Baguio judge placed under preventive suspension

The Supreme Court (SC) has placed under preventive suspension a Baguio City regional trial court (RTC) judge for reversing a final and executory order of a fellow judge in the controversial Golden Buddha case and pending the resolution of an administrative case filed against him by former First Lady Imelda Marcos.

In a complaint-affidavit, Mrs. Marcos accused Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan of Baguio RTC Branch 3 of gross ignorance of the law when he, in an order dated Aug. 15, 2006, reversed motu proprio the May 30, 1996 order in Civil Case No. 3383-R of Judge Antonio Reyes of Baguio RTC Branch 3, which had become final and executory.

In his order, Pamintuan ruled that the Golden Buddha statue was to be kept in custodia legis until the settlement of the estate of Rogelio Roxas.

Pamintuan also said that the statue was a “fake one or a mere replica” without stating the factual and legal basis for said finding.

Pamintuan claimed that he called for a hearing on the custody of the statue because he wanted to release it to its rightful owner, since it had remained in the custody of the Baguio RTC clerk of court despite the May 30, 1996 order of Reyes.

Pamintuan justified his order that the Golden Buddha to remain in custodia legis based on an alleged manifestation of Roxas’ heirs that there would be an extrajudicial settlement of Roxas’ estate.

In ordering Pamintuan’s preventive suspension, the SC said Reyes’ May 30, 1996 order had become final and executory, and may not be reviewed or modified in any way, not even by the SC.

Pamintuan, according to the SC, was “overzealous” when he ruled that the Golden Buddha statue in the court’s custody was a “fake one or a mere replica” without clearly stating the facts and the law on which the finding was based.

The administrative case against Pamintuan stemmed from his ruling reversing Reyes’ final and executive order in the civil case filed by the Treasure Hunters Association of the Philippines led by a certain Jose Umali against businessman Jose Roxas for the recovery of the Golden Buddha statue.

Pamintuan’s ruling confirmed the existence of the statue despite Reyes’ ruling that it does not exist.

The late Rogelio Roxas, a locksmith-turned-treasure hunter and Jose’s father, claimed to have found the statue, believed part of the Japanese Imperial Army’s war booty, in a cave beside the Baguio General Hospital.

Reyes ruled that the statue in the court’s possession was made of brass and was the same one seized by soldiers from the Roxas residence in Baguio City on April 5, 1971.

Reyes’ decision became final and binding after none of the parties questioned it.