An administrative complaint against Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Danilo Cruz was filed Thursday with the Supreme Court (SC) for alleged violation of a constitutional provision which mandates that lower court judges decide within 90 days pending motions, petitions and civil or criminal cases submitted for resolution.
The complaint, filed on behalf of Knecht Inc. by its president, Rene Knecht, cited several motions which have remained unresolved beyond the 90-day period prescribed by law in connection with Civil Case No. 11015 or Rose Packing Co. Inc. (Rosepack) versus Philippine Commercial International Bank (PCIB) recently renamed Equitable PCIBank.
In his complaint-affidavit, Knecht stated that his motion for substitution dated Nov. 25, 1993 has been pending since Feb. 16, 1994; his motion for cancellation for encumbrances dated Aug. 3, 1994 has been pending since Nov. 4, 1994; his motion to implement a writ of execution filed on March 16, 1999 has remained unresolved up to the present; and his motion to resolve the Nov. 25, 1993 motion for substitution, PCIB's Oct. 3, 1994 motion and his motion to implement the Oct. 12, 1993 writ of execution has remained unresolved since March 14, 2000.
The 32-year-old legal battle between Rosepack -- which was controlled by Knecht -- and PCIB started in 1968 when the bank -- then known as Philippine Commercial and Industrial Bank -- foreclosed some 20 hectares of real estate in Cainta and Pasig owned by the pioneer but now defunct canned food manufacturing firm, causing the annotation of an ex parte "writ of execution" on the title to the Knecht residential compound in Pasay City.
The Pasig RTC ruled in favor of PCIB in 1969 but the high tribunal reversed the lower court's decision in 1988 and ordered the bank in 1992 to return the properties to Rosepack since the foreclosure was cancelled.
"Despite the court rulings in favor of Rosepack, PCIB continues to hold on to the properties," Knecht bewailed.