Almost two years after his retirement in 2018, a former Makati City Regional Trial Court judge was held administratively liable by the Supreme Court on four counts of gross ignorance of the law and violation of a High Court’s order.
Not only did the SC penalize retired Judge Joselito C. Villarosa with a fine of P140,000 and forfeited his retirement benefits except accrued leave credits, it also barred him perpetually from being appointed in any government office.
The decision was handed down last Jan. 28 and the ruling was mentioned last Thursday by Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta in his speech during the oathtaking of the national officials, regional directors, and deputies of the Philippine Judges Association.
Peralta reminded PJA officials to follow the rules as he stressed that you cannot be officials if you are not good followers.
The administrative cases against Villlarosa were investigated by the Office of the Court Administrator which supervises for the SC all lower courts in the country.
After deliberating on OCA’s findings and recommendations, the SC found that Villarosa was liable for violating its directive in A.M. No. 03-3-03-SC issued on July 8, 2014 to transfer all commercial cases pending in his court which have not been tried or have been submitted for resolution.
A summary of decision released by the SC Public Information Office stated that “Villarosa deliberately failed to transfer eight commercial cases to Makati RTC, Branch 137 in violation of the said directive.” (Rey Panaligan)
