Implementing Guidelines and Procedures

November 2, 2005

CTA ADMINISTRATIVE CIRCULAR NO. 01-11-05

IMPLEMENTING GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

The following Guidelines and Procedures are hereby adopted to implement Section 10 of A.M. No. 04-2-04 dated August 16, 2004, particularly, the provisions pertaining to the deposit of the thousand pesos (P1,000.00) to be made by the plaintiff/petitioner upon the filing of the "Petition for Review" to defray the actual travel expenses of the Sheriff, Process Server or other court-authorized persons.

A. ASSESSMENT OF THE FEE

1. Duty of the Records Officer; Required amount of Deposit. — In every case filed, the Records Officers of the Record Section shall require the plaintiff/petitioner to deposit the amount of one thousand pesos (P1,000.00) upon filing of the "Petition for Review" in order to defray the actual traveling expenses of the Sheriff, Process Server or other court-authorized persons in the service of summons, subpoenas and other court processes that would be issued relative to the trial of the case. The said amount shall form part of the fees to be assessed by the Records Officers in the Computation Sheet.

2. Duty of the Clerk of Court before additional deposit is required. — In the event the balance of initial deposit of any case is lower than Three Hundred Pesos (P300.00) is reported by the Bookkeeper, the Clerk of Court shall require the plaintiff/petitioner to make an additional deposit of P1,000.00 by way of a Demand Letter. The Payment Order Form to be accomplished by the plaintiff/petitioner upon payment of the additional deposit must be duly verified by the Clerk of Court. TEDHaA

3. Litigants covered. — The Clerk of Court shall collect the P1,000.00 deposits from plaintiff/petitioner for cases filed on August 16, 2004 and for every case filed thereafter by sending a demand letter.

B. ISSUANCE OF OFFICIAL RECEIPT

1. Verification by the Clerk of Court; Duty of the Cashier to issue official receipts. — After the Clerk of Court made the required verification of the Computation Sheet in case of deposit assessed during the filing of the "Petition for Review" or of the Payment Order Form in case of an additional deposit, the Cashier as designated authorized representative of the Clerk of Court shall issue an appropriate Official Receipt. A separate set of Official Receipt shall be used for the collections of the fund. Such official receipts issued shall invariably indicate, among others:

1. the prefix initial of the name of the fund — Sheriff Trust Fund (STF);

2. the description of the kind and nature of the collection; and

3. the assigned case number. SHAcID

Further, the Cashier shall make two (2) photocopies of the original copy of the official receipt before the same will be given to the plaintiff/petitioner. The Official Receipts for the Sheriff Trust Fund shall be securely kept and maintained by the Cashier.

2. Distribution of the official receipts. — The official receipts issued for this purpose shall be distributed as follows:

1. Original copy — plaintiff/petitioner

2. Duplicate copy — Resident Auditor

3. Triplicate copy — Cashier

4. Photocopy of the Original — Records Section

5. Photocopy of the Original — Internal Audit Division.

C. DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL OF FUND

1. Depository of the Fund; Interest accruing to JDF. — The Court shall open a checking account "Sheriff Trust Fund" with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP). 1 The income and interest earned therefrom shall likewise form part of the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).

2. Frequency of making Deposit and Withdrawal of Fund. — The Cashier shall Deposit the Collections of STF on a daily basis. However, the withdrawal of funds shall only be made if there is a need to replenish the Petty Cash-Sheriff Trust Fund (PC-STF).

3. Procedure for withdrawal of fund. — The Cashier will recommend and initiate the withdrawals of STF. The check to be drawn for that purpose must be approved and signed by the Executive Clerk of Court or in her absence, the Deputy Clerk of Court and by Associate Justice Lovell R. Bautista or in his absence Associate Justice Juanito C Castañeda, Jr.

