MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) En Banc has ordered the dismissal and disbarment of Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Oscar Tomarong for the murder of a fellow judge, ruling that his actions constituted one of the gravest violations of judicial duty. In a decision, the high tribunal dismissed Tomarong, presiding judge of RTC Branch 28 in Liloy, Zamboanga del Norte, following disciplinary proceedings initiated by the Judicial Integrity Board (JIB), now the Judicial Integrity Office. The administrative case stemmed from Tomarong’s criminal conviction for planning the 2019 killing of Judge Reymar Lacaya, then presiding judge of RTC Branch 11 in Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte. The Court ordered Tomarong’s dismissal from the service, forfeiture of all retirement benefits, disbarment from the practice of law, and perpetual disqualification from reemployment in the government. The Court recounted that in 2019, it had reassigned Tomarong and Lacaya to each other’s court branches. Shortly after Judge Lacaya concluded hearings one afternoon at Branch 28, gunshots rang out as he was walking toward his car parked behind the court building. Lacaya was later found dead. During the criminal trial, Juliber Cabating, a public works employee who also served as Tomarong’s errand aide, testified that Tomarong instructed him to look for hired killers to murder Judge Lacaya. Cabating further testified that Tomarong paid the assailants P250,000 through him. The Court noted that another witness corroborated being with the hired killers on the morning of the murder, while an eyewitness identified the suspects fleeing from the court premises shortly after the shooting. The Court stressed that murder was a crime involving moral turpitude, warranting the ultimate administrative penalty of dismissal under the Rules of Court. Moral turpitude, it said, referred to acts that are grossly immoral, dishonest, and contrary to one’s duty to society. Describing Tomarong’s actions as a “patent breach” of the essence of judicial office, the High Court said that at a time when attacks against judges have prompted measures to protect members of the Bench, a judge who commited the murder of a fellow judge “must be punished swiftly and severely.” While Tomarong’s criminal conviction remains on appeal, the Court ruled that a final judgment of conviction was not required to impose administrative sanctions. In disciplinary cases, the Court requires only substantial evidence, emphasizing that administrative proceedings are separate and distinct from criminal cases and do not demand the same degree of proof. It added that even the dismissal of a criminal case does not automatically result in the dismissal of an administrative case. The SC likewise declared Tomarong unfit to practice law, citing the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability, which prohibits lawyers from engaging in unlawful, dishonest, or immoral conduct. A lawyer who shows “utter disregard for the sanctity of human life,” the Court said, cannot remain a member of the legal profession.