MANILA, Philippines Irregularities in the management of the Court of Appeals' (CA) documents surfaced Wednesday, the fifth day of the Supreme Court investigation on the alleged P10 bribe attempt against a CA justice.
The investigation was prompted by CA justice Jose Sabio Jr's letter-complaint against CA CA justice Bienvenido Reyes and Vicente Roxas.
Sabio disclosed that he was offered P10 million by Makati businessman Francis Roa de Borja for the justice to inhibit himself from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)-Meralco case over management of the utility firm.
De Borja later accused Sabio of soliciting a P50-million bribe to come out with a decision favoring the Lopez group that controls Meralco.
In his report, GMA News' Carlo Lorenzo said that Atty. Teresita Custodio, clerk of court of CA's 9th Division, sat on the witness stand on Wednesday and answered the three-man panel's inquiries how CA documents are handled.
Under the Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals (IRCA), it is stated that the division clerk should hand out the "rolyo" or the compilation of case's documents solely to the case's point person.
Such provision takes for granted other magistrates handling the case, Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr. complained.
According to Custodio, she gave the "rolyo" solely to Associate Justice Vicente Roxas, the Meralco-GSIS case's point person.
Sabio suspected anomaly after Custodio allegedly attached a document to the "rolyo" even if she did not know where the said document came from.
Custodio explained that she saw a transcript separated from the "rolyo" and decided to attach the document to it.
The investigating panel, however, found this to be suspicious. - GMANews.TV