SC sacks judge for taking bribes
THE PHILIPPINE Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a judge found guilty of directly soliciting bribes from lawyers, litigants, and elective officials in exchange for favorable rulings from the bench in Roxas, Oriental Mindoro.
The Court En Banc decided unanimously in finding Judge Edralin C. Reyes, of the Regional Trial Court Branch 43 in Roxas, guilty of gross misconduct.
Apart from the penalty of dismissal from service, the SC ordered that Mr. Reyes be stripped of his retirement benefits and barred permanently from employment in any government branch or agency.
He was also found guilty of simple misconduct for which he was fined P17,500.
Mr. Reyes’ violations were discovered by the Management Information Systems Office (MISO) and subsequently investigated by the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) when his government-issued laptop was sent for repairs to the MISO by the judge who succeeded him in December 2019.
The SC’s Public Information Office said the OCA hired a forensic expert to examine the laptop, which was found to contain SMS/iMessage conversations, contact information, photos, videos, and iPhone notes with different lawyers and a mayor.
The correspondence showed Mr. Reyes had asked and received money, a car, and guns in exchange for granting or reducing bail, decisions of acquittal, granting motions to travel abroad, and orders allowing plea to a lesser offense, it said.
Three judicial audit teams were formed to investigate Branches 39, 41, and 43 of the Oriental Mindoro RTC.
“The audit likewise revealed that the firearms in nine cases decided by [Mr.] Reyes involving violations of Republic Act No. 10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunitions Act, were not turned over to the Philippine National Police. The judicial audit teams surmised that Mr. Reyes and the lawyers he frequently conversed with may have kept the missing firearms after the cases were dismissed,” the Supreme Court statement said. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana