A.M. No. MTJ-03-1502 (Formerly OCA IPI No. 01-1121-MTJ) - ANASTACIO E. GAUDENCIO, COMPLAINANT, VS. JUDGE EDWARD D. PACIS, MTC, BRANCH 3, MARILAO, BULACAN.R E S O L U T I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

accordingly, the court has to wait or defer further action on the cases before concluding the preliminary investigation. Failure to observe guidelines set forth under paragraph Nos. I and IV, Administrative Circular No. 3-99 dated 15 January 1999 specifically on the observance of session hours and adherence to the policy on avoiding postponements and for unduly granting motion for postponements or repeated resetting in court calendar - these alleged infractions should not be taken against him due to the following: (d.1) The Assistant Prosecutor assigned in his sala is available only for one-half (1/2) a day a week and only in the afternoon, and the worst part of it is that most of the time she fails to appear during the scheduled trial/hearing, thus, reducing the number of sessions in a month from two (2) days to one and one-half (1 1/2) days a month. (d.2) There are only few practicing lawyers who appear in his court and the public attorney assigned to his court usually moves for a resetting of the trial. (d.3) The trial/hearing were also reset by mutual agreement of the parties. (d.4) A case has to be postponed also because the parties have not received their respective notices on time, most especially when notices were sent thru the post office. (d.5) The Police Officers who were tasked to cause the services of the notices, subpoenas/summons are no longer given the privilege to use the free postage mailing thus the court encounters the difficulty of waiting for the return of service. (d.6) There are also instances when court processes were served by the Process Server and returned with a notation that the addresses cannot be found at the given address or unknown within the community. Relative to not holding court sessions on the following dates: October 1, 8, 14, 15, 22, November 5, 12, 16, 19, 26 and December 3, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29 all in the year 1999, he stated that: (e.1) October 1, 8 and 22; November 5, 12, 19 and 26 and December 17, 1999, these dates fell on a Friday and were supposed to be motion day but lawyers still prefer to appear in the Regional Trial Court. Counsels of litigants, particularly in civil cases prefer Monday to Wednesday and refuse to set any hearing on these dates. The court accordingly cannot set any hearing/trial or motions on the criminal cases because of the unavailability of an Assistant Provincial Prosecutor, who is available on a Thursday afternoon. (e.2) On October 14 and 15, he attended the Philippine Trial Judges League Convention held in Bacolod City where he is the Public Relations Officer and convention coordinator. (e.3) On November 16, the court held a hearing regarding Civil Case No. 810 entitled "Teodorico Rivera vs. Pedro Manalang". (e.4) December 3 this was the date set for the Oath Taking of the Officers of the Philippine Trial Judges League where he is a coordinator and the Public Relations Officer. (e.5) December 16, was the date set for the Christmas Party of the Municipal Trial Cour