Confidence crisis at the CA

Talking about leadership in times of crisis, another institution of the country may require this in the aftermath of the continuing fight for control of a corporate boardroom lodged before the appellate court. And before this could further worsen, the entire 15-man Supreme Court (SC) headed by chief justice Reynato Puno will hold session tomorrow to resolve the internal wranglings at the appellate court.

The Court of Appeals  has become the new arena of the raging battle to wrest control of the management of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) from the Lopez family. The bid to box out the Lopezes from their control of Meralco is being spearheaded by Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), general manager  Winston Garcia. All the while that the dispute had been brought to a proper forum, the battle is turning out ugly in scandalous proportions.

The allegations and counter-allegations reduced this scandal to “he said this, he said that” controversy. But the scandal had so rocked the appellate court from its very foundation and threw the limelight to its leader, CA presiding justice Conrado Vasquez Jr. He is the namesake of former Ombudsman Conrado Vasquez whom I have the highest respects, having covered him when he was still in the judicial service.

The scandal erupted when one of its members, Associate Justice Jose Sabio came out with explosive disclosures in public against his CA colleagues. This was after Sabio, along with Associate Justice Myrna Dima-ranan-Vidal first quietly complained to Vasquez that they have been unfairly excluded in the decision of the appellate court which ruled that the Securities and Exchange Commission has no jurisdiction over the election of the board of directors of Meralco.

The complaint was specifically directed against CA Associate Justice Vicente Roxas, the ponente of the decision. CA Associate Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Apolinario Bruselas signed in concurrence with the Roxas-penned decision, a privilege which Vidal and Sabio claim rightfully belongs to them. Subsequently, Sabio spiced up before media his exclusion from the Meralco ruling of the CA on this case with alleged attempts to bribe him. Sabio claimed he was offered P10 million by his businessman-friend during a meeting at Rockwell in Makati City. The bribe was supposedly in exchange for Sabio to back off from his insistence to still handle the Meralco case even if he no longer belongs to the CA division to where it was originally assigned.

At first, Sabio did not identify the businessman but insinuated that the latter acted  as emissary for the Lopez family. After Sabio dished out before media these allegations, the alluded businessman, Francis de Borja emerged to confirm his meeting with Sabio and filed the next day an affidavit of his own version of the incident. While citing he is  indeed a friend of the Meralco president, Manolo Lopez, De Borja countered that it was Sabio who quoted an amount of P50 million to keep his peace.

The CA as an institution of the judiciary has been dragged into most serious challenge to its leadership in how to handle what the public may unfairly perceive as an internal row over “rulings-for-sale” in the appellate court. Justice Vasquez called the entire membership of the CA to a closed-door session to thresh out this internal row. At the end of their meeting, they decided to elevate the bribery scandal to the SC.

The hope was that the looming CA crisis would somehow subside following a clear explanation of the situation by CA assistant clerk of court Manuel Cervantes. Atty. Cervantes explained the internal rules of the CA is that the “case follows the designated writer of the decision.” The writer happens to be Justice Roxas who was then with the 9th Special Division of the CA, together with Justices Vidal and Sabio.

But there was a CA reorganization due to the retirement of several justices, Cervantes recalled. Justice Roxas moved to the 8th Division, while Justices Sabio and Vidal are now with the 6th Division. Following the CA internal rules, the case followed Justice Roxas to the 8th Division. So, when it was time to release the decision, the two other justices of the 8th Division signed the concurrence. The clear explanation given by Atty. Cervantes should have laid the matter to rest. But the poor assistant clerk of court reportedly got a serious dressing down for explaining that rule to the public and has since been told to avoid media.

This scandal at  the  CA brought to fore the need for crisis leadership on the part of Justice Vasquez. While Justice Roxas appeared to be in the middle of the controversy, the limelight is said to be shifting on Justice Vasquez himself. Valid questions have cropped up regarding his ability to deal with the quarrel among his associate justices with impartiality. Times call for crisis leadership at the CA, indeed.

Now, some parties are raising the issue of his relationship with the GSIS, a major player in this tinderbox issue. The questions are based on the fact that Justice Vasquez is the brother of former presidential management staff Lenny Vasquez-De Jesus who was also a former GSIS trustee and now a consultant of the pension fund. Much rake is also being made regarding the fact that sister Lenny is also the godmother of the daughter of the GSIS general manager. The former PMS head stood as sponsor at the baptism of Andrea Antoinette Garcia, the GSIS boss’ youngest.

Some quarters have also raised concerns over the fact that two of Justice Vasquez’ daughters are actually employed by the GSIS – Ruth Almira is with the GSIS corporate secretary’s office, and Agnes Rosario, a dentist, is with the GSIS medical department. A nephew, Luisa Hernandez, the daughter of sister Lenny, is with the office of the GSIS vice president for treasury. We do not wish to join the bandwagon of hasty conclusions. But he should not let these unmanaged speculations to worsen into a confidence crisis on his leadership.

These side issues appear to put the respected presiding justice on a bind. We feel that the situation has become unfair to him, as well as to the rest of the CA. But as the saying goes, this crisis comes with the territory. We believe, however, Justice Vasquez, true to his father’s legacy in the judiciary, has the kind of leadership required to deal with the challenging times ahead at the CA.