RTC stenographer suspended by SC

CEBU, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) of the Philippines suspended a court stenographer of the Regional Trial Court Branch 24 in Cebu City for three months after she was found guilty of asking for an advance payment for the transcript of stenographic notes (TSN) from a litigant.

In her penned resolution, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said such act is contrary to the ethical standards of court personnel and holds Maria Fe Arnejo administratively liable.

“Wherefore, respondent is found guilty of conduct grossly prejudicial to the best interest of the service. Accordingly, she is hereby suspended for three months, with a stern warning that a repetition of the same or a similar offense will be dealt with more severely,” she ruled.

The complaint was filed by Joefil Baguio who alleged that Arnejo committed gross neglect of duties for non-compliance of SC Administrative Circular No. 24-90, which requires stenographers to transcribe notes within 20 days from the date of hearing as well as the non-issuance of an official receipt for the payment of the TSN and the antedating of the date of the TSN.

The Office of the Court Administration (OCA) in its recommendation referred the matter to former Executive Judge Silvestre Maamo Jr. of RTC for the conduct of investigation and possible recommendation.

After the investigation, Maamo forwarded the result to the OCA wherein he found no basis on the allegation of the complainant. He said the TSN had been transcribed within the mandated period.

For the non-issuance of receipt, Maamo said Arnejo admitted though that she issued an acknowledgement receipt for the amount of P240 which she received from Baguio as advance payment for the TSN.

Maamo also found out that respondent failed to prove that she had been regularly remitting payments for the TSN to the Office of the Clerk of Court (OCC) of the RTC.

With this, Maamo recommended that Arnejo be reprimanded for the violating code of conduct for court personnel due to asking for advances from litigants and issuing acknowledgement receipts for collecting payments for the TSN, failure to immediately remit her TSN collection on the day the payments were received and failure to prove her practice of regular remittances to the OCC-the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) she collected for the TSN’s paid for by the litigant.

Sereno in her decision stated that “clearly, therefore, payment cannot be made to respondent, as it is an official transaction, and as such, must be made to the Clerk of Court. Respondent, being a stenographer, is not authorized to accept payment for judicial fees, even if two-thirds of those fees would be paid to her anyway.”

Sereno likewise said along with the associate justices in the SC, they do not agree with the recommendation of Maamo and the OCA on merely reprimanding Arnejo since her act is classified as “grave offense” punishable on the first offense by a suspension for six months and one day to one year.

However, for humanitarian reasons and because it was the first violation of the respondent, Sereno together with associate justices reduced the penalty of suspension to three months.- (FREEMAN)