Meet me at the Promenade

The Supreme Court yesterday placed on preventive suspension a Makati City family court judge in connection with the alleged sale of temporary protection orders and permanent protection orders to litigants in cases pending in her sala.

Aside from the preventive suspension, Chief Justice Reynato Puno also ordered that the sala of Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 144 Judge Evelyn Arcaya-Chua be padlocked to prevent court records from being tampered.

The high court’s suspension stemmed from the numerous complaints filed against Chua, one of which was a case where she issued a TPO and ordered a woman respondent in a case to turn over the custody of their minor illegitimate child to the male petitioner.

According to the SC, Chua displayed gross ignorance of the law in issuing the order as the TPO cannot be justified under RA 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004) as “the applicant is a man seeking to enforce an order against a woman.”       –Mike Frialde