‘My conscience is clear’

Embattled Cebu judge Rosabella Tormis remains calm despite the burden of a Supreme Court decision to dismiss her for failing to resolve a chronic backlog of cases.

“Before God and man, I am doing my job. I have a clean conscience,” she told reporters yesterday.

“My family and my staff members know how I work. They could never charge me for sleeping on my job,” said Tormis, presiding judge of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) Branch 4.

She said she would seek a reconsideration of the decision.

“I dare the Supreme Court to go around the Palace of Justice and see for themselves who is working and who is not. I’m confident because the Lord is by my side. What is important is that I have peace within myself. I leave it all to God. I entrust everything to the Lord,” she added.

Her husband Guillermo is still in the hospital after he suffered a massive heart attack last Feb. 18 and was operated on.

The court decision scrapped all her benefits and privileges, a hard blow for the 63-year-old judge who planned to retire in June next year.

“My husband is confined at the hospital. He had head surgery. I don’t know where the money will come but God will provide.”

She said she reflected over the Holy Week and realized that “I share in the passion of Jesus Christ.” Tormis, a regular psalmist at the Sto. Rosario Parish Church in downtown Cebu City, has four children and six grandchildren.

She served as a prosecutor in Tacloban City before she was named MTCC judge in Cebu City in 1999.

The High Court ordered her dismissed from service after she was found guilty of “gross inefficiency, violation of SC rules, directives, and circulars, as well as gross ignorance of the law.”

Her clerk of court Reynaldo Teves was also fired.

“I have yet to receive a copy of the decision. But when it comes, I’m ready,” she said.

Tormis said she was surprised by the court ruling and believes that “unseen hands” manipulated it.

When an audit was made in her court in 2008, Tormis said she was just reinstated after serving a suspension in another case.

Tormis said the three separate suspensions issued against her caused the delay in work.

“(The SC) said being suspended for one year is not an excuse but what do you expect of a judge who does not know what is going on in her court and then here comes the audit team when she returns?,” she said.

Another audit conducted by the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) sometime last year revealed that Tormis has no pending case for decision.

Tormis recalled that she was even told by the audit team that she was the only judge who didn’t have any pending case for decision.

“I was shocked by what happened. They can never pin me down for being lazy. I make my stay, every minute in this office productive ,” she said.

“I’m not perfect but I did what I was supposed to do. That was what the Lord wants me to do. Do your job. Do it with passion. That is what is expected of the civil servant,” Tormis said.

She said she had no regrets of joining the judiciary.

“If I have to live my life all over again, I will still live the same life. To me, everything happens for a reason. I have no regrets. I don’t have ill feelings,” she said.

“Who says there is justice in this world? Justice is upstairs, up there, somewhere. I’m not asking pity for those responsible for this. I’m not going to die yet. I still have a long life ahead. Although at 63, it’s not as bright as before,” Tormis said.