CA justice inhibits from Manila port terminal dispute case

An associate justice of the Court of Appeals has inhibited himself from a case involving a dispute on the ownership and management of the 10-hectare Harbour Centre Port in Manila.

Associate Justice Ramon Garcia, one of the member-justices of the Special Fifteenth Division, granted a plea to recuse from handling the case between One Source Port Support Services Inc and Harbour Centre Port Terminal Inc. (HCPTI).

Garcia’s decision came on the heels of a separate plea filed last week seeking the inhibition of Associate Justice Noel Tijam in the same division handling the case.

Garcia’s inhibition was sought by businessman Reghis Romero II, who pointed out that the justice and lawyer Cyrus Paul Valenuela, president of One Source, are both members of the Aquila Legis fraternity.

Garcia insisted that while being a fraternity brother of one of the parties is not a sufficient ground to inhibit from the case, he still decided to recuse to preserve the parties’ faith in the proceedings.

"In the case at bench, petitioners call for the voluntary inhibition of the undersigned Justice on the sole ground that he is fraternity brother of the president of private respondent corporation," he said. "The same, however, is an insufficient ground for inhibition, it being well-estabished that a judge is not expected to automatically inhibit himself from acting in a case involving a member of his fraternity."

"Be that as it may, considering petitioner's implications that the undersigned Justice would not be able to decide the instant case fairly and impartially because of his alleged relationship with the president of private respondent corporation, petitioners' urgent motion for inhibition must be granted in order to free this Court of the slightest suspicion of bias and prejudice," Garcia added.

Tijam yet to inhibit

Unlike Garcia, Tijam, for his part, has yet to resolve the inhibition request against him filed last week by Valenzuela.

One Source had already warned to bring the matter up to the Supreme Court if Tijam would deny its request.

“The High Court is our last resort. If he has delicadeza, Tijam would not try the case lest he be accused again of favoring Romero,” said Valenzuela.

In its plea, One Source cited the "too many rumors about Justice Tijam's cemented 'friendship' with Reghis M. Romero II."

One Source alleged that Tijam resolved a "high profile case involving a government corporation" in favor of Romero's R-II Builders, Inc because of that friendship.

It was referring to Home Guaranty Corporation (HGC) vs. R-II Builders Inc. and National Housing Authority, where the Supreme Court ruled against R-II Builders.

"Uncomfortable coincidence"

One Source said that "it is too much of an uncomfortable coincidence that Justice Tijam is once again a member of the division set to resolve the instant case filed by Reghis." It said Tijam should have inhibited from the case from the start.

It added that it "has in faith and trust in the ability of Justice Tijam to render an objective and fair decision or opinion in the instant case.”

He claimed that in a 2010 decision penned by Tijam under his 15th Division, the CA ruled in favor of Romero in a case involving the Smokey Mountain Development and Reclamation Project (SMRDP) despite glaring legal flaws.

HGC was seeking to dismiss Romero’s case before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 22 because his firm, R-II Builders, allegedly failed to pay the required docket fees. The court, however, ruled in favor of the R-II Buiders owner.

From there, the HGC ran to the CA, but Tijam dismissed the case in favor of Romero.

HGC then filed a motion with the Supreme Court, which reversed the CA’s decision in 2011. —KBK, GMA News