Judge withdraws from collection case, cites phone call from former SC justice

ILOILO CITY—A judge here inhibited herself from a collection case between a bulk water supplier and a water distribution agency and admitted that she did so after receiving a call from a retired Supreme Court justice.

The judge’s admission stirred controversy here and started a guessing game on the identity of the caller.

Judge Ma. Therese Enriquez-Gaspar, of the Iloilo City regional trial court Branch 33, decided to inhibit herself from the case involving the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) and private bulk water supplier FLO Water Resources Inc. admitting that she did so after getting a call from a retired SC justice.

Undelivered water

Gaspar is hearing the petition for temporary order of protection (TOP) filed by FLO against MIWD that sought to guarantee payment from MIWD.

In a two-page order issued on June 11, Gaspar also ordered the records of the case sent to the RTC clerk of court in preparation for the case’s reraffle.

Ilonggo tycoon Rogelio Florete, chair and president of FLO, is demanding that MIWD pay at least P103 million in water supply that MIWD claimed has not been distributed to consumers.

Under its contract with MIWD, FLO is supposed to provide 25,000 cubic meters of water daily. MIWD, however, is able to distribute only 15,000 cu. m. of the supply because it lacks transmission pipes.

Florete is demanding the implementation of a “take or pay” scheme with MIWD paying for the volume of water being supplied by FLO whether it is used or not.

MIWD, however, insisted on paying only for the water that it is able to distribute.

MIWD supplies at least 31,000 consumers in Iloilo City and the towns of Oton, Pavia, Sta. Barbara, Cabatuan, Maasin and San Miguel.

In her order, Gaspar said in a hearing on June 8, she granted the motion for the issuance of a TOP with restrictions. She required FLO to post in five days a bond double the amount it is trying to collect from MIWD.

The TOP is effective for 20 days and upon payment of the bond, equivalent to P206 million.

Gaspar said she got the call from the retired justice after the June 8 hearing.

Admission

“Before a draft of the open court order could be prepared, however, the undersigned received a call from a former justice of the Supreme Court regarding the above-mentioned case,” Gaspar said in her order of inhibition.

She did not identify the caller and refused to give details.

“It appearing that the integrity of this court has been compromised by reason of said incident, the undersigned resolves to inhibit herself from this case,” Gaspar said.

Gaspar was described by lawyers as “strict and straight in ethics and discipline.”

She had installed in her court’s office counters that prevent close contact with clients and her staff, according to one lawyer in Iloilo who sought anonymity.

The MIWD would ask the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to call for “appropriate action” on the retired justice’s apparent intervention in the case, according to lawyer Cyril Regalado, MIWD corporate secretary.