SC dismisses 4 Cebu judges over ‘instant marriages’

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed four judges in Cebu City over anomalies uncovered in 2007 in the solemnization of marriages in their respective branches.

In an administrative decision released yesterday, the SC imposed the penalty on Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Judges Anatalio Necessario (Branch 2), Gil Acosta (Branch 3), Rosabella Tormis (Branch 4), and Edgemelo Rosales (Branch 8).

The four judges were found guilty of gross inefficiency and neglect of duty and were ordered dismissed from the judicial service with forfeiture of all retirement benefits and perpetual disqualification from holding any government post.

The SC upheld findings of its Office of Court Administrator (OCA) that Necessario, Tormis and Rosales solemnized marriages even if the requirements submitted by the couples were incomplete and had visible signs of tampering, erasures, corrections or superimpositions of entries related to the parties’ place of residence.

The judges were also found to have solemnized marriages where a contracting party was a foreigner who did not submit a certificate of legal capacity to marry from his or her embassy, as required by Article 21 of the Family Code.

Such inefficiencies constituted “negligence, incompetence, ignorance, and carelessness,” the SC said.

Marriage documents examined by the OCA audit team also showed that corresponding official receipts for the solemnization fees were missing, which led the SC to conclude that the judges had also neglected their duties.

The SC also said Necessario, Acosta, and Tormis solemnized marriages where a party was a minor during cohabitation period. This, the SC ruled, violated Article 34 of the Family Code.

Lastly, the MTCC judges were found to have solemnized marriages even without a prior license issued. Contrary to the rules, the couples were made to fill out the application for a license on the same day the marriage was solemnized.

Apart from the four judges, the SC also penalized six court personnel from the MTCC branches for their involvement in the anomalous solemnization of marriages.

Court interpreter Helen Mongaya and administrative officer Rhona Rodriguez were dismissed from the service, process server Desiderio Aranas and court interpreter Rebecca Alesna were suspended for six months without pay, while court clerk Celeste Retuya and stenographer Emma Valencia were admonished.

The SC ruling stemmed from an OCA report in August 2007 that discovered that certain package fees were offered to interested parties by “fixers” or “facilitators” for “instant marriages” in the MTCC branches.

The probe showed that the number of solemnized marriages was way higher than the number of marriage certificates in the courts’ custody. There were also an unusual number of marriage licenses obtained from the civil registrars of Barili and Liloan towns in Cebu.

For instance, the OCA cited cases of marriages solemnized at 9 a.m. with marriage licenses obtained the same day when Barili town is two hours’ away from Cebu City.