(Eagle News)–The Supreme Court has fined two Shari’a Circuit Court judges for what it ruled were their “misjudgments” that cast doubts into the integrity of the 2014 Shari’a Bar Examinations.
In a 13-page Resolution promulgated on July 24, the third division upheld the findings of the Office of the Court Administrator that found Judge Kaudri Jainul of the Shari’a Circuit Court of Isabela City, Basilan and the appointed chair of the Board of Examiners; and Judge Samanodden Ampaso of the Shari’a Circuit Court in Tamparal, Lanao Del Sur, the designated translator, guilty of conduct unbecoming of a judge and ordered them to pay P10,000 each.
The sanction stems from Jainul’s designation of Ampaso as translator to Arabic of the exams held on January 19 and 2016 in 2014 even when three of Ampaso’s children were taking the tests.
The SC did not give credence to Jainul’s contention that he had no knowledge that Ampaso had relatives who would be taking the exams.
“The fact remains that Judge Ampaso had full access to the questions when he translated the questions from English to Arabic.. two days before the first week of the examinations,” the division said.
The division also noted that Ampaso was billeted at a hotel located only a few kilometers away from where his children stayed, “[making] communicating the questions to his children highly possible.”
According to the division, while Ampaso “acceded when he was assured by Judge Jainul that such appointment was allowed and convinced himself that he was merely following the order of his superior,” he should have “been more circumspect in accepting his appointment despite the statement of Judge Jainul because in his heart and by his initial refusals, he knows that such designation is highly irregular and questionable.”
The division warned the judges that a repetition of the same would be dealt with “more severely.”
“Although no harm was actually inflicted in the Shari’a Bar examinations by such designation, it is the impression of impropriety that it created that casts a rather bleak picture of undue preference on the image of the Judiciary. [N]o matter how miniscule such appearance of impropriety is, the Court is duty-bound to forever maintain an untarnished image as the last bastion of democratic society where pure justice is expected and dispensed,” the division said.
It said the judges could neither be charged with a graver offense nor severely punished because at the time the controversy took place, there were “no sufficient procedures or guidelines yet by which the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) officials, the examiners, the translator, and the Office of the Bar Confidant could have been properly guided in preparing and administering the Shari’a Bar Examinations.”
The SC said the Rules for the Special Shari’a Bar Examinations were now being drafted.
