- BERT BAYORAN
Former Sugar Regulatory Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica was found guilty of indirect contempt by Himamaylan Regional Trial Court Branch 55 Judge Walter Zorilla, for issuance of SRA Memorandum Circular No. 11, series of 2021-2022, in violation of the writ of preliminary injunction he had issued.
Zorilla, in his 11-page decision dated Sept. 26, sentenced Serafica to a straight penalty of 15 days imprisonment, and to pay a fine of P30,000.
“Accordingly, let a warrant of arrest be issued against Hermenegildo Serafica for the service of the imprisonment imposed upon him,” the court decision stated.
Court records show that Serafica, then administrator of SRA, issued MC No. 11, series of 2021-2022, or the “Resumption of Implementation of Sugar Order No. 3”, that allows the importation of 200,000 metric tons of standard grade refined sugar and bottlers grade refined sugar, May 4 this year, despite the writ of preliminary injunction (WPI) issued by the Himamaylan RTC on March 2, 2022.
Serafica, in his explanation through the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), said he did not disobey, resist, or otherwise violate the court’s WPI, and that he acted in good faith when SRA issued MC 11, since SRA merely relied on his counsel’s advice.
MC 11 expressly excludes Region 6, the judicial region where this court belongs, from its coverage, Serafica said, pointing out that the issuance of MC 11 cannot be deemed an act of disobedience of, or resistance to, or otherwise, a violation of the WPI order.
Zorilla, in his ruling, said that Serafica’s justification that the preliminary injunction can be enforced only within the 6th Judicial Region, where this court belongs, is “utterly misplaced”.
Clearly, there is absolutely nothing in the preliminary injunction that enjoined the implementation of Sugar Order 3 “only in the 6th Judicial Region”, he stressed.
In fact, Serafica fully knew that, based on the disquisition in the issuance of the preliminary injunction, this court upheld the contention of the intervenors that “they have an unmistakable rights, either as sugarcane farmers or sugar producers to be protected of the profitability and viability of their livelihood…They successfully impressed to the court that this right is being threatened, and, or violated under the Sugar Import Program of SRA, embodied in SO3,” the judge said.
Enrique Tayo acted as the petitioner, representing the Negros Occidental Federation of Farmers’ Associations.
As administrator of SRA, Serafica knows that, even if the processing of the importation of refined sugar, or the actual delivery thereof, is done outside the territorial jurisdiction of the 6th Judicial Region, there is absolutely no guarantee that it will not have an effect on the profitability and viability of the livelihood of the petitioners and intervenors, court records showed./GB
