Erice asks SC to dismiss Caloocan judge

Caloocan Vice Mayor Edgar Erice on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to dismiss from the service a Caloocan Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge who issued an order that blocked the suspension of Mayor Enrico Echiverri and three other city officials.

In a five-page administrative complaint, Erice accused Executive Judge Eleonor Kwong of gross ignorance of the law, gross negligence and gross misconduct for granting a 72-hour temporary restraining order (TRO) in favor of Echiverri.

Kwong’s order prevented the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) from implementing the six-month suspension order that the Office of the Ombudsman had issued against Echiverri for his alleged failure to remit the contributions of city hall employees to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) amounting to P340 million.

“Even a freshman law student knows that the [Caloocan] RTC has no jurisdiction over the Ombudsman,” Erice told reporters after filing his complaint.

“Echiverri’s petition for declaratory relief has no basis. That’s why I don’t understand why [Kwong] issued the TRO,” he added.

In his pleading, Erice asked Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez to take disciplinary action against Kwong for her “overt display of abuse of judicial power.”

“The TRO issued by Judge Kwong is patently unlawful and contrary to all legal principles as the [RTC] now impudently seeks to enjoin the Court of Appeals and the Office of the Ombudsman,” he said.

According to him, Echiverri’s petition for declaratory relief was intended to “further delay the proceedings [in the Ombudsman] and deprive the Ombudsman of the opportunity to fully carry out its constitutional mandate.”

Citing a previous ruling of the high court, Erice said that an injunction order should not be issued by a lower court to prevent the antigraft body from investigating graft cases filed against public officials.

He added that Kwong also “deliberately disregarded” the rule against forum shopping, noting that Echiverri had also filed a motion for reconsideration with the appellate court.

Last week, the appellate court upheld the legality of the suspension order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman against Echiverri as it lifted the writ of preliminary injunction it had earlier issued in favor of the mayor.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said that the DILG would serve the suspension order on the mayor after the TRO lapses on Thursday.

The issuance of the TRO was in response to a petition for declaratory relief with prayer for temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction filed by Echiverri’s camp on Monday.

The complaint against Echiverri was filed by Erice with the Office of the Ombudsman in July.—With Kristine Felisse Mangunay