THIRD DIVISION
[A.M. No. P-12-3091. February 20, 2013.]
CLERK OF COURT YVONNE Q. RIVERA, petitioner, vs. REX J. GEROCHE, CASH CLERK III, respondent.
NOTICE
Sirs/Mesdames :
Please take notice that the Court, Third Division, issued a Resolution dated February 20, 2013, which reads as follows:
"A.M. No. P-12-3091 [Formerly A.M. OCA IPI NO. 10-3426-P] — Clerk of Court Yvonne Q. Rivera v. Rex J. Geroche, Cash Clerk III. On July 28, 2010, Yvonne Q. Rivera (Rivera), Clerk of Court, Municipal Trial Court in Cities, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental (MTCC) filed a complaint-affidavit 1 against Rex J. Geroche (Geroche), Cash Clerk III of the same court, before the Office of the Clerk of Court (COC), for malversation, falsification of documents and gross dishonesty committed in the performance of his duties. In her complaint-affidavit, Rivera alleged the following:
xxx xxx xxx
2. That the person herein complained of MR. REX J. GEROCHE is the Cash Clerk of MTCC, Kabankalan City, having been appointed to such position on December 15, 2006;
That the duties of MR. REX J. GEROCHE includes the issuance of official receipts, deposit of collections, deposit and withdrawal of cash bonds, maintenance of books of accounts and prepares and transmits monthly reports of Judiciary Development Fund, Special Allowance for the Judiciary, Mediation Fund, Legal Researcher Fund and Fiduciary Fund; HETDAC
That during the first and second years of his service, he appeared to be dependable, trustworthy, and conscientious in his work, thereby earning trust which prompted me to entrust to him all cash transactions to him, including the care and custody of the passbook for Fiduciary Fund;
3. That sometime in October 2008, a verification of reports was done by the State Auditor MR. RAUL L. RIVERA and found that all the transactions were in order. This assured me that MR. REX J. GEROCHE does his job in accordance with the rules. In June 2009, MR. RAUL L. RIVERA again verified the reports and found them to be in order;
4. That sometime in the second week of February 2010, I instructed MR. REX J. GEROCHE to bring the monthly reports of the Judiciary Development Fund, Special Allowance for the Judiciary, Mediation Fund, Legal Researcher Fund and Fiduciary Fund to the State Auditor for verification, having received instructions from MR. ROSINIE HILARIO, Audit Team Leader of the Office of the Supervising Auditor, Audit Group I- Province of Negros Occidental, that MTCC-Kabanlakan is under their jurisdiction. MR. REX J. GEROCHE assured me that the reports were in order, as I had already signed the same;
5. That MR. REX J. GEROCHE did not report for office the following weeks, and when I examined his files, I discovered that there were a lot of missing reports and documents including some of the Reports he caused me to sign to be sent to the Chief Accountant of the Supreme Court of the Philippines;
That on March 8, 2010, the State Auditor conducted an audit and found out that there were missing documents that were in the custody of MR. REX J. GEROCHE; hence, the reconciliation of records was not possible;
6. That on March 12, 2010, our Presiding Judge Cyclamen J. Fernandez-Cayatao issued an Office Memorandum No. 1-2K12 for him to report for work on March 15, 2010 on the subject of the Cash Examination Audit, but he failed to do so; (Office Memorandum No. 1-2K10 as Annex "A"). Then on March 15, 2010, our presiding Judge issued Office Memorandum No. 2-2K10 (Annex "B" hereof) directing MR. REX J. GEROCHE to explain why he was not able to report for work;
That he presented himself later and when confronted, he admitted before the undersigned and the Presiding Judge that he had made irregularities in his work, including misappropriation of the collection of funds; SATDHE
7. That I received a letter from the Supreme Court directing me to SHOW CAUSE why my salary should not be withheld of my failure to submit the monthly reports for the Judiciary Development Fund, Special Allowance for the Judiciary, and Fiduciary Fund and the General Fund for the months of August 2009 up to the present, January 2010 up to the present, respectively;
I was then surprised to receive such letter from the Supreme Court because I had already signed and believed in good faith that they were transmitted to Manila. In fact, he even showed me the LBC courier receipt;
8. That when I called the attention of MR. REX J. GEROCHE, he explained that he was not able to transmit the aforementioned reports due to inadvertence. Upon investigation of the same, however, it was discovered that the collections were not deposited; hence, the reports were not sent because there were no deposit slips to be attached;
9. That after making several oral demands from him to present the Savings Account Passbook No. 1171000153 he told me that it was left in his office; a diligent search was done, but it was not found. But on March 25, 2010, he reported to the office bringing with him the passbook;
That I took the passbook from MR. REX J. GEROCHE, and discovered many irregularities in the deposits and withdrawals, including the falsification of documents;
10. That I immediately sent a letter to the Land Bank of the Philippines informing them of the irregular and falsified transactions, and had the incident recorded in the Blotter Report of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Kabankalan City for proper recording. Even the Land Bank Office staffs are conducting verification to the extent of such misappropriation;
xxx xxx xxx
The OCA directed Geroche to comment on the complaint. 2 In his Compliance Letter, dated April 25, 2011, Geroche informed the OCA that he already submitted his resignation letter effective August 23, 2010 and that he would no longer submit a comment to the complaint. 3
On September 3, 2012, the OCA, in its Report, 4 stated that Geroche's failure to deposit the court's collections and to transmit the monthly reports to the Court due to inadvertence and his failure to give satisfactory explanation for such omission, constituted gross dishonesty. The OCA recommended that he be dismissed from the service with forfeiture of all retirement benefits except accrued leave credits. ETDaIC
Before resolving the complaint, the Court deems it proper that a financial audit be conducted first on the books of account of complainant Rivera. As clerk of court and cash clerk respectively, Rivera and Geroche are accountable officers entrusted with the responsibility of collecting money belonging to the funds of the court. Both have been remiss in their duty to remit the collections within a prescribed period and both are liable for keeping funds in their custody — Rivera as the one responsible for monitoring the court's financial transactions and Geroche as the one in whom such functions were reposed.
WHEREFORE, the Court DIRECTS the Office of the Court Administrator to conduct a financial audit on the books of account of complainant Yvonne Q. Rivera, Clerk of Court, Municipal Trial Court in Cities, Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, and to withhold all cash benefits due to Geroche pending financial audit.
SO ORDERED."
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) LUCITA ABJELINA SORIANODivision Clerk of Court
Footnotes
1.Rollo, pp. 2-4.
2.First Indorsement dated July 13, 2010, id. at 9.
3.Id. at 13.
4.Id. at 19-24.