A justice of the Court of Appeals (CA) has inhibited herself from handling the contempt case filed by suspended Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “JunJun” Binay, Jr. against Senator Antonio “Sony” Trillanes IV.
CA Associate Justice Maria Luisa Quijano-Padilla has manifested with the CA Special Fifth Division headed by Associate Justice Stephen Cruz, Chairperson of the Division, that she is recusing herself since she is a member of the internal committee investigating her fellow CA justices on the bribery accusations of Trillanes.
With the conflict interest issue, Padilla deemed it proper to inhibit herself from the case in order to avoid accusations of partiality in the Trillanes’ contempt case.
Under Office Order No. 190-15-ABR signed by Presiding Justice Andres Reyes, Jr., he reorganized the new set of justices who will conduct the investigation over the allegations of Trillanes of Php25-million each as bribe money of the Binays to Associate Justices Jose Reyes and Francisco Acosta.
The internal committee is chaired by Associate Justice Sesinando Villon. Its members are Associate Justices Franchito Diamante and Manuel Barrios, who belong to the original set of ethics committee members.
Barrios and Diamante chose to hold on with the task and conduct the investigation, together with Associate Justices Carmelita Salandanan-Manahan and Padilla.
In the CA Special Fifth Division which was supposed to hear the case of Trillanes, aside from Cruz, the other who is tasked to hear the case is Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando.
The CA earlier ordered Trillanes to explain why he should not be cited for contempt for making baseless allegations.
Binay asked the CA to cite Trillanes in contempt for allegedly issuing irresponsible statements against the CA justices handling the petition of Binay.
He lambasted Trillanes for accusing magistrates of the CA of receiving bribe money in exchange for issuing two orders that stopped Binay’s preventive suspension order.
Associate Justices Jose Reyes and Francisco Acosta were accused by Trillanes of receiving Php25 million each in exchange for favorable resolutions in the case of the suspended Makati City mayor.
The CA Sixth Division, composed of Associate Justice Jose Reyes, Acosta and Eduardo Peralta, issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) and writ of preliminary injunction (WPI) which stopped Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales’ order of preventive suspension against Binay.
The Office of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman) imposed a six-month preventive suspension without pay on Binay and 22 others for the administrative and graft cases filed against them in connection with the alleged “overpriced” construction of the Makati City Hall Building II.
It was followed by another six-month preventive suspension without pay against the suspended Makati City mayor for the alleged “overpriced” construction of the Makati City High School Building. (PNA)
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