Under Suspicion?

Written on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 6:01 pm | by The Jester-in-Exile

A colleague and I were speaking earlier today about the implications of the front page story about the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss Court of Appeals Justice Vicente Roxas, suspend Justice Jose Sabio, jr, and reprimand Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Justice Conrado Vasquez, jr, in connection with the alleged attempt by a businessman to bribe Sabio on behalf of Meralco, possibly for Meralco to get a favorable ruling on the Lopezes’ dust-up with the GSIS’ Winston Garcia.

We spoke very little of justices involved, nor did we touch on the impact of this case on the judiciary (which Ding spoke a bit on earlier).

What my colleague noted instead was that the decision seems to cast a dark cloud on Meralco. How so?

My colleague’s reasoning was this: the suspicion that there was some hanky-panky going on in the Court of Appeals must have been so strong that the Supreme Court felt they had to be tough. Had the suspicion been weak, the SC would probably not have brought the whole world down on Roxas. My colleague thus feels suspicious of Meralco, feeling that the Lopezes or a representative of theirs was indeed involved in some shady dealing.

Furthermore, my colleague notes that it seems that ABS-CBN (another Lopez company) seems to have gone mum over the whole issue. Watching the news last night, she wondered why it seemed that the news on Channel 2 did not seem to provide the detailed coverage one would expect on an issue as explosive as corruption in the judiciary. With that, she told me that she feels that the apparent glossing over by a Lopez-owned company over the disciplinary actions over CA justices provides more suspicion on the Lopezes and Meralco.

My question: how many others feel the same way? How many of you do?

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About The Author: The Jester-in-Exile is an engineer by training and profession turned law student, and he writes of the Philippines because of his love for it. He blogs at The Journal of The Jester-in-Exile, and can often be found daydreaming about giving Robespierre haircuts to corrupt officials.

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Comments

8 Responses to “Under Suspicion?”

  1. Nick on September 10th, 2008 6:25 pm

    Actually I did notice this.

  2. Ding G. Gagelonia on September 10th, 2008 6:41 pm

    Jester,

    The undercurrent in the SC move against the erring CA justices is that the incident has served to blow out in the open the pervasive activities wherein ‘operators’ reach into the inner recesses and upper reaches of our judiciary, with ‘firms’ being involved in the ‘manufacture of custom-to-litigant pleadings and even decisions which in turn are passed around by the conduit ponentes for signature.

    I really am waiting for whether sir Abe Margallo will honor us with his own perspectives on the story as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines is leading a snowballing call for the other ‘tainted’ CA justices to resign.

    Nick, would this merit an FV BLOGSWARM?

  3. The Jester-in-Exile on September 10th, 2008 6:46 pm

    my interest is more on whether or not there is fire under the smoke.

  4. baycas on September 11th, 2008 6:12 am

    suspicion hovers like a dark cloud…both for gsis and meralco…even before the decision. the point is that there are takers coming from the judiciary.

    it’d have been much better if all tainted justices were sacked to refresh (as in reboot) the CA’s credibility.

  5. Dean Jorge Bocobo on September 11th, 2008 6:36 am

    Keep our eyes on the prize: It is Gloria’s Supreme court, itself deserves to be burnt to the ground and re-established–metaphorically speaking. Ever since Edsa Dos an evil alliance between Palace and Padre Faura began. The People saw it right away, and started voting with their feet outta here. When you get right down to it, the twin spires of our judicial system are now Executive and Judicial Privilege. Javellana v. Executive Secretary has been reborn in Senate v. Neri. It’s time to take the gloves off on these unelected Dictators and to blow the lid off that stinking Augean Stables.

  6. cocoy on September 11th, 2008 6:48 am

    @jesterinexile, i dont think anybody really believes that the lopez’s media outfit is objective to report something about their owner? i’m not saying a heavy hand fell on them— but those people are human too. i don’t find it hard to imagine that they can close ranks. they’ll support the hand that feeds ‘em.

    it is my opinion that this thing that’s being reported is at best 3rd hand of what really happened. it isn’t difficult to imagine that this was a deal that went wrong. i don’t mean to sound so cynical but this is how government and big business works.

    i think we’re missing a huge point. beyond the graft— which i think is quite petty, this move by a government arm against private business just irks me to no end. i think it is bad for any government to intervene. it reeks of government’s private agendas that shouldn’t be.

  7. Abe N. Margallo on September 11th, 2008 10:04 am

    Ding, here’s my take: if prima facie evidence exist that those CA justices committed any crime, they (and the bribers) should also be paraded in the Palace in orange outfit (for photo op) just like those underprivileged miscreants. Dismissal, suspension, reprimand and admonition look more like slaps on the wrist.

  8. baycas on September 11th, 2008 1:32 pm

    Yes, cocoy, most likely just a tip of the iceberg.

    Please read Tongue’s comment in
    http://www.ellentordesillas.com/?p=2726#comment-585933
    and his succeeding posts.

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