SC slaps P30,000 fine vs Mandaue judge over land row

CEBU, Philippines -  A judge in the Municipal Trial Court in Mandaue City has been found guilty of violating the Code of Judicial Conduct and impropriety for causing a resident of Balamban to sign legal documents without the presence of his attorney.

The Supreme Court imposes a fine of P30,000 against Municipal Trial Court in Cities Judge Rogelio Lucmayon for causing lot owner Conrado Abe Lopez to sign at least two documents and allowing their notarization without the presence of the executor.

In a seven-page decision, the High Tribunal, through Associate Justice Arturo Brion, held Lucmayon liable for violating Rule 5.06 of the Code, which states that “a judge is prohibited from serving as executor, administrator, trustee, guardian or other ficuciary.” This rule is intended to minimize the risk of conflict with the judge’s judicial duties and to allow him to devote his undivided attention to the performance of his official functions.

In the court record, Lopez alleged that he inherited a 355-square meter lot in Balamban from his adoptive father, Restituto Lopez. He presented a document called “Katapusan Panugon” (Testamente) as evidence.

While the Testamente mentioned Lot No. 1718, he received a portion of Lot No. 1696 with a total land area of 49,817 square meters which became subject of extrajudicial settlement among himself, his adoptive mother Honorata Lopez and the relatives of Judge Lucmayon. Lopez’s adoptive mother cultivated the lot before she died in 1982. He took over tilling the land after retiring as seafarer in 1988.

The court said on October 2004, Judge Lucmayon met Lopez at a waiting shed in front of a house owned by the judge’s grandmother in Buanoy, Balamban.

It said that it is there that the judge “deceived him into signing a Special Power of Attorney to process sale of Lot No. 1691 to the prospective buyer, Aboitiz Group of Company.”

“Unknown to the complainant (Lopez), the said SPA contained at the bottom portion, a so-called “Waiver of Rights” that the respondent (Lucmayon) had deceptively inserted in order to strip him of his ownership of Lot No. 1696. After signing the document (notarized by certain Atty. Arturo C. Mata without the complainant’s presence), the respondent allegedly told the complainant that he no longer had any right over the property.”

The court further said that in March 2005, Pedro Lucmayon, father of the judge ordered Lopez to cease from cultivating the land because of the Waiver of Rights in the SPA he signed.

“(T)his court cannot ignore the fact that the documents the respondent himself prepared greatly prejudiced the complainant. We also note that the Waiver of Rights benefitted the respondent and his family. As a judge who is more learned in the law that the complainant, the respondent, at the very least should have taken the appropriate steps to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in his dealings,” the decision reads.

Lucmayon in his comment denied that he convinced Lopez to sell his shares in the property. He likewise, denied deceiving Lopez into signing the Waiver of Rights. 

He claimed that the filing of administrative case against him was to embarrass and harass him.

The Supreme Court ruled that Lucmayon be slapped with P20,000 fine for violating the Code, while P10,000 for the impropriety of his acts, with “stern warning” that a repetition of similar acts will be dealt with more severely. —(FREEMAN)