Court sheriff suspended for simple misconduct

CEBU, Philippines – The Supreme Court has meted a court sheriff in Cebu City with six months suspension from service for destroying a house that is subject of a case pending in court even without a valid order.

Justice Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura of the Second Division ruled that sheriff Constancio V. Alimurung was found administratively guilty for simple misconduct.

The case involving Alimurung was first investigated by Regional Trial Court (RTC) Executive Judge Meinrado Paredes who only recommended two months suspension against the concerned sheriff.

However, when the case was reviewed by the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA), it was found out that the appropriate sanction that was supposed to be imposed against Alimurung is not two months, but six months.

Aside from Alimurung, Reynaldo Enolpe and Generoso Regalado, acting clerk of court and sheriff of RTC Branch 16, respectively, were also among those charged but Paredes dropped the case against them.

It was Enolpe who ordered Regalado to implement the writ of execution to evict spouses Alfredo and Maria Yaeso from the house that they are staying after one Teodorico Oliva filed an ejection case against them before the Municipal Trial Court in Cities and won the case.

Regalado, meanwhile, also instructed Alimurung to assist the implementation of the court order.

The order was not to demolish the house, but only to evict the Yaeso couple, including all other persons in the premises claiming rights under them, to vacate the area.

But Yaeso complained that Alimurung instead demolished the house even if it was not stated in the order.

Yaeso blamed Enolpe for issuing the writ of execution despite the pendency of the appeal before the RTC and Regalado for directing the spouses to vacate the premises, while Alimurung for demolishing house.

Paredes recommended the dismissal of the complaint against Enolpe and Regalado as they merely performed their official duties in issuing the writ of execution and in implementing it.

"Time and again, this Court has emphasized that the conduct or behavior of all officials and employees of an agency involved in the administration of justice, from the presiding judge to the lowliest clerk, should be circumscribed with the heavy burden of responsibility," Nachura said in his decision.

"Their conduct must at all times be characterized by, among others, strict propriety and decorum in order to earn and maintain the respect of the public for the judiciary," he added. (FREEMAN)