Judge charged before Sandiganbayan

A Caloocan City Judge was charged yesterday with five courts of acts of lasciviousness before the Sandiganbayan, court records said.

Charged was Caloocan Judge Armando De Asa of the Caloocan Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 51, who is also the court’s acting executive judge.

Prosecutor Marilou Acheta-Mejica of the Office of the Ombudsaman recommended a P60,000 bail for the temporary liberty of De Asa.

Mejica said that the charges against De Asa stemmed from the complaints filed by Noraliz Jorgensen, a casual employee of the Caloocan mayor’s office; Femenina Barreto and Floride Dawa, court stenographers of the Caloocan Court Branch 53, who claimed that the judge made sexual advances on them on separate occasions.

In her complaint Jorgensen said that on March 31, 1997, she went to De Asa’s chamber to deliver the his allowances for the months of January to March 1997. She alleged that De Asa held both her arms and molested her.

Jorgensen said that the incident were repeated on May 26, 1997 and August 4, 1997, when she went to De Asa’s chamber.

Barreto said that last July 22, 1997, she went to De Asa’s chamber to secure the latter’s signature for a document. After signing the paper, De Asa also made sexual advances on her, Berreto said. – Jose Rodel Clapano