The Supreme Court affirmed the other day the sanctions imposed upon erring members of the Appellate Court involved in the corporate dispute between the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). The SC upheld the ruling it handed down on Sept. 9 that meted out specific disciplinary actions against the five CA justices who prominently figured in the intra-chamber quarrel over who should handle the GSIS-Meralco case.
The five were — CA presiding justice Conrado Vasquez Jr., CA associate justices Vicente Roxas, Jose Sabio, Bienvenido Reyes Jr., and Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal. Vasquez and Reyes got reprimanded while Dimaranan-Vidal was admonished. Sabio was suspended for two months. The most severe sanction was meted to Roxas who was dismissed from the Judiciary. The five CA justices filed their respective motions for reconsideration. But the SC denied all their MRs with finality. This paves the way for the effectivity and implementation of the Sept. 9 ruling by the 15-man High Tribunal, chaired by SC chief justice Reynato Puno.
The Court also denied the MR filed by businessman Francis de Borja who was accused by Sabio of bribery. It would be recalled Sabio claimed that De Borja supposedly offered him bribe to back off from handling the GSIS-Meralco case. The offer was made during a meeting with him in a hotel in Makati City where Sabio alleged that De Borja purportedly tried to impress upon him that he is close to Meralco president Manolo Lopez.
The High Court rendered this Sept. 9 ruling based on the findings and recommendations submitted to them by the special panel of three retired SC justices that looked into this row of the CA justices. The row came out in the open after Sabio blew the whistle on alleged bribery attempt on him by De Borja as the supposed Meralco emissary.
A review of the facts of this case that were established during the public hearing conducted by the special panel of SC probers showed that Sabio admitted having been influenced by his “Kuya” (PCGG Chairman Camilo Sabio). Taking cognizance of this claim, the SC special panel subsequently summoned the PCGG chairman who also admitted having acted as an emissary for Atty. Jess Santos, a GSIS trustee. The elder Sabio testified under oath he got a phone call from Santos asking him to help convince his brother at the CA to rule in favor of GSIS in this case against Meralco.
For his admission, the SC special panel recommended that the former PCGG chairman go through the Bar Confidant on possible disbarment proceedings for violation of the judicial code of conduct. Santos, who was tagged as the link between GSIS and the brothers Sabio, was the luckiest guy after the SC panel chose to terminate its proceedings and did not summon him nor include him for possible disbarment also.
On the case of De Borja, the SC dismissed his MR on the ground that he is neither a complainant nor a respondent in this administrative case against the five CA justices. The justices found it unnecessary to pass on most of De Borja’s arguments and the relief he prayed for in his petition for lack of standing in this particular case. “On the other hand, his choice of persons to include in his prayer for further investigation or more severe sanctions tend to indicate that in filing this motion for reconsideration, Mr. De Borja is not acting purely on his own interests but rather on the interests of another party,” the High Court ruled.
In his MR, De Borja prayed for the deletion of some statements in the Sept. 9 decision of the SC on this case on the grounds that it might be construed as a prejudgment of his case. De Borja also asked the High Court to refer the actions of PCGG chairman, GSIS lawyer Estrella Elamparo, and Santos, to the Office of the Bar Confidant “for appropriate action.” He also asked the High Court to order the dismissal of Sabio and Vasquez instead of handing down lighter penalties imposed on them considering the gravity of their offenses.
However, the High Court ordered instead that the accusation of bribery on De Borja be referred to the Justice Department for investigation. There is no doubt De Borja should be investigated on the bribery allegation against him by Justice Sabio. But the SC cut short the ends of justice as far as imposing more severe disciplinary actions against the other erring members of the CA in this case were concerned.
De Borja’s lawyer asked yesterday the Department of Justice to suspend the preliminary investigations on the bribery charges against their client and transfer this case before the Makati City Prosecutor’s office. Through his lawyer, De Borja pointed out that the investigation conducted by the DOJ panel was not a preliminary investigation to determine the criminal liability of the persons appearing before it. Therefore, De Borja’s lawyer argued the DOJ panel was a mere fact-finding inquiry to aid the SC in its administrative supervision of the CA and other lower courts.
After having examined and analyzed the voluminous records submitted by the SC special panel, the SC reached the conclusion that there is “reason to believe that Mr. De Borja may be criminally liable for his attempt to bribe a magistrate of the Court of Appeals.”
With regard to the alleged bribery attempt by De Borja, the Court said that “Justice Sabio merely set himself up for another insult or assault on his integrity” when he still called De Borja even after he was offered the bribe. “Taking his conversation with his brother and his encounters with Mr. De Borja together, Justice Sabio gives the impression that he is accessible to lobbyists who would unfairly try to manipulate court proceedings,” the High Court cited.
And considering that Sabio has a personal history with De Borja, he admitted having received P300,000 from De Borja in a real estate transaction which at that time was within the jurisdiction of Sabio when he was still a judge in a lower court.
If that was how the SC looked at this case of De Borja, then indeed, Justice Sabio merely got slapped on the wrist. Really, some guys have all the luck, goes the popular song of rock star Rod Stewart.