COURT of Appeals Associate Justice Jose Sabio Jr. yesterday reaffirmed his affidavit before the justice department that businessman Francis de Borja tried to bribe him with P10 million in exchange for his inhibition from the Meralco ownership case.

"I am pursuing this case if only to prove to all and sundry that (the bribe offer) was not a figment of my imagination and that what transpired was an attempt to bribe me," he told the panel.

Sabio said De Borja called his cellphone last July 1 and offered the money in exchange for relinquishing the chairmanship of the 8th division to give way to its regular chairman, Justice Bienvenido Reyes, who was then returning from a leave of absence.

"He (De Borja) kept pestering me with text messages telling me to meet with him. He said that I should accept the money since there was nothing heinous about what they were asking me to do, I will only have to relinquish the chairmanship. But I said no," he said.

Sabio said he was not able to save De Borja’s text messages but asked the panel to consider as evidence his text messages to his daughter wherein he told her of the bribe offer.

On July 3, Sabio said he called up De Borja to stop bothering him but the latter was persistent.

Sabio said he finally agreed to meet De Borja right after his ethics class at the Ateneo Law School.

Though he did not mention it in his affidavit, Sabio said he now recalled that at the time of their meeting, De Borja was carrying a medium-sized brown bag which he said must have contained the money.

Sabio’s counsel Vicente Chuidian informed the panel that they intend to file a motion to expand the scope or coverage of the probe to include De Borja’s alleged co-conspirators.

"I have no personal knowledge about the bribe offer, but I guess the panel will have to investigate deeper. What or who are the logical sources of the money? Who will likely make the offer?" he said.

Asked if Meralco chairman Manuel Lopez, whose name De Borja allegedly dropped as source of the money, will be summoned during the hearing, panel chair Ernesto Pineda said he (Lopez) is a "stranger to the bribery case, unless he is presented as a defense witness by De Borja."

Pineda said a subpoena will be issued to De Borja and Sabio’s daughter, Sylvia Jo, a researcher at the office of Chief Justice Reynato Puno, to appear in the next hearing on Friday. Evelyn Clavano, who is related to the Sabios, will be asked to appear at a later date to testify whether De Borja asked her for Sabio’s cellphone number.

Sabio came out in public for the first time since the Supreme Court last Sept. 9 upheld the recommendation of a three-man panel created by the tribunal to suspend him for two months for simple misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a justice for discussing the Meralco case with his older brother, Camilo who is chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

Sabio also belittled the impending disbarment of his brother for trying to influence him on the case. The high court has referred to the Bar Confidante the actions of Camilo Sabio for influencing the judgment of a member of the judiciary in a pending case.

Justice Sabio said the media is working against him and this was the handiwork of the two PR firms hired by Meralco to discredit him.

"It’s already established that De Borja tried to bribe me. These are squid tactics to bury the whole issue of corruption, let’s not cloud the issue. What’s so wrong about my brother calling me?" he insisted.

He said he is not yet sure if he will file a motion for reconsideration over his two-month suspension.

The SC’s per curiam decision ordered the dismissal of Associate Justice Vicente Roxas, ponente of the controversial July 23 decision granting the Meralco petition to deny the Securities and Exchange Commission the jurisdiction in the complaint filed by GSIS over the counting of proxy votes of the Lopez bloc in the Meralco stockholders meeting last May 28.