Source: http://lawlibrary.chanrobles.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=51624:am-rtj-07-2074-2008&amp;catid=1510&amp;Itemid=566
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 21:53:10+00:00

Document:
OFFICE OF THE COURT ADMINISTRATOR, Complainant, v. RET. JUDGE IRENEO LEE GAKO, JR., Branch Clerk of Court MANUEL G. NOLLORA, Legal Researcher NILDA D. SUYKO, Clerk of Court VII CHICO-NAZARIO, ATTY. JEOFFREY S. JOAQUINO and Administrative Officer II, MONICA V. DIONALDO, Respondents.
This is an Administrative Complaint against Retired Judge Ireneo Lee Gako, Jr., former Presiding Judge, Atty. Manuel G. Nollora, Branch Clerk of Court V, Nilda D. Suyko, Legal Researcher, Atty. Jeoffrey S. Joaquino, Clerk of Court VII and Monica V. Dionaldo, Administrative Officer III, Office of the Clerk of Court, all of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Cebu City, Branch 5 for alleged irregularities committed by them.
The antecedents, as culled from the report of the Executive Justice, follow.
In his Explanation/Comment dated 8 August 2007, 7 Judge Gako, Jr. submitted that he had no knowledge that the petitions involved were not raffled off to Branch 5. He claimed that the Executive Judge or his substitute was duty-bound to conduct the raffle and that none of his staff members had ever confided to him that the petitions were "smuggled" to Branch 5.
Atty. Joaquino also clarified that before the designation of the drugs courts, all petitions for voluntary confinement and rehabilitation of drug dependents were raffled to all branches. The system changed sometime in the middle part of 2004 when a directive was issued stating that all petitions for voluntary confinement and rehabilitation of drug dependents must be raffled to designated drugs courts.
Atty. Joaquino said that he did not suspect that Ms. Dionaldo would forward directly to Branch 5 the petitions without their having been raffled. Moreover, there was no complaint from Branch 5, relative to their receipt of said petitions directly from Ms. Dionaldo even without the accompanying minutes of the raffle.
Atty. Manuel G. Nollora, Branch Clerk of Court V of the RTC of Cebu City, Branch 5, denied the accusation that he failed to exercise control and supervision over Ms. Suyko, the legal researcher of Branch 5, who received the petitions from Ms. Dionaldo. He claimed that Ms. Suyko was fully aware of the regulation that all cases must be raffled. After receiving the petitions from Ms. Dionaldo, it was Ms. Suyko's duty to log them in the record book, to prepare the order for signing by Judge Gako, Jr. and thereafter, to release the order. He believed that all the petitions which were delivered by Ms. Dionaldo to Branch 5 have been regularly raffled to their branch since he witnessed around eighty-eight (88) such petitions that were actually raffled.
Ms. Suyko, on the other hand, explained that it was her duty to receive the petitions after being forwarded to their branch by Ms. Dionaldo. She did not anymore inquire if the cases had indeed been raffled off to Branch 5 presuming that the cases brought to their office rightly belonged to their branch.
The recommendations except as to the amount of fine on Judge Gako, Jr. are well-taken.
All cases filed with the Court in stations or grouping where there are two or more branches shall be assigned or distributed to the different branches by raffle. No case may be assigned to any branch without being raffled. The raffle of cases should be regularly conducted at the hour and on the day or days to be fixed by the Executive Judge. Only the maximum number of cases, according to their dates of filing, as can be equally distributed to all the branches in the particular station or grouping shall be included in the raffle. Cases in excess of the number sufficient for equal distribution shall be included in the next scheduled raffle, subject to the exceptions provided in paragraphs II and IV hereof.
Notice of the day and hour of the raffle shall be posted prominently in the bulletin boards of the Courts and at a conspicuous placed at the main door of the session hall of the Executive Judge. Other notices to the parties may be sent as the interest of justice may require on request of any party and with the prior approval of the Executive Judge. There shall be no special raffle of any case except on meritorious application in writing by any party to the case and with the approval of the Executive Judge.
