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Maria Apiag, et al. vs. Esmeraldo G. Cantero

MARIA APIAG, TERESITA CANTERO SECUROM and GLICERIO CANTERO, complainants, vs. JUDGE ESMERALDO G. CANTERO, respondent.

A.M. No. MTJ-95-1070 | 1997-02-12

D E C I S I O N


PANGANIBAN, J.:

Judges ought to be more learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, and more advised than confident. Above all things, integrity is their portion and proper virtue. 1

The eminent Francis Bacon wrote the foregoing exhortation some 400 years ago. Today, it is still relevant and quotable. By the nature of their functions, judges are revered as models of integrity, wisdom, decorum, competence and propriety. Human as they are, however, magistrates do have their own weaknesses, frailties, mistakes and even indiscretions. In the case before us, respondent Judge Esmeraldo G. Cantero was charged...