Inhibition by Marikina judge from Manila port case sought

A Marikina City judge has been asked to inhibit from a case related to the Harbour Centre Port Terminal in Manila, the ownership and management of which is currently the subject of a separate case with the Court of Appeals.

 

In a motion, a copy of which was given to justice reporters in Manila, businessman Michael Romero, through his lawyers, accused Judge Felix Reyes of bias and partiality in handling the case filed by former Harbour Centre Port corporate secretary Mario Saycon against Romero and other corporate officers.

 

Romero's camp said it has “completely lost their trust and faith that they would still get justice and fair treatment in the instant case so long as the Presiding Judge Hon. Felix P. Reyes, is at the helm of this case.”

 

Romero contested an order issued by Reyes dated June 15 asking Harbour Centre Port's corporate secretary lawyer Ramil Mendoza for additional documents related to the case, regarding the approval, ratification and confirmation of corporate documents submitted in court.

 

Romero said the judge issued the order despite both parties having already rested their cases regarding the injunction issue, and after both parties have already filed their formal offers of evidence.

 

Romero noted that during a hearing on June 11, the judge, in fact, already gave the parties until June 17 to submit simultaneously their respective memoranda before the judge resolves the application for a preliminary injunction.

 

“Worse and far more indicative of the disconcerting and undue interest which Judge Felix Reyes appears to have in this case, he issued the order motu proprio (on his own)," read the inhibition plea.

 

Calls made by GMA News Online to the sala of Judge Reyes have yet to be returned as of posting time, but judges usually respond to inhibition pleas through a formal resolution.

 

Romero's camp said Reyes' June 15 order, issued even without any of the parties requesting it, was a "thinly veiled attempt by Judge Reyes to create additional issues where there are none."

 

“The issuance of this highly unusual and motu proprio order has concretized the defendants’ suspicion of bias and prejudice against them by Judge Reyes,” the Romero camp added.

 

Romero expressed suspicion on why Judge Reyes raised the issue on the validity of the Secretary’s Certificates when it was not raised by Saycon and the validity of the documents itself was not an issue in the case.

 

By issuing the order, according to the motion, Judge Reyes has unilaterally expanded the scope and coverage of Saycon’s prayer to include the ruling on the added issue about the “validity” of the Amended General Information Sheet for 2012 and Secretary’s Certificates.

 

Saycon had earlier claimed he received payment in exchange for his signing of the HCPTI's general information sheet that was eventually submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014.

 

It was not the first time that Romero had sought the inhibition of judges handling cases related to the Harbour Centre ownership dispute. 

 

Last May, Court of Appeals justices inhibited from a case related to the port terminal dispute “so as not to unnecessarily drag the name of this court into a useless controversy.” 

 

The inhibition was sought in April by One Source Port Support Services, which was earlier allowed by a Pasig court to manage and operate the HCPTI. 
 

It was Romero who had hired the service provider to manage the port terminal. 

 

Also in May, Romero asked a Quezon City judge to likewise inhibit from a separate but related case, in which Romero's father Reghis was asking the Quezon City court to stop his son from controlling the Manila port facility. — JDS, GMA News