Amari asks SC’s Carpio to inhibit self on suit

His stint as a newspaper columnist has forced Justice Antonio Carpio to inhibit himself from deliberations in three controversial cases pending in the Supreme Court.

Central to all these are Carpio’s comments on the PEA-Amari contract and the Marcos cases in 1997 and the case of then retired police Director General Panfilo Lacson in 2001 in his column "Crosscurrents" in The Manila Times..

Carpio, Mrs. Arroyo’s first appointee to the high tribunal, is being asked to keep out of any new deliberation on the PEA-Amari contract.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos and her brother, Gov. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. had wanted Carpio to abstain from the deliberations on the $659-million Marcos ill-gotten wealth cases.

And Sen. Panfilo Lacson asked the Supreme Court not to allow Carpio to join in the deliberations on the case of the alleged rubout of members of the Kuratong Baleleng robbery gang in May 1995.

Carpio inhibited himself from the two cases.

On the other hand, Amari Coastal Bay Development Corp. — now renamed Central Bay Reclamation and Development Corp. — wants Carpio out of the "re-deliberation" of the PEA-Amari contract which was nullified by the Supreme Court last July 9 through a unanimous decision written by Carpio.

Lawyers of Central Bay Reclamation has discovered Carpio’s "bias" when they read his column on July 9, 1997.

"This could only mean that in writing this July 9 ruling, Justice Carpio relied on facts which were neither alleged, brought out, or even discussed in the present case, and therefore based on extrajudicial sources," they said.

In a petition to the Supreme Court, lawyers from Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc and Delos Angeles office said Carpio was of the opinion that the PEA-Amari reclamation contract was void from the start because it did not meet the requirements of proper bidding.

"Justice Carpio may have merely failed to remember his previously articulated views, which sometimes happens," read the petition.

The lawyers said Amari’s plea for Carpio’s inhibition is "consistent" with its right to due process as well as the Court’s pronouncements for the judiciary to remain impartial, independent and neutral in the disposition of cases.

"That a ponente (writer) who has prejudged the case be inhibited from participating in any deliberation of a case," read the petition.

The PEA-Amari contract was approved in June 1995 when Carpio was chief legal counsel of President Fidel Ramos.

In an eight-page petition, the Marcoses said Carpio is no longer a "neutral judge" because he admitted in his column that he was involved in government efforts to recover the Marcos wealth.

"(Carpio) proceeded to give his legal opinion on how the government should be able to recover the Marcos Swiss accounts," read the petition.

"Carpio’s article strongly shows ... that he has already made a prejudgment on the matter ... indicating that, as far as he is concerned, these are funds owned by the private respondents (Marcoses) and no other."

On the other hand, Lacson said Carpio has given a "virtual recipe book for (his) capture and incarceration" through his two newspaper articles.

"It is thus reasonable to assume, nay conclude, that the Honorable Justice Carpio has made up his mind about the issues in this case before even reaching this Honorable Court," read the petition.

"He is no longer perceived to be an impartial arbiter. He has prejudged not only the matter at bar, but Lacson’s character as well when he called the Kuratong Baleleng case a rubout."