2 Cebu-based CA justices replaced, moved

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Two Cebu-City based Associate Justices of the Court of Appeals (CA) have been stripped of their division chairmanships and reassigned to different Manila-based appellate tribunals. Associate Justices Pampio Abarintos and Isaias Dicdican, by month’s end, will be the junior and senior members of the CA’s first and 12th divisions, respectively. The transfer is pursuant to a Supreme Court (SC) en banc resolution, dated March 18. It stemmed from the investigation the SC ordered over the “Justice for Sale" allegation raised by Thelma Chiong of the Crusade Against Violence-Visayas and the separate letters submitted by Cebu Regional Trial Court (RTC) Executive Judge Fortunato de Gracia Jr. and party litigant Rosendo Germano. But lawyer Stephen Ygnacio, the acting assistant clerk of court for the CA-Cebu Station, clarified in an interview yesterday that the loss of the chairmanships and the reassignment of the two justices were part of a CA-wide reorganization. Ygnacio said the March 18 en banc decision of the SC merely approved the reorganization recommended by CA Presiding Justice Conrado Vasquez. The reorganization, he said, was announced in a SC resolution, dated Feb. 22. “There is no loss of seniority or diminution of rank or pay. This is just a reorganization. It took effect last March 19 but all CA justices have been given 30 days to wind up their affairs," Ygnacio said. Abarintos and Dicdican handle the 19th and 20th divisions, respectively. Both divisions, together with the 18th division that is chaired by incumbent Executive Justice Antonio Villamor, are based in Cebu City. With the March 18-ruling, Abarintos will be the junior member of the First Division that is chaired by the presiding justice. Dicdican, meanwhile, will be the senior member of the 12th Division chaired by Associate Justice Juan Enriquez. Justice Ramon Garcia sits as the junior member. The two, together with Associate Justices Stephen Cruz, Francito Diamante and Amy Lazaro-Javier, tried to block their transfer by filing a motion for reconsideration against the Feb. 22 ruling. The SC, in the March 18 ruling, denied it “with finality" however, adding that there were “no substantial matters raised to warrant the reversal" of the resolution. Abarintos wrote a separate letter, dated March 15, requesting that he be retained in Cebu City. This too was denied. Chiong, in her letter to SC Chief Justice Reynato Puno, reported that justice was “for sale" at the appellate court and said she has received a lot of information about it. Germano, for his part, sought the outright abolition of the Cebu CA Station in his letter, citing the allegedly “erroneous dismissal" of a Leyte case. In that case, he said “money did much of the talking." De Gracia, on the other hand, endorsed a newspaper report on the same subject. The SC, in the Feb. 22 resolution, didn’t give much attention to the actual allegations and instead focused on the need to reorganize the appellate court. In the 15-page ruling, it cited the need to impose a stricter rule on reassignments instead. The ruling stopped the practice of justices signing a waiver when reassigned either through a promotion or transfer to another station like Manila or Cagayan de Oro. On the subject of justice for sale to litigants, all the ruling said is that the allegations all pertain to actions taken by trial courts in pending cases. These, according to the ruling, are “subject to review" in the “proper judicial proceedings prescribed by the Rules of Court" and “not in an administrative investigation." - Sun.Star Cebu