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Thursday, March 28, 2024

SC bans NV court clerk

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BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The Supreme Court has banned a former Nueva Vizcaya clerk of court from government employment and his retirement benefits forfeited after finding him liable for incurring shortages in court fees and failing to deposit the funds on time.

In a 19-page en banc decision, promulgated last July 11 but just recently posted on its website, the High Court found Gerard Lindawan of the Bagabag-Diadi Municipal Circuit Trial Court in this province guilty of gross dishonesty and grave misconduct.

The SC found that Lindawan committed several irregularities in the administration of funds, as the failure to deposit them on time deprived the court of the interest that could have been earned.

Lindawan was also faulted for collecting cash bonds without issuing official receipts, falsifying receipts, and losing several booklets of receipts.

“Undoubtedly, the ultimate penalty of dismissal would have been imposed upon Lindawan had he not resigned from his post. Thus, in lieu of the dismissal, the Court shall forfeit the retirement benefits that may be due him,” read the decision penned by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. 

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Judge Bill Buyucan, meanwhile, was fined P20,000 for simple neglect of duty and conduct unbecoming of a judge for his part, being the direct supervisor of Lindawan. 

Meanwhile, the high court has affirmed the move of local prosecutors to clear two Pangasinan barangay officials accused of fabricating the blotter to dishonor a local resident.

In a recent 10-page decision, the SC First Division said complainant Danilo Cariaga failed to show grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor and Office of the Regional State Prosecutor in dismissing the complaints in their resolutions in April 2014 and January 2015, respectively.

The SC said the ORSP correctly ruled there was no probable cause to indict barangay chairman Emmanuel Sapigao and barangay secretary Ginalyn Acosta of Barangay Carosucan Sur, Asingan town, for the offenses of slander by deed and false certification.

It said there was no improper motive on the part of Sapigao and Acosta, as they made the blotter entries in good faith and in performance of their official duties as barangay officials.

“On the other hand, Cariaga’s insistence that the blotter entries were completely false essentially rests on mere self-serving assertions that deserve no weight in law,” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe.

The case arose from two blotter entries dated August 3, 2012 and September 26, 2012, which stated the reports of unidentified concerned residents that Cariaga had fired a gun inside his compound and later brought the weapon while attending a funeral march.

The blotter entries were used to secure a warrant for a December 18, 2012 search and seizure operation. A criminal case for illegal possession of firearms was filed against Cariaga, but it was dismissed in October 2013 by the Urdaneta City Regional Trial Court.

This prompted Cariaga to later file the complaints against the two barangay officials for entering “completely false” entries in the blotter to “dishonor and discredit him.”

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