SC sacks dishonest MTCC clerk

CEBU, Philippines - The Supreme Court has dismissed from service a clerk of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) in Danao City after she was found guilty of dishonesty.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno ordered the dismissal of Merle Ramoneda-Pita for falsifying her Personnel Data Sheet to hide her lack of civil service eligibility.

“A careful review of the documents submitted before the CSC and a perusal of its investigation reports in the present case, convince us that Ramoneda-Pita was not the one who took the Civil Service Sub-Professional Examinations conducted on July 26, 1987. Specimen signatures in the various PDS she had submitted over the years to the court do not resemble the signature which appeared in the seat plan of the CSC,” the decision reads.

Aside from the dismissal, Ramoneda-Pita was likewise meted the penalty of forfeiture of all retirement benefits with prejudice to reemployment in the government owned and controlled corporations.

The complaint was filed by the Civil Service Commission (CSC)-7. Based on the complaint, the CSC said that on March 23, 1998 they received an anonymous letter informing them the alleged irregularity in the civil service eligibility of Ramoneda-Pita.

Acting on the report, the CSC said they retrieved the records and found out that the pictures and signatures of Ramoneda-Pita in her Picture Seat Plan (PSP) dated July 26, 1987 and her PDS dated October 17, 1990 were different.

Likewise, the CSC said Ramoneda-Pita falsified her PDS when she cited that she was not found guilty in any administrative case and that she was civil service eligible.

Ramoneda-Pita denied that someone else took the civil service examinations on her behalf. She explained that the pictures in her PSP and PDS were not similar because these were not taken in the same year and “might have deteriorated in quality over the years.”

Because of her “low educational attainment” she said she cannot maintain her usual signature. In their resolution, the CSC ruled to dismiss Ramoneda-Pita from the service.

However, Ramoneda-Pita questioned the ruling. She said she did not mention in her PDS that she was found guilty of dishonesty by the CSC because she wanted to be consistent in her statements in her previous PDS.

She added that because of her low education she just copied the data entries contained in her former PDS and no intention of falsifying her PDS. But the high tribunal affirmed the CSC findings.

"Moreover, no substantive evidence was presented by Pita to bolster her defense that she was not able to develop a settled signature. Nor did she substantiate her claim that the difference between the pictures on the PSP and the PDS is due to the aging process," the SC decision reads. — (FREEMAN)