No clerk at fiscals' office sparks fistfight of lawyer, stenographer

The absence of a clerk to receive pleadings at the Cebu City Prosecutor's Office sparked acts of disgust from a lawyer and retaliatory name calling from a stenographer that resulted in a fistfight between them yesterday afternoon.

It was not clear however who between the two started hitting the other but witnesses said lawyer Rameses Victorious Villagonzalo allegedly punched court stenographer Romulo Sotto in the abdomen.

Witnesses alleged that Villagonzalo got incensed when he overheard Sotto calling him crazy but the lawyer neither confirmed nor denied hitting Sotto.

Villagonzalo instead said he was able to parry a punch from Sotto but it caused a gash to the lawyer's hand. "Nisumbag siya nako pero akong natapi mao nga nasamad akong left wrist kay naigo sa iyang relo," Villagonzalo told The Freeman.

Villagonzalo narrated that, while looking for space to park his car, he asked his wife to take his documents of pleadings ahead to the building and have them received at the office of assistant prosecutor Raul Cristoria.

After 15 minutes had elapsed, he got out of his car, leaving his 5-year-old daughter inside, to check what took his wife that long to file the pleadings.

Villagonzalo said he saw assistant prosecutor Rosendo Brillantes who allegedly referred him to the office of prosecutor Alex Gabud instead because nobody from Cristoria's office could receive his documents.

However, Gabud's secretary allegedly refused to receive his pleadings also prompting Villagonzalo to grab the documents and tore them out before going out of Gabud's office.

William Solon, a process server in Gabud's office, said Villagonzalo was already muttering when he entered the office because nobody received his documents. "Diritso siya og pangisog; iyang gikumot ang papers," Solon said.

Villagonzalo admitted having torn his pleadings in disgust because, while nobody received his pleadings, the prosecutor's office staff passed him around.

Later he met Sotto in the hall's lobby, and Villagonzalo said he overheard Sotto called him "crazy," causing him to turn back and confront Sotto.

"Ngano man diay og mag t-shirt ra ko di ko magbarong boangboangon ra diay ko," Villagonzalo was quoted as saying.

The altercation however was immediately settled when assistant city prosecutors Mary Ann Castro and Joseph Val Carillo finally intervened.

Villagonzalo eventually said the case was settled already after Sotto apologized to him shortly after the incident. The lawyer said he would not file a complaint against Sotto. - Fred P. Languido