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Ex-PCGG chair faces raps for influence peddling in GSIS-Meralco case


The Office of the Ombudsman has indicted former Presidential Commission on Good Government chairman Camilo Sabio for graft after he allegedly tried to influence his brother, then a magistrate in the Court of Appeals, as regards an ownership row in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) in 2008.
 
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Ombudsman said Chairman Sabio was found to have tried to influence Court of Appeals Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr., to favor the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) in a case in connection with Meralco then pending before the CA.
 
The Ombudsman found that on May 30, 2008, Chairman Sabio called his brother to convince him to favor GSIS in the pending case. Justice Sabio had just been named member of the CA division handling the MERALCO-GSIS ownership case at that time.
 
In addition, the Ombudsman also found that GSIS Board Member, lawyer Jesus Santos, called Chairman Sabio and asked him to convince Justice Sabio to rule against the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order in favor of Meralco.
 
On August 26, 2008, Chairman Sabio admitted that Santos, who is also the lawyer of then First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, asked him to call his brother regarding the case.
 
Chairman Sabio said it was Santos who informed him that a temporary restraining order (TRO) was being prepapred by the CA’s Ninth Division, and asked Chairman Sabio to call up CA justice. Believing that the GSIS was on the "right side" of the ownership row, chairman Sabio heeded Santos’s request and called up his brother last May 13, 2008.
 
The former PCGG chief had said he asked his brother if the latter could extend help to the GSIS in any “legitimate manner." 
 
Graft charges
 
The statement said the Ombudsman found probable cause to charge two counts of violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and violation of Article 243 of the Revised Penal Code against Sabio.
 
On the other hand, Justice Sabio was excluded as respondent in the complaint "since records do not show that he had been influenced by his elder brother," it added.
 
In 2008, Justice Sabio was slapped with a two-month suspension meted out by the Supreme Court for committing an act of impropriety when he answered his brother Camilo’s call discussing the ownership case. —NB, GMA News
 
 
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