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FORMER vice mayor Antonio Soriano over the weekend said the Supreme Court decisions on the cases filed by former Taglimao barangay chairman William Guialani and Puntod barangay chairman Marvin Beja gave the credibility of the Court of Appeals here a boost.

Soriano, a lawyer by profession, said this even as he opined that Guialani and his associate Clemente Atoc did not receive the correct advise about their legal move.

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Soriano said the administrative case filed by Guialani and Atoc against the CA associate justices was “premature.”

The two accused the CA justices of gross ignorance of the law and gross violation of the Lawyer’s Oath, Code of Professional Responsibility, Code of Judicial Conduct, Professional Ethics, Code of Judicial Ethics.

They also accused the justices of grave abuse of authority, gross misconduct, manifest partiality, and gross violation of Sections 4(a) and 4(c) of Republic Act 6713 and Section 3(e) of RA 3019.

Those Guialani and Atoc accused were CA Associate Justices Henri Jean Paul Inting, Pablito Perez, Oscar Badelles, Perpetua Atal-Paño, and Edgardo Camello.

The SC en banc trashed Guialani and Atoc’s case.

“They should have appealed to the SC against the issuances of the temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction instead of filing an administrative case against the CA justices,” Soriano said.

Guialani and Atoc filed the case against the CA justices after they issued a TRO and, subsequently, a WPI that stopped the implementation of a dismissal and perpetual disqualification order by the ombudsman against Mayor Oscar Moreno and former city treasurer Glenn Bañez in connection with the controversial city hall-Ajinomoto tax settlement.

Soriano said the SC ruling upholding the rulings of the CA only strengthened the credibility of the associate justices.

“Sa ato pa ang credibility sa mga justices maayo. In other words, ingon ang Supreme Court, ipadayon kana inyong buhaton kay maayo kana,” Soriano said. “Makatabang na hino-on kana nga makapa-isog sa ila (associate justices) ba. After all, kaning ilang gipanghimo lugar insakto.”

Soriano said the dismissal of the petition for review on certiorari that was filed by Puntod barangay chairman Beja also had the same effect — that is, the CA justices were “correct” in preventing the implementation of a six-month suspension order against Mayor Moreno, city budget officer Percy Salazar, and city accountant Beda Joy Elot.

Moreno, Salazar and Elot were slapped with the suspension order as an offshoot of Beja’s complaint that they caused the city hall lease of a Macasandig house for boxers without the city council’s approval.

The Beja case, just like Guialani’s, is on appeal. (nitz arancon)

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