Ex-SRA chief Serafica found guilty of indirect contempt over importation order

Former Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) chief Hermenegildo Serafica has been found guilty of indirect contempt for issuing a memorandum authorizing sugar imports despite a court order prohibiting it.

According to an order released on Monday, Judge Walter Zorilla of the Himamaylan City Regional Trial Court Branch 55 sentenced Serafica to 15 days in prison and directed him to pay a fine of P30,000.

Zorilla also issued a warrant of arrest for Serafica.

GMA News Online contacted Serafica for his comment on the decision, but as of posting time, no response had been received.

On May 4, Serafica issued Memorandum Circular No. 11 (Resumption of Implementation of Sugar Order No. 3 series of 2021-2022), which allowed the processing of applications for the importation of 200,000 metric tons of standard grade refined sugar and bottler's grade refined sugar despite the Himamaylan RTC issuing a writ of preliminary injunction (WPI) on March 2.

The injunction was in relation to the petition filed by the Negros Occidental Federation of Farmers’ Association against the importation program under Sugar Order No. 3.

Serafica said that he acted in good faith when he issued MC 11, since the SRA merely relied on the advice of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC).

He added that since Region 6, the judicial region to which the RTC belongs, was specifically left out of MC 11, the issuance could not be interpreted as a violation of the WPI.

The court said that the issuance of MC 11 “contravened” the WPI.

“Serafica’s justification that the preliminary injunction can be enforced only within the 6th Judicial Region, where this court belongs, is utterly misplaced,” the order stated.

“Clearly, there is absolutely nothing in the preliminary injunction that enjoined the implementation of Sugar Order 3 only in the 6th Judicial Region.”

The court found that there was a “bold and contumacious refusal to abide by the injunction, whose wordings are definite, clear, and straightforward.”

“This cannot be condoned, much less left unpunished,” it said.

Serafica resigned last month following the controversy involving Sugar Order No. 4, which allowed the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar even without the knowledge and approval of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.  —Sherylin Untalan/VBL, GMA News