MANILA, Philippines--Chief Justice Reynato Puno has ordered the gathering of all documents pertinent to the bribery scandal at the Court of Appeals as the contending parties engaged in a back-and-forth of accusations related to the case between Manila Electric Co. and the Government Service Insurance System, Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said Friday.

Puno issued the order upon learning that the Court of Appeals (CA) had decided to elevate to the Supreme Court the issue of the ?propriety? of certain justices? actions in connection with the case, Marquez said.

The Chief Justice ?also ordered that the case be included in the Supreme Court?s deliberations on Tuesday,? he said.

Marquez said the high tribunal would hear both sides and could discipline the CA justices found to have erred.

The case involves the May 27 election of the board of directors of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the conduct of which the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), a major Meralco shareholder, had disputed.

CA Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr. called a press conference?which he said had clearance from Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez Jr.? to debunk the affidavit of businessman Francis de Borja, who has claimed that Sabio stated ?P50 million? would be the amount he would accept to refuse what he said was a government offer of money and a seat in the Supreme Court?according to De Borja?s affidavit?if he favored the GSIS in its legal battle with Meralco.

De Borja executed the affidavit on Thursday to deny that he had offered the justice P10 million to step aside and let another justice issue the decision, which favored Meralco.

Sabio earlier said in a letter to Vasquez that a man ?brokering for Meralco? made the P10-million offer to him. The emissary was unnamed, but De Borja said he had felt alluded to and decided to come forward.

?Filthy lie?

Reading from a prepared statement, Sabio said at the press conference: ?I must state that I cannot even begin to express my anger, outrage and disgust that a person whom I treated with civil respect and kindness, and whom I thought respected me, would impute such a filthy lie to me. But that Mr. De Borja would have the nerve to make these lies, under oath, is utterly disgusting when it was him who had come to me with the offer of the bribe.?

He said he was now up against the Lopezes, who run Meralco and are one of the Philippines? most influential business and political clans, who he said were using and conspiring with De Borja to portray him as a corrupt official of the judiciary.

?I know that the Lopezes will do everything possible using their money and power to discredit me. This is just the beginning. I know that they will not stop at doing everything to discredit my integrity,? Sabio said.

He challenged De Borja to submit to a lie-detector test along with himself. He said he was ?seriously considering? charging De Borja with bribery and perjury.

Sabio again detailed the circumstances of his July 1 meeting with De Borja at the lobby lounge of the Ateneo Law School in Makati City, where he teaches law courses.

He made a new disclosure: that De Borja?s first words to him at the time were ?You know, Justice, who?s with me in the car? It?s [Meralco chairman] Manolo Lopez.?

Sabio said De Borja told him that Lopez was with him too when he met up with Sabio for the first time and that De Borja was interceding for the Lopezes because the case was ?a matter of life and death? for the clan.

In a phone interview after Sabio?s press conference, De Borja denied telling Sabio that Manuel ?Manolo? Lopez was with him in his car on that night.

?No, I never said that,? De Borja said. If you know Manolo Lopez?he is somewhat aristocratic?he would be the last person to wait for somebody in the car, and they did not know that he was abroad at that time.?

?Twisted?

De Borja said Sabio had again twisted the story: ?I said in my affidavit that he told me his wife would be waiting for him in the car, and he says now that Manolo was waiting in my car....?

De Borja?who has described himself to the Philippine Daily Inquirer as a longtime friend of Lopez?s and makes his living ?brokering contracts, making deals and packaging projects??said he was ready to face the suit Sabio would file against him.

?It?s a free country, let him file it and we?ll see,? De Borja said. ?I was prepared the moment I signed my affidavit. Obviously, I considered the consequences, so I wouldn?t have made up a story.?

De Borja said he was accepting Sabio?s challenge for a lie-detector test, on the condition that they do it simultaneously and with ?a competent foreign agency.?

He said, ?And my third comment is: He is a lawyer and a justice. He knows that a lie-detector test [result] is not admissible as [court] evidence, so why is he asking for it??

De Borja said of Sabio: ?He is a public official, being a justice. So he must be like Caesar?s wife, who is beyond suspicion. And to be beyond suspicion, you must be squeaky-clean, and he is not squeaky-clean.?

De Borja reiterated he was taken aback when Sabio replied ?P50 million? when he asked what it would take for Sabio to resist the purported government offer of money and a Supreme Court seat in exchange for a ruling favorable to the GSIS.

He said he had expected Sabio to answer that the justice would not be swayed by any offer and would rule based on his conscience.

Why cling to it?

On the phone with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, De Borja asked why Sabio refused to yield the chairmanship of the CA Eighth Division?and the Meralco vs GSIS case?after the division?s regular chairman had returned from a vacation leave.

He said: ?Why is he clinging to it when the procedure is so clear that the case goes to the ?ponente? [the designated writer of the decision] and the permanent justice gets back the case once he returns from leave? And can you imagine him going out in public saying these justices were bribed? He is the one impugning the integrity of the court, so his fellow justices are angry with him.?

De Borja said the GSIS was not directly opposing the CA decision that favored Meralco. ?Nobody is saying the decision is wrong,? he said. ?They are just casting doubts on the integrity of the justices in order to cast a shadow on the decision.?

He added: ?There are a lot of similarities in our affidavits, but in major issues, we differ. So it?s up to the people to decide who is telling the truth.?

To assert his truthfulness, De Borja cited portions of his affidavit in which he recounted that Sabio told him about the dispute in the CA over the Meralco versus GSIS case, including the latter?s beef with Justice Bienvenido Reyes.

He said only Sabio knew about these things. ?How could I have picked up all those details??

As for Sabio?s expressed fear of being harmed by the Lopezes, De Borja said: ?Have you heard of the Lopezes having had anybody killed? They are not that type of people.?

No resignation

Sabio rejected calls for his resignation, describing them as ?stupid.?

He said it would be for the Supreme Court to determine the guilty party. He added that if he had ever accepted a bribe, ?I would not stay a day longer in this court.?

When asked if the controversy would erode public confidence in the Court of Appeals, and if it was the first time such a scandal had happened, Sabio said without elaborating: ?Ang daming nangyaring first time dito. [A lot of first times have happened here.] This is a case of first times.? With a report from TJ Burgonio; with editing by INQUIRER.net