4. Pre-requisite for the release of fund. — Release of STF to the Sheriff and Process Servers shall only be in accordance with approved "STF Petty Cash Slip" 2 or "Itinerary of Travel." 3

D. SERVING PROCESS

1. Through Cash Advance. — In order to serve the Court's processes, the Sheriff or Process Server will make a cash advance from the petty cash-sheriff trust fund to defray his actual traveling expense to be incurred in serving those processes by accomplishing STF Petty Cash Slip. The Bookkeeper shall determine whether or not there is still an unliquidated amount of cash advance. Thereafter, the Petty Cash Slip must be approved alternately by the Executive Clerk of Court and Deputy Clerks of Court. After getting the required approval of the concerned Clerk of Court, the Sheriff or Process Server will present the Petty Cash Slip to the Cashier, who will then release the fund corresponding to the amount approved by the Clerk of Court. The cash advance to be approved by the Clerk of Court shall in no case exceed P500.00 and that prior cash advance made by the sheriff or process server shall be properly liquidated before releasing another cash advance.

2. Through Reimbursement of Expenses. — The Sheriff or Process Server is also allowed to use his personal (own) money in serving Court's Processes and thereafter, he is allowed to ask reimbursement by accomplishing the Itinerary of Travel and STF Petty Cash Slip on the next day after service of process. All traveling expenses incurred by the Sheriff or Process Server in serving Court's Processes by using his personal money shall be reimbursed upon submission of Itinerary of Travel and STF Petty Cash Slip, and upon certification from the Bookkeeper that the claimant has no unliquidated cash advance.

3. In case a request to serve the summons and other processes is made to the Clerk of Court and Ex-officio Sheriff who has jurisdiction over the place where the defendant of the person subject of the process resides, a reasonable amount shall be withdrawn from said deposit by the Clerk of Court issuing the process for the purchase of a postal money order to cover the actual expenses of the serving Sheriff. STcHDC

4. With regard to sheriff's expenses in executing writs issued pursuant to court orders or decisions or safeguarding the property levied upon, attached or seized, including kilometrage for each kilometer of travel, guards' fees, warehousing and similar charges, the interested party shall pay said expenses in an amount estimated by the Sheriff, subject to the approval of the Court. Upon approval of said estimated expenses, the interested party shall deposit such amount with the Clerk of Court and ex-officio Sheriff, who shall disburse the same to the deputy sheriff assigned to effect the process, subject to liquidation within the same period for rendering a return on the process. The liquidation shall be approved by the Court. Any unspent amount shall be refunded to the party making the deposit. A full report shall be submitted by the deputy sheriff assigned with his return, and the sheriff's expenses shall be taxed as costs against the judgment debtor.

5. Entitlement to Transport Allowance. — If the sheriff and process server are still serving process for cases filed before the effectivity of the Supreme Court Administrative Circular on August 16, 2004, they are still entitled for the transportation allowance from this Court for the actual traveling expense incurred but not to exceed P150.00. Increase of the transportation allowance shall be determined by the Court En banc.

6. Prohibition for using Court's Vehicle. — The Sheriff, Process Server or other court-authorized persons shall not be allowed to use Court's vehicle in serving processes.

7. Prohibition to Use Taxi and its exceptions. — As a general rule, only the ordinary public conveyances or customary modes of transportation shall be used in serving summons and other Court's processes. The use of taxis and chartered trips or special hires of PUs, garage cars, launches, motorboats, sailboats, bancas and other extraordinary means of transportation shall not be allowed unless justified by the prevailing circumstances, such as but not limited to, carrying large amounts of cash, bulky equipment which cannot be conveniently transported through ordinary mode of transportation or important documents, inclement weather, accompanying dignitaries or high government officials, or when time is of the essence (Joint COA-DBM Cir. 86-1, supra)". 4 Hence, the use of taxi is allowed if justified under a given circumstances, like in case there are no other ordinary means of transportation in going to the office of the counsel of the litigants, or when there is urgent necessity to deliver the summons for other Court's processes.

E. LIQUIDATION AND REIMBURSEMENT

1. Liquidation of the cash advance. — In case the Sheriff or Process Server made a cash advance in order to serve Court's processes from the petty cash-sheriff trust fund, he is required to make proper liquidation of amount advance by submitting in duplicate the "Itinerary of Travel, STF Petty Cash Slip (liquidation) and photocopy of STF Petty Cash Slip for cash advance together with the Proof of Service and the same must be submitted for approval to the concerned Clerk of Court discussed above [Item D (1)]. After approval, the original copy shall be forwarded to the Cashier for liquidation and recording purposes. Any excess of the amount of cash advance shall be returned to the Cashier and the same must be duly deposited back to the Sheriff's Trust Fund bank account. The other copy of the Itinerary of Travel, STF Petty Cash Slip (Liquidation) shall be submitted to the Bookkeeper also for his proper recording. ECAaTS

