MANILA, Philippines - A good governance advocacy group has called on a Court of Appeals (CA) justice to resign his post for his alleged biased decisions involving cases under his watch.
Roi Rosales, spokesman of Alliance for Good Governance, claimed that Justice Noel Tijam has lost his credibility when he showed his partiality in resolving cases brought to his division.
Rosales cited the cases of the state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and CJH Development Corporation (CHJDevCo), and R-II Builders, owned by businessman Reghis Romero II, and the government-run Home Guaranty Corporation.
In both cases, Rosales said the CA magistrate has demonstrated his partiality.
"The Philippine government is at the losing end in these cases," Rosales said.
In the BCDA case, Rosales said, Tijam issued a decision that reversed an order of the Arbitral Tribunal of the Philippine Dispute Resolution Center, which ordered CJHDevCo to vacate the Camp John Hay in Baguio City due to non-payment.
The BCDA called Tijam’s decision "patently erroneous" and disadvantageous to the government.
In the case of R-II Builders, Rosales said Tijam issued a decision in 2010 in favor of Romero's R-II Builders involving the HGC but was reversed by the Supreme Court, which noted that the CA decision was riddled of "error upon error."
The BCDA and Romero decisions, Rosales said, have made the firm One Source Port Support Services Inc. doubtful of Tijam’s ability to render fair decision in its case pending under the justice's CA division.
One Source, the service provider of the Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc., is seeking to inhibit Tijam from its case involving Romero.
"Tijam, of course, refused to inhibit himself from the case involving his friend Romero," Rosales said.
He called on the High Court to investigate Tijam and the decisions he has issued.
"President Aquino's ‘Daang Matuwid’ policy is clearly being trampled upon by Justice Tijam," he said.