MANILA, Philippines - Court of Appeals' Associate Justice Vicente Roxas on Tuesday accused the appellate courts presiding justice of having partial interest in the ownership case between the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
During the continuation of the hearing by the Supreme Court investigating panel on the case, Roxas said CA Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez ruled in favor of the GSIS because he has four relatives employed by the state pension fund.
Roxas, upon cross-examination, said Vasquez issued his decision on the issue of chairmanship when the 8th Division had already promulgated its decision on the Meralco case "to taint the members of the 8th Division."
Roxas penned the controversial decision barring the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from taking jurisdiction of the Meralco-GSIS proxy war. He was a member of the CAs 8th Division chaired by Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes and has Apolinario Bruselas as junior member.
The decision is being questioned by Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr, who sat as acting chair of the Special 9th Division in lieu of Reyes' absence.
Sabio, who earlier disclosed a P10 million bribe offer to him to inhibit from the Meralco-GSIS case, said it should have been the Special 9th Division, with him as acting chair, that should promulgate the case and not the 8th Division.
The information that Vasquez has four relatives working in GSIS was contained in a one-page document Roxas presented before the panel which he said he got from "somebody from the GSIS."
The document stated that two of Vasquez's daughters, Maria Ruth and Maria Agnes Vasquez, are under the employ of the GSIS as corporate secretary and dentist, respectively, with a salary of P80,000 each.
The document also stated that Vasquez's sister, Leonora "Lenny" Vasquez-de Jesus, former presidential management staff chief under the Estrada administration, also works as a GSIS consultant with a monthly salary of P200,000. Her daughter, Louisa Hernandez, who works as vice president for treasury, is receiving a monthly salary of P127,000.
Roxas said this evidence, which he said showed Vasquez's "greater interest" in the Meralco case, should have been the ground for the presiding justice to inhibit himself when the former sought his opinion through the interpleader petition as to which between Sabio and Reyes should preside over the Meralco case.
"Before officiating the en banc, he should have announced that his relatives (are) working at the GSIS, Roxas said.
Vasquez, on June 24, ruled that it was the Special 9th Division, with Sabio as acting chair that should decide on the Meralco case. The ruling came out a day after the 8th Division promulgated the said case.
Roxas told the panel that this was meant to imply that the decision reached by the 8th Division was not valid and also to embarrass him as the ponente.
Vasquez, for his part, refused to answer the allegation when interviewed by the media, saying he was always being misquoted by reporters.
Also during the hearing, Roxas reported that the GSIS attempted to influence his decision when its chief legal counsel, Estrella Elamparo, approached him in his private chambers on May 29, 2008.
"Elamparo knew fully well that she is committing a crime by going at my office since GSIS is involved in litigation. She had the gall to say that it was the Meralco lawyers (who met with me) when it was she who tried to, Roxas told the panel.
Elamparo said she will address the allegations once she sits on the witness stand, but in an ambush interview after the hearing, she admitted going to Roxas office not to talk to him but to file a motion to defer action on the Meralco case.
Meanwhile, the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) formally asked for a closed-door meeting with the three-member panel to divulge information on the bribery scandal the CA is currently mired in. - with Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV