Sabio accuser in CA bribery try agrees to lie detector test

MANILA, Philippines - Makati businessman Francis Roa de Borja has agreed to the challenge of submitting himself to a lie detector test to prove who is telling the truth in the allegations of bribery that rocked the Court of Appeals (CA) last week. The challenge was posed by CA Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr who was earlier accused by De Borja of soliciting P50 million in exchange for favoring the Lopez group in a case between the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). In an interview with radio dzBB on Sunday, De Borja said he would agree on submitting to a lie detector test with Sabio, but only if the test would be conducted by a “competent foreign agency." “Payag ho ako, provided na pareho (I agree, provided that we both undergo the test). (But) it must be a conducted by a reputable or competent foreign agency," De Boja said. De Borja, who is reportedly Meralco’s emissary, surfaced after Sabio accused the businessman of offering the justice P10 million to inhibit himself from the Meralco-GSIS case. The case stemmed from a board room war between the Lopez family who controls Meralco and the GSIS, after the Meralco board ignored the Securities and Exchange Commission’s order that favored GSIS’s move to exert control over the country’s largest power distributor. While agreeing to the challenge, De Borja on Sunday still assailed Sabio, saying that as if the lie detector challenge did not come from a legal expert. "Ito hong si Justice Sabio, he’s supposed to be a learned lawyer. As a matter of fact, he is a professor of law. He knows that... a lie detector test is inadmissible ho sa korte. That being the case, kung hindi admissible sa korte, bakit n’ya ho prino-propose?" said De Borja. (Justice Sabio is supposed to be a learned lawyer. As a matter of fact, he is a professor of law. He knows that a lie detector test is inadmissible in court. That being the case, why is Sabio still proposing it?) “Ibig sabihin…gusto niya ho…in the court of public opinion…Hindi ho ba ‘yong being a justice, nasa husgado ho siya, dapat all things should be tried not in the court of public opinion but sa husgado," he added. (That means he wants to try the case in the court of public opinion. But he is a justice and thus all things should be tried not in the court of public opinion but in the judiciary.) - GMANews.TV