SC junks raps vs 6 CA justices

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has cleared six justices of the Court of Appeals (CA) of administrative charges in a civil case filed by a losing litigant in Cebu City.

The high court dismissed for lack of basis the complaints against CA Executive Justice Pampilo Abarintos and Associate Justices Ramol Paul Hernando, Victoria Isabel Paredes, Gabriel Ingles, Pamela Ann Maxino and Carmelita Manahan.

The SC said the filing of charges by Lucena Rallos was not the proper remedy to assail an alleged erroneous resolution issued by the justices.

The high court said the proper way would have been an “appeal in due course or the extraordinary writs of certiorari and prohibition if the errors were jurisdictional.”

The case stemmed from a civil case filed by Rallos before a court in Cebu City.

The complainant sought compensation from the city government for the two parcels of land that her family owns, which the city had been using as public roads without their consent.

On Jan. 14, 2000, the Cebu City court granted Rallos’ petition and ordered the city government to compensate her for the use of the property.

It also ordered the city government to create a board of commissioners that would determine the amount that would be paid to the complainant.

In May 2012, the CA – through the division composed of the respondent justices – granted the Cebu City government’s application for preliminary injunction.

In her complaint against the CA justices, Rallos alleged that the issuance of a March 2012 resolution rectifying the defects of the petition was erroneous.

She claimed the petition should be dismissed as the decision and the order sought to be annulled had already been affirmed. She said the respondent justices acted as legal consultants of the Cebu City government.

Rallos said Ingles, Maxino and Manahan disobeyed the resolutions promulgated in December 2007 and December 2010 when they granted in June 2012 the city government’s application for a writ of preliminary injunction.