De Gracia: New executive judge for RTC-Cebu City

The Supreme Court has designated Judge Fortunato de Gracia as the new executive judge for the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City starting this month. De Gracia will assume the administrative functions left by former Executive Judge Simeon Dumdum.

Yesterday, De Gracia formally received a copy of Supreme Court Administrative Order 22-2007, which directed him to assume the role until December 31, 2008. De Gracia will perform administrative functions over all branches of the RTC under his jurisdiction on top of his judicial functions.

As backup, the Supreme Court also designated RTC Judges Meinrado Paredes as First Executive Judge and Silvestre Maamo as Second Executive Judge to assume De Gracia's responsibilities in his absence.

The administrative order also included the list of the other newly designated executive judges in the different cities and municipalities in the Philippines. The other newly designated executive judges in Cebu include Judge Marilyn Yap (Mandaue City), Judge Victor Teves (Lapu-Lapu City) and Judge Cesar Estrera (Toledo City).

Dumdum, who paid De Gracia a visit yesterday morning, said he was confident to turn the responsibilities over to very able hands.

De Gracia, who claimed he was surprised of the new assignment, said he will continue implementing the policies that Dumdum has promulgated at the Palace of Justice, including the newly implemented security measure.

He described Dumdum's stint as executive judge as effective and only has kind words for his predecessor. "He is conciliatory, very able manager, condescending, and a very decent person," De Gracia said.

While he said no major changes will happen at the Palace of Justice in the coming days, the new executive judge said he will order a "no smoking" policy within the Palace of Justice, as well as refrain litigants from bringing children during hearings.

De Gracia admitted being executive judge entails more responsibilities, thus, adding pressure to him. "You have to be around in case of any eventuality," he said.

De Gracia has just arrived from The Hague, Netherlands wherein he attended a seven-day course on International Criminal Law together with 18 other justices and judges from the Philippines. The Hague Forum for Judicial Expertise organized the course for selected members of the Philippine judiciary.

Entering the judiciary in 2001, De Gracia is presiding judge of RTC Branch 15, the court handling the controversial drug case against Bernard Liu. - Joeberth M. Ocao/MEEV