The Supreme Court en banc issued a resolution last Tuesday lifting the indefinite preventive suspension against four Municipal Trial Court in Cities judges for allegedly involved in marriage scams.
Investigation team leader Rullyn Garcia told The Freeman in a telephone interview last night judges Anatalio Necesario (Branch 2), Gil Acosta (Branch 3), Rosabella Tormis (Branch 4) and Edgemelo Rosales (Branch 8) will start reporting back to work today after the lifting of the suspension pending the judges’ submission of their comments to the August 14 supplemental report that Garcia’s team submitted to the Office of the Court Administrator.
Garcia, however, said that despite the lifting of the suspension, the four judges are still prohibited from solemnizing marriages until the resolution of the case.
The August 14 supplemental report contained the findings of Garcia’s team on their investigation on the alleged involvement of the judges and other court personnel on the marriage scams.
Chief Justice Renato Puno ordered the suspension of the four judges after reports that some courts in Cebu conduct marriages with “undue haste” in exchange for an amount higher than the prescribed P300 marriage fee.
Puno received the complaints while conducting a dialogue with members of the religious and business community, diplomatic corps and cause-oriented groups during the First Distinguished Lecture, Series of 2007 in Cebu last June 29.
Upon receiving the information, Puno immediately held a dialogue with the Cebu judges and sent a judicial audit team led by Garcia.
The investigation showed that, of 643 marriage certificates, Necesario solemnized 92 marriages under Article 34 of the Family Code from 2005 to 2007; Judge Acosta with 67 marriages from 2003 to 2007; Judge Tormis, 73 marriages from 2005 to 2007 and Judge Rosales, 48 marriages from 2006 to 2007.
However, an examination in the logbooks for marriages showed there were more marriages recorded as solemnized by the four judges than the number of marriage certificates actually examined. Further investigation showed that a number of marriage licenses were obtained from local civil registrars of places where neither of the couple lived. There were also discrepancies in the signatures of the local civil registrars of Barili and Liloan, Cebu, indicating forgery. Some marriages were also solemnized despite the non-completion of requirements and that the fees couples paid ranged from P1,500 to P15,000. – Fred P. Languido/QSB