By SHIANEE MAMANGLU
Manila Bulletin
A former Caloocan City judge was slapped with a fine and a six-year jail sentence for
forcibly kissing three female court and city mayor office employees, and licking the ear of one of them, some 14 years ago.
In a 28-page decision, the Sandiganbayan’s first division found Armando De Asa Sr., then Presiding Judge of Branch 51, Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) in Caloocan City, and acting executive judge of the same court guilty of violation of Article 336 of the Revised Penal Code.
The decision penned by Associate Justice Efren N. de la Cruz, the division’s chairman, said that De Asa is “guilty beyond reasonable doubt of Acts of Lasciviousness, as defined and penalized under Article 336 of the Revised Penal Code, in Criminal Cases No. 27438, No. 27439, No. 27440, No. 27441 and No. 27442…’’
The court also sentenced the accused “for each count to suffer the indeterminate penalty of six months of ‘arresto mayors’ as minimum, to six years of ‘prision correccional’ as maximum, and to pay each victim the sum of P30,000 as moral damages, and P10,000 as exemplary damages.’’
Associate Justices Alexander G. Gesmundo and Alex L. Quiroz concurred in the decision.
The case stemmed from the complaints filed by Noraliz Jorgensen, a casual employee of the Office of the City Mayor of Caloocan, and Femenina Barreto and Floride Dawa, both court stenographers of branches 53 and 52 that they were embraced, kissed and licked in the ear, which were committed against their will, by the judge.
In her complaint, Jorgensen said she was kissed on her lips and licked on her left ear by the accused on the following occasions: when she went to the accused’s office to get the latter’s signature for allowance on January 3, 1997; when she went again to the accused’s chamber to give his allowance on March 31, 1997; and when she went to the accused chamber for his signature on May 26, 1997.
Barreto, who was assigned at Branch 53 of the MeTC but was temporarily placed at Branch 51 where the accused was presiding, said that De Asa “went to her, held her jaw and kissed her’’ after she entered his office to hand him an order from her boss Judge Romanito Amatong in July 22, 1997.
Dawa said in her affidavit that on August 8, 1997, the former judge, after seeing her come out of the comfort room, told her to go to his office for a while and when inside the accused “pressed her cheeks with his fingers and kissed her twice.’’
The complaints were backed by employees of MeTC and the mayor’s office who testified to have witnessed the victims following the kissing incidents.
De Asa had denied the allegations claiming that their complaints were “part and parcel of a setup headed by
lawyer Mona Lisa Buencamino (clerk of court MeTC) to oust him as a judge because of some grudges they had against him.’’
In April 29, 2002, the accused moved to quash the “Information,†saying that the anti-graft court has no jurisdiction over the case and that his constitutional right to due process was violated.
