impractical to proceed under suspended rules since only one would benefit and get undue advantage from it — De Lima.
“I would have voted for her if she would not have been disqualified,” he said.
Tupas and De Lima both figured prominently during the Senate trial of the impeachment case against Corona. Tupas was the lead House prosecutor while De Lima stood as one of the lead witnesses of the House prosecution panel.
“There was no conscious attempt to single her (De Lima) out. It was only incidental that we needed to apply the rules on each of the candidates,” he explained in an interview.
Lawyer Jose Mejia, regular member of JBC from the academe, denied the allegation.
“There was no conscious attempt to single her (De Lima) out. It was only incidental that we needed to apply the rules on each of the candidates,” he explained in an interview.
Mejia also denied claims of critics that their selection process was heavily influenced by President Aquino.
“I don’t think there was influence that has really affected the choices. I cannot speak for the other members - if unconsciously they were influenced. If at all there was influence, I think it was merely incidental,” he explained.
The JBC, however, considered  Jardeleza and Securities and Exchange Commissioner chairman Herbosa, who also had administrative cases. Herbosa however failed to gain enough votes to land in the shortlist. Carpio topped the shortlist after getting seven of eight possible votes.
Three justices placed second in the closed-door voting of JBC – Roberto Abad, Arturo Brion and Ma. Lourdes Sereno. They each got six votes along with Jardeleza and former executive secretary and San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora.