Wednesday, August 06, 2008 SC panel tasked to probe CA row set to convene
THE Supreme Court (SC) will convene on Wednesday the members of the three-man panel of retired justices who will hear the administrative row among magistrates of the Court of Appeals (CA), which heard the case of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
The panel, chaired by retired SC justice Carolina Grino-Aquino, will have an organizational meeting with members Flerida Ruth Romero and Romeo Callejo, to discuss the parameters and sequence of their investigation so that they will be able to submit their report on August 21.
Aquino was the justice that chaired another panel that investigated the alleged contemptuous articles written in Malaya by publisher Amado Macasaet in his column and in Newsbreak online regarding the purported P10-million bribe attempt on Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago last year. The case remains pending in the SC.
SC spokesman Midas Marquez said the panel will have its first hearing on Thursday, which will be open to the public.
"The hearing will be opened to the public and to the media. It's going to be a regular hearing like oral arguments, except that there will be no cameras inside the hearing room," he said.
Marquez said the high court is leaving it up to the panel to identify the persons they would summon for investigation.
He said there is little pressure on the SC to rule promptly on the alleged bribery attempt on CA Justice Jose Sabio Jr. as well as on the propriety of the actions of other magistrates involved in the controversial Meralco ruling of the CA Eighth Division last July 23.
"I would say added pressure, because from day one the Chief Justice (Reynato Puno) has already realized the magnitude of this case so I wouldn't say it's an added pressure. The court just decided or just did what it thought would be best to do, that's why the creation of the committee was immediately done, and the committee was given a strict timeline," he said.
Among the documents submitted for the perusal of the investigating panel was the letter of CA Associate Justice Edgardo Cruz, chairman of the committee on the internal rules of the CA (Irca), stating as to which justice should participate in the adjudication of the Meralco case after the CA Ninth Division issued a temporary restraining order (TRO).
Cruz's letter stated that as early as June 20, Sabio already knew that he will no longer be part of the division that will decide on the Meralco petition.
He said that because of the leave of absence in May 2008 by Justice Bienvenido Reyes, then chairman of the Ninth Division, he was replaced by Sabio as acting chairman. It was during Sabio's stint as acting chairman when the TRO was issued.
Citing Section 2 (d) of the Irca, Cruz added that: "In the determination of the other two justices who shall participate in the adjudication of cases... (may) grant writ of preliminary injunction; and grant execution pending appeal have been taken, the case shall remain with the justice to whom the case is assigned for study and report and the justices who participated therein, regardless of their transfer to other divisions in the same station."
This means, Cruz said, that the Irca does not require that the justices who issued the TRO be the same justices to render the decision.
"Issuance of a TRO is not among the instances where 'the justices who participate in the case shall remain therein. Consequently, notwithstanding the issuance of the TRO, the case reverted to the regular chairman (Justice Reyes) of the Ninth Division upon his return," Cruz said.
But Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr., in a separate interview, said reading the same provisions of the Irca, it would appear that Sabio and Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal should have been retained as members of the division that ruled in the Meralco case, along with Justice Vicente Roxas, who penned the decision.
"I think that there were some violations (when Sabio and Vidal were eased out of the division), but its now up to the SC to assess the propriety of the acts of the justices as well as the alleged bribe attempt on Sabio, if only to ease the stigma to the judiciary, particularly in the CA. It's important for the SC to handle this carefully," he said.
This developed as the CVC Law (Villaraza Cruz Marcelo and Angangco) denounced as "false and malicious" the allegations made by Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) lawyer Estrella Elamparo that it allegedly manipulated the raffle of the case filed by Meralco against the Securities and Exchange Commission and GSIS, for it to be assigned to its chosen ponente.
The law firm explained that Meralco tapped its services only after the case had already been raffled and a TRO was issued by the CA Special Ninth Division on May 30, 2008.
It noted that the records would show that the raffle was open to the public and supervised by Justices Amelita Tolentino, Marlene Gonzales-Sison and Lucenito Tagle, who comprised the raffle committee.
"By falsely claiming that the raffle was manipulated, Elamparo maliciously casts aspersion so the competence and integrity of these magistrates, as she has done with the other justices who ruled against GSIS," the law firm said.
The law firm also vehemently denied insinuations of Elamparo that Roxas, the ponente of the Meralco ruling, conspired with his Sigma Rhoan brothers associate with it to manipulate the outcome of the case. (ECV/Sunnex)
