CCWI AIRS COMPLAINT VS. QC EXECUTIVE JUDGE

For ‘perceived’ bias, obstruction of justice in national ID case

On Jan 21, 2025

THROWBACK. Atty. Al Vitangcol (2nd from left) with fellow lawyers Eugene Alfaras and Frumencio ‘Sonny’ Pulgar from the Crime and Corruption Watch, International (CCWI), discussing the case they filed at the Court of Appeals to stop the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) from continuing with its P3-billion contract with 'AllCards Inc.' for the supply of 116 million pieces of the national ID, September 24, 2024. With them is forum host Comfie Manalo (stock photo).

THE Crime and Corruption Watch, International (CCWI), has asked the Office of the Court
Administrator (OCA) of the Supreme Court “to intervene” and if possible, “penalize” the Executive Judge of Quezon City for the undue delay in the raffling of the case surrounding the country’s National ID Project involving the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and its subcontractor, ALLCARDS, Inc (ACI).

In a 2-page letter dated January 9, 2025, to SC Court Administrator Raul Villanueva, CCWI chairman, Dr. Carlo Batalla, said since Hon. Judge Renato Pambid, presiding judge of Branch 76, Quezon City Regional Trial Court “surprisingly” inhibited himself from further hearing the case, it has yet to be ordered re-raffled by Quezon City Executive Judge Hon. Rossana Fe Romero Maglaya.

Maglaya purportedly scheduled the case to be re-raffled to another sala last October 11, 2024, but this did not push through, the anti-corruption watchdog noted.

“Our weekly follow-ups with the OCC (Office of the Clerk of Court) proved futile,” Batalla bared.

“(The OCC) allege that the case folder is sitting in the office of Executive Judge Maglaya, who refrained from including it in the cases to be raffled,” Batalla averred further.

The first page of the CCWI letter last January 9, 2025, to SC Court Administrator Raul Villanueva.

It can be recalled that last January 25, 2024, the CCWI went to the Court of Appeals (CA) and asked to compel the BSP to already penalize ACI for failure to perform its contractual obligations under the National ID Project totaling more than P3 billion.

The CCWI was forced to go to court after BSP Governor Eli Remolona, simply ignore their complaint against violations of the contract’s provisions.

Maverick lawyer, Atty. Al Vitangcol, who had studied the contract and who has been carefully following the issue is assisting the CCWI in pursuing the case on behalf of Filipino taxpayers, He said the deal reeks of a “rigged contract.”

At the time the CCWI asked the CA to compel the BSP to penalize ACI, it noted that out of the 116 million national IDs that ACI was supposed to deliver by end 2023, it has only delivered some 50 million pieces, or some 42 percent.

It also noted that the BSP only penalize the company some P96.3 million in damages from its computed violation of more than P258 million.

The BSP then moved to have its contract with ACI rescinded after the CCWI went to the CA but the company managed to wrangle a TRO (temporary restraining order) from the sala of Judge Pambid in September 2024, stopping the BSP from cancelling the contract. After granting the TRO, Judge Pambid then inhibited himself from further hearing the case.

Batalla said they have been asking copies of the case folder from the sala of Judge Pambid so they can file a motion to intervene but their effort was being frustrated by Judge Maglaya’s sitting on the case for re-raffling.

Batalla asked the OCA “to intervene on this matter and restrain, and if possible, penalize, Judge Maglaya from further frustrating the dispensation of justice.”

The CCWI is also questioning the decision of the BSP and ACI to resort to “arbitration” involving an undisclosed arbitrator to settle their dispute as this would shield them away from further public scrutiny of the already scandalous deal.

(For a backgrounder, please see also Pinoy Exposé, September 25, 2024).