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Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said the lawyer of
President Gloria Arroyo’s husband did not commit any illegal act
in asking Chairman Camilo Sabio of the Presidential Commission on
Good Government (PCGG) to intercede with Camilo’s brother, Justice
Jose Sabio Jr., in a controversial case between Meralco and GSIS.
“At the very least, it was
indiscreet,” Santiago on Wednesday said of Jesus Santos’
telephone call to Chairman Sabio. The call was perceived as the
intercession that Santos had asked of the chairman.
Santos, a trustee of GSIS, or
Government Service Insurance System, admitted calling Chairman Sabio
but claimed good faith.
Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita said it was “not fair”
to drag the name of the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo,
in the Meralco-GSIS case.
”I think it was just an
assumption [that Mr. Arroyo’s lawyer did make the call] and what
[Santos may have done] was something [that the lawyer may have done]
in his personal capacity. We don’t know the purpose of the call if
there really was a call [made],” Ermita added.
Santiago said the Anti-Graft and
Corrupt Practices Act does not specifically prohibit any government
officer from communicating with another government officer on an
official transaction before the latter’s desk.
She proposed an amendment to the
law so that such communication, no matter how innocuous, would be
considered a criminal offense.
Santiago said she doubts that Mr.
Arroyo had urged Santos to call Sabio.
“The mere fact that Santos is
in the legal team of [Mr. Arroyo], if that is true, does not
necessarily implicate [Santos’] boss. [Santos] may have acted on
his own or he may have acted for other important people,” she
added.
Probe finished
Late Tuesday, three retired
justices of the Supreme Court concluded their investigation of
alleged impropriety of actions committed by a number of justices of
the Court of Appeals in connection with the Meralco-GSIS case.
Carolina Griño-Aquino headed two
other retired justices, Flerida Ruth Romero and Romeo Callejo Sr.,
in also looking into an alleged attempt to bribe Chairman Sabio’s
brother, Court of Appeals Justice Jose Sabio Jr. with P10 million to
ease the justice out of the case.
In winding up their
investigation, the former High Court justices summoned eight
justices of the Court of Appeals, including Presiding Justice
Conrado Vasquez Jr., and eight other individuals from the
government and private sectors. The controversy was seen to have
clouded the integrity, not just of the appellate court but of the
entire judiciary.
The seven other justices of the
Court of Appeals who also appeared before the probe panel were Jose
Sabio Jr., Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal, Vicente Roxas, Bienvenido Reyes,
Apolinario Bruselas, Martin Villarama and Edgardo Reyes.
Also summoned were Chairman Sabio,
businessman Francis Roa de Borja from Cagayan de Oro City, GSIS
chief legal counsel and spokesman Estrella Elamparo, GSIS Senior
Vice President for Administration Arnaldo Cuasay, the appellate
court’s Eighth Division Clerk of Court and lawyer Teresita
Ferrer-Custodio and PCGG legal department head and lawyer Erwin
Miguel.
The Aquino panel has until
September 4 to submit its comprehensive report and recommendations
to Chief Justice Reynato Puno. The Supreme Court has the authority
to discipline, suspend or dismiss from the service justices proved
to have done wrong.
Justices joust
The controversy was sparked by
the Reyes-Sabio tussle over the chairmanship of the then Ninth
Special Division of the appellate court that handled the case filed
by Meralco against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Justice Sabio was designated
acting chairman of the Ninth Division after Reyes, the original
chairman, took a leave of absence, with Vidal and Roxas as members.
On May 29, 2008, the division, under Justice Sabio, issued a 60-day
temporary restraining order prohibiting the implementation of a
cease-and-desist order issued by the SEC against Meralco.
The order prohibited Meralco from
using its proxy votes in the utility’s election of new officers
held on May 27. It was the GSIS that asked the SEC for the issuance
of order.
The issue between Justices Reyes
and Sabio got out of hand, prompting the Vasquez to call a rare en
banc session on July 31 wherein the appellate court decided to
elevate the “propriety of the actions of the justices concerned .
. .”
The Chief Justice shortly formed
the Aquino panel and gave it two weeks to conduct a probe. The panel
started its investigation on August 7 and has since conducted daily
hearings.
But the panel sought an extension
to accommodate the appearance of Chairman Sabio and Reyes, who
was represented throughout the proceedings by lawyer Vitaliano
Aguirre 2nd.
Chairman Sabio left for an
official mission abroad when he was sent a summons by the panel,
while Reyes was recuperating from a heart ailment.
Reyes, now chairman of the Eighth
Division that voided the cease-and-desist order from the SEC, was
the last person to appear before the panel.
In his testimony, he confirmed
before the panel an earlier testimony by Bruselas, a member of the
Eighth Division, that no prior deliberations were made by the
division before its July14 final deliberation on the Meralco-GSIS
case.
Reyes’ testimony was contrary
to the claim of Roxas, also a member of the Eighth Division and the
author or ponente of the decision, that there was prior deliberation
on the case before the division came out with its July 23
decision voiding the order.
Reyes said it was normal practice
in the appellate court for justices not to hold deliberation anymore
before they sign a ponencia, adding that what they actually hold is
“initial talk.”
He denied having authorized or
designated Roxas to record and make the transcript of the deliberation,
which was again contrary to what Roxas earlier claimed.
“Justice Roxas took it
upon himself to record [the deliberation],” Reyes told the panel.
He also denied some parts of a
report on the deliberation that were attributed to him, prompting
Callejo to comment that “falsification” of official records may
have been committed.
“The issue here is accuracy,”
Callejo said, adding that the final report on the deliberation is
made part of the rollo or the official record of the case.
The transcript of the
deliberation was submitted to the Division Clerk of Court in
compliance with the law, thus making it a public document and an
official record.
Roxas, in an earlier testimony,
said he was designated secretary by Reyes to record what transpired
because the Meralco-GSIS case was so “high profile,” and they
did not want it to leak.
According to him, he prepared the
minutes of the final deliberation “all in memory,” a statement
that surprised the panel.
--Efren L. Danao,William B. Depasupil and Angelo S. Samonte
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