ILOILO CITY, Philippines?The Supreme Court stood pat on its decision dismissing from service five court sheriffs in this city for illegally confiscating pigs and feasting on one of them in 2007.

In an en banc ruling promulgated on Oct. 13 and released on Nov. 4, the high court dismissed with finality the motions for reconsideration filed in September by the sheriffs.

?The court resolved to deny with finality the ?motions ? there being no substantial matter raised to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision,? it said.

The latest ruling upheld an Aug. 13 order dismissing Rolando Somosa, Edgar Cordero and Rodolfo Haro, sheriffs of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC); and Gani Lacatan and Camilo Divinagracia Jr., sheriffs of the Iloilo Regional Trial Court (RTC).
The court also ordered the forfeiture of all benefits and privileges of the sheriffs, except accrued leave credits.

The high court found them guilty of grave misconduct after they illegally confiscated 675 heads of swine from Nueva Swine Valley Inc. and admitted roasting and eating one of the pigs when they served a writ of execution related to a civil case two years ago.

The executive judge of the Iloilo RTC and the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) had earlier found the sheriffs to have violated procedures under the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure governing the implementation of execution of judgments for money when they levied the property of Nueva Swine Valley, which was not the subject of the writ of execution.

Mary Ann Ng, president and chief executive officer of the swine firm, was the subject of a criminal and civil complaint of Lita Gamboa, representing Keylargo Commodities Trading. Gamboa accused Ng of violating Batas Pambansa Bilang 22 (Bouncing Checks Law) for not paying her liabilities to complainant.

Investigations showed that on May 31, 2007, the sheriffs served the order of execution issued by the Municipal Trial Circuit Court Branch 2 in Bacolod City.

The order required Ng to pay her debts and the sheriffs to levy her properties if she failed to do so.

The high court had also pointed out that the properties of Nueva Swine were not the subject of the levy order because Ng has a separate and distinct personality from that of the corporation even if she was the corporation?s president and chief executive officer.