Appointment of Caguioa as chief presidential legal counsel bucked

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer has filed an opposition to the possible appointment of President Aquino’s classmate Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa or any private law practitioner to the position of chief presidential legal counsel due to conflict of interest.

In a letter to Aquino submitted to the Office of the President, lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. said Caguioa and his law firm Caguioa & Gatmaytan are the current counsel of Narra Nickel Mining and Development Corp., Tesoro Mining and Development, Inc. and McArthur Mining, Inc. in the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court where the firms appealed a recent decision of the Office of the President that was not favorable to them.

“The parent company of Narra Nickel Mining, Tesoro Mining and McArthur Mining is a Canadian company known as MBMI Resources, Inc. and it is possible that Attorney Caguioa and his law firm, Caguioa & Gatmaytan, are also the present counsel of MBMI since Narra Nickel Mining, Tesoro Mining and McArthur Mining were represented by the counsel of MBMI before your Office,” Francisco said. 

In the Office of the President’s decision dated April 6, 2011 in O.P. Case No. 10-E-229, the Financial and Technical Assistance Agreements (FTAAs) issued to Narra Nickel Mining, Tesoro Mining and McArthur Mining on April 5, 2010 by the OP, during the last few months of the term of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, were ordered cancelled and revoked. 

The FTAAs were ordered revoked after the OP under Aquino agreed with the petitioner in O.P. Case No. 10-E-229 that “the issuance of FTAAs to respondents was highly anomalous and irregular, considering that the said entities and their mother company, the Canadian company MBMI Resources Inc., had a long history of violation and circumvention of the Philippine Constitution and laws, and of questionable activities in the Philippines and abroad.”

“Caguioa may not have the required objectivity and impartiality in dealing with similar cases involving the same issues that were decided by your Office in O.P. Case No. 10-E-229, or cases involving the issue of whether a corporation organized in the Philippines may be considered a foreign or Filipino corporation, or cases involving the exploitation by foreign corporations of our country’s natural resources and other rights and privileges reserved to Filipinos, which may be pending in your office or in the different departments under your office and which will eventually be elevated to your office, and which cases may be referred to the presidential legal counsel for advice or disposition,” Francisco said.

“There may also be cases involving the aforementioned issues which will be filed in your office or in the different departments under your office in the future which will eventually be elevated to your office and possibly referred to the presidential legal counsel for advice or disposition,” he said.

Francisco said the OP might also have to take a stand on the implementation of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Gamboa vs. Finance Secretary on the interpretation of the constitutional provision that “no franchise, certificate, or any other form of authorization for the operation of public utility shall be granted except to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines, at least sixty per centum of whose capital is owned by such citizens.”

“I must stress that I am not casting aspersion on the person of Atty. Caguioa or his law firm. But Atty. Caguioa and his law firm’s lawyering for Narra Nickel Mining, Tesoro Mining and McArthur Mining and possibly MBMI, their advocacy of the cause of the said entities and the position that they have taken with respect to the issues decided in O.P. Case No. 10-E-229, may lead to a conflict of interest situation and worse, may impact on national interest, if Atty. Caguioa is appointed Presidential Legal Counsel,” Francisco said.

“Moreover, I hope that by calling your attention to this matter, as well as the attention of Atty. Caguioa who is reported to be your classmate, the Filipinos’ virtue of delicadeza will ultimately prevail in the appointment to a highly sensitive position such as the presidential legal counsel,” he added. 

Malacañang said Caguioa was among those being considered to be chief presidential legal counsel.

Caguioa, a senior partner of the Caguioa & Gatmaytan Law Office, was Aquino’s classmate at the Ateneo de Manila University from grade school to college, where they both studied economics.

Caguioa went on to take up law and passed the Bar examination in 1986.

Francisco said it could not be denied that there was a general perception, especially among lawyers, that the position of chief presidential legal counsel had been used in the past to favor private interest, or the private law practice or law firm or colleagues of the lawyer occupying the position. 

“But this perception can be changed if in line with your avowed policy of ‘daang matuwid’ you will deliberately refrain from appointing a private law practitioner to the position of presidential legal counsel. This will also minimize, if not eliminate, possible conflict of interest and ensure that decisions, opinions and advices on legal matters emanating from your Office will be based solely on what is lawful, right, just, moral and good for our country and will not be for the benefit of any private interest or the private law practice or clients of the person occupying the position of presidential legal counsel,” Francisco said. 

He also said that “there are many retired justices, judges and other government lawyers or non-practicing lawyers, especially those working full-time in academe, who are more than competent and qualified to be appointed to the position of presidential legal counsel.”

Francisco said the OP decided correctly on the mining case as shown in the fact that the Court of Appeals, in its decision dated Feb. 23, upheld and affirmed the same.