Argosino, Robles failed to establish alleged bias of court judges — Sandiganbayan

The Sandiganbayan has said that former Immigration deputy commissioners Al Argosino and Michael Robles both failed to establish the supposed bias of the magistrates hearing their plunder case.

In a 21-page resolution dated February 28, the anti-graft court's Sixth Division said Argosino and Robles were never deprived of their liberty. It said their voluntarily surrender on April 10, 2018 to pay the bail bond for the non-plunder charges automatically puts them under the court's jurisdiction.

"Their act of personally coming to the court for the purpose of posting bail -- when no warrant of arrest had been issued -- could only be interpreted as their voluntary surrender so they would be in the custody of the law," the Sandiganbayan said.

It added a pending dismissal motion from Argosino and Robles cannot stop the issuance of an arrest warrant, as ruled by the Supreme Court.

The former BI officials had called for the recusal of Sixth Division judges, especially the chairperson, Associate Sarah Jane Fernandez, for denying their pleadings hastily.

They said Fernandez was a classmate of Atty. Lawrence Arroyo, lawyer of their co-accused Wally Sombero, thus putting her credibility in question.

Argosino, for his part, also said he still has a pending motion assailing the plunder charge, but the Sandiganbayan effectively ruled against them when it ordered their detention in Camp Bagong Diwa.

However, the Sandiganbayan said citing portions of previous resolutions to prove bias is not evidence enough to convince a ruling in their favor and have their cases re-raffled to another division.

"This still falls short of the requirement of extrinsic evidence. Neither has accused Argosino shown how the court's rulings are grossly and patently erroneous, indicating bad faith or malice on the part of this court's justices. Said resolutions contain the factual and legal basis for the court's rulings," it said.

The Sandiganbayan, nonetheless, said the accused still have available remedies under the Rules of Court if they truly believe the alleged partiality of the Sixth Division.

Fernandez herself penned the resolution, with the concurrence of Associate Justices Karl Miranda and Zaldy Trespeses.

The case against Argosino and Robles stemmed from their alleged receipt of P50 million from Sombero, the supposed middleman of Chinese businessman Jack Lam, supposedly in exchange for assistance in the release of 1,316 illegal workers found in Clark, Pampanga in 2016. — RSJ, GMA News