Ex-Dumaguete judge convicted for bribery

A former Regional Trial Court judge in Dumaguete City was meted a nine-year jail term for demanding a P29,000 bribe from a foreigner in exchange for a favorable ruling.

The Sandiganbayan’s fourth division also ordered former Judge Florencio Barron to pay a P90,000 fine. His accomplice, Casildo Galbo, was sentenced to five years in jail and told to pay the same fine.

The direct bribery charges against Barron arose from a complaint filed against him by David Crear, a representative of Mainit Resources Corp., which had a pending case of nullification of documents in the former judge’s sala.

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation caught Barron in the act of receiving the bribe at the Salawaki Beach Resort in Zamboangita, Negros Oriental.

According to Crear, everything started when Galbo, who passed himself off as a court sheriff and acting on Barron’s orders, visited him in his house and offered to help him in the case.

In its 28-page ruling penned by Justice Rodolfo Palattao, the anti-graft court said it was ironic that Barron, empowered to "judge men" was the one judged "solely because he has forgotten that he should be a man of competence, integrity, probity and independence."

"In the hierarchy of courts, Judge Barron occupies the position that exercises general jurisdiction which includes the power to impose the penalty of life and death. It is therefore ironic and metaphoric that instead of playing the role of a judge, he will now be judged for an offense," the ruling stated.