Group asks SC to dismiss Davao City judge
A FARMERS’ group yesterday asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a Davao Citybased judge for stopping the government from seizing a large shipment of rice suspected of being smuggled into the country.
This was the second administrative complaint for the same issue filed before the high court against Emmanuel Carpio, presiding judge of the regional trial court of Davao City.
The administrative complaint was filed by former Trade Undersecretary Ernesto Ordoñez and peasant leader Jaime Tadeo, both of Alyansang Agrikultura, a broad grouping of farmers, fisherfolk and other agricultural producers. They both asked the high court to dismiss Carpio from the service “due to gross ignorance of the law.”
Like the first administrative complaint filed by the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag), Alyansang Agrikultura slammed Carpio for issuing a writ of preliminary injunction against the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that prevented the government agency from seizing the shipment of 91,800 bags of rice claimed by a certain Joseph Mangupag Ngo in December last year.
In its 24-page complaint, the group alleged that Carpio had exhibited “gross ignorance of the law” in issuing the writ of preliminary injunction.
The judge went ahead with the hearing of Ngo’s petition on Dec. 10 last year without proper representation from the BOC. He also issued the writ without giving the bureau the chance to present its side and despite the failure of Ngo to establish a clear right to the injunctive relief demanded.
The group said Ngo had failed to establish his right to the rice shipments since the waybills and bills of lading of the shipment were in the name of Starcraft International Trading Corp.
“What is worse, (Carpio) overstepped his authority and even enjoined seizure of the ship- ment by the BOC, thus, obviously encroaching upon the latter’s powers,” the group said.
Sinag had earlier asked the high court to hold Carpio liable for gross misconduct and knowingly rendering an unjust judgment for stopping the seizure of Ngo’s rice shipments.
The high court in February issued a temporary restraining order against Carpio’s order against the BOC. It acted on the petition filed last Feb. 21 by Customs Commissioner Jose Philip Sevilla and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala as chair of the National Food Authority (NFA).
The petitioners had told the high court that the injunction against the implementation of NFA Memorandum Circular No. AO-2K13-03-003, which requires rice imports to be covered by duly issued import permits, had “brought about the unbridled entry of smuggled rice from various countries to the detriment of the Filipino farmers.”