The raffle must be conducted at the lawyer's table in open court by the Executive Judge personally with the attendance of two other judges or, in case of the latter's inability, of their duly authorized representatives. In stations where there are only two salas[,] the Judges of both and either the Clerk of Court or the Branch Clerk of Court should be present. In the absence of the Executive Judge, the Judge at the station who is the most senior in point of appointment to the Judiciary shall personally conduct the raffle. Under no circumstance may any raffle be made in chambers. The raffle proceedings should be stenographically recorded, and minutes thereof shall be prepared and signed by the Judges (or their representatives) and the Clerk of Court in attendance. Immediately after the raffle on any particular day, the Executive Judge shall indicate the particular branch to which the case is assigned, the same to be written in words and in figures on the cover of the Rollo and on the first page of the original complaint or information and initialed by the Executive Judge and the other two officers who attended said raffle.
The raffle must be conducted in such manner that all the branches of the Court in that station or grouping[,] including vacant salas, shall receive more or less the same number of civil, criminal, and other kinds of cases.
For purposes of facilitating implementation of the foregoing rules, a Raffle Committee composed of the Executive Judge and two other judges shall, as much as practicable, be constituted.
8.2 The Minutes of the Raffle should be distributed within 24 hours after completion thereof to the judges of the other salas, and a copy sent to the Office of the Court Administrator.
8.3 Special raffles should not be permitted except on verified application of the interested party who seeks issuance of a provisional remedy and only upon a finding by the Executive Judge that unless the special raffle is conducted, irreparable damage shall be suffered by the applicant. The special raffle shall be conducted by at least two judges in a multiple-sala station.
8.4 There must be strict compliance with Administrative Order No. 6, dated June 30, 1975, and Circular No. 7, dated 23 September 1974[,] requiring that no case may be assigned in multi-sala courts without raffle; a raffle committee composed of the Executive Judge and two other judges shall be constituted where practicable, raffle proceedings should be stenographically recorded, and the results signed by the Judges or their representatives and the Clerk of Court, and the branch assignment shall be recorded in words and figures on the Rollo.
Evidently, Judge Gako, Jr. acted on 518 petitions for voluntary confinement and rehabilitation filed from 1998 to 2006 although they were not raffled but merely brought directly to his sala, in clear violation of the above-quoted circulars of the Court. As a judge who is presumed to know the law and given the large number of petitions he had acted on without authority over an unwarranted length of time, Judge Gako, Jr.'s submission that he has knowledge of the non-raffle of the petition fails to sway the Court. To the contrary, the totality of the circumstances surrounding the case serves to cast doubt upon his motives such that good faith on his part cannot be presumed.
Again it should be stressed that as a judge, Judge Gako, Jr. is expected to keep abreast of and be conversant with Supreme Court rules and circulars that affect the conduct of cases before him. More importantly, he should observe strict compliance with such rules at all times in his respective jurisdiction. Judges should administer their office with due regard to the integrity of the system itself, remembering that they are not depositories of arbitrary power, but judges under the sanction of law.19 Despicably failing in this regard, Judge Gako, Jr. should be duly sanctioned. And considering the fact of his retirement, the recommended penalty of a fine is in order.
As Administrative Officer, Ms. Dionaldo was expected to implement administrative policies and procedures. It was her duty to transmit to the Committee on Raffle all special proceedings cases and, thereafter, to send the records thereof to the proper drugs court. This she failed to do. She admitted that in fact a lot of unraffled cases were for several years immediately forwarded to Branch 5, which is not a drugs court sala.
Ms. Dionaldo's excuse is untenable. No matter how urgent or meritorious a case may seem, this does not justify any, much less, repeated violations of Circular No. 7, which admits of no exceptions to the rule requiring the raffling of all cases.
