SC SACKS PASAY JUDGE FOR INSUBORDINATION, HARASSMENT

A Pasay City lower court judge has been ordered dismissed by the Supreme Court for gross insubordination and sending sexually explicit messages to a fellow judge.

In an 85-page consolidated ruling, the high court ordered the immediate relief of Judge Eliza B. Yu of the Pasay Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 47. This was after she was found guilty of several administrative complaints filed by her fellow judges and court personnel.

Yu, a former government prosecutor, was also directed by the high tribunal to explain in writing why she should not be disbarred for violation of the Lawyer’s Oath, the Code of Professional Responsibility and the Canons of Professional Ethics.

“The grossness and severity of her offenses taken together demonstrated Judge Yu’s unfitness and incompetence to fur- ther discharge the office and duties of a judge,” the court said in its Nov. 22 ruling, a copy of which was released last week.

The administrative complaints against Yu stemmed from her refusal to comply with the Supreme Court’s administrative order in 2011 which established “night courts” to expedite the handling of criminal cases of foreign tourists.

Said the court: “To tolerate her insubordination and gross misconduct is to abet lawless- ness on her part. She deserved to be removed from the service because she thereby revealed her unworthiness of being part of the judiciary.”

Yu was also found guilty of sending “inappropriate messages with sexual undertones” to a fellow judge when she was still a state prosecutor.

Besides her dismissal as court officer, the court also moved to forfeit all her benefits and banned her for life from working in government.