For Fixing: 3 "court personnel" under close watch

CEBU, Philippines – Three personnel of the Regional Trial Court are now under surveillance for their alleged involvement in fixing marriages within the Marcelo Fernan Memorial Hall of Justice, said RTC Judge Gabriel Ingles, designated spokesperson of the Palace of Justice.

Ingles said the monitoring committee headed by RTC Judge Geraldine Faith Econg has identified three court personnel allegedly conniving with fixers from outside courts to facilitate civil marriages.

In a general sense, Ingles said that “court personnel” may refer to judges, clerks of court, transcribers, and other employees of the court.

The committee began monitoring court personnel following reports of a pastor that allegedly posed as a judge and demanded P8,000 from a couple applying for civil marriage through a fixer.

Applicants for civil marriage only need to pay a fee of P350.

Ingles, however, is putting any detail on the surveillance on hold so as not to prejudice the investigation.

Ingles said the current undertaking is a way for the courts here in Cebu to strengthen the campaign against case fixing and corruption in the judiciary.

RTC Executive Judge Meinrado Paredez no less has caught a fixer operating inside the Palace of Justice when his former students nearly fell into the scheme.

The fixer has been banned from entering the courts unless he has legal business to attend to but rumors of case fixing have continued to persist.

Ingles said a possible entrapment operation will be undertaken on those under surveillance.

In 2007, the Supreme Court has ordered the immediate and indefinite preventive suspension of four Cebu Municipal Court Judges for their alleged participation in the so-called “marriage scam.”

The high tribunal also ordered the filing of administrative charges for corruption, dishonesty, gross ignorance of the law, and deliberate violation of the law on marriage against the four judges. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/JMO (THE FREEMAN)