SC sacks Baguio RTC sheriff, Pampanga clerk of court

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered the dismissal from government service of a sheriff in the regional trial court in Baguio City and a clerk of a municipal circuit trial court in Pampanga for various administrative and criminal offenses.

In a 13-page resolution, the SC said it has found Crisanto Flora guilty of gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct for collecting P5,000 for the execution of a court order in 2001 without issuing a receipt when he was sheriff at the Office of the Clerk of Court, Baguio RTC.

It was found that Flora had asked payment from complainants in a civil case for the enforcement of a writ of execution dated Feb. 20, 2001 issued by Branch 4 of the RTC in Baguio City but did not issue any receipt. The sheriff submitted the sheriff’s return to the court dated June 15, 2001 only on May 27, 2005 and after the branch clerk of court had inquired about it in March 2005.

In his defense, Flora said he was not able to implement the writ of execution because he was suspended from office from Aug. 1, 2001 to July 31, 2002. But the High Court rejected his claim, stressing that the writ of execution was issued and assigned to Flora more than five months before his suspension.

The SC also found the sheriff’s return submitted by petitioner dubious.

“The return was supposedly dated June 15, 2001 yet it never occurred to him to submit it immediately thereafter,” said the SC.

“By his own admission, the submission came only after the branch clerk of court inquired about it. It now appears that the return was ante-dated and the submission a mere afterthought,” the tribunal said.

The second case involved Maria Algabre Chico, clerk of court of the municipal circuit trial court in Apalit-San Simon, Pampanga, who was found guilty of gross dishonesty and malversation of public funds.

The SC, in a per curiam decision, also ordered the Civil Service Commission to cancel Chico’s civil service eligibility, if any, and directed the Office of the Court Administrator to file criminal charges against Chico before the appropriate court.

The tribunal upheld the findings of OCA of the lower court which found Chico incurring cash accountabilities related to her duties as collecting officer amounting to P391,100, P380,000 representing refunded cash bonds and P11,100 representing marriage solemnization fees.

Chico admitted that she used some of the court’s collections to pay for her personal expenses and confessed her failure to duly collect solemnization fees and to immediately deposit the cash bonds received by the court. She likewise admitted that she gave the court’s junior process server cash allowances without the necessary papers for travel expenses in the ser- vice of summons.

In finding Chico guilty of gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct, the SC emphasized that the safeguarding of funds and collections, the submission to the court of a monthly report of collections for all funds, and the proper issuance of official receipts for collections are essential to an orderly administration of justice.

The SC also found that Chico did not issue an official receipt for the amount of P8,000 she had received in connection with a criminal case. Neither did Chico detail in her monthly report of collections and deposits all true and correct cash transactions of the court, in violation of SC Circular No. 32-93.

Additionally, the SC found that Chico falsely reported that certain withdrawals had been duly acknowledged by their respective claimants by means of signatures which she herself had forged.