By Benjamin Pulta
MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed an administrative complaint filed against a Nueva Ecija prosecutor due to lack of substantial evidence.
The tribunal approved the findings and recommendation of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and dismissed the administrative complaint filed by Mila Acosta against Cabanatuan City Prosecutor Christopher Singson.
“(T)he primary purpose of administrative disciplinary proceedings against delinquent lawyers is to uphold the law and to prevent the ranks of the legal profession from being corrupted by unscrupulous practice — not to shelter or nurse a wounded ego.” the court said in its six-page resolution dated Feb. 5, and uploaded online March 14.
The SC added that the “court will only wield its power to disbar when substantial evidence would prove the lack of fitness to engage in the practice of law.”
Acosta filed the complaint after she was dissatisfied with the prosecutor’s resolution of the perjury case she initiated.
On Sept. 20, 2010, the complainant wrote a letter to the provincial prosecutor of Nueva Ecija to follow up the status of the case pending before the prosecutor at the time.
She later discovered that the case was already dismissed by the prosecutor in August of that year.
The IBP said the complainant, who subsequently filed an affidavit of desistance, failed to substantiate her allegation that the opposing party in her complaint gave a white envelope to the respondent.
“No proof was adduced to support this contention. Thus, it remains to be a naked claim,” the SC said. (PNA)
