Meralco-GSIS feud: CA justice says P10-M bribe was offered

MANILA, Philippines - A businessman who is reportedly brokering for one of the parties in the Manila Electric Company-Government Service Insurance System feud allegedly offered a Court of Appeals associate justice P10 million to inhibit from the case. Court of Appeals Associate Justice Jose Sabio, in a six-page letter to Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez dated July 26, said his meeting with the unnamed businessman happened on the evening of July 1. GMA News obtained a copy of Sabio's letter. Sabio claimed that the P10 million was offered so that he would give way to Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, head of the Court's 8th Division, to handle the case. Sabio said he refused the offer. “I politely declined the offer and told the emissary that it was not only a matter of principle but that it will affect the integrity of the Court," Sabio said in his letter to Vasquez. He said the emissary made the same offer the next day, even telling Sabio that there was nothing illegal about the offer. He said he again declined to accept the offer, prompting the businessman to say that he might resort to another way to have Reyes handle the case. “Before we ended the conversation, the emissary said that they will be forced to resort to another means to have Justice Reyes assume the chairmanship. I countered that since that would involve the integrity and reputation of the Court, they will have to contend with me," Sabio wrote. He said he was surprised when, a week after his meeting with the businessman, Meralco filed an urgent motion for Reyes to assume the chairmanship, a move Sabio described as “strange" and “stupid." “I further told Justice Reyes that in my more than nine years in the Court, I never came across such a kind of pleading, and that the proper pleading to file should have been to have me recuse or inhibit myself," Sabio said. He said he had an informal meeting with Reyes, even asking the latter about his interest in the case and his alleged participation in the “shenanigan." Sabio said Reyes could only afford “feeble' answers. Null and void On July 24, Reyes issued a decision voiding the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission enjoining Meralco from validating the proxy votes in favor of the Lopez family interest during the power firm’s stockholders meeting on May 27. Reyes' division also held that the complaint filed by GSIS before the SEC is considered an election contest and an intracorporate controversy that should be lodged before a regional trial court. Sabio earlier questioned the issuance of the decision by Reyes' division. Sabio said it was his division, the 9th Division, that initially handled the case and issued a temporary restraining order on SEC and GSIS. Reyes' decision left Sabio no choice but to ask for an investigation into the matter. Justice Vicente Roxas, a senior member of the 8th Division and the ponente of the Meralco case, said his division signed the case in accordance with the Reorganization Office Order No. 200-08-CMV issued by Vasquez on July 4. Roxas urged Sabio and Associate Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal, who was also excluded from the case, to lodge an administrative complaint against him before the Court Administrator or the before the Supreme Court “instead of grandstanding before the media." Roxas broke his silence Wednesday and challenged Sabio and Dimaranan-Vidal to file an administrative complaint. 'Mysterious' transfer The GSIS earlier questioned the “mysterious and sudden transfer of the case." But Roxas claimed the reorganization, which was made in line with the Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals, ensured transparency after two new members - Reyes and Apolinario Bruselas – were reassigned to compose the 8th Division. “After the July 4, 2008, reorganization, therefore, there was no basis for Justices Sabio and Vidal of the disbanded Special 9th Division to break the IRCA rule and the tradition of transparency by clinging on to the Meralco case since the 8th Division already took over the case when the ponente joined the 8th division," Roxas said. He said the IRCA does not require that the justices who issued the TRO be the same justices to render the decision. Meanwhile, Vasquez called for an en banc session of the 66 Appellate Court justices, including those based in Cebu and Cagayan de Oro cities, on Thursday to discuss the issue. Earlier, lawyer Manuel Cervantes, assistant clerk of court, said no irregularity has been committed when the Eight Division came out with the ruling instead of the Ninth Division. He said the decision to have the Eight Division rule on the case was due to a reorganization in the bench prior to July 23 because of the retirement of three justices. Thursday's en banc meeting is also expected to clarify the interim rules of the Court of Appeals, particularly in the issue of whether a division that earlier issued a TRO should be the same division that will rule on the merits of the case. - GMANews.TV