Ex-Bindoy mayor loses SC appeal

After a long running and bitter legal battle with his own wife for allegedly forging the latter’s signature to obtain a bank loan, former Bindoy Mayor Attorney Justo J. Paras turned himself in to Regional Trial Court Branch 39 Presiding Judge Arlene Catherine Dato, Tuesday, to serve his jail sentence after the Supreme Court junked his motion for reconsideration.

The lower court convicted Paras in 2001 for falsification and use of falsified documents pursuant to Article 172 in relation to Article 171 of the Revised Penal Code. The ruling was recently upheld by the Supreme Court except the awarding of moral damages from P500,000 to P50,000; exemplary damages from P500,000 to P50,000 and the deletion of the award of attorney’s fees.

In 1995, Paras was charged by wife Rosa, now the incumbent mayor of Bindoy, of contracting an P80, 000 loan with the Rural Bank of Mabinay Inc., by forging her signature in eleven commercial documents.

However, to this day, Paras vehemently denies he forged his wife’s signatures and falsified the documents. He claims to have been denied of his right to due process but vowed to respect the decision of the court, being a lawyer. He vowed to extend legal advice to his coinmates, but possibly not for long, if and when the reported petition to revoke his license as a lawyer filed by his wife Mayor Rosa Yap Paras and children will be granted by the authorities.