“Erring court employees do not deserve to stay a minute in service for it will erode the dignity of the prime institution which dispenses justice.”

Thus stressed the Supreme Court as it dismissed from the service a first-level court sheriff for grave misconduct.  The Court also imposed fines on three members of the Bench, including two retired judges, all for undue delay in rendering decisions, and suspended from office another sheriff, a utility worker, and a process server in separate administrative cases.

In a 14-page per curiam decision, the High Court ordered the dismissal from the service, with forfeiture of all retirement benefits and with prejudice to re-employment in any branch of the government, of Ariel P. Pascasio, Sheriff III of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities, Branch 5, Olongapo City for renting two vans of a forwarding company to transport imported used clothing with an estimated value of PhP4,000,000 from a warehouse in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to Manila, by virtue of an alleged writ of execution.  The said goods were later seized at a gate of the Freeport Zone, the same being prohibited importations under RA 4653, and the vans used were impounded by the Bureau of Customs.  Pascasio was also ordered by the Court to pay the owner of the hauling service the amount of PhP14,000 in actual damages.

The Court found that Pascasio did not comply with the procedure mandated by the Rules of Court in the estimation of expenses as regards the execution of the writ when he rented the vans.  Neither did he pay the contract price of PhP7,000 per delivery trip after the vans were impounded.  In addition, Pascasio misrepresented himself as an authorized representative of the Supreme Court itself as the consignee of the prohibited goods and even used the name of the Court to effect the release of the seized goods.

Noting that Pascasio had been previously found guilty of misconduct and had been suspended for three months without pay, the Court said that Pascasio “no longer deserves to stay in the service a minute more, and even his long years of stay in the government service will not tilt the balance in his favor.”

In another administrative case, the High Court En Banc, through Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-De Castro, fined retired Judge William M. Layague in the amount of PhP80,000, to be deducted from his retirement benefits, for gross inefficiency for his undue delay in rendering decisions or orders. 

Layague, formerly of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 14, Davao City, was found to have “clearly transgressed the applicable rules relating to the proper and speedy disposition and resolution of cases within the reglementary period provided by law” as shown by the records of a judicial audit conducted by the Office of the Court Administrator in the said branch of the RTC in October 2004. 

The records showed that Layague failed to decide 83 cases within the reglementary period, failed to resolve 230 other cases within the prescribed period to resolve, and failed to take appropriate action on 221 others despite the lapse of considerable time.  It was further found out that after his retirement in 2006, Layague left behind 53 cases, all of which were beyond the reglementary period to decide or resolve.

Layague attributed the delays he incurred to his failing health.  The Court, however, said that the retired judge’s illness should not be an excuse for his failure to render the corresponding decisions or resolutions on time as he could have sought an extension of the period within which to decide his cases if he thought he could not comply with his duties.  “We note that respondent judge made no such request long before an audit was conducted in his sala.  The fact that he was burdened with failing health…serves only to mitigate the penalty, not to exonerate him.”

The two other judges who were penalized by the High Court for undue delay in rendering decisions or resolutions were retired Judge Ireneo Lee Gako, Jr., Presiding Judge of the RTC, Branch 5 of Cebu City, and Judge Manuel Q. Limsiaco, Jr., of the 4th Municipal Circuit Trial Court of Villadolid-San Enrique-Pulupandan, Negros Occidental. 

In a 13-page decision penned by Justice Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura, the Court En Banc fined Gako in the amount of  PhP40,000 after the latter rendered a decision in a civil case almost nine months after the lapse of the 90-day reglementary period to decide the same, with no valid justification for the delay he incurred. Citing previous administrative cases wherein Gako had also been penalized for grave abuse of authority and gross ignorance of the law, the Court added that it would have been inclined to suspend Gako in view of previous warnings to the latter not to commit further infraction were it not for the fact that the judge had already retired from service.

In another case, the Court’s First Division, through Justice Renato C. Corona, ordered Limsiaco to pay a fine of PhP20,000 after the latter decided a case for ejectment more than one year after the lapse of the period prescribed by the Rules of  Court for rendition of judgment.

“Judges are enjoined to dispose of the court’s business promptly and expeditiously and decide cases within the period fixed by law.  Failure to comply within the mandated period…undermines the people’s faith and confidence in the judiciary, lowers its standards and brings it to disrepute,” underscored the Court.

The Supreme Court also imposed the penalty of suspension on three other court employees:  Reynaldo B. Madolaria, Deputy Sheriff of RTC, Branch 217, Quezon City, who was suspended for one year without pay after he was found guilty of inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official duties, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service, insubordination, and loafing or frequent unauthorized absences from duty during regular working hours; Alberto R. Elape, Process Server of RTC, Branch 30, Surigao City, who was suspended for six months and one day after he was found guilty of immorality for maintaining an illicit relationship with a woman who was not his wife; and Erwin A. Abdon, Utility Worker II detailed at the Records Division of the Office of the Administrative Services, Supreme Court, who was suspended for one month after he was found guilty of habitual absenteeism for having incurred six unauthorized absences in January, five in February, and 20 in June of last year.  (AM No. P-08-2454, Musngi v. Pascasio, May 7, 2008; AM No. RTJ-07-2039, Re: Judicial Audit Conducted in RTC, Branch 14, DavaoCity, April 18, 2008; AM No. RTJ-08-2111, City of Cebu v. Gako, Jr., May 7, 2008; AM No. MTJ-08-1695, Salvador v. Limsiaco, Jr., April 16, 2008; AM No. P-06-2142, Grutas v. Madolaria, April 16, 2008; AM No. P-08-2431, Elape v. Elape, April 16, 2008; and AM No. 2007-13-SC, Re: Habitual Absenteeism of Mr. Erwin A. Abdon, April 14, 2008)