SC fines Cebuano judge of Pasay RTC

A Cebuano judge of the Regional Trial Court 117 in Pasay City was slapped by the Supreme Court with a P20,000 fine and admonished for ignorance of the law.

Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., presiding the High Tribunal's first division, ruled that Judge Henrick Gingoyon failed to follow the rules of court when he admitted a prosecution's notice of appeal even after he acquitted the respondents of a criminal case.

"A second look at his order clearly shows (Gingoyon's) ignorance of the well-settled rule categorically prohibiting appeals from judgments of acquittals," the SC decision said.

The record of the case showed that two Chinese were arrested by a team of policemen headed by Supt. Manuel Barcena for violation of the dangerous drugs law sometime in 1998.

The case against the Chinese nationals was raffled by the court and was assigned to Gingoyon who later granted the accused a demurrer to evidence leading to the respondents' acquittal.

Despite the acquittal, Gingoyon still gave due course to the prosecution's notice of appeal contending that it was filed within the reglamentary period.

Gingoyon argued that, qualifiedly and reluctantly, he gave due course to the appeal to afford the prosecution latitude for legal activism, as judges are called upon to be judicial activists or "to be receptive to innovative views, paradigmatic shifts and blazing new jurisprudential trails."

But the SC ruled that if a demurrer to evidence is sustained, such dismissal being the merits, is equivalent to an acquittal.

"This is basic. Hence, the prosecution cannot appeal, as it would place the accused in double jeopardy. No person shall be put twice in jeopardy of punishment for the same offense," the SC ruled.

Barcena later filed at the SC a case against Gingoyon who ordered him to explain why he allegedly took a Lancer car from the possession of court sheriff Reynaldo Mulat on March 25, 2000.

Barcena said the car was among the vehicles seized by the policemen from the two Chinese but Gingoyon refused to release them even after he already acquitted the accused.

Barcena chanced upon the Lancer car parked in a vacant lot in barangay Molino, Bacoor, Cavite, and recognized it as among the vehicles of the Chinese.

When Mulat failed to produce documents to show proof that he is authorized to use a seized car, Barcena towed the car to the police station. But Mulat reported the matter to Gingoyon.

Gingoyon's order to Barcena, to explain why he towed the car, was also furnished to the Ombudsman, Interior and Local Government Secretary, Philippine National Police chief, and the National Police Commission for possible administrative or criminal prosecution.

Barcena elevated the case against Gingoyon to the SC.

Gingoyon hails from barangay Ermita, Cebu City and was once one of the city's assistant prosecutors. - Rene U. Borromeo