‘Decide all pending cases by Sept. 30, or face sanctions’

Shape up or ship out.

With this warning, the 14-member Supreme Court reminded suspended Sandi—ganbayan Presiding Justice Francis Garchi—torena yesterday that he has only until Sept. 30 to finish his backlog of cases, or he’ll face tougher administrative sanctions.

In a six-page resolution, the tribunal said the magistrate has a "non-extendible" deadline to decide all pending cases assigned to him, with a stern warning that "proper disciplinary action" will be taken against him if he fails to do so.

The Supreme Court justices denied Garchitorena’s request to extend the deadline, reiterating that their ultimatum is "maintained."

They found Garchitorena’s excuse that he only has two assistants — one who "is on loan" and the other, a new lawyer — "unsatisfactory." They instead told him to "give priority to the cases that are included in the list of undecided cases."

Garchitorena, former chairman of the anti-graft court’s first division, was also told to submit in five days "duly authenticated medical certificates" attesting to his surgeries in January and July this year.

His other reason for seeking an extension of the tribunal’s deadline was that he underwent foot surgery and was in crutches for about two weeks and that he has not yet fully recovered.

When the Supreme Court suspended Garchitorena on Nov. 28 last year, it gave him six months to dispose of his backlog of cases in the anti-graft court’s first division, which is now headed by Justice Gregory Ong in an acting capacity.

Last Aug. 13, the Supreme Court justices directed Garchitorena to show cause within 10 days to convince them why no administrative sanctions should be imposed on him, after they learned that only 14 of the 43 cases assigned to him had been decided.

"From November 2001 to July 18, 2002, Garchitorena was able to decide only 14 cases out of said 43 cases assigned to him. Twenty-nine cases remain unresolved," the tribunal said.

Garchitorena was also told to explain the "unaccounted, unreported and unassigned cases," why he chose to unilaterally decide three cases — those of Vernette Umali-Paco, Luz Bakunawa and Eric Labrador — when these were not among those assigned to him.

Senior Justice Minita Chico-Nazario has since taken over Garchitorena’s position as presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan.

Garchitorena was fined P20,000 for gross neglect of duty and for delaying the resolution of cases.

While serving his suspension, Garchitorena was ordered to concentrate on writing the decisions of unresolved cases alone and was reminded sternly that there would be "no unloading of cases" to other justices or divisions.

He was given six months "so that he may devote himself exclusively to decision writing, until the backlog of cases assigned to him as well as cases not assigned to any ponente, of which he may be the ponente, are finally decided."

In a 43-page decision penned by former Justice Bernardo Pardo, the Supreme Court noted that of the 198 cases pending in the Sandiganbayan’s first division, 60 of which have been disposed of in November 2000, there are still 138 unresolved cases which have been "submitted long ago."