Ex-PCGG head, a presidential bet, to fight penalty

Former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chair Camilo Sabio said Sunday he would contest the Court of Appeals ruling that affirmed the penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office imposed on him by the Ombudsman in 2012.

The penalty was in connection with ethical lapses stemming from his role in trying to influence the outcome of a legal case in 2008 involving the government and the Manila Electric Co., or Meralco.

“I am determined to fight all the way to the Supreme Court this absurd and ridiculous disqualification decision rendered by the Ombudsman and affirmed by the Court of Appeals,” Sabio said in a statement, arguing that the appellate court and the Ombudsman were devoid of jurisdiction over the case and therefore their acts were null and void.

Sabio, who resigned as PCGG chair in 2010, earlier announced his intention to run for President in next year’s elections under the Mindanaoan for President Movement. He vowed to continue with his political plans while contesting the court’s decision.

Last March, the appeals court’s 13th Division upheld the Ombudsman’s findings that Sabio had committed grave misconduct by trying to influence his brother, an appellate court justice who was hearing the ownership squabble that engulfed the Manila Electric Co. in 2008.

Aside from the disqualification, Sabio was also meted out the penalties of cancellation of eligibility and forfeiture of retirement benefits.

“[T]rying to intercede on behalf of another litigant to influence in any manner the outcome of the dispute pending in court of law falls below the standard required a public servant….Accordingly, a public servant must exhibit at all times the highest sense of honesty and integrity not only in the performance of his official duties but in his personal and private dealings with other people,” the court said in the decision written by Justice Sesinando Villon.

Based on records of the administrative suit, Sabio called his younger brother, then Appellate Court Justice Jose Sabio Jr., to inform him that he had been named the third member of the division to which the Meralco case has been raffled off to. He also tried to convince his brother to support the government side.

“That’s all I did and they want me to go to jail. I am ready. I have always defended government employees and I will continue to fight for them,” Sabio said in February when asked about the case.

The case stemmed from a Securities and Exchange Commission directive in 2008 stopping Meralco from submitting allegedly unvalidated proxy votes to block what it felt was a takeover attempt by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) which held four seats in Meralco’s 11-man board.

Meralco went to the Court of Appeals to oppose the SEC directive. The case was raffled off and went to the 9th Division then led by Justice Sabio.

It was later transferred to the 8th Division after a court reorganization. On July 24, 2008, the appeals court ruled in favor of Meralco, voiding the SEC directive.

After the decision was released, however, a side issue erupted. Justice Sabio claimed Meralco had offered bribes for a favorable ruling, saying that he himself was offered P10 million. A businessman linked to Meralco, Francis de Borja, countered that it was the government that had offered bribes, including a possible Supreme Court seat for Justice Sabio. In the investigation, Sabio admitted that his brother had called him to convince him to side with the GSIS in the Meralco row.

The Supreme Court eventually penalized some of the justices who handled the Meralco case. The decision-writer, Justice Vicente Roxas, was dismissed, Jose Jr. was suspended for two months, and Justices Bienvenido Reyes and Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal were reprimanded and admonished.

The GSIS later divested itself of its stake in Meralco in favor of San Miguel Corp. and its private partners, while the Lopezes sold most of their stocks to businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan’s group of companies.