Legal Researcher, Ms. Suyko, claimed that her duty was merely to receive cases, to list them in the record book, and to prepare a pro-forma order to be signed by retired Judge Gako, Jr. x x x Ms. Suyko's explanation is unmeritorious. In receiving cases, it was part of her duty, before signing the log book, to check if indeed the case was properly assigned to Branch 5 by simply perusing the frontispiece of the records of the case. Surely, she should not have received a case that had not been properly assigned to Branch 5. For this, she is guilty of dereliction of duty.
It is Atty. Joaquino's duty, as Clerk of Court and administrative officer of RTC, Cebu City, to supervise his subordinate, Ms. Dionaldo. It was incumbent upon him to check that Supreme Court circulars, especially those relating to the raffling of cases, were strictly observed. The nature of his duty requires him to exercise supervision and control of the office operations in RTC, Cebu City. This he failed to do. Had he faithfully done his duties as clerk of court, he would have discovered the anomaly early enough. He was too complacent and negligent in assuming that Ms. Dionaldo was performing her job efficiently simply because there were no complaints coming from Branch 5.
1) In Joselito Rallos, et al. v. Judge Ireneo Gako, Jr., he was held guilty of grave abuse of authority and partiality, aggravated by dishonesty, and imposed a fine of Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000.00).
2) In Ronaldo B. Zamora v. Judge Ireneo Gako, Jr., he was found guilty of Gross Ignorance of the law and suspended for three (3) months.
In the above cases, he was sternly warned that the commission of similar acts in the future would be dealt with more severely.
3) In Doroteo Lagcao, et al. v. Judge Ireneo Gako, Jr., he was found guilty of utter disrespect towards a higher court and imposed a fine of Twenty Thousand Pesos (P20,000.00) to be deducted from his retirement benefits.
4) In City of Cebu v. Judge Ireneo Gako, Jr., he was found guilty of undue delay in rendering a decision which cost the City of Cebu substantial damages in uncollected real property taxes. He was imposed a fine of Forty Thousand Pesos (P40,000.00) to be deducted from his retirement benefits.
In view of the foregoing, in this case Judge Gako, Jr. should be fined of Forty Thousand Pesos (P40,000.00).
WHEREFORE, the recommendations of Executive Justice Antonio L. Villamor are hereby ADOPTED except as to the fine of Judge Gako, Jr.
Nida D. Suyko, Legal Researcher, RTC, Branch 5, Cebu City, is FINED for misconduct and neglect of duty in an amount equivalent to her salary for one month and one day, and STERNLY WARNED that a repetition of the same or similar offense in the future will be dealt with more severely.
Atty. Manuel G. Nollora, Clerk of Court, RTC of Cebu City,, Branch 5, is REPRIMANDED for neglect of duty, and STERNLY WARNED that a repetition of the same or similar offense in the future will be dealt with more severely.
1 Rollo (Vol II), p. 128.
5 Id. a t 138-139.
7 Rollo (Vol. I), pp. 1-2.
9 Rollo (Vol 2), p. 1.
12 Id. at 157-158; Manifestation dated 21 August 2007.
15 Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 20, Sec. 2.
16 Atty. Hilario v. Hon. Ocampo III, 422 Phil. 593, 604 (2001).
17 Opis v. Dimaano, A.M. No. RTJ-05-1942, 28 July 2005, 464 SCRA 260, 268.
18 Medina v. De Guia, Adm. Matter No. RTJ-88-216, 1 March 1993, 219 SCRA 153, 162, 175.
19 Atty. Hilario v. Hon. Ocampo, III, supra note 271.
20 Office of the Court Administrator v. Gines, A.M. No. RTJ-92-802, 5 July 1993, 224 SCRA 261, 273-274.
21 Rollo (Vol. I), pp. 356-357; pp. 12 - 15 of the Report of the Executive Justice.
22 Office of the Court Administrator v. Villaflor, A.M. No. P-05-1991, 28 July 2005, 464 SCRA 240, 249.

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