Monday, May 9, 2011

Justice Villaruz has no backer

BY AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA
‘Justice Villaruz never had a chinaman’s chance to make the Supreme Court or even a presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan in the time of Gloria Arroyo.’
HAS anybody heard of a nominee to the Supreme Court who garnered top votes from the justices of the Supreme Court? I know of one. He is Justice Francisco H. Villaruz Jr., chairman of the Third Division of the Sandiganbayan and chairperson of the special division of the same court.
A friend of Justice Villaruz told me he was in the short list of SC nominees seven times. Four times, he was in the short list of candidates for presiding justice of his own court.
I asked my friend if I could talk to Justice Villaruz himself. No way, he said. The man, like all judges should, keeps mostly to himself and will not talk to media about his career in the bench.
He correctly believes that he should not talk about the law outside his chambers or in his ponencia or dissent.
Justice Villaruz never had a chinaman’s chance to make the Supreme Court or even a presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan in the time of Gloria Arroyo.
The former president never had any use for people who think independently particularly those she appointed to the courts. And Villaruz, says his friend, has an independent mind.
There is proof to that, my friend said. There was this case of Tet Garcia, Bataan political kingpin. He won against a relative of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
Charges of fraud were filed against Garcia. The case landed in the division of Villaruz who had specific instructions from powerful people to put Garcia down.
Justice Villaruz examined the evidence thoroughly.
In his opinion, Garcia did nothing wrong. He dismissed the case against him. Things have never been the same with Malacañang since then although Villaruz continued to be nominated to the Judicial and Bar Council as a candidate for presiding justice of the Sandigan and for five times as candidate for the Supreme Court.
He will retire in the next two years and does not entertain much hope of going up further. That is if the mind of President Aquino works the same way Gloria Arroyo’s mind did.
She needed personal loyalty to her, while the need for a member of the Court even for inferior courts is loyalty to the law.
In GMA’s time, nobody wanted to touch Justice Villaruz with a ten-foot pole. He is unwanted in the Palace. Nobody ever wanted to push him for a higher position even as he has only two years left of his bench career.
He was considered dangerous because he is not an order taker. He proved this in the case of Tet Garcia, a political enemy of the Arroyo regime.
This piece is not intended to promote the chances of Justice Villaruz for membership of the Supreme Court or as presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan.
My only purpose is to show everyone, maybe including President Aquino himself, that there were a few good men in the judiciary in the time of |Gloria Arroyo. Needless to say, these are the men who were never noticed precisely because they are dedicated to their sworn duties, not to the wishes – in fact orders – of Malacañang.
I have no information whether or not Justice Villaruz has again been nominated for the two coming vacancies in the Supreme Court. Justices Antonio Eduardo Nachura Conchita Carpio Morales are retiring before the end of the year.
I do not know who will replace them. Neither will I ever know whether or not Justice Villaruz has been nominated to the JBC and his name is to be included in the short list to be submitted to President Aquino.
What I say here is not personal knowledge about Justice Villaruz. The information was solicited from a close friend. I thought that since the President (Gloria Arroyo particularly) has clear preference for members of the Court of Appeals and for justices of the Sandiganbayan, President Aquino might have the same preference.
After all, SC Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo de Castro and Diosdado Peralta were plucked out of the Sandiganbayan.
My friend told me that Villaruz has a brilliant legal mind. He belonged to UP Law Class ’67. He took the bar exams the same year and obtained a rating of 84.6 percent, missing the 10th place by .2 percent and by .04 percent for cum laude.
His educational background appears excellent. But being a brilliant student of law does not necessarily make a good, honest man for the bench.
It is how the man performs his duties that really matters. My friend told me that the way he helped in the prosecution of Joseph Estrada and he handled the case of Belle Resources where the SSS and the GSIS invested a total of P189 million testify to his brilliance of mind and sincerity of purpose.
In the Belle Resources Caw, he argued that the purchase was made with contributions of the members of the SSS and the GSIS. Their money practically went to waste. He maintained that view.
In my opinion, the Supreme Court needs a member who has a heart for the poor, the oppressed poor who have less in life and nothing in law. That might well be Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr. of the Sandiganbayan.
This piece sounds like an endorsement of the man. It really is not. The only purpose of this piece is to let people know that there are members of inferior courts who do their jobs according to the law and their conscience.
The Supreme Court needs a few more members who will rule in their best lights in the event that plunder charges are filed against Gloria Arroyo. Maybe Justice Villaruz is one of such men.
President Aquino has the last say. He will pick the right man, not necessarily Villaruz but he must be one with integrity.
Let no one forget that the majority of the Supreme Court will retire long after President Aquino steps down in 2016. The two years remaining of the service of Villaruz could help minimize the looming presence of the suspected loyalists of Gloria Arroyo.
At least, Villaruz can, if it sits with the law and his conscience help in making an independent ruling in the Arroyo case if charges are filed against her. We can learn many lessons from the way his mind works.
Men of Villaruz’ caliber and integrity are getting fewer.


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