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By Jomar Canlas Reporter
THE eyes and ears of a tense
nation are focused today not just on the accused, ousted President
Joseph Estrada, but on the three Special Division Sandiganbayan
justices who have been trying his plunder case for six years.
Each of the three justices have
the unusual burden of having to prove beyond doubt that whatever
decision each makes—whether to convict or acquit—is impartially
arrived at only after thorough study and honest soul-searching.
The extraordinary demand on the
three justices’ fairness and purity of intention arises from their
being all appointees of President Arroyo who has benefited from the
former President’s ouster and incarceration and will reap more
benefits from his being judged guilty.
Who are these justices?
The three, who have been formed
into a special division dedicated to the Estrada plunder and perjury
cases, are Presiding Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Justice
Franciso Villaruz and Justice Diosdado Peralta.
The three have aspired for higher
office.
Presiding Justice de Castro
She was appointed associate
justice of the Sandiganbayan by then-President Fidel V. Ramos but it
was President Arroyo who made her presiding justice of the antigraft
court.
Manila Times sources say she
should have been appointed to the Supreme Court a long time ago had
it not been for the Estrada plunder case which she would have to
close properly before moving on to a higher bench. De Castro is the
only Sandiganbayan justice who has been on the Estrada case from the
start.
Any of the last three Court
appointments should have gone to de Castro were it not for the
Estrada case.
Justice Secretary Raul M.
Gonzalez recently admitted that the vacancy caused by Supreme Court
Justice Romeo Callejo’s retirement on April 28 had been reserved
for de Castro. Originally, it should have been filled by
Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong, but he withdrew owing to
questions about his citizenship. Finally, it went to then Court of
Appeals Presiding Justice Ruben Reyes.
The next slot awaiting de Castro
to fill is the one to be vacated by Supreme Court Associate Justice
Cancio Garcia who retires on October 20. However, whatever the
verdict is today, there will be the matter of giving due course to a
motion for reconsideration. This could once again prejudice de
Castro chance to be elevated to the High Court.
De Castro graduated with a cum
laude when she finished her basic AB at the University of the
Philippines and went on to finish her Bachelor of Law degree from
the UP College of Law.
Ironically, she was a classmate
of former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Perfecto Yasay
Jr. It was Yasay who divulged during the impeachment deliberations
in the House that Estrada had called him up so he would not deal
harshly with Estrada’s friend, Dante Tan of the Best World
Resources, who was being investigated by the SEC for insider
trading.
Before being appointed associate
justice of the Sandiganbayan, de Castro was the assistant chief
state counsel of the Department of Justice. There, she worked with
now Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as legal adviser to the
Philippine Peace Panel, which Ermita headed, in talks with the
National Democratic Front (NDF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF).
Justice Francisco Villaruz
He has applied for a Supreme
Court post. He is the only justice who is not a division chairman
who has been included on the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC)
shortlist forwarded to Malacañang.
He is one of Mrs. Arroyo’s
first appointees—named in October 2001—in the antigraft court.
Villaruz was a former director of
the Securities and Exchange Commission. He worked for the La Tondeña
Distillers Inc. (now Ginebra San Miguel) as vice-president and
general counsel.
He was an Atenean through and
through, from primary and elementary to basic AB. Then he moved to
the UP College of Law where he and Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati
became classmates. He placed 12th in the 1967 bar examinations.
Villaruz became a bar examiner in
criminal law in 2004 and has been nominated to the Supreme Court
several times.
Justice Diosdado Peralta
He was the first judge to convict
a plunder case accused after Republic Act 7080 came into force. He
convicted Dominga Manalili, a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)
cashier, of plunder (malversation of P280 million) and sentenced her
to reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment).
The media named him the
“hanging judge” of Quezon City because he sent many accused to
death row.
Peralta recently told The Times
that he had a 90-percent conviction rate during his stint as judge
of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court. He is proud to be one of
the conveners of the Guillotine Club.
He also imposed the death
sentence on 44 accused in the 20 cases that he had handled as an RTC
judge. Among his death-row convicts are Supt. Francisco Ovilla,
former station commander of Central Police District, and nine other
police officers who were convicted of qualified bribery after
receiving P650,000 from two Chinese drug pushers.
Peralta almost got the Ombudsman
post after the retirement of Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo because he got
the second highest number of JBC votes. The present Ombudsman
Merceditas Gutierrez got 8 votes.
During his interview with the JBC
he admitted that his father, the late Manila Court of First Instance
Judge Elviro Peralta, was a friend of the late President Diosdado
Macapagal. His parents named him after the late president.
Peralta’s wife, Fernanda
Lampas-Peralta, is also a top-ranking magistrate. It was President
Arroyo who appointed her Court of Appeals justice.
He is a graduate of the
University of Santo Tomas College of Law. An expert in criminal law,
he served as a prosecutor. When he was a regional trial court judge,
he received numerous awards.
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