NextGen Day

MANILA, Philippines — A Tagaytay City judge has been sacked by the Supreme Court (SC) for errors in a property case judgment.

Former Tagaytay City Regional Trial Court Branch 18 Judge Edwin Larida Jr. was found guilty of significant misconduct and gross ignorance of the law by the supreme court.

He was ordered to be discharged from the military, forfeiting his retirement benefits and barring him from re-employment in any sector of the government.

“His act of delivering a forged ruling casts considerable doubt on his competency and honesty in carrying out his duties as a magistrate.” As a result, we are compelled to impose dismissal in this case in order to defend and preserve the reputation and integrity of the whole court,” the Supreme Court said in a judgment released online Sunday.

Larida said that copies of a ruling he allegedly issued on March 14, 2008, as well as a certificate of finality dated April 18, 2008, were purposefully removed from his office.

He said that his staff misled the next judge in charge of the case into believing that it was still ongoing when it had already been resolved by him.

A petition by plaintiff Annabella Ocampo for the issuing of new owner’s documents of title in favor of a certain Clarito Poblete was approved in 2008.

The properties were purchased by the Original Development and Construction Corp. (Odecor) in 2002, when the titles were still in the name of the registered owner, Victorino Angcaya, and the titles were not yet canceled.

Odecor then filed an administrative case against Larida, alleging that there was no copy of the 2008 judgment in the land case records for a new title.

The court personnel certified that the case was still open, and in 2010, Ocampo’s petition for a new title was dismissed by a new judge, Emma Young.

Larida filed the administrative complaint, stating that his March 2008 decision was properly released, served, and registered in the Registry of Deeds.

The staff members accused of removing records filed a counter-complaint, alleging that the Larida conspired with the parties to fake the Clerk of Court’s declaration of finality and two official receipts.

In her report in 2015, Court of Appeals Justice Ma. Luisa Quijano-Padilla, who was assigned to investigate the administrative case, said there was “strong evidence to refute Judge Larida’s allegation of the legitimacy of the judgment, allegedly dated March 14, 2008.”

Hearings on the case were scheduled by Larida on January 4 and February 4, March 28, June 20, August 22 and October 3 of the same year after Ocampo and her attorney failed to appear, according to the probe.

Padilla called the March 14, 2008 ruling “very suspicious” because it came despite instructions to reschedule the case’s hearings.

The parties failed to present at the hearing even after Young took over the matter.

The administrative allegations of significant misconduct, forgery of public documents, and major negligence of duty brought by Larida against Calma, legal researcher Diana Ruiz, court stenographer Ligaya Batino, and clerk Anita Goboy were dismissed by the SC “for utter lack of merit.”

“There was no evidence that they had committed the offenses that had been leveled against them.” As a result, the complaint against them should be dismissed,” the Supreme Court said.

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