A legal counsel in a case which has recently threatened the leadership of Chief Justice Reynato Puno is one of the six new aspirants to the Supreme Court.

Roberto Abad, dean of the University of Sto. Tomas Faculty of Civil Law, is one of the six additional contenders in the race for the SC seat to be vacated by Justice Adolfo Azcuna on February 16.

The other new aspirants are: Justice Ernesto Acosta, presiding justice of the Court of Tax Appeals; Court of Appeals Justices Lucas Bersamin, Amelita Tolentino, Japar Dimaampao, Hakim Abdulwahid, and human rights lawyer Pablito Sanidad

Abad represented Olivia Paras in the oral arguments on a disqualification case against her rival Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong, whose victory in the 2007 local elections is on the line following questions over her citizenship.

Abad and Puno, however, worked together in the Office of the Solicitor General when Estelito Mendoza was still the lead government counsel. Abad served as assistant solicitor general from 1985-1986, while Puno was solicitor general from 1974-1982.

Ties to Mendoza

Abad and Mendoza, meanwhile, worked together as private counsels of Lucio Tan in a P25 billion-tax evasion case filed against the business mogul in 1993.

Tan’s name came up in the case after his company, Fortune Tobacco, allegedly dodged taxes through dummy corporations. The case was later dismissed.

Abad assisted Puno when the former was still a solicitor in a number of cases, one of which includes a petition for writ of habeas corpus filed by Ramon Bernal, whose son was detained on charges of subversion, against then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Gen. Fabian Ver and commanding generals of the Philippine Constabulary.

Limkaichong case

Abad represented Paras, who lost to Limkaichong by 7,000 votes. Paras sought the disqualification of her opponent on the ground that the latter is not a natural-born Filipino citizen. Louis Biraogo and Renald Villando, who also ran against but lost to Limkaichong in the last elections, filed similar petitions.

A leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision on the case triggered talks of an impeachment move against Puno. Biraogo got hold of the unpromulgated decision dated July 15, 2008, which had the signatures of all 14 justices except Puno.

The SC decision, penned by now retired Justice Ruben Reyes, upheld Limkaichong’s disqualification. 

Biraogo accused Puno of sitting on the case, eventually sparking calls for Puno’s impeachment. Puno called for deliberations on the decision after majority of the justices concurred only with the result, but not with the arguments, of the decision. 

Abad has his own law firm, Abad & Associates. One of the prominent cases it handled includes Francisco Chavez v. National Housing Authority, where Chavez questioned the authority of the National Housing Authority to reclaim and develop the lands of Smokey Mountain for its housing project.

Abad stood as counsel for the NHA, which won the case in the Supreme Court in 2007.  

A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, Abad became a trial attorney in the Jose W. Diokno Law Office, a law clerk for Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro and staff editor for Supreme Court Reports Annotated.

 Comeback

One of the six additional nominees vying for Azcuna’s seat is actually part of the original group of candidates which aspired for the post left by Reyes on January 3.

Justice Ernesto Acosta, presiding justice of the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA), was one of the two nominees who backed out then, in October 2008. The other was appellate court Justice Jose Reyes.

Acosta told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak then that he decided to quit the SC race because of his workload in the CTA. “I still have lot of paper work to finish,” he said.

We tried to ask him why he decided to try for Azcuna’s position following his prior withdrawal, but he was not available for comment.

Acosta included retired SC Justice Jose Vitug as reference in his personal data sheet. The two have worked together on “Tax Law and Jurisprudence,” a compendium of Philippine tax laws.

Acosta is also one of the lecturers in the College of Law of the Angeles University Foundation, where Vitug, a cabalen of Pres. Arroyo, is a founding dean.

In 2002, Acosta was accused of sexual harassment by Susan Aquino, chief of the legal and technical staff of CTA. He was exonerated but was advised by the Court to “be more circumspect” in his manner.

Before joining the judiciary, Acosta served as a fiscal service assistant at the Shell Group of Companies, vice president for legal matters of the Finasia Investment & Finance Corp. and a tax manager at the Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co.  

He was appointed CTA associate judge in 1991, and as CTA presiding judge in 1992.

Acosta graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1967. He is a member of the Sigma Rho fraternity, whose members include fellow SC hopeful CA Justice Hakim Abdulwahid and current SC Justices Presbiterio Velasco and Antonio Carpio.
Peralta’s peer

Peralta's peer

CA Justice Lucas Bersamin, who reportedly nominated SC Justice Diosdado Peralta to the Supreme Court, is applying for the seat of Azcuna.

Bersamin and Peralta were colleagues in the Quezon City regional trial court in 2002:  Peralta was judge of QC RTC Branch 95, while Bersamin was QC RTC judge of Branch 96.

Bersamin, a native of Bengued. Abra, is the younger brother of slain Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin. The congressman, along with his bodyguard, was gunned down on December 16, 2007. Pres. Arroyo has vowed to put Bersamin’s killers in prison, though the case is yet to be resolved. Bersamin was a member of Arroyo’s political party, Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino.

Justice Bersamin has ruled against the First Gentleman, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, however, in a land ownership case. He was one of the two dissenters in a 2007 decision penned by fellow SC nominee Justice Juan Enriquez which granted an almost nine-million-square meter estate at Tatalon, Quezon City to the Tuasons, Arroyo’s maternal side. 

One of the magistrate’s celebrated decisions is his granting of the petition for the writ of amparo filed by brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo. 

He ruled that retired Army Major Jovito Palparan “had a hand” in the February 2006 seizure of the two farmers from Bulacan.

Bersamin is the recipient of various accolades. In 2000, he received the Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro Memorabilia Commission award for both the Best Decision in Civil Law and the Best Decision in Criminal Law. Two years after, he was hailed as Outstanding RTC Judge by the Foundation for Judicial Excellence.

