Court of Appeals stops arrest of GSIS board

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the implementation of indirect contempt of court and the arrest warrants issued by a Pasig court for members of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) board of trustees.

The TRO issued Friday afternoon effectively prevented the arrest of the GSIS board and implementation of the indirect contempt of court issued on March 31 by Judge Rolando Mislang of the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 167.

The arrest warrants against the GSIS board of trustees was based on a petition for indirect contempt filed by a certain Antonio Vilar and

Harold Cuevas last March 14.

The petition, which Mislang granted, claimed that the GSIS trustees violated a Pasig court-issued TRO against the land case settlement between the GSIS and 82-year-old widow Rosario Santiago.

But the CA, in issuing its TRO against Mislang’s order, said: “Respondent court not only failed to abide by the requirement of fixing the bail bond but has also made petitioner’s arrest immediately

executory. This is clearly in violation of petitioners’ rights.”

The CA also gave private respondents Vilar and Cuevas and the respondent Court (Pasig RTC Branch 167) ten days from receipt of the TRO to file their comments and to show cause why the TRO should be lifted.

GSIS president and general manager Robert Vergara welcomed the CA action and assured GSIS members that despite these developments the state pension fund operates as usual.

“We would like to reassure our stakeholders that, as always, your Board of Trustees is acting in your best interest to ensure the continuing stability of your pension fund,” Vergara said.

He also thanked the Department of Finance, oversight agency of the GSIS, for expressing its “unwavering commitment to provide full support to the System and its Trustees.”

The GSIS official was referring to the statement issued by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima published in the Official Gazette website, which read: “It is highly unfortunate that the members of the newly constituted Board of Directors of the Government Service Insurance System, who are merely complying with a now final and executory decision of the Supreme Court, are now caught between contending claimants.”

The Department of Finance said it supports the GSIS board in its efforts to finally bring this litigation to a complete end.

The newly constituted GSIS board of trustees faced the threat of a non-bailable arrest warrant issued last March 31 based on a petition for indirect contempt filed last March 14.

The warrant stemmed from an alleged violation of the Pasig court TRO issued on March 2, weeks after the settlement of a 21-year old land dispute case between the GSIS and the widow Santiago, which can be traced back to the ’70s.

The case was decided in favor of Ms. Santiago in 1999 by Pasig RTC Branch 71 and became final and executory in 2004.

The previous GSIS board filed three motions for reconsideration before the Supreme Court, which were all denied. As a last recourse to protect the state pension fund, the current board filed a fourth motion for reconsideration, to no avail.

The Supreme Court ruled with finality on Dec. 14, 2010 against the GSIS. Hence, the GSIS entered into a settlement last February on the basis of the final Supreme Court decision.

However, Vilar and Cuevas filed a TRO and injunction case, which was granted.

A TRO is only supposed to prevent the board of trustees from doing certain acts. However, the one issued by Judge Mislang, also compelled them to, among others, turn over the amounts due Ms. Santiago to Vilar and Cuevas.

The order was issued even without clearly establishing their (Vilar and Cuevas’) rights, the GSIS said. The GSIS added that Vilar and

Cuevas were not even parties to the first case and that they only surfaced after having gotten wind of the settlement.

The Mislang TRO gave credence to unauthenticated documents dated 1989 and 1999 which were allegedly executed by a person who died way back in 1996. Thus, these documents could no longer be authenticated.

It was on these grounds that the GSIS immediately petitioned the CA to stop the orders of Mislang from being implemented.