MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) on Wednesday moved for the nullification of the June 23 decision of the Court of Appeals that denied the Securities and Exchange Commission the right to rule over the ownership row in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
In a 65-page petition for certiorari filed before the Supreme Court, GSIS legal counsel Estrella Elamparo-Tayag said the CAs Special 9th Division should have been the one to release the decision instead of the 8th.
The appellate court's 8th Division, through Associate Justice Vicente Roxas, directed the SEC to dismiss the petition of the GSIS' President Winston Garcia seeking to annul the proxy votes counted in favor of the Lopez group during the May 27 stockholders' meeting of Meralco.
The CA's ruling further recommended that sanctions be imposed upon pension fund's legal department and its lawyers.
"The sudden resolution of the petition by the 8th division is, to say the least, suspicious," Tayag said.
The issue of whether it is the 8th or Special 9th Division should decide the Meralco case is now the subject of an investigation by a three-man panel created by SC to investigate alleged bribery and irregularity in the dispensation of the case.
Tayag said there is need for the issuance of a temporary restraining order or writ of preliminary injunction on the ground that the enforcement of the decision while the case is being heard would work injustice to GSIS.
"Unless the assailed decision is enjoined, there is a great likelihood of said petition being rendered moot and academic by mere passage of time without actually being heard and decided on the merits, a decidedly unjust situation for the petitioner who, in the event of a favorable decision in the instant Petition, would find the same ineffectual," she said.
Tayag also said that GSIS supported the argument of CA Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr, acting chair of the Special 9th Division in lieu of the leave of absence of its regular chair, Justice Bienvenido Reyes, that since he first took cognizance of the petition, his division should also rule on the merits of the case.
She also pointed out to the SC the disclosure of Sabio that he had been offered P10-million bribe by an allegedly emissary of Meralco to give way to Justice Reyes made the transfer of the case from the Special 9th Division to the 8th suspicious. - GMANews.TV