The Supreme Court En Banc has constricted the projected testimony of Associate Justice Teresita de Castro to purely administrative matters and not to delve on the deliberations of the High Court which led to the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the Senior Citizens party-list case.

Justice De Castro was also limited to testify only on the merits of her ponencia in Aguinaldo, et al. vs. President Aquino III (G.R. No. 224302) and her separate concurring opinion in Jardeleza vs. Sereno, et al. (G.R. No. 213181).

The limitations on de Castro’s testimony will preserve the confidentiality of the Court’s deliberations and foreclose the public washing of “dirty linen” of the High Court and prevent the spectacle of disclosing the “squabbles” among some justices.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN