Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Arinday: The ex-judge with 3 dwarf-friends and the CA 'dirty dozen' By G.H. Arinday, Jr. Sunfare
DO YOU remember a member of the judiciary the longest ever suspension of seven years before he was finally eased out of his office? What crime did he commit for his unceremonial dismissal from the bench? Well, he was considered "psychotic" or unfit for the job by cavorting with his dwarf-friends Luis, Armand, and Angel. His claim of being a psychic was damned by the Supreme Court.
This time, former Regional Trial Court Judge Florentino Floro, Jr. hit the headline by filing administrative charges against the so-called "Dirty Dozen" of the Court of Appeals.
The serious indictment against the 12 magistrates does not dwell on the mysticism or paranormal allegations through the messages of his elemental companions but on grounds of gross violations of judicial ethics embodied in the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards. The violative conduct of the "Dirty Dozen" which definitely brings disrepute to the collegiate court has been exposed earlier by no less than Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez and the "moral" facts were made known to the Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno.
By coincidence, the list in the hands of the Office of the Ombudsman tally with that of the High Tribunal, detailing the shenanigans of the 12 magistrates. The former judge named only one associate justice who was then connected, as had been bared by a national broadsheet, as a member of "The Firm", in allusion to John Grisham's legal thriller of the same title. If indeed, the breaches committed by the 12 associate justices are recorded by the Ombudsman, would it not be logical to conduct a full-blown investigation in order that the whole justice system is not put on a very dark cloud? Just recently one of them from the same court was dismissed for gross ignorance of the law.
Now, we cannot say that the former judge is just vengeful for what was done to him. Or we can state that the administrative charges which demand for full accounting of the questionable acts of the "Dirty Dozen" is a product of psychotic tantrum! This well-known moral fact was headlined about a month or so ago by the same newspaper-The Manila Times. Among the serious "findings" or judicial aberrations allegedly committed by the "Dirty Dozen" is the sale of injunctive remedies like the issuance of Temporary Restraining Order, supported by the cases covered by such provisional remedies which allegedly cost the litigant at least One Million pesos!
It could be said that what the former judge is asking the Supreme Court is reasonable enough: An audit performance of the suspects and preventive suspensions until the thorough investigation shall have been finished.
It is further claimed that the associate justices who earned the unsavory complaints were former regional trial court judges. If the indictment is proven positive, then probably they were doing the same obnoxious acts before their promotion to the Court of Appeals. To borrow the language of Milan Kundera, a Franco-Czech novelist, such acts can be qualified as part of the "mathematical nostalgia". It needs no further explanation.
Of the "Dirty Dozen" are two lady justices, and one suspect, of being amoral in his judicial duties, is from the Court of Appeals in Cebu City. How this perception of corruption metastasizing in the judicial system shall surely tear into shreds the trust and confidence of the people in a government branch, supposedly the last bulwark of democracy, is a greater challenge than some of our political and social ails.
Is there no possibility of creating a high-profile investigative body by the High Tribunal, composed of men and women of proven honesty, probity, and
integrity, to conduct an in-depth inquiry equivalent to the no-nonsense approach of the Watergate scandal which forced the American president to resign?
This problem posed by the so-called "Dirty Dozen" appears to be a hard nut to crack with litigants cooperating with the suspects in the Court of Appeals would never lend their helping hands. Symbolically, if we look at Lady Justice, she is badly bruised and could no longer distinguish the "color of law" with
her sword and scale subtly stolen from her. This is calamitous if indeed an iota of truth is obtaining in this unprecedented expose on judicial corruption.
[Note: Before deciding to write this piece, I had in mind to delve into compañero Florentino Floro's "dalawang mata" (or two-eyed) coconuts from whence he produced the medicinal oil, a bottle of which was sent by him to me. I found it through curiosity that it is rare to find this type of coconuts. Usually it has three.
