Firearms under the custody of Cebu City court vanish into thin air

At least 13 firearms that were in the custody of a Cebu City court as evidence in cases pending before the sala of a dismissed judge were nowhere to be found.

The police were called in to investigate after the acting clerk of court of Branch 4 of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC), Lyssette Yuson discovered the loss when she conducted an inventory of the evidence.

All staffers of the court branch are considered as suspects, a police source told Cebu Daily News.

According to Yuson, a litigant filed a motion last June 6 asking the court to return his firearm which was used as evidence in a court case.

After verifying from the records that the firearm was indeed under the court’s safekeeping, Yuson went to the judge’s chamber to check on the gun.

“Upon seeing the locker, there was no sign that it had been forcibly opened since the padlock remained intact. In fact, I even used the key when I opened the padlock,” Yuson said in her report.

However, she noticed that the hasp or the metal fastener where the padlock is placed was partly detached.

“I discovered that the hasp was already detached from the locker with only one screw left,” she said.

Yuson immediately informed the other employees of MTCC Branch 4 of what she found.

During the physical inventory, it was discovered that at least 13 firearms were missing.

Ten of the guns were used as evidence in cases that were already dismissed or ended in the acquittal of the accused.

The three other missing firearms are being utilized as evidence in three pending cases.

The firearms from cases that were dismissed or ended in aquittal can be returned to its owners as long as they are licensed.

Otherwise, they shall be turned over to the custody of the Firearms Explosives Security Agencies and Guard Supervisory Section (FESAGGS) of the Philippine National Police.

Among those missing are 10 .38 caliber revolvers, two .22 caliber revolvers, and an improvised airgun.

The items were last seen in a wooden cabinet inside the room of Judge Rosabella Tormis at Cebu City’s Palace of Justice.

Tormis, who used to preside over Branch 4 before she was dismissed by the Supreme Court, has not reported for work since the decision on her case was handed down last April.

MTCC Executive Judge Francisco Seville Jr. said he was surprised upon learning about the incident.

“As far as I can remember, this is the first time an incident like this happened inside the court,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Seville said the High Court has yet to be informed of the incident, sources said.

Cebu Daily News tried calling Tormis through her cellular phone but a man who answered the calls said the judge had pawned her cellphone to him weeks ago.

Last Thursday, Cebu Daily News chanced upon Tormis at the Palace of Justice. She said she has no idea about the incident yet.

“I have not reported for work for quite some time already,” she said.

Tormis was one of four MTCC judges who were dismissed by the Supreme Court last April for their involvement in a marriage scam.

The others were MTCC Judges Anatalio Necessario of Branch 2, Gil Acosta of Branch 3, and Edgemelo Rosales of Branch 8.

Earlier, the High Court also cracked its whip on Tormis by ordering her dismissal from service for failing to resolve several cases on time.

Tormis was found guilty of “gross inefficiency, violation of SC rules, directives, and circulars, as well as gross ignorance of the law.”

Lawyer Reynaldo Teves, clerk of court of MTCC Branch 4, was also dismissed from service for two counts of simple neglect of duty.

Tormis is set to be replaced by Judge Alberto Pita from the Municipal Trial Court in Barili town, southwest Cebu.

Pita will temporarily take over MTCC Branch 4 until the appointment of its regular presiding judge.

Veteran lawyer Democrito Barcenas urged law enforcers to seriously investigate the issue.

Barcenas surmised that someone who has a pending case before MTCC 4 may have taken the firearms to suppress the evidence against him or her.

But he said the police should also take into account the possibility of an inside job.

“There are angles that should be taken into consideration. We could not make any accusations yet,” said Barcenas, who used to be the president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter.

Judge Meinrado Paredes of the Regional Trial Court said the clerk of court and the presiding judge have the responsibility over the evidence which are kept inside the court.

He said the court clerk and the judge can be charged with infidelity in the custody of a public property in the event pieces of evidence that were entrusted to them are lost.

“Whether or not the missing evidence were stolen or lost due to negligence, they could still be held liable,” Paredes said.

In 2001, former Assistant City Prosecutor Rosendo Brillantes lost 248 grams of shabu placed under his custody at the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office.

Five years later, Brillantes was meted an imprisonment of 12 to 18 years by the Sandiganbayan after he was found guilty of malversation of public property for the disappearance of the evidence.