MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) forfeited all benefits of retired Batangas judge Pablo Chavez for the anomalies and inefficiencies that happened in his court during his time.

Chavez was the judge of Batangas Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 87. He retired in 2009.

In a statement released on Tuesday, April 11, the SC said Chavez is guilty of gross neglect of duty and is therefore perpetually disqualifed from re-employment in any branch of government. All his benefits, except accumulated leave credits, are also forfeited.

Chavez’s court was subjected to a judicial audit in 2009 when he was already due to retire. It was triggered by an anonymous complaint saying there were irregularities in how Branch 87 handled annulment cases, among others.

For one, the civil docket book which contained the status of annulment cases had erasures, the SC said.

From 2004 to 2008, Chavez’s Branch 87 also committed the following irregularities in connection with annulment cases it handled:

1. No liquidation reports on the amount withdrawn from the sheriff’s fees for service summons.
2. No order was issued by the court for the petitioner to furnish the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) a copy of the petition and its annexes.
3. Several cases proceeded even without the investigation report of the public prosecutor.

The OSG is tasked to represent the state interest of protecting marriage. Therefore all annulment cases are supposed to be linked up to the OSG.

In 2015, the OSG investigated allegations that some courts were making a business out of annulment cases.

Rappler ran a 6-part investigative series on these so-called “annulment mills.”

In Chavez’s case, the retired judge accused his former clerk of court, Attorney Teofilo Dimaculangan Jr, of forging his signatures in some of the decisions in annulment cases.

Chavez’s former process server David Caguimbal was also implicated for unremitted cash collections.

“Branch 87 incurred a cash shortage of P18,000 in the Fiduciary Fund and Dimaculangan failed to deposit the court’s collections as required under SC AC No.3-2000,” the SC said.

The High Court has banned from public office both Dimaculangan and Caguimbal.

Aside from the irregularity in annulment cases, the SC said Chavez’s court was inefficient in the way it handled other cases.

“Judge Chavez was found to have failed to take action on certain civil cases; take further action on identified criminal and civil cases; resolve the pending incidents and motions submitted for resolution; decide identified criminal and civil cases which were submitted for decision as early as 2007 and 2008; and other infractions,” the SC said.

Chavez insisted that the delays were due to his court being a single-sala court. He also blamed his staff for their “failure to remind him of the due dates and assist him in drafting decisions and orders.”

The SC said this excuse is “not sufficient to absolve him of disciplinary action.”

“[T]he totality of the findings of the judicial audit team proves Judge Chavez’s reckless and irresponsible attitude towards his duties. He utterly and glaringly lacked the necessary care and organization in handling and managing his court and personnel,” the SC said. – Rappler.com