Junior justice heads Sandigan

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino has appointed Amparo Cabotaje-Tang as presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan despite being considered a junior, having joined the anti-graft court only in June last year.

“I may be junior in judicial experience but I am not a junior in legal and administrative experience,” Tang said when she was grilled by the Judicial and Bar Council last June as candidate for the position. Insisting on her independence as a Sandiganbayan justice, Tang said “no one has swayed me into delaying or solving a case in favor of one party.”

The JBC began its search for nominees to become the next presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan following the mandatory retirement of Presiding Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr. last June 8 after turning 70.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. transmitted the appointment of Tang to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Oct. 1, the same day it was signed by President Aquino.

Tang was chosen by the President among four other nominees to the position that included Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rafael Santos. The other nominees were Court of Appeals Justice Apolinario Bruselas Jr. as well as Sandiganbayan justices Efren de la Cruz and Gregory Ong.

At 58, she is the youngest member of the Sandiganbayan. 

In the same JBC interview, Tang was also asked about compromise agreements and she replied they could be allowed in civil but not in criminal cases.

“Criminal cases can never be compromised... there’s also a plea bargaining agreement,” she said.

Some officials of the Sandiganbayan, however, expressed concern over Tang’s appointment as chief magistrate of the anti-graft court.

They said the President’s decision to appoint a junior magistrate to the position of Sandiganbayan presiding justice would cause demoralization among the ranks of more senior magistrates.  

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said Malacañang created a number of problems in choosing Tang, the youngest of the anti-graft court’s associate justices.

They dubbed the new Sandiganbayan presiding justice as a “queen without a throne” since she did not even preside over any of the five divisions of the anti-graft court.

At present, the First Division is headed by Associate Justice De la Cruz who is holding office at the second floor where the presiding justice should hold office. The second, third, fourth, and fifth divisions of the Sandiganbayan are respectively chaired by Associate Justices Teresita Diaz-Baldos, Jose Hernandez, Ong, and Roland Jurado.

Sources said it would be ironic to think any of the five ranking magistrates will give up chairmanship of their courts just to give way to a junior associate justice.

They stressed Tang’s appointment to the position bypassed more senior magistrates including Hernandez who is the most senior but will not be retiring until 2016.

However, it was Tang, when she was assistant solicitor general, who filed the pleading opposing the maligned plea bargain agreement between the Sandiganbayan and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia. 

Tang repeatedly appealed before the Sandiganbayan’s special second division for the plea bargain to be nullified for being disadvantageous to the government. 

The Sandiganbayan earlier approved the plea bargain agreement between Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Under the deal, Garcia pleaded guilty to a lesser offense of direct bribery instead of plunder in exchange for returning over P135 million worth of assets.

Tang said earlier she could convince members of the anti-graft court to “cooperate in a time-sensitive process” to help speed up the resolution of cases pending before the court.

In the 10 months she has been with the Sandiganbayan, Tang said she had resolved 31 incidents in 31 cases, or an average of three incidents resolved per month.

Before being appointed to the Sandiganbayan in August 2012, Tang served under the Office of the Solicitor General for three decades. As assistant solicitor general, Tang represented the government in a writ of amparo case filed by former National Bureau of Investigation director Magtanggol Gatdula against the Department of Justice and the NBI.

Tang was also credited for the government’s success in recovering over P60 billion worth of coco levy funds, which came from taxes imposed on coconut farmers during the martial law years by alleged cronies of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, including Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., with the promise of sharing investments and development of the coconut industry.

Before her stint at the OSG, Tang worked as a judicial assistant at the High Court for two years.

At the OSG, Tang served as trial attorney and solicitor from 1982 to 1994 and as assistant solicitor general from 1994 to 2012.

Tang graduated from Manuel L. Quezon University in 1975 with a degree in Political Science, and from San Beda College of Law in 1979 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. She was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1980.