(Eagle News)—The Supreme Court has dismissed a Makati judge for gross ignorance of the law and gross misconduct when he downgraded the charges of the two men accused of the 2012 killing of a US Marine officer from murder to homicide allegedly without citing legal bases and by ignoring existing jurisprudence.
In dismissing him in a 13-page decision, the SC said Judge Winlove Dumayas of the Makati City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 59 “acted with conscious indifference to the possible undesirable consequences to the parties involved” in violation of the Constitution and the Code of Judicial Conduct when he allowed accused Crispin dela Paz and Galicia Datu III to eventually go on probation after the killing of George Anikow.
This was after, according to the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) which recommended Dumayas’ dismissal, the judge found there was “unlawful aggression” on the part of Anikow, which accordingly meant Datu and Dela Paz acted in self-defense.
Datu and Dela Paz were also found to have voluntarily surrendered despite testimony to the contrary.
“And since the violated constitutional provision is so elementary, failure to abide by it constitutes gross ignorance of the law, without even a need for the complainant to prove any malice or bad faith on the part of the judge,” the SC said.
It ordered the forfeiture of Dumayas’ retirement benefits and his perpetual disqualification from public service.
All 13 justices who participated in the proceedings concurred with the ponente’s decision.
