There is purportedly an affidavit allegedly signed on August 7, 2008, in the City of Manila by affiant Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Jose L. Sabio Jr. of Parañaque City under the heading of Republic of the Philippines, City of Makati, but signed by one Teresita R. Marigomen, presumably a clerk of court of Manila who incidentally failed to state the usual parts of any affidavit, such as document, page and book numbers, to become legal.

The dates and the origin of the affidavit may tend to confuse and disturb some notary publics. But what is more confusing and more disturbing, to my belief, are the contents of the affidavit said to have been signed by Associate Justice Sabio and has, to this day, to my knowledge, not disowned the existence of the document.

According to the affidavit purportedly signed by Associate Justice Sabio, his brother Camilo Sabio, chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, called him (Associate Justice Sabio) to inform him that he was named the third member of the division to which the Manila Electric Co.-Government Service Insurance System (Meralco-GSIS) case was raffled.

The associate justice said he was surprised “because I had not been yet officially informed [about] it.”

There was a mole working either at the GSIS or at the Court of Appeals as brother Camilo tried to convince Sabio Jr. “of the righteousness of the stand of the GSIS and the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission].”

My belief is that it is inappropriate and even unethical to either directly or indirectly influence a justice or a judge even if it comes from a brother who happens to be a high official of the government.

Sabio Jr. said in his affidavit that he told his brother that he (Sabio Jr.) would “vote according to my conscience and that the most I can do is to have the issuance of the TRO [temporary restraining order] and the injunctive relief scheduled for oral arguments.”

Then, in the next paragraph of the affidavit, he described a fellow justice named Justice Vicente Roxas as a person who does not have a “not-so-good reputation and image,” as he recalled the “several pending administrative cases against him [Roxas] in the Supreme Court involving his questionable decisions.”

Usually, editors and their company lawyers caution journalists not to write about pending and still-unresolved cases in the courts, otherwise, they could be held in contempt as such cases are considered sub judice. 

But the unusual happened when Associate Justice Sabio Jr. sought and actually brought his case not before his colleagues and superiors in the courts but before the media in a press conference.

What will now prevent the media from openly writing about cases previously considered by lawyers and other officers of the court as sub judice? The Supreme Court (SC) took cognizance of Sabio’s unofficial, and maybe unauthorized, denunciation of what he considered a bribe offer when the SC ordered all of the justices of the Court of Appeals to appear before the Supreme Court and tell their story about Sabio and colleagues.

My humble belief, if it has any bearing at all, is that all judges and justices exposed themselves to public ridicule for their ignorance of the law and corruption, whether true or not.

Because of that, it’s feast day at the Fourth Estate. The media, without fear of being accused of writing about sub judice cases, can now go to town and openly discuss, or even criticize, the merits and demerits of the restraining order the CA issued against the SEC and the GSIS for stopping the recent but controversial stockholders’ meeting and election of officers of Meralco.

To make matters worse, the associate CA justices are now being told in open court to debate among themselves the propriety or impropriety of their actions and be castigated by the Supreme Court and retired SC justices, all because Justice Sabio belatedly and, for reasons he has enumerated, opted to explain his case at bar not before his peers and the appropriate court but before a press conference.

CA Associate Justice Vicente Q. Roxas of the Eighth Division explained, and rightly so: “Once a case is sub judice, the press and everyone else are barred from interfering with judicial matters that are sub judice.”

Justice Roxas said, “Appeal to the press and appeal to the bar of public opinion are not accepted modes of appeal for a sub judice case, such as the Meralco decision promulgated by the CA’s Eighth Division.”

What worries me, too, is the possibility that the courts may, after the dust has settled, declare all journalists who participated in the Sabio press conference and, in so doing, published their respective news reports, to be guilty of violating the sub judice rule.

The scandal has also caught the attention of the Internet-based Wikipedia. It said that the scandal “has caught wide media coverage and has achieved political, international and judicial significance because of its very threat to the integrity and credibility of the Philippine judicial system.”

“The scandal engulfs the Judiciary and has uncloaked a dark, transactional periphery of the justice system,” said Wikipedia. 

E-mail: raulbvalino@yahoo.com.ph

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