Unfinished

Heads have rolled.

The Supreme Court dismissed CA Justice Vicente Roxas from his post for dubious ethical conduct, including falsifying minutes of deliberations and issuing a decision with such indecent haste. Considering all that is now publicly known, the dismissal was expected. Any lighter penalty would have completely undermined the credibility of the Supreme Court’s judgment.

Justice Jose Sabio was meted a two-month suspension from his post. That, too, considering the manner he had conducted himself through this episode, should be a just penalty.

The Presiding Justice and two other justices of the Court of Appeals have been dealt reprimands. Conrado Vasquez was taken to task for failing to properly govern his court. The two others were penalized for signing decisions they have not even read. All in all, the report of the three-man panel constituted by the Supreme Court did show a Court of Appeals that is only a little better-run than the Keystone Cops.

We should soon hear from the Presiding Justice a statement about how the country’s second-highest court might be better governed. There is much credibility that was lost in this episode and much work to be done to regain the public trust.

Most of the lawyers I have talked to the past two days say that all the justices who have been involved in this scandal should have resigned ahead of the Supreme Court decision on the committee of three’s report. That was the most honorable thing to do. That was the only way some restitution could be given a damaged court. They should have duly respected the interest of the institution of something vastly greater than their own interests.

It is not yet to late for them to do so.

PCGG chair Camilo Sabio, drawn into this controversy by his own brother who reported a casual phone call on a matter under adjudication, has been recommended for disbarment. That might, to the layman, seem rather severe for a single phone call that went largely ignored.

But a principle needs to be asserted here. Every lawyer should be put on notice that it is improper to lobby a judge — especially if that judge is your brother. A disbarment proceeding should properly underscore that sacred principle.

Finally, Francis de Borja’s case has been endorsed to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution. He had, as alleged, attempted to bribe a justice of the Court of Appeals. That, even if it happens every day, is a crime. That criminal aspect needs to be underscored most emphatically.

There is a lot de Borja has yet to tell us. It was his action of approaching Sabio with an indecent proposal that sparked this scandal in the first place.

Was he indeed acting on behalf of the Lopez interests? The Lopezes have not disowned him yet.

Was he part of the unconventional arsenal of the well-known, well-feared law firm whose hiring he claimed to have recommended? What, apart from psychic income, does he stand to gain from being as involved as he was in the sequence of events and chain of personalities composing this scandal?

Remember that this controversy is only secondarily about indecency in the country’s second highest court. This controversy is, in the first instance, about bribery. Bribery in rather grand scale and in the most sensitive interstices of the state.

Meralco’s lawyers, and ultimately, Meralco itself have a lot of explaining to do. This controversy very nearly razed an important judicial institution — and all because some people sought to override the presumed probity of magistrates with the compelling force of a lot of money.

The Lopez bloc, fighting to maintain its profitable control over the distribution monopoly, find themselves in a messy tangle. That is all because the status quo that benefits the Lopezes — and, arguably, harms the public interest — has been challenged so stubbornly by Winston Garcia, president of the GSIS.

There is no love lost between the Garcias and the Lopezes. And there is no respite gained in that bitter relationship by the recent chain of events.

That might not be the more important dimension in this unfolding drama. The most important dimension remains to be the public interest — and, in the case of the Lopezes’ control of Meralco notwithstanding their minority stake in the giant firm, that includes public protection from self-dealing and overcharging.

But Winston Garcia cannot expect to be treated with kids’ gloves by the extended reach of Lopez interests.

A Lopez-controlled firm, First Philippine Holdings Corporation, on the same day the Supreme Court imposed penalties on justices of the Court of Appeals, announced they will file graft charges against Garcia, GSIS lawyer Estrella Elamparo-Tayag, and two senior officers of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Lopez firm accuses Garcia, et al, of conspiracy to increase the number of GSIS seats in the Meralco board through the issuance of a cease and desist order on that controversial shareholders meeting held a couple of months ago. Meralco chose to defy the SEC order and filed a case at the Court of Appeals. It was that case that, in turn, precipitated this bribery scandal.

Strangely, too, militant groups known to march against anything for a fee have materialized in front of the GSIS head offices clamoring for Winston’s head, resurrecting old charges against the government insurance chief and, basically, trying to divert attention away from the CA bribery issue.

Winston should brace himself for when the empire strikes back.