A Court of Appeals magistrate aspiring to become an associate justice at the Supreme Court has denied receiving a P50-million bribe as alleged by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in connection with a CA decision to stop the Office of the Ombudsman from suspending then Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr.
During his interview before the Judicial and Bar Council on Friday, Associate Justice Jose Reyes Jr. said he and other members of the CA Sixth Division who issued a temporary restraining order against the Ombudsman have been vindicated by the lack of evidence in the alleged bribery.
Reyes stressed that their ultimate vindication was when the high court affirmed their TRO and subsequently the writ of preliminary injunction order last November 2015 against the Ombudsman.
“With the decision of SC last November 10, we all felt in the division we were effectively vindicated because no less than the Supreme Court said… quite empathically… the WPI we issued was correct,” Reyes told the JBC members headed by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno during public interview for his nomination to a post in the SC.
Reyes authored the appellate court’s ruling stopping Mayor Binay’s preventive suspension stemming from charges of alleged overpricing in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II.
It was the first time one of the two magistrates accused of bribery addressed the issue directly in public.
The CA earlier called for an ethics probe on Trillanes’ bribery allegation but no complaint has come out of it, nor was the magistrate required to formally comment about it.
“So for now, there is really no case, probably no case, probably there is really no evidence, so that’s why,” the magistrate said.
“For now, as I said, I continue to keep still and continue to pray… [But] I am at peace,” he added.
To convince JBC members that he has a clean record, Reyes said he was even able to secure certifications from the National Bureau of Investigation, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police to prove he is of good standing with no criminal record or pending cases.
He also admitted getting hurt by Trillanes’ accusations, but said he has remained steadfast amid the controversy.
“It was of course a serious and unfounded allegations. It hurt me but I kept still. My conscience is clear. Our actuations were based on existing jurisprudence,” said Reyes, referring to the condonation doctrine, which clears a public official of administrative liability upon re-election.
The doctrine has since been struck down, albeit prospectively, by the Supreme Court in the same November 2015 ruling on the Binay issue.
In its ruling, the SC said the appellate court’s reliance on the cases invoking the condonation doctrine did not constitute grave abuse of discretion.
“By merely following settled precedents on the condonation doctrine, which at that time, unwittingly remained ‘good law,’ it cannot be concluded that the CA committed a grave abuse of discretion based on its legal attribution above. Accordingly, the writ of preliminary injunction against the Ombudsman’s preventive suspension order was correctly issued,” the SC added.
Reyes maintained that they issued the TRO and the WPI “after a judicious, meticulous, and impartial evaluation” of the petition filed by Binay against his preventive suspension. The SC ruling, meanwhile, stemmed from a petition from the Office of the Ombudsman challenging the CA’s restraining order.
Following the CA’s TRO, Trillanes filed a resolution calling for a Senate probe on the alleged “justice for sale” system at the CA, cited “reliable sources privy to the matter” in alleging that Reyes and Sixth Division chair Francisco Acosta each received P25-million bribes to stop Binay’s suspension on March 16, 2015.
Trillanes also accused the two CA justices of receiving an additional P5 million each upon the subsequent issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction to stop Binay’s suspension indefinitely.
Binay, who was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman already prior to the SC ruling on the same case, filed libel charges against Trillanes before the Department of Justice over the bribery claim.
