A MANILA Metropolitan Trial Court judge has been suspended for 30 days without pay by the Supreme Court for uttering homophobic slurs involving the sexual orientation of litigants.
MTC Branch 26 Presiding Judge Jorge Emmanuel Lorredo, who had previously been fined and warned for improper remarks during a preliminary conference, was also ordered to pay a P50,000 fine for simple misconduct.
The SC warned Lorredo that a repeat of the same offense will be dealt with more sternly.
The suspension stemmed from a complaint filed in 2019 by Marcelini Espejon and Erickson Caboneta alleging that Lorredo showed bias and partiality against them and their sexual orientation by persistently asking them if they are homosexuals and telling them that homosexuality is a sin.
Among the words uttered by Lorredo that the complainants found offensive were: “Pagkabading, tomboy, lesbian, ayaw ng Diyos ‘yun” and “So, pag meron kang lesbian relationship, paparusahan ‘yung anak mo. Dengvaxia di ba? Kayo din kasi may kasalanan din sa Diyos.”
The SC ruling penned by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa said such remarks constitute homophobic slurs, which “have no place in our courts of law.”
The SC added that Lorredo’s inappropriate remarks violated a resolution issued by the Civil Service Commission on sexual harassment cases which applies to all government officials and employees.
The SC also found that Lorredo, who admitted to having settled 101 cases using the Bible, allowed his religious beliefs to interfere with his judicial functions with his attempt to make a connection between the litigants’ sexual orientation and the ejectment case they were involved in and his inclination to use Biblical passages and teachings to the case.
The SC said the action of judges must always be seen by the public as guided by law, and not by their personal or religious beliefs to avoid perceptions of “displays of religiosity as encroachment or interference with our justice system.”
AUTHORITY OF MAYORS UPHELD
The Supreme Court has upheld the authority of mayors to discipline erring officials and employees under their jurisdiction as it affirmed former Valenzuela City mayor and now Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s order suspending a records officer that a student intern accused of sexual harassment.
In a 13-page decision penned by Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando, the High Court granted the petition for certiorari filed by the city government of Valenzuela assailing the rulings of the Civil Service Commission and the Court of Appeals that voided the charge of sexual harassment and the preventive suspension against Romeo Urrutia, officer IV in the council secretariat of the Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Valenzuela City, and chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Valenzuela City Employees Cooperative.
Urrutia allegedly sexually harassed a female student undergoing on-the-job training in 2011.
The trainee filed her complaint before the Valenzuela City’s Women’s Desk of the Human Resources and Management Office (HRMO), which forwarded the charge to the Personnel Complaints and Ethics Board (PCEB).
The SC said Gatchalian’s authority as well as that of other local executives to discipline erring subordinates emanates from Section 87 of the 1991 Local Government Code and also — in sexual harassment charges — from CSC’s resolution on the Rules on Sexual Harassment Cases.