In 1996, however, Bersamin, then QC RTC judge, was admonished after he failed to notify a party about the cessation of the annotations of levy in a disputed land title in Quezon City.

Prior to being appointed as RTC judge in 1986, he worked as a clerk in Beneficial Life Insurance Co. and as partner in the Purugganan, Lizardo and Bersamin Law Office.

Bersamin took up law at the University of the East and ranked ninth in the 1973 bar examinations with a rating of 86.3 percent.

Two from Pampanga

CA Justice Amelita Tolentino, one the first justices to be appointed to the appellate court by Arroyo, is from Pampanga.

She completed her elementary education in Floridablanca and high school in Lubao, Arroyo’s hometown.

She is one of the two nominees to the SC who hail from Pampanga, the other being Ateneo Law Dean Cesar Villanueva.

Tolentino is best known for convicting Hubert Webb of rape with homicide in the Vizconde Massacre when she was still Parañaque RTC judge in 2000.

The lady justice recently faced an administrative complaint filed by party whose appeal was thrown out the window because they allegedly failed to pay legal and docket fees. The complaint, however, was withdrawn after three days, according to Tolentino.

In 2006, Tolentino was one of the three justices who were accused of engaging in a “decision for sale” practice. Col. Brigido P. Mesina, Jr., president of the National Association of Corruption Prevention Units Foundation, Inc., alleged that Tolentino and fellow justices Vicente Veloso and Roberto Barrios of the Ninth Division “employed” a certain Atty. Padrenal who asked for P5 million for a favorable decision from the said division.

The complaint was later found to be without merit.

Tolentino was appointed CA justice on August 27, 2001 along with former SC aspirant Justice Mariano Del Castillo. Before her appointment, she served as Parañaque RTC judge from 1994-2001.

She also worked as legal officer of Allied Banking Corp., General Bank and Trust, managing partner of Lingad Law office and assistant attorney of Araneta, Mendoza and Papa law office, where Justice Dante Tinga served as senior attorney from 1961-1977.     

Youngest SC Justice?

CA Justice Japar Dimaampao, who would only be 45 if he ever gets appointed to the SC, is one of two Muslims competing for a slot at the SC. The other is CA Justice Hakim Abdulwahid.

Dimaampao is an alumnus of the University of the East, just like Tinga, one of his reference persons. He took up accounting and law.

Dimaampao penned the Feb.4, 2008 decision which allowed the government to run after  Mega Pacific E-Solutions, the company involved in the P1.3 billion-deal approved by the Commission on Elections for the procurement of automatic counting machines.

In 2005, he sustained the preventive suspension of Alberta Iglesias, district collector at Poro Point and daughter of Albert Joya, a reported Customs authority during the term of Arroyo’s father, former Pres. Diosdado Macapagal.

Iglesias was slapped with suspended prevention by the Office of the Ombudsman after failing to submit her Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth in 2000.

Dimaampao was appointed Mandaluyong RTC judge in 2004, when he was just 40 years old. His wife, Gina Perez Villapañe, is a niece of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

Sigma Rho brother

Abdulwahid was appointed to the appellate court in 2003. Prior to this, he served as Presiding Judge of the Regional Trial Court of Zamboanga City, regional director of the Department of Labor and Employment and executive labor arbiter of the National Labor Relations Commission.

Abdulwahid, a graduate of UP Law, is a member of Sigma Rho fraternity like Velasco, one of his references for the SC post. Interestingly, one of his references is dismissed CA Justice Elvi John Asuncion.

One of his references listed in the documents provided to us by the Judicial and Bar Council is dismissed CA Justice Elvi John Asuncion. The JBC vets nominees for judicial posts to the president.

Asuncion was sacked in 2001 after he sat on 71 motions for reconsideration and 82 cases, which, under the Constitution, should have been resolved within a 12-month period. He also decided 409 cases after the one-year period had lapsed.

Abdulwahid's office asked the JBC to update its data. However, his current Personal Data Sheet specifies the following for his character references: CA Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez; CA Justice Sixto Morella; former IBP National President Arthur Lim, and Siriako Lagunsad, a labor official. Asuncion was Abdulwahid's character reference in his application for the CA.

Asuncion was sacked in 2001 after he sat on 71 motions for reconsideration and 82 cases which under Article 8, Section of the 1987 Constitution, should have been resolved within a 12-month period. He also decided 409 cases after the one-year period has lapsed.

Abdulwahid, in a message in 2007, thanked Arroyo for appointing a fellow Muslim, Judge Moslemen Macarambon, as Comelec commissioner.
 
Human rights advocate

Pablito Sanidad, founder of the Free Legal Assistance Group, is best known for being part of the legal team which successfully convicted deposed Pres. Joseph Estrada of plunder in 2007.

Sanidad is also part of the team of Gov. Luis Chavit Singson —Estrada’s ally-turned foe —when he served briefly as his vice governor in Ilocos Sur in 1972.

A known human rights advocate, Sanidad has filed or handled cases which questioned the government’s motions since the Martial Law along with his father, Pablo and brother Arno.

One of these include the landmark case Sanidad v. Commission on Elections, where Pablito and his father challenged then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’s authority to move for amendments in the 1973 charter without a National Assembly.

In 1986, Sanidad was appointed deputy minister of the Department of Labor and Employment. 

Sanidad faced a disbarment suit in 2003, filed by one of the aggrieved parties in a land dispute case he worked on. He was accused of falsifying a decision which invalidated the land title of Oscar Santayana involving a property in Trinidad, Benguet.  

The complaint was dismissed, but Sanidad has filed a counter-claim asking for damages of around P2 million. The case is still pending.

Sanidad finished law at UP in 1967, and placed eighth in the bar exams of the same year with an average of 85.5 percent.