The court’s Revised Internal Rules explicitly provide that all cases should be raffled and nowhere in the rules does it allow the automatic consolidation of unraffled cases to pending cases before the court, the Subido Pagente, Certeza, Mendoza and Binay (SPCMB) Law Office said. Citing the transcript of the Sandiganbayan raffle of cases held on July 15, 2016, the law firm said the Raffle Committee chaired by Associate Justice Oscar C. Herrera, Jr. excluded the so-called “Binay cases” from the raffle. These were assigned for consolidation with previously filed cases pending before the Third Division, chaired by Presiding Justice Amparo M. Cabotaje-Tang. “Had the Honorable Justices read the Informations prior to the automatic consolidation, they would find that the Informations involving Accused Binay, Sr. were totally different and independent from the previously filed cases,” they said. The lawyers also refuted the Sandiganbayan’s claim that Binay’s co-accused will benefit from the consolidation of the two sets of cases.

Source: Manila Times March 13, 2017 16:10 UTC