THE Supreme Court has issued a show cause order against former Boac, Marinduque mayor Pedrito Nepomuceno for the repeated filing of defective pleadings.
In a decision penned by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, the Court en banc denied Nepomuceno’s motion for reconsideration and ordered him to show cause within a “non-extendible period of 10 days from notice” why he should not be cited in contempt for his repeated filing of defective petitions involving the same subject matter.
The SC on December 5, 2023 dismissed Nepomuceno’s petition for the issuance of a writ of kalikasan and a writ of continuing mandamus as he claimed that the people of Boac suffered floods due to the Boac River Reclamation Project.
Nepomuceno claimed the project was not subjected to the Environmental Impact Analysis of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The 2023 petition, however, was found non-compliant with the requirements under the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases.
The High Court found that Nepomuceno failed to submit proper verification and failed to pay the required docket and legal fees, failed to show proof of service to the adverse parties, failed to file the required number of plain copies of the petition, and failed to submit an electronic copy of the petition through electronic mail within 24 hours from the filing of the hard copy.
Further, Nepomuceno’s claims in his petition, according to the SC, were not supported by any evidence.
The SC dismissed the petition, prompting Nepomuceno to file the present motion for reconsideration.
However, the SC held the motion for reconsideration simply restated the contents of the 2023 petition and ignored its ruling on the procedural flaws identified.
“The motion, which was unsigned and undated, merely requested for the Court’s understanding and leniency instead of curing the 2023 petition’s procedural defects,” the SC said, adding that the present motion was already the fourth time that Nepomuceno filed a defective pleading.
Court records showed that before the 2023 petition, the former local chief executive also filed a petition in 2021 for a writ of kalikasan and mandamus involving the same Boac River Reclamation Project.
That petition was also junked by the SC for being insufficient in form and substance, with defects similar to those identified in the 2023 petition.
Nepomuceno, according to the SC, also admitted that in a 2021 plea he had previously filed before the High Court a petition for the issuance of a writ of kalikasan where he stated that no river is being reclaimed.
The SC held that Nepomuceno has shown a propensity to repeatedly flout procedural rules without any valid justification despite having his attention directed to the applicable rules on separate occasions.
“Thus, to protect the orderly administration of justice and to avoid the unnecessary clogging of the Court’s dockets, the Court cannot let Nepomuceno’s non-compliance pass,” the SC said.
“While the Court recognizes that frequent and sustained floods are detrimental to the environment and society as a whole, it underscored that this does not serve as a license for Nepomuceno to disregard the procedures clearly set out in the Rules of Procedure on Environmental Cases. Unless Nepomuceno can satisfactorily explain his actions, the same may constitute contempt of court,” the SC added.
