Brion hits PDI over ‘malicious’ reports

Supreme Court Associate Justice Arturo Brion. Photo taken from sc.judiciary.gov.ph

MANILA, Philippines—Supreme Court Associate Justice Arturo Brion on Monday slammed the Philippine Daily Inquirer for its “malicious” articles regarding his standing as a wedding sponsor to a daughter of former Rep. Jose Villarosa whose case involving the 1997 deaths of the Quintos brothers is still pending in the high court.

“The Inquirer articles were malicious—printed without looking into the underlying facts to bring (me) and the Supreme Court to disrepute,” Brion said in a statement issued by the Supreme Court public information office last night.

Brion said he had inhibited himself from the case on Sept. 12, “due to close relations to a party.”

He said that as far back as Oct.1, a raffle for replacements took place for “two inhibiting members”—himself and another justice he did not identify.

“Justice Brion reserves the right to keep his opinions open as to what action he will take in relation to the Inquirer articles,” the statement said.

Robert Quintos, a brother of the victims, had protested the “indecency” of Brion and retired Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura in mingling with Villarosa, who had been convicted along with six farmers by a lower court and meted out the death penalty for the murder of the two brothers.

Michael and Paul Quintos—sons of Ricardo Quintos, a political rival of Villarosa—were gunned down at a birthday party in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro, in December 1997. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.

Both Brion and Nachura were asked to be sponsors at the wedding of Villarosa’s daughter.

The Office of the Solicitor General under Nachura had recommended to the Court of Appeals that Villarosa, husband of incumbent Occidental Mindoro Rep. Ma. Amelita Villarosa, be acquitted.

The case is on appeal in the high court’s Second Division of which Brion is a member.