Administrative Order No. 327, March 26, 1960

REMOVING MR. RICARDO GARCIA FROM OFFICE AS JUSTICE OF THE PEACE OF JOLO, SULU.

This is an administrative case filed by Hadjali Jumaide against Mr. Ricardo Garcia, justice of the peace of Jolo, Sulu, for bribery on two counts in connection with the preliminary investigation of Criminal Case No. 431 conducted by the respondent while acting justice of the peace of Patikul, Sulu. The record submitted appears to be a reconstitution from the personal files of the District Judge who investigated the complaint and of the stenographer who took down notes of the proceedings during the investigation, as the original record together with the papers on two other administrative cases against the same, respondent submitted to the Department of Justice for review during the incumbency of the former Secretaries of Justice have been misplaced arid could not be located despite diligent search.

After careful review of the evidence on record which consists of the testimony of the complainant and the respondent and their respective witnesses, the following appear duly established: (1) that respondents wife received the sum of 180 for the bail bond of two of the accused in Criminal Case No. 431 in respondents house and in his presence and (2) that respondent himself received the sum of 200 from the father of the two accused in the same case which he subsequently dismissed. I am unable to pass upon the finding of the investigating Judge that respondents dismissal of the case against the two accused was arbitrary and unjustified, his conclusion being based on his own review ofthe record of said criminal case presented as Exhibit 1 for the respondent which is not now available.

Although the District Judge believes that the 200 was received by the respondent on the understanding with the “giver that it was” to be delivered to the offended party in consideration of the dismissal of the case, which probably accounts for the light penalty of three months suspension recommended by the Judge, the fact is that respondent kept the money for himself an act of grave dishonesty that renders him unfit to continue in office.

Wherefore, and upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Justice, Mr. Ricardo Garcia is hereby removed from office as justice of the peace of Jolo, Sulu, effective upon receipt of a copy of this order.

Done in the City of Manila, this 26th day of March, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and sixty, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the fourteenth.

(Sgd.) CARLOS P. GARCIA

President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) NATALIO P. CASTILLO

Executive Secretary