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By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
THE Supreme Court has extended by another two weeks or until
September 4 the hearing being conducted by its three-man panel
looking into the alleged impropriety of actions by some Court of
Appeals justices towards the controversial case involving the Manila
Electric Co. (Meralco) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
Chief Justice Reynato Puno granted Wednesday the
request of the High Court panel to extend its probe to accommodate
the testimony of Chairman Camilo Sabio of the Presidential
Commission on Good Government and Court of Appeals Associate Justice
Bienvenido Reyes.
Sabio will arrive Saturday night from Brazil,
while Reyes, who was hospitalized for a heart ailment, has yet to
secure a medical clearance from his doctors.
The panel also summoned to appear next week the
head of the administration group of the GSIS, Senior Vice President
Arnaldo Cuasay, to shed light on the employment at the GSIS of Court
of Appeals Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez’s two daughters, his
niece and sister, former Presidential Staff Management Secretary
Lenny de Jesus.
The panel, chaired by retired High Court Justice
Carolina Griño-Aquino with retired colleagues, Justices Flerida
Ruth Romero and Romeo Callejo, Sr., as members, was originally given
until today, August 21, to complete its query on the controversy.
“The panel has been conducting the
investigation morning and afternoon every working day, but foresees
that it will not be able to finish the investigation and submit its
report and recommendation to the Honorable Court on August 21,
2008,” the panel wrote Puno.
The panel started its investigation last August
7, 2007 and has since conducted daily hearings.
Counsel for Reyes, Lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd,
sought the appearance of the GSIS administration group head, saying
that it is material to the allegations of Justice Vicente Roxas that
he doubted Vasquez’ partiality on the Meralco-GSIS case.
Interested in Vasquez-GSIS allegations
The panel granted Aguirre’s request to issue a
subpoena even as it struck out from the records Roxas’ earlier
testimony against Vasquez and his family members employed by the
GSIS, because the basis of his document came from unknown source
which Roxas has no direct knowledge of.
Roxas’ newfound evidence, which he submitted
to panel to form part of his annexes, was a one-page white paper
that delved on Vasquez’s family members who are working with the
GSIS.
The paper disclosed that the two daughters of
Vasquez, Maria Ruth and Jinky, are employed with the GSIS as
corporate secretary and dentist, respectively, with a monthly salary
of P80,000 each.
Also in the employ of GSIS is Vasquez’ niece,
Luisa Hernandez, who is vice-president for treasury with a monthly
salary of P120,000.
Hernandez is the daughter of Vasquez’ sister,
former Presidential Management Staff Secretary Lenny de Jesus, who
also serves as GSIS consultant for P200,000 a month.
Aside from their fat salaries, Roxas claimed the
family members of Vasquez also received other benefits, like
allowances and car plans, among others.
“The presiding justice is interested in the
GSIS based on new found evidence,” Roxas told the panel.
The panel, however, was able to establish during
a cross-examination that Roxas’ so-called “new-found evidence”
was a “double hearsay,” and could not be accepted as evidence.
Roxas admitted before the panel that somebody he
did not know just gave the paper to him and is based on a newspaper
column by Jake Macasaet, the publisher of Malaya.
Asked if he read the column, Roxas said he did
not, saying “I just got the paper and I have no personal
knowledge.”
The salaries of the Vasquez family members, it
was found out, were not even mentioned in Macasaet’s column that
came out in the August 7, 2008 issue of Malaya.
“It’s double hearsay,” an obviously irate
Callejo told Roxas.
The GSIS spokesman and chief legal counsel,
lawyer Estrella Elamparo, also told the panel during Wednesday’s
hearing that Lenny de Jesus no longer serves as consultant to the
GSIS board.
Elamparo also said that she has no idea how much
de Jesus received then, as well as the salaries and benefits of the
other Vasquezes working at the GSIS.
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