Ombudsman: Still no SC action on complaint vs CA justices
After being advised to charge erring members of the judiciary, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla on Saturday reminded the Supreme Court to act on a pending administrative complaint against seven justices of the Court of Appeals (CA).
Remulla said his predecessor Samuel Martires filed in March last year a case of gross ignorance of law and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against these justices.
The complaint involves CA’s reversal of the preventive suspension orders issued by the Office of the Ombudsman against Antique officials, including Mayor Ernesto Tanjanlangit III of Tobias Fornier town.
The CA associate justices named in the complaint were Louis Acosta, Rex Bernando Pascual, Mary Charlene Hernandez-Azura, Roberto Quiroz, Ferdinand Baylon, Marlene Gonzales-Sison and Rafael Santos. Sison and Santos have since retired.
Antique case
In his radio show “Executive Session,” Remulla said “To date, there appears no public record of the Judicial Integrity [Office] or the Supreme Court having acted or resolved that complaint.”
The Ombudsman was also responding to a statement last week by SC spokesperson Camille Ting urging him to file charges against members of the judiciary if he has evidence of wrongdoing, since the high court could not act on broad accusations.
Remulla said the complaint pending with the Judicial Integrity Office, the SC’s investigating body on disciplinary cases in the judiciary, stemmed from the CA’s nullification of the Ombudsman’s preventive suspension order in 2024 against Tanjanlangit over a dispute with then Vice Mayor Jose Maria Fornier regarding a food pack distribution.
The Office of the Ombudsman last year also issued separate preventive suspension orders against eight Antique board members—Egidio Elio, Rony Molina, Victor Condez, Alfie Jay Niquia, Mayella Mae Plameras-Ladislao, Plaridel Sanchez IV, Kenneth Dave Gasalao and Julius Cezar Tajanlangi. They were suspended for allegedly removing the proposed funding for three solar projects from Antique’s P1.07-billion supplemental budget.
Remulla said these were just among the cases being “overruled” by the CA. “Its about time that we examine the justice system… We cannot make the Supreme Court, (lower) courts, the judges and the justices of the appellate court sacred cows. There should be no sacred cows anymore,” he said.