2. Reimbursement and Liquidation of actual traveling expense. — If the Sheriff or Process Server used his personal (own) fund in serving Court's Processes, he can ask reimbursement the next day after effecting the process by accomplishing the Itinerary of Travel, STF Petty Cash Slip (Liquidation) together with the Proof of Service, and the same must be submitted to the Bookkeeper for verification as to no unliquidated cash advance and to the concerned Clerk of Court discussed above [Item D (1)], for their approval. After approval, the same shall be submitted to the Cashier, who will then release the fund to the Sheriff or Process Server.

3. Period of making Liquidation. — In either case, the Itinerary of Travel and the Statement of Liquidation shall be prepared on a daily basis and to be submitted on the next day after serving the process unless no service was made in the very preceding day.

4. Manner of Charging Actual Transportation Expense. — If services of process involving different petitioners are made at the same location/office, the actual transportation expense 5 incurred in serving those processes shall be divided equally among the concerned petitioners.

F. RECORDING

1. Duties of the Cashier. — The Cashier, who will be closely supervised by the Clerks of Court, shall record the liquidated amounts as contained in the approved Itinerary of Travel and the Statement of Liquidation Form together with the Proof of Service on the "Index of Payments per Case-Accounting." He shall also record all collections and disbursements on the "Sheriff's Trust Fund Cash Book-Cashier" after receipt of the corresponding documents. CaDATc

2. Duties of the Bookkeeper. — The Bookkeeper, who will also be closely supervised by the Clerks of Court, shall record the cash advance and liquidated amounts as contained in the approved Itinerary of Travel and STF Petty Cash Slip together with the Proof of Service on the "Index of Payments per Case-Accounting" and on the "Sheriff's Trust Fund Cash Book-Accounting."

3. Duties of the Sheriff or Process Server. — The Sheriff or Process Server shall maintain their own Log Book for purposes of recording and monitoring of every service made together with the corresponding amount of traveling expenses incurred per case. The said Log Book shall be maintained by the Sheriff or Process Server under his own system of recording and monitoring.

4. Maintaining Boxes for indexing and monitoring purposes. — Furthermore, in order to have proper indexing of the Sheriff Trust Fund (STF), and for proper monitoring, both the Cashier and the Bookkeeper shall maintain three (3) separate boxes to contain the index cards of STF payments and disbursements for the following cases, to wit:

1) En Banc Cases;

2) First Division Cases; and

3) Second Division Cases.

G. RENDITION OF MONTHLY REPORT

1. Preparation. — The Cashier and the Bookkeeper shall prepare a Monthly Summary Report based on their respective Cash Books to be submitted to the Clerk of Court not later than the 5th day following the close of the month. IDCScA

2. Certification. — The concerned Clerk of Court shall certify the correctness of Monthly Summary Report. After the necessary certification is done, the said Report shall be submitted to the Office of the Senior Associate Justice, First Division, Internal Audit Division and COA resident auditor.

H. TERMINATION OF THE CASE

1. Return of Deposit. — After the service of writ of execution of judgment by the Court, any excess amount of deposit shall be returned to the plaintiff/petitioner.

2. Requirement prior to the release of the unspent deposit. — The Cashier shall release the excess deposit from the Sheriff Trust Fund (STF) to the plaintiff/petitioner only upon presentation of Certificate of Balance of Deposit issued and signed by the concerned Clerk of Court.

I. EFFECTIVITY

This Administrative Circular shall immediately take effect upon approval.

Issued and approved this 2nd day of November 2005.

 

(SGD.) ERNESTO D. ACOSTAPresiding Justice

ANNEX A

STF PETTY CASH SLIP

ANNEX B

DETAILS OF TRAVEL

Footnotes

1. The account was already opened at LBP, North Avenue Branch.

2. See Annex A.

3. See Annex B.

4. Section 340, paragraph b, Government Accounting and Auditing Manual (GAAM) Vol. I.

5. As stated in the Supreme Court Administrative Circular No. 35-2004.