Ex-SC justice who probed alleged Napoles link in judiciary is new JBC member

A retired Supreme Court magistrate who investigated alleged pork barrel fund scam brains Janet Lim-Napoles' supposed links to a Sandiganbayan justice has been appointed as the newest member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

 

In a one-page transmittal letter to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said President Benigno Aquino III has chosen retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez to be a member of the JBC.

 

The JBC is constitutionally mandated to screen and vet nominees for vacant posts in the judiciary and the Offices of the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman.

 

Sandoval-Gutierrez will be replacing retired SC Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr. as JBC member.

 

"I am pleased to transmit herewith the nomination letter of Hon. Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, signed by His Excellency, President Benigno S. Aquino III, as  member, representing the Retired Justices of the Supreme Court, Judicial and Bar Council, Supreme Court of the Philippines, for a term of four (4) years, vice Regino C. Hermosisima Jr. subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments," the letter stated.

 

In the document signed by the President, it stated "by virtue hereof, and upon consent by the Commission on Appointments, you may qualify and enter upon the performance of the duties of the office, furnishing this Office and the Civil Service Commission with copies of your oath of office."

 

Sandoval-Gutierrez, who was SC justice from 2000 to 2008, was the last appointee of former President Joseph Estrada to the high court.

 

Since 2007, Sandoval-Gutierrez has been the dean of the Graduate School of Law at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Her husband is the late National Bureau of Investigation assistant director Diego Gutierrez.

 

Before reaching the SC, the University of Santo Tomas graduate served as a Manila trial judge in 1983 and as a justice of the Court of Appeals in 1991.

 

She is currently the board chairperson of Aliw Broadcasting Corp. of dwIZ radio station and Board of Director of San Miguel Corporation.

 

Napoles

 

Earlier this year, Sandoval-Gutierrez accepted the Supreme Court's invitation to act as its investigator in connection with the administrative case against Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Gregory Ong. 

 

The high court – motu proprio or in its own initiative – had asked Ong to explain why he had been identified by Marina Sula and Benhur Luy, whistleblowers in the alleged pork barrel scam, as the contact of Napoles.

 

Sula had said in her affidavit that she had seen Ong visit Napoles in her office at the Discovery Center in Ortigas. She said she saw the two conversing in the office conference room.

 

Ong heads the Sandiganbayan's Fourth Division, which had acquitted Napoles in a malversation thru falsification of public documents case. The case involved the sale of 500 Kevlar helmets to the Philippine Marines in 1998.

 

Napoles, currently detained on illegal detention charges and is facing separate plunder and graft charges, is accused of using bogus non-government organizations to misuse lawmakers' Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). — RSJ, GMA News