High Court relieves Cebu judge from handling cases

CEBU — The Supreme Court has finally relieved Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Ildefonso Suerte of Barili town from handling cases.

Deputy court administrator Christopher Lock went to Barili the other day to personally order Suerte to turn over the case folders of 34 criminal, civil and special proceedings to his assisting judge, Leopoldo Cañete. These cases are those filed after March 3.

The Supreme Court’s administrative order also divested Suerte of authority to act on, hear and try newly filed cases as well as cases whose pre-trial has not yet been terminated.

Lock personally served the one-page order to Suerte an hour before the RTC judge was to hear the motion for reconsideration on the conviction of Cedrick Devinadera, a self-confessed accomplice in the killing of Alona Bacolod, wife of cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr.

Several lawyers’ groups in Cebu, led by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City chapter, have criticized Suerte’s conviction of Devinadera based on a complaint filed by Jaime Bacolod, said to be Alona’s cousin.

Suerte said he regrets that the court has become the center of public criticism because of his alleged conspiracy with prosecutors in convicting Devinadera, which he denied.

Lawyer Jose Neil Nuñez, counsel of Jaime Bacolod, came to Suerte’s defense, saying they did not conspire to free Ecleo, who is facing parricide charges in the Cebu City RTC for his wife’s killing.

"No money changed hands, only the money from the client to the lawyer," Nuñez said.

Lawyer Gloria Lastimosa Dalawampu, of the IBP, clarified that the issue is not whether money changed hands but if the proper offended parties were the ones who filed the case.

Dalawampu said they want the court to rectify what is perceived as an error in convicting Devinadera.

She formally filed a rejoinder with a motion seeking to have the judgment of conviction nullified on the ground that complainant Jaime Bacolod is not the proper offended party.

Dalawampu said Jaime Bacolod is not the nearest of kin and that Alona’s surviving brothers should be the proper offended party.

There were also questions on Suerte’s lack of jurisdiction over the case because it should have been filed in Argao.

Dalawampu considers Devinadera’s conviction as a mockery of the judicial process, saying that criminal collusion in the handling of the case by the public and private prosecutors should completely render Suerte’s verdict as null and void. — Freeman News Service