Judge in class suit ‘close’ with lawyer?
Apo Land & Quarry Corp. (ALQC), one of the respondents in the P4.5-billion class suit filed by 39 Naga residents in the wake of the deadly September 20 landslide, is asking Regional Trial Court Judge Dennis Larrobis to inhibit from the case, saying he has “close personal relationship” with Benjamin Cabrido, who is part of the complainants’ battery of lawyers.
The motion for voluntary inhibition ad cautelam was received by RTC Branch 76 at 3:16 p.m. yesterday.
“The presiding judge should inhibit himself from the case in accordance with the second paragraph of Section 1, Rule 137 of the Rules of Court to avoid a situation that would induce doubt as to his actuations, integrity and probity, and to avoid any perceived bias and partiality,” the motion read.
ALQC, through its counsels, alleged that Cabrido, the lead counsel of the plaintiffs, and Larrobis were fraternity brothers in Lex Cervus fraternity and graduates of the same school, the University of San Jose-Recoletos School of Law.
Aside from that, ALQC believes that Larrobis committed acts showing “bias, manifest partiality, and prejudice” against them and in favor of the plaintiffs.
“ALQC is of the knowledge that in 09 November 2018, the date when the TEPO was issued against it, the presiding judge and one of the plaintiffs' counsels, who was later on identified as Atty. Xzajyk U. Caing, had a private conversation on the pending case, particularly matters of the service of the TEPO upon ALQC. Apparently, the presiding judge advised Atty. Caing on how the service of the TEPO should be made,” the motion read.
The private conversation of Larrobis and Caing, according to ALQC, was made in “casual tone and in a sense, totally pleasing” to plaintiffs as if the former acted as one of the counsels.
Sought for comment, Cabrido said his team will address ALQC's motion for inhibition at the hearing today.
Cabrido said his only connection to Larrobis was them being members of Lex Cervus, the latter being six years his senior.
“I don't win my cases through connections or relationships but on merit. The legal community in Cebu knows this. Besides, I'm anti-social and don't attend activities even on very important events in law schools, my fraternity, and in IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines),” Cabrido told The FREEMAN.
TEPO EXPIRES
Larrobis is scheduled to hear today the arguments of both parties to check whether there is a need to extend the 72-hour temporary environmental protection order (TEPO) that expired Monday afternoon.
It can be recalled that he ordered Apo Land on Friday to stop doing quarry operations within its tenements in Naga. The order was received by the Apo on the same day.
APO Cement Corp., however, said in a statement yesterday that ALQC has stopped operations long before the TEPO came. ALQC has not allegedly operated for nearly two months now after the landslide in compliance with the directive from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Environmental Management Bureau, and the city government of Naga.
APO Cement further took a swipe at the government for its alleged failure to provide a clear program of action to mitigate the existing hazards in the landslide-hit area. This despite “conclusive findings of experts from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which declared that the landslide was a natural phenomenon.”
Nevertheless, the company remains hopeful that the situation in Naga would improve with the support of the local and national government authorities.
It specifically seeks to resume ALQC's operations and to restore safety in the critical areas with the approval of its proposed Hazard Reduction Plan.
“APO Cement has been in Cebu for nearly a century already, we have fostered our solidarity and malasakit to our communities for several decades now, but these are extremely challenging times and we need to make these hard decisions,” said APO Cement spokesperson Chito Maniago.
LAYOFFS AT APO
In a separate development, APO Cement intends to trim down its workforce by up to 30 percent saying it was “adversely affected” by the suspension of ALQC's operations following the deadly Naga landslide.
ALQC provides raw materials for the cement producer.
APO Cement said it is now sourcing its materials from different parts of the country and even abroad, which is costly to the company.
“Given the current situation, APO Cement is now constrained to implement the temporary lay-off of up to about 30 percent of its employees and a reduction of around 40 percent of its contractors,” it said in a statement.
“A formal notice was filed with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Regional Office informing it of this decision,” it added.