A Travesty to the Judicial Hierarchy & the Constitution

When the Supreme Court declared as FINAL & EXECUTORY the DENIALS for several petitions on certiorari and appeals for review and/or annulment of the Amended Decision of SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS IR-1110 of Iriga City in G.R. Nos. 140271 and then again on G.R. No.142477 , I thought that with these six resolutions, two entries of judgments and letters of transmittal being remanded back to the court of origin, the execution would be less difficult.

But then came, two years later, on 16 April 2002, a decision from the former Fifth Division of the Court of Appeals came out with its own controversial decision to expunge the whole proceedings. Still then, the Hon. Lore R. Valencia-Bagalacsa, the assisting judge who decided the case, used the strength of the resolutions and entries of judgments by the Honorable Supreme Court in the said two cases which prevailed over the CA Decision, and to continue pursuing the executions as manifested by the prevailing party- Mr. Henry Rodriguez. The honorable judge did follow the principle of the "hierarchy of the courts" wherein the resolutions/decisions of the Supreme Court should be the FINAL decision on the judicial bearings and Court of the "last resort." Not till on the 21st of February 2007, barely three days after assuming her office as the new Acting Presiding Judge of RTC Branch 34, Iriga City, Judge Lelu Contreras, in defiance of the constitution, the rules of court and the Supreme Court, issued an Order to EXPUNGE Special Proceedings IR-1110, using the Court of Appeals Decision to nullify the whole proceedings in its entirety.

The Honorable Associate Justice Lock formerly of the Office of the Court Administrator strongly and firmly stated in answer to a query dated last 4 October 2007:

“x x x…The Court of Appeals and the Regional Trial Court CANNOT EXPUNGE, DECLARE NULL & VOID or REVERSE the decision of the Supreme Court rather it is the other way around. Under the hierarchy of courts, the Supreme Court is the court of the LAST RESORT. The Constitution provides “No doctrine or principle of law laid down by the court (Supreme Court) in a decision rendered en banc or in a division may be modified or reversed except by the court setting en banc. The Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction under Section 5, Article VIII of the Constitution provides that it has the “power to review, revise, reverse, modify or affirm on appeal or certiorari as the law or Rules of Court may provide, final judgments and orders of lower courts .x x x.”

Somehow, the RTC judge (Judge Lelu Contreras) disregarded the FINAL authority of the Supreme Court in the above cited cases and instead used as reference the Court of Appeals Decision, to issue the Order to expunge. This is clearly an unlawful, unconstitutional act and constitutes the gravest administrative offense that a judge has made. If an RTC judge can do this against the Supreme Court, where else are we to go to? Where can "Juan de la Cruz" go to seek justice when these things happen in the judiciary. We can only shiver, tremble with fear and think deeply...