Wednesday, November 21, 2007 No Cebuanos in shortlist to replace retiring justices
TWO Cebuano Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justices are retiring this year but none of those lined up to take over their vacated posts are from the province.
Of the nine who got into the short-list prepared by the Judicial and Bar Council, which Chief Justice Reynato Puno heads, eight are judges and one is a labor arbiter based in Manila.
The judges are from Quezon City, Cagayan de Oro, Baguio, Malolos in Bulacan, Manila, Pasig, Quezon and Bacoor in Cavite.
The list was submitted to the Office of the President last Nov. 13.
Associate Justices Renato Dacudao and Arsenio Magpale retired from service this year. Both served the appellate court although Dacudao was based in Manila while Magpale, husband of Provincial Board member Agnes Magpale, was the presiding justice of the Cebu Station.
Dacudao was presiding judge of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 14 prior to his appointment to the appellate court.
Magpale, on the other hand, was a presiding RTC judge in Quezon City before joining the appellate court.
Biased
The shutting out of Cebuano hopefuls in the shortlist to Malacañang came as court employees based at the Marcelo B. Fernan Palace of Justice wonder what the chief justice has against Cebu.
Puno, who assumed in December of last year, has suspended six Cebu-based trial court judges. All were given open-ended terms.
Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) judges Rosabella Tormis, Gil Acosta, Anatalio Necesario and Edgemelo Rosales were suspended due to their alleged involvement in the so-called marriage scam.
The four allegedly made money in conducting civil weddings, a charge they were only able to formally deny after getting suspended.
The fifth to be suspended was MTCC Judge Donato Sotero Navarro who, incidentally, supplied the information that resulted in the judicial audit against the four judges.
He allegedly dallied in resolving a criminal case only to remand it back to the prosecutor.
The last to be suspended, so far, is RTC Judge Gaudioso Villarin who was alleged to have sold decisions granting the annulment of certain marriages.
He was not given the chance to answer prior to his suspension. (KNR)
