MANILA, Philippines - The race for the next Chief Justice is generating more heat after one of the frontrunners was accused of impropriety by a losing litigant.

In a letter to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) dated Jan. 31, businessman and lawyer Fernando Campos insinuated that Senior Justice Renato Corona Jr. accepted a bribe in the form of free airline tickets to Las Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao’s fight there in May last year.

Reportedly the favored bet of Malacañang, Corona is seeking to replace Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who retires on May 17. Among three most senior justices who are automatically considered for the post, only Corona has accepted the nomination without condition.

Justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio-Morales have told the JBC that they are interested in the post provided that it will be the next President who will make the appointment.

The appointment of the next Chief Justice has triggered a legal controversy on whether an outgoing President can still make an appointment despite the ban, which starts 60 days before a presidential election and lasts until the end of a President's term. Puno’s retirement falls within the period of the appointment ban.

Corona is expected to respond to these allegations when the JBC takes up his nomination.

Those interested in becoming Chief Justice had until Thursday, February 4, to submit their applications. (Read: Loony ex-justice wants to become Chief Justice)

Campos, a losing litigant, asked the JBC to look into the ruling that Corona reportedly penned, dismissing the certiorari case Campos filed against the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) and PhilWeb Corp. over the operation of online cockfight betting.

“There is something more than meets the eye in this case, which the JBC should review. Why did Justice Corona, after dismissing it on April 20, 2009, leave hurriedly for Las Vegas to watch the Pacquiao-Hatton fight on May 3, 2009? And why, after being informed by the Chief Justice that there is a complaint for undue haste against him, Justice Corona did not inhibit himself from dismissing it with finality on July 8, 2009,” Campos said in his letter.

On-line cockfighting

Campos chairs the Inter-Petal Recreational Corporation (IPRC), a firm composed of various businessmen from Cavite that started in 1992 to receive and tabulate cockfighting bets outside the arena proper in Dasmariñas City.

IPRC’s problems started while it was seeking to expand its reach to cockfighting aficionados outside Cavite, largely targeting Filipinos based overseas, by tapping the internet to launch Tele-Sabong. This is a system where the actual cockfighting in an arena in Cavite area was broadcast “live," and people placed their bets at the TV-equipped frontons, betting stations outside the arena, and through the internet.

Campos said IPRC was securing tax and franchise papers from Cavite’s local government units when PAGCOR stepped in, arguing that it had jurisdiction over the grant of franchise to on-line gaming firms in the country. The wrangling led to the withdrawal of IPRC’s Tele-Sabong investors resulting in losses of millions of pesos worth of investments, which took more than a decade to develop.

By 2004, Campos learned that PAGCOR had entered into a deal with PhilWeb, a gaming firm chaired by former Marcos trade minister Roberto Ongpin. He claimed that PAGCOR unfairly accommodated PhilWeb to monopolize online cockfight betting.

PhilWeb, a listed firm, was originally a mining firm that Ongpin reincarnated into an Internet company in 2000. It evolved into an online gaming company in 2002 after it bagged an agreement with PAGCOR to be its consultant for the technical and marketing aspects of online sports betting.

Campos considered this agreement as equivalent to granting PhilWeb a franchise—one that eluded IPRC in 1998 when it also sought a license from PAGCOR, which replied that it had no jurisdiction over Tele-Sabong.

As PAGCOR and PhilWeb were preparing to launch the online cockfight betting game nationwide under the trademark "TVSabong,"  IPRC filed a case against the two at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In its SEC filing, IPRC said PhilWeb was trying to defraud its stockholders that it could generate around P60 billion annual revenues from TVSabong even without a Congressional franchise. The case also sought an investigation into the PAGCOR-PhilWeb transaction.

PhilWeb, in its replies to SEC, said the securities regulator had no jurisdiction over the issues since the authority to operate online cockfighting bets belongs exclusively to PAGCOR, which only contracted PhilWeb for specific services. The Ongpin-led firm also stressed that SEC could entertain complaints about PAGCOR since the two offices are co-equals. The SEC agreed with PhilWeb.

This prompted Campos to file a certiorari on March 18, 2009 before the Supreme Court, and this was raffled to the First Division. Members of the First Division are Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Justices Antonio Carpio, Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Lucas Bersamin and Corona.

Record-breaking ruling

Campos said that despite the “voluminous records and annexes,” the First Division dismissed his petition on April 20, 2009 in a record-breaking 20 days, excluding the Holy Week. The decision, however, was only promulgated on May 28, 2009.

What’s “fishy”, Campos said, was the fact that Philweb only filed its opposition to the certiorari petition on April 22, or two days after the First Division had supposedly already decided on the case. Also further raising suspicion was the filing of the opposition even if the Supreme Court had not yet issued any order to comment.

Campos said he also learned from his sources that a Philweb lawyer met Corona in Baguio during the annual retreat of the justices there.

“As it became clear that there was undue haste, I checked if true that the good Justice Corona left for Las Vegas….I was given a copy of the news from the Internet that indeed he was there to celebrate the victory of the People’s Champ. I learned that it was Justice Corona who prepared and signed the decision,” Campos said.

Campos said he is convinced that “there was undue haste” in the Court's ruling on the certiorari since it did not even consider the position of the other party. “How could the Court make such a finding when it has not even received the opposition of respondent Philweb? Unless Philweb has succeeded in presenting its side clearly and convincingly before April 20 to someone in the Court,” Campos said.

Letter to Puno

Adding impropriety to Corona’s action, Campos said, was his failure to inhibit himself from the case despite doubts raised about his impartiality.

Campos wrote a letter asking the Court to take a second look at the certiorari case, and informed it that a member of the Court went to Las Vegas a few weeks after it was decided. Puno acted favorably on Campos’ request by including it in the First Division’s agenda.

Yet, despite this, Corona failed to inhibit himself, Campos said. On Sept. 14, with Corona as the acting chair of the First Division, the petition for certiorari was dismissed with finality.