Sabio presses innocence with affidavits from supporters
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 08/07/2008 4:33 PM
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Embattled Court of Appeals magistrate Justice Jose Sabio Jr. will bolster his plea of innocence in the P50-million bribery charge thrown at him by alleged Meralco emissary Francis Roa de Borja by seeking supporting affidavits from Fr. Joaquin Bernas, his daughter-lawyer, and, Evelyn Roa Clavano, Sabio’s and de Borja’s mutual friend from Cagayan de Oro.
The affidavits will be part of the documents to be submitted today by Sabio. De Borja as well as seven Court of Appeals justices summoned by the high court are also expected to file their affidavits today.
These CA members include Justice Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal, a member of the 9th division which initially handled the case between Meralco and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), 8th Division members Apolinario Bruselas, Bienvenido Reyes and Vicente Roxas, senior Justice Martin Villarama and rules committee chair Edgardo Cruz. Justice Cruz, in a letter dated June 20, ruled that the jurisdiction over the Meralco-GSIS case rightly belonged to Reyes, who returned from a leave, and not to Sabio.
The panel investigating the Court of Appeals row over Meralco and GSIS is composed of retired Supreme Court Justices Carolina Griño-Aquino, Flerida Romero and Romeo Callejo.
The appellate court is currently caught in an internal rift which stemmed from Sabio’s and Vidal’s allegations that Reyes, Bruselas and Roxas, members of the eighth division which promulgated the July 23 decision favoring Meralco, ‘unceremoniously’ excluded them from the Meralco-GSIS case.
The power utility is in a heated legal battle with GSIS over the contentious proxy validation held last May 27, where the Lopez group kept its control of Meralco.
The case, however, took an unexpected turn when Sabio revealed Borja’s P10 million-offer to him in exchange for dropping the Meralco-GSIS case. Sabio, as then acting chair of the 9th Division, earlier issued a temporary restraining order barring the Securities and Exchange Commission from implementing a show order cause against Meralco corporate secretary Anthony Rosete last May 30.
But De Borja countered Sabio as he accused the justice of asking P50 million for a decision favoring Meralco.
Text messages
Sabio requested the panel if Bernas, among others, whom he consulted about De Borja’s alleged bribery offer, could also execute respective affidavits. “I consulted Fr. Bernas as early as July 7,” he said.
Borja allegedly wangled the bribe to Sabio on July 1.
Aside from the affidavits, Borja also asked if he could use the text messages between him and his daughter on De Borja’s purported bribery, as supporting evidence for his testimony. The panel agreed.
He later said in an interview after the hearing that he believed that the text messages are “providential,” saying that it could be “God’s will” that he kept the messages.
On the other hand, Sabio said that Clavano is willing to appear in the hearing to testify that De Borja placed a call to the justice’s office in early July to reiterate the P10 million-offer. Callejo said that there’s no need to subpoena Clavano if Sabio could bring her “on his own.”
In his July 26 letter to Vasquez, Sabio said that he found out about De Borja’s call when he called Mrs. Clavano for some “personal matters.”
“It was during that call that I was again shocked to learn that Mr. De Borja had called her. She told me she was also shocked that Francis De Borja had the gall to ask her to convince me to accept the bribe,” he wrote.
‘Don’t be surprised’
Meanwhile, Callejo chided Bruselas following the latter’s mystified reaction to the panel’s order for him to appear in the hearing.
“I’m still in a quandary why I was ordered to appear in the hearing,” he said.
In an earlier interview with the media, Bruselas said that he does not know why he was issued a subpoena, saying that he only did his job as part of the 8th division, chaired by Reyes. “It just so happened that I was part of the [appellate] Court,” he stated.
Bruselas’s disbelief, however, caught the ire of Callejo. “You signed the ponencia. You wrote to PJ [presiding justice]. …Don’t be surprised that you are called here,” he said.
Bruselas wrote a letter to Vasquez on July 25 where he relayed that Sabio informed him about De Borja’s alleged bribery attempt. He also expressed support for an investigation into the matter.
However, Bruselas, who extended an apology to Callejo, insisted that he did not raise any “allegations,” in his letter, saying that he just wrote the events that were relayed to him.
De Borja’s silence
The hearing took an hour. Before the panel opened the hearing, there was minimal interaction among the justices. Only Villarama and Sabio occasionally talked to each other.
On the other hand, De Borja chose not to comment on the event, evading the media before the hearing even began. At the later part of the hearing, he asked the panel if he is still required to attend the second hearing, which would be held tomorrow. The panel agreed that his presence is not mandated, as “you are the last to testify,” Aquino said.
De Borja said that he may send his counsel. De Borja was the only one allowed to have a lawyer since “all the justices are lawyers,” Aquino stated.
The second hearing will touch on the testimonies of Sabio, Vidal and Vasquez in that order. But SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said that succeeding testimonies of other justices – Villarama, Roxas, Reyes, Cruz, Bruselas, and that of De Borja, could be heard on the same day if the hearing moves quickly.
The panel will conduct hearings on a daily basis until August 22, when they are required to submit their findings to the Supreme Court.
