Stressing this, the Supreme Court has "stripped" a Regional Trial Court judge here of his "judicial robe" for having an illicit affair with a married woman.
The High Court, in an en banc, 17-page decision, also forfeited 50 percent of all retirement benefits of RTC Branch 56 Judge Victor Llamas, excluding earned leave credits.
Llamas, however, asked the tribunal last week to reconsider its decision barring him to be re-employed in any branch of the government.
The High Court acted on the complaint of court employees Cynthia Resngit Marquez, Shielah Ramos, Rosalinda Roquillas and Vicky Ramos who alleged that Llamas, though married, maintains an illicit relationship with a married woman and that both are living together as husband and wife under one roof.
They also alleged that Llamas has made his sala a dancing and drinking hall during office hours, and that he was drunk almost everyday.
Finding Llamas guilty of the accusations, the High Court said he "shamelessly mocked the dignity of his office and tainted the image of the judiciary to which he owes the fealty and the obligation to keep it at all time unsullied and worthy of the people’s trust."
It added: "A magistrate has to live by the example of his precepts. He cannot judge the conduct of others when his own needs judgment. It should not be ‘do as I say and not what I do.’ For the court over which he is called to preside will be a mockery, one devoid of respect."
Llamas earlier had denied the accusations. He said he is a married man although estranged from his wife due to irreconcilable differences over the rearing of their children.
Although he admitted knowing the woman, he said she, being an employee of the city legal office, was responsible in looking into the status of pending cases filed by the city government.
On his reported drinking and dancing sprees, Llamas said there are many restaurants outside his office equipped with the necessary facilities.
Besides, he said if ever he had drinks with his visitors, it was part of his hospitable nature and that this was always done after office hours.
In a resolution dated Sept. 14, 2001, Court of Appeals Associate Justice Romeo Brawner said the complainants and their witnesses all gave positive testimonies of how Llamas "flaunted his mistress in the eyes of the public."
Brawner said Llamas brought and picked her up from work, danced and sang with her in public, lived with her in different places, celebrated her birthdays with parties in her honor, authorized her to receive his salaries and was seen around with her and that they behaved as if they were husband and wife.
In meting the "severest of administrative penalties" on Llamas, the Supreme Court cited the Code of Judicial Conduct which mandates that a judge should embody "competence, integrity and independence."
A magistrate, the tribunal said, "should so behave at all times as to promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, and avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities."
It added: "His personal behavior, not only while in the performance of official duties, but also outside the court, must be beyond reproach, for he is, as he so aptly perceived to be, the visible personification of law and justice."