MANILA, Philippines—Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio has been asked by a Supreme Court investigating panel to return home immediately to testify in a probe into the alleged improprieties at the Court of Appeals with regard to the appellate court’s handling of a case against Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)

Sabio, who was supposed to testify Friday, will be out of the country from Aug. 14 to 22 to attend two international conferences, PCGG Director J. Ermin Ernest Louie Miguel said in a letter to the investigating panel.

Miguel said Sabio was willing to comply with the subpoena for him to appear before the panel but was requesting that he be scheduled to testify after Aug. 31.

But one panel member said Sabio should just skip the meetings and return immediately.

“There are vice chairmen who can take over. Is that more important than his being here? His and his brother’s names are at stake here,” said retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Romeo Callejo Sr.

During the panel’s cross-examination earlier this week of Sabio’s brother, Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr., it emerged that the PCGG chairman had called up his brother about the Meralco case.

It was Justice Sabio who issued a temporary restraining order last May 30 stopping the Securities and Exchange Commission from invalidating the results of the Meralco board election.

According to Miguel’s letter, the PCGG chair will be conferring with a government lawyer in the United States concerning the recovery of ill-gotten properties on his way to attend a conference of the International Law Association in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Aug. 17 to 22. Sabio is the chairman and president of the ILA in the Philippines.

When asked by the panel chairman, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Carolina Griño-Aquino, if Sabio can be back by Aug. 23, Miguel said Sabio would be in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from Aug. 26 to 28 for the 4th Annual Biodiesel Congress, in his capacity as chair of the sequestered CIIF Oil Mills Group.

Callejo said he was “very concerned” and “really bothered” about confidential information from the appellate court being leaked.

During his testimony, Justice Sabio himself said that his brother appeared to have advance knowledge that Justice Sabio was chosen to hear the case and that a temporary restraining order was already being prepared.

Why the fuss?

In an interview after Friday’s hearing, Justice Sabio stressed that he merely wanted to be truthful when he mentioned his brother’s interest in the case.

“Why make a big fuss of this whole thing? If my brother committed a crime, file a case against him,” he said.

The justice said he told his brother about the panel’s decision to subpoena him and that the PCGG chair replied that he wanted to testify but had to go on a foreign trip. Justice Sabio recalled saying to the PCGG chairman that it would not reflect well on him to which his brother replied, “Sorry, but it’s official.”

The travel authority presented by Miguel to the panel differed from the one obtained by reporters from the Department of Justice, which has administrative supervision over PCGG. The latter said Sabio would be out of the country from Aug. 14 to 30 and includes two other trips, to Austria and the United Kingdom.

Sabio will be in Austria for informal consultations on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption Review Mechanism, a UN invitation that was endorsed by the Department of Foreign Affairs. In the UK, he is to confer with the ILA Secretariat concerning preparations for the ILA Executive Council Meeting.

Justice Sabio continued his cross-examination of Associate Justice Vicente Roxas, the designated writer of the July 23 decision dismissing the case filed by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) against Meralco in favor of the latter. Roxas maintained that there was nothing irregular in the way he came up with the decision.

Roxas sticks to his story

Roxas, addressing the panel, said he was never hasty nor did he show undue interest in the case, adding that these were mere perceptions. He said he was just protecting the confidentiality of the case and following the appellate court’s internal rules.

He was barraged with questions by Justice Sabio concerning the drafts of the final decision that he prepared, the report that was supposed to accompany the final draft of the decision, the minutes or transcript of the deliberations, and the time that the decision, including the case records, were transmitted to the two members of the 8th Divison that decided the case.

Justice Sabio and Roxas were members of the 9th Division, to which the Meralco case was originally raffled. Justice Sabio, who was the acting chair, squabbled with the regular chair, Justice Bienvenido Reyes, over who should continue to hear the case.

The squabble was overtaken by the July 4 reorganization at the appellate court which resulted in Reyes and Roxas being transferred to the 8th Division, which eventually decided the case on July 23.

‘Clinging’ to case

Justice Sabio has accused Roxas of “clinging” to the case by refusing to inhibit himself, as GSIS had wanted when it filed a motion to inhibit against Roxas the day the TRO was issued. Roxas has countered that it was Justice Sabio who was clinging to the case because the latter refused to relinquish chairmanship of the 9th Division.

Roxas explained that the basis for the dismissal of the case was “simple”: That the SEC has no jurisdiction over corporation election contests and that the GSIS was guilty of forum-shopping.

On cross-examination by Reyes’ counsel Vitaliano Aguirre II, Roxas contradicted Justice Sabio’s criticisms regarding the absence of inaccuracies in the minutes, transcripts, agendas and reports related to the case.

Roxas said he produced the transcript of the case “from memory” and the report on the deliberations was written on the folder that accompanied the final draft. All the 8th Division members had read it, he said.

The explanations of Roxas, made through Aguirre’s queries and clarificatory questions from the panel members, irked Justice Sabio, who accused Aguirre of acting as Roxas’ counsel.

Even the kitchen sink

At one point, Justice Sabio rose to denounce a “grand conspiracy” allegedly of Reyes and other members of the 8th Division to destroy his integrity, probably by forcing or even paying witnesses to testify.

“I fear that they are ganging up on me. I stand by my reputation. They are throwing even the kitchen sink at me. That’s how desperate they are,” he said.

Aguirre said that Reyes, who is in hospital after reportedly suffering two seizures last week, would appear before the panel next week. With editing by INQUIRER.net