Convicted governor turns table on justice

Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Samuel Martires has come to the defense of colleague Associate Justice Jose Hernandez who has been accused by Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr. of trying to extort P15 million from him in exchange for an acquittal in a graft case for which the governor was convicted.

Umali, the treasurer of the ruling Liberal Party, brought an administrative case against Hernandez in the Supreme Court last Wednesday, charging the justice with grave misconduct and gross ignorance of the law.

Hernandez, who chairs the Fourth Division, wrote the decision last April which found Umali guilty of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, along with former Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo G. Valencia and former provincial board member Romualdo Bawasanta. They were each sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The three were found guilty of granting an anomalous P2.5-million loan to a shipowner in 1994 when Umali was still the provincial administrator.

Take it or leave it

In his complaint, Umali claimed that before the decision came out, his camp was allegedly approached by a certain Ruel Ricafort, who he claimed was “very close” to Hernandez and his wife, with a “one-time,” “take-it-or-leave-it” offer that if Umali wanted to be acquitted of the crime, “all he needed to do was pay P15 million to Justice Hernandez.”

Umali said he was “incensed” and refused to accede to the demand, and “sure enough, I was convicted thereafter.”

Martires, a senior member of the Third Division, said he decided to speak up about the matter not just to defend a fellow justice, but to protect the Sandiganbayan from those out to malign its integrity.

“I’m not speaking on behalf of Justice Hernandez. I’m trying to defend the institution because it is the institution that is under attack here,” he said.

“It’s just unfortunate that when somebody accuses a justice of receiving a bribe and it comes out in the media, the public will doubt our reputation and integrity as an institution,” he said.

“I call on our politicians not to denigrate us and put down our integrity because that’s the only thing we can pass on to our children and grandchildren. If they want, let’s just abolish the Sandiganbayan and have a military tribunal so that those convicted will be killed by firing squad,” said Martires.

Damned if you do…

“We have been handling high-profile cases of high-profile personalities. If we acquit them, we’re accused of receiving bribe. But if we convict them, high-profile personalities would claim that they were found guilty because they did not give money to us. It’s unfair,” he said.

He then challenged Umali to prove his accusations against Hernandez.

“If lawyers or even nonlawyers can prove that Justice Hernandez had demanded money from them, I will beat up Justice Hernandez in front of them,” Martires said.

Martires, who admitted that Hernandez was one of his closest friends in the antigraft court, vouched for his fellow magistrate, saying he had known him to be “squeaky clean.”

“I guarantee you that Justice Hernandez is an astute and judicious person. I’m not saying that he has no sins. But he is not corrupt. The blood that runs through his veins has no taint of corruption,” he said.