Philippine Supreme Court Resolutions > Year 2010 > November 2010 Resolutions > [A.C. No. 1171 : November 15, 2010] TEODORO MENDOZA, COMPLAINANT VS. ATTY. LIBRADO CORREA, RESPONDENT. :

Please take notice that the Court, Third Division, issued a Resolution dated 15 November 2010, which reads as follows:

A.C. No. 1171 - TEODORO MENDOZA, complainant vs. ATTY. LIBRADO CORREA, respondent.

R E S O L U T I O N

Judge Librado Correa is the Presiding Judge of the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 164, Pasig City, before he compulsorily retired on August 17, 2010. Subsequently, he filed an application for his retirement benefits but the Bar Confidant refused to give him clearance as he has a pending administrative case docketed as A.C. No. 1171 - the case now under consideration.

In his letter dated September 8, 2010, addressed to Bar Confidant Ma. Cristina B. Layusa, Judge Correa claims that as early as February 19, 1974, the present case, together with A.M. No. 105-MJ (Complaint of Teodoro Mendoza v. MJ Librado Correa) had already been dismissed. He also claims that the present case was consolidated with A.M. No. 105-MJ but he no longer has a copy of the Court's order of consolidation. He presented a Certification, dated September 6, 1993, issued by Mr. Arturo E. Pizarro, then Chief of the Court's Records Control Division, to support his claim of the dismissal of the case. Mr. Pizzaro, in his certification, stated that the records of the complaint for illegal practice of law while he was still in the Election Registrar's Office "were destroyed when our former bodega was flooded in 1984[,]" and "[t]hat the only extant record of the case is the Index Card bearing the following entry:

1. Case Dismissed. Complaint has nothing to do with his official duty as judge. Resolution dated February 19, 1974."
   

We have reasons to believe the assertion of Judge Correa that A.C. No. 1171 was converted into a regular administrative case and consolidated with A.M. No. 105-MJ. The two (2) cases, both filed by the same complainant against the same respondent, charged the same offense of illegal practice of law. The complaint was filed against Judge Correa while he was the municipal judge of the Municipality of San Ildefonso, Bulacan. Complaints against judges are filed/referred to the Office of the Court Administrator for evaluation, report and recommendation, or the Court shall assign the case for investigation, report and recommendation to a Judge of the RTC if the respondent is a judge of an inferior court. Complaints against judges are docketed as an Administrative Matter or A.M.

In the present case, the complaint against Judge Correa for illegal practice of law was docketed as A.M. No. 105-MJ and referred for investigation to then Executive Judge Juan Echiverri of the RTC of Baliwag, Bulacan.

The Office of the Bar Confidant has refused to give Judge Correa a clearance based on the letter dated September 1, 1993 of then Bar Confidant Emilio R. Rebueno. We observe that this letter and the Certification dated September 7, 2007 are premised on the circumstance that the available Court records show that the present case is still pending.

It is unclear to us what records the Bar Confidant referred to as basis for the above issuances. We infer from the Report for Agenda, dated September 15, 2010, of Atty. Ma. CristinaB. Layusa, Deputy Clerk of Court and Bar Confidant, that the Certification, dated September 7, 2007, was issued based on the letter, dated September 1, 1993, of then Bar Confidant Rebueno. We, however, note that the letter, dated September 1, 1993, was issued despite the Office of the Bar Confidant's admission that it did not have the custody of the original records of the case. In her report, Atty. Layusa additionally stated that the only record on file is the said letter dated September 1, 1993.

In any event, the complaint in A.C. No. 1171 refers to the same incident basis of the complaint for illegal practice of law in A.M. No. 105-MJ, that is, for respondent appearing as counsel in a case involving real properties of his family. We take judicial notice of the dismissal of A.M. No. 105-MJ and consider as dismissed A.C. No. 1171.

ACCORDINGLY, the Court resolves to DIRECT Bar Confidant Via. Cristina B. Layusa to ISSUE a clearance to Judge Librado Correa to the effect that the records of the Bar Confidant do not show that Judge Correa has a pending case.

SO ORDERED.