LP exec Umali wants ‘biased’ Sandiganbayan justice to inhibit from graft case

Oriental Mindoro Gov. Alfonso Umali Jr. has asked the chairman of the Fourth Division of the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court to recuse himself from handling the graft case against him saying that the justice “cannot be expected to act in an impartial and unbiased manner”.

 

“With all due respect to the Honorable Court, accused Umali respectfully moves and prays that the Honorable Presiding Justice, Jose R. Hernandez recuse himself from further handling this case,” Umali, through his lawyers, said in a motion.

 

Umali, who is also the treasurer of the admiistration Liberal Party (LP), specifically asked Associate Justice Hernandez, chairman of the Fourth Division, to inhibit from deciding on the motion for reconsideration that he filed on May 4 asking the court to reverse its April 20 ruling finding him and two other former officials of Oriental Mindoro guilty of graft.

 

“(Hernandez) might be an impartial justice, however, he does not appear to be impartial or beyond any suspicion of bias in favor of the prosecution and against accused Umali,” the motion read.

 

In its April 20 ruling, the Fourth Division said Umali, former Oriental Mindoro Gov. Rodolfo Valencia and former Board Member Romualdo Bawasanta conspired with each other with “evident bad faith” and “manifest partiality” to illegally award a P2.5-million loan agreement to a certain engineer, Alfredo Atienza, in 1994.

 

They were all sentenced to imprisonment of up to 10 years. The three, however, have filed their respective motions for reconsideration.

 

To illustrate Hernandez’ alleged bias against him, Umali recounted that on the scheduled hearing of his Motion for Reconsideration on May 8, his counsels were informed by the Fourth Division clerk of court that the Justices would no longer conduct a hearing on the motion and instead just gave the prosecution panel a period to submit its comment on the motion.

 

Umali said that when his lawyers asked the clerk of court if they will also be given time to comment on the prosecution’s opposition, they were allegedly told that upon Hernandez's instructions, the motion for reconsideration would be deemed submitted for resolution after the prosecution submitted its comment.

 

“This alleged instruction from the Honorable Presiding Justice (Hernandez) gave accused Umali and his lawyers the impression that said magistrate is biased in favor of the prosecution and that he intends to hastily resolve or deny accused Umali’s motion for reconsideration without giving him any opportunity to refute first the prosecution’s arguments in its opposition,” the governor said.

 

Umali also lamented that based on the transcripts of the previous hearings, Hernandez asked the defense team’s witnesses numerous questions “some [of]which seem to be more adversarial and confrontational than clarificatory, thus creating the impression that he was taking the cudgels for the prosecution.”

 

Umali said that in one instance, Hernadenz asked Manolo Brotonel, a defense witness, 25 questions in one hearing.

 

“Accordingly, the prosecution did not bother to ask the witness any question[s],” Umali said.

 

Umali said that the act of examining a witness, as stated by the Supreme Court (SC), “must be sparingly used” by a justice in order to demonstrate “cold impartiality”.

 

“A trial judge should not participate in the examination of witnesses as to create an impression that he is allied with the prosecution,” Umali said quoting a previous SC ruling.

 

Umali also pointed out that based on another previous SC ruling, the high tribunal stated that “at the very first sign of lack of faith and trust in his actions, whether well-grounded or not, the judge has no other alternative but to inhibit himself from the case.”

 

Umali also pointed out that based on Rule 3.12, Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, “a judge should take no part in proceedings when the judge’s impartiality might be reasonably be questioned.”

 

“Accused Umali respectfully requests that he (Hernandez) take the noble course and strive for his higher calling to uphold the integrity of, and promote faith in the courts and accordingly recuse himself and voluntarily inhibit from further hearing and handling the above-captioned case, including accused Umali’s motion for reconsideration dated May 4, 2015,” Umali said. — JDS, GMA News