A COMPLAINT for impropriety filed by a losing litigant in a “tele sabong” or online cockfight betting game against a Supreme Court (SC) justice has showcased a masked animosity between two rivals for the position of chief justice of the tribunal.

Associate Justice Renato Corona on Monday branded as “vicious and malicious lies” the allegations in the complaint for impropriety filed against him before the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

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The complaint was filed by lawyer Fernando Campos, a losing litigant in an online cockfighting dispute filed before the SC in which Corona was the ponente.

Campos accused the justice of accepting bribe in the form of free airline tickets to Las Vegas on May 3, 2009 to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight.

Campos, chairman of the Inter-Petal Recreational Corp (IPRC), a company whose clientele includes cockfighting aficionados abroad, filed a petition for certiorari against Pagcor and Philweb Corp. in connection with the operation of an online cockfight betting.

In his letter-reply to the JBC, Corona said there was nothing irregular in his outright dismissal of the IPRC petition, “considering the numerous procedural defects in the petition.”

“The IPRC/Campos petition was hobbled by various procedural infirmities. Indeed, the petition was patently and hopelessly defective on its face, there was no way the Court could have waived such serious violations of the Rules of Court when it issued the April 20, 2009 resolution dismissing it,” said Corona.

He noted that IPRC/Campos failed to sufficiently show that any grave abuse of discretion was committed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which prompted them to file the petition under Rule 65 of the Rules of Court, instead of elevating the case before the Court of appeals.

“Apparently, the appeal period already lapsed and IPRC and their lawyers were frantically trying to salvage the situation by resorting to Rule 65 – a time-worn trick to use a petition for certiorari as a substitute for a lapsed appeal,” said Corona.

The justice further said the decision in that case was reached in consultation with members of the Court’s First Division, including its working chairman, Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who unanimously approved it.

Other members of the First Division are Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Lucas Bersamin, Corona and Carpio.

Corona labeled as “curious” the “unusual effort” of Campos to dissociate Carpio from the April 20, 2009 and July 8, 2009 resolution when the latter agreed with all the other members of the First Division in finding lack of merit to the petition of IPRC; and he also concurred with the July 8, 2009 resolution denying with finality the motion for reconsideration.

“It is highly suspicious that Campos lays all the blame and heaps all sorts of slanderous insinuations solely on me while, at the same time, clearing another member of the First Division who also participated in the dismissal of the petition,” he said.

“Why the special interest in pinning me down as ‘sole author’ of the assailed resolution while readily absolving another member of the First Division who participated in the dismissal (of the petition)? Who breached the rule of confidentiality and colluded with Campos in filing this complaint against me? Was Campos’ ‘reliable source’ a member of the First Division?” Corona added.

Carpio is the most senior justice, next to Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who will be retiring on May 17. Both Carpio and Corona have been automatically considered by the JBC, a constitutional body that screens nominees to vacant judicial posts, along with six other nominees.

Puno’s retirement has sparked a legal controversy of whether the JBC should submit its shortlist of nominees for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to choose from, or to submit the same to the next President, pursuant to constitutional ban on the incumbent president from making appointments two months before elections until the end of her term.

Carpio has accepted his nomination on the condition that the shortlist will be submitted to the next president. On the other hand, Corona made no demands on the JBC as to his acceptance of his nomination.

In defending himself, Corona told the JBC that it was Campos himself who actively tried to pressure him into deciding in his favor when he asked different people to intercede on his behalf, among them retired Justices Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Santiago Kapunan and Leonardo Quisumbing.

Corona also refuted Campos’s insinuation that Philweb financed his trip to the US in May 2009.

He said that the month of May is traditionally the SC’s summer recess and in his years in the SC since 2002, he and his wife have always taken that opportunity to visit their daughter and her family in the US, with or without a Pacquiao fight.

He also said he has always paid for his trips, as he annexed a copy of his receipt for that particular trip in May 2009 alluded to by Campos as having been paid for by Philweb.

“Complaints from disgruntled litigants and occasional attacks ad hominem are normal risks of the trade or occupational hazards in the court. In those instances, a judge or justice can only console himself with the balm of a good conscience… It is unfortunate that, in their quest to control the judiciary, some people have no qualms about destroying the reputation of those they perceive to be stumbling blocks to their ambition,” said Corona.

Based on records of the IPRC case, Pagcor stepped in on IPRC’s tax and franchise papers before Cavite city government for the operation of the “tele-sabong,” claiming that it had jurisdiction over the grant of franchise to on-line gaming firms in the country.

The legal suit resulted to multi-million losses when investors started backing-out of IPRC.

Later, PAGCOR had entered into a deal with PhilWeb, a gaming firm chaired by former Marcos trade minister Roberto Ongpin. (JCV/Sunnex)