SC removes lawyer from gov’t service for misconduct in Ruby Barrameda case records

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has perpetually disqualified for government service a lawyer who was discovered with misplaced records related to the Ruby Rose Barrameda murder case within his secured cabinet in Malacañang.

In a 23-page decision penned by SC Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen promulgated on June 27, 2023, the high court affirmed the dismissal of Jerik Roderick Jacoba, who was working at the former Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs due to charges of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty.

“Jerik Roderick V. Jacoba is hereby found guilty of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty and the penalty of dismissal from government service with the accessory penalties of forfeiture of all retirement benefits (except terminal leave benefits and personal contributions to the GSIS, if any); perpetual disqualification from reemployment in the government service; cancellation of civil service eligibility; and bar from taking the civil service examinations are imposed on him,” the resolution read.

In 2010, the Barameda case was forwarded to the Office of the President (OP) after the Department of Justice indicted Barrameda’s husband, Manuel Jimenez III, for the crime of parricide.

Jimenez appealed the DOJ decision, prompting the transfer of case records to the Legal Affairs Office of the OP.

It could be recalled that the body of Barrameda was found covered in hardened concrete inside a steel drum in Navotas City in 2009.

The suspects in the murder case, Jimenez and his father, were acquitted by the Malabon Regional Trial Court in October 2019. 

The case before the high court stemmed from the discovery that Jacoba was  in possession of the “lost” case records in connection with the murder case of Barrameda. 

In February 2012, the OP inquired about the status of the Jimenez appeal. However, the case records could not be found.

After conducting an investigation, the missing records, along with the preliminary draft, were discovered within a secured filing cabinet assigned to Jacoba.

The case records and the draft decision were promptly sent to Executive Secretary (ES) Paquito Ochoa. On the same day, he rejected Jimenez's