2 Sandigan justices asked to inhibit from Ongpin case

MANILA, Philippines—The Office of the Ombudsman has asked two members of the Sandiganbayan Third Division to inhibit themselves from hearing the graft case against businessman Roberto Ongpin and former officials of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) for conflict of interest.

The prosecution, in a 12-page urgent motion, identified the two justices as Presiding Justice and division chairman Francisco Villaruz Jr. and Justice Samuel Martires. The third member of the division is Justice Alex Quiroz.

In its motion, the prosecution also called for the immediate reraffle of this case to another division of the antigraft court.

It cited Rule 137 Section 1 of the Rules of the Court, which states that “no judge or judicial officer shall sit in any case which he or his wife or child, is pecuniarily interested as heir, legatee, creditor or otherwise, or in which he is related to either party within the sixth degree of consanguinity or affinity, or to counsel within the fourth degree, computed according to the rules of the civil law.”

According to the motion, the move for the voluntary inhibition of the two justices was due to the occurrence of supervening events that induced doubts on their ability to resolve the case without undue bias to the accused.

It said Villaruz is an Alpha Phi-Beta fraternity brother of one of the defense counsels, lawyer Alexander J. Poblador, who is personally appearing in court in behalf of Ongpin.

Villaruz is the father of lawyer Carlos Villaruz, one of the partners in Esguerra and Blanco Law Offices (BlesLaw), which has publicly appeared as counsels for a company affiliated with Ongpin.