INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) The Supreme Court found Court of Appeals Associate Justice Vicente Roxas administratively guilty of violating the Rules of Court and the New Code of Judicial Conduct in the Philippine Judiciary.
Roxas is one of the justices embroiled in a scandal involving alleged bribery surrounding the conflict between the Manila Electric Co. and the Government Service Insurance System, which is also being investigated by the high court.
The high court fined Roxas P15,000, payable within 10 days of receipt of the ruling, and a stern warning “that commission of any act of impropriety in the future will merit a more severe penalty.”
The verdict stemmed from a complaint filed by lawyer Victoriano Orocio, counsel for employees of the National Power Corporation (NPC) in a civil case.
When the NPC and its employees reached a compromise agreement, Orocio filed for approval of his charging lien of 15 percent of what his clients received from the settlement.
The Quezon City Regional Trial Court approved his motion and he sought its execution but the NPC board appealed the decision before the appellate court.
The case was assigned to Roxas.
In January 2007, the appeals court, through Roxas, annulled the Quezon trial court’s decision and set a limit to Orocio’s attorney’s fees.
Orocio filed an appeal and a complaint against Roxas before the Supreme Court, saying the appellate justice’s decision was “full of fabrication, distortion and misrepresentation of facts.”
The lawyer said all he was asking for were the attorney’s fees due him and that his motion for reconsideration for the October, 2006 ruling was not acted upon by Roxas.
Roxas said Orocio’s complaint was merely harassment suit by a losing litigant and claimed lawyer’s fee Orocio sought was unreasonable.
In its decision, the high court said Roxas should be held accountable for the delay in resolving Orocio’s appeal of the January, 2007 decision and his inaction on the October, 2006 appeal.
The high court said Roxas has the primary responsibility on motions in cases where he is the ponente, as mandated by the Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals (IRCA).
“The omissions of respondent violated Section 5, Canon 6 of the New Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine Judiciary. Judges are mandated to perform all judicial duties efficiently, fairly and with reasonable promptness. In other words, judges should never cause judicial delay,” the high court said.
“Delay derails the administration of justice. It postpones the rectification of wrong and the vindication of the unjustly prosecuted. It crowds the dockets of the courts, increasing the costs for all litigants, pressuring judges to take short cuts, interfering with the prompt and deliberate disposition of those causes in which all parties are diligent and prepared for trial and overhanging the entire process with the pall of disorganization and insolubility,” it added.
View story as posted on Inquirer.net
Filed under: as it happens | Tagged: administrative case, associate justice vicente roxas, GSIS, meralco
