Corruption in the Court of Appeals?

The scandal which hit the Court of Appeals (CA) that resulted in the dismissal of one justice, the suspension of the whistle-blower and the reprimand of the presiding justice hit a raw nerve somewhere.

 Every now and then, there have been whispers about something sinister going on in the halls of justice but only in a rare while does something like this come out. And yet, no matter how many times people hear about them, they still get shocked when something like this comes out in the open.

 The irony of it all is that Justice Jose Sabio who first blew the whistle on the alleged attempt of Francis de Borja did not exactly turn out to be squeaky clean as he initially projected himself to be.

 In fact, among the questions that hounds Sabio to this day with regards to the Meralco-GSIS case which he has not sufficiently answered is why he came out only after he was removed from the case.

 Of course, Sabio also did not sound convincing when he said he did not find anything wrong about his brother, himself a top government official, calling him at least twice about the case.

 Be that as it may however, the point is that this scandal definitely is just the tip of the iceberg. There are others all around it that need to be looked into and probed in like manner.

 One that Boholanos definitely can identify with is the Vivian Dumaluan rape-slay case.

 Stranger things have happened before but it seems there is more than meets the eye right here.

 How one party can get access to a copy of the resolution of the case, not once, but twice certainly adds fuel to the fire.

 Like the Meralco case, the proof of the pie is in the eating. The resolution speaks volumes about the way things are turning out in the Dumaluan case.

 This is not to say somebody really made money, the rumors notwithstanding.

 The point is that the judiciary needs to shape up and not wait for people to lose faith in it altogether. This would require clear action instead of just waiting for the storm to subside.

 In Bohol, there are stories about special relationships between lawyers and judges. True or not, such stories continue to pester for one reason or another.

 Whether these stories evolve into full-blown scandals or not, only succeeding events will tell. Time has a way of righting wrongs and settling scores. - Editorial of the Bohol Sunday Post