Cotabato RTC judge suspended

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the indefinite suspension without pay of a Cotabato City judge over his questionable approval of annulment of marriages.

Court Administrator and SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said Judge Cadir Indar of the Cotabato City Regional Trial Court Branch 14 is the subject of an “in-depth investigation” after initial inquiry revealed an “unusual number of marriage annulment decisions” emanating from his sala that did not have existing records.

Marquez said the SC received information from the civil registrars of the cities of Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong and Quezon on the remarkable number of annulment decisions originating from Indar’s court.

“The civil registrars reported that they have received an unusual number of decisions from that court,” he said.

“However, our investigators initially found that the records of the cases are nowhere to be found,” he added. “Pending investigation, he (Indar) is under preventive suspension.”

Indar is also the acting presiding judge of Cotabato City RTC Branch 15 that handles several cases related to the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last Nov. 23, Marquez said.

The court official said they received information that Indar was a former father-in-law of former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.