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Thursday, January 27, 2005
Complaint v. Suerte hits snag
By Grecar Nilles
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
DUE to a technicality, the Supreme Court (SC) refused to act on the disbarment complaint filed against former Barili Regional Trial Court Judge Ildefonso Suerte.
SC Court Administrator Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., in a letter dated Jan. 3, told Crusade Against Violence head Thelma Chiong they cannot give due course to her complaint unless she complies with the Rules of Court provisions on complaints against judges.
Chiong will have to send a new complaint with the specific acts and omissions that allegedly violated standards of conduct prescribed for judges by law, the Rules of Court, or the Code of Judicial Conduct.
In the complaint lodged with the High Tribunal last Nov. 18, 2004, Chiong and the three Bacolod brothers narrated the role Suerte played in convicting Cedrick Devinadera.
Will comply
Chiong, in an interview, said they will comply with the rules and correct their complaint against Suerte.
Aside from Suerte, Assistant Regional State Prosecutor Vicente Mañalac, City Prosecutor Cezar Tajanlangit, Acting Provincial Prosecutor Napoleon Alburo and private lawyers Jose Neil Nuñez Jr. and Luis F. Salazar have also been impleaded in the complaint.
Velasco also told Chiong that her complaint should be verified and that she should furnish four copies to every respondent.
“By verification, I think that is the undertaking we have to make that there is no complaint of similar nature pending before any other judicial agency,” Chiong said.
Section 1, Rule 140 of the Rules of Court states the SC can institute proceedings “motu propio” (on its own) for the discipline of judges. It can also act on a verified complaint, supported by affidavits of persons who have personal knowledge of the facts alleged.
Chiong, along with Josebil, Ricky and Niño Bacolod, filed the disbarment complaint against the six respondents for allegedly conniving in prosecuting and convicting Devinadera.
Tangled web
Devinadera, a member of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), admitted he helped Ben Bacolod kill his sister, Alona Bacolod-Ecleo.
But while Devinadera admitted the offense, there was a pending parricide case against PBMA master Ruben Ecleo Jr. for allegedly killing Alona, his wife.
Ben was killed along with his parents and another sister during an attack on their house in Mandaue City, about five months after Alona’s death. Devinadera entered the picture more than a year later.
Mañalac was still an assistant provincial prosecutor when he recommended the filing of the homicide case against Devinadera.
Tajanlangit approved Mañalac’s recommendation. Alburo and Nuñez prosecuted the case, while Salazar stood as Devinadera’s lawyer.
Suerte, for his part, convicted Devinadera as an accomplice in the homicide case.
(January 27, 2005 issue)
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