"x x x.
The Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees enunciates the State's policy of promoting a high standard of ethics and utmost responsibility in the public service. And no other office in the government service exacts a greater demand for moral righteousness and uprightness from an employee than the judiciary. Persons involved in the dispensation of justice, from the highest official to the lowest clerk, must live up to the strictest standards of integrity, probity, uprightness and diligence in the public service. As the assumption of public office is impressed with paramount public interest, which requires the highest standards of ethics, persons aspiring for public office must observe honesty, candor and faithful compliance with the law.[9]
Respondent committed dishonesty by causing the unauthorized insertion of an additional sentence in the trial court's order. Dishonesty has been defined as a disposition to lie, cheat, deceive or defraud. It implies untrustworthiness, lack of integrity, lack of honesty, probity or integrity in principle on the part of the individual who failed to exercise fairness and straightforwardness in his or her dealings.[10] By her act, she has compromised and undermined the public's faith in the records of the court below and, ultimately, the integrity of the Judiciary.[11] To tolerate such act would open the floodgates to fraud by court personnel.
Respondent's contention that she just inserted the sentence in order to complete a rather incomplete order, and to depict the real situation, i.e., that the case was already dismissed because of the agreement reached by the parties, is not acceptable. The insertion of an additional sentence in an order of the trial court, regardless of the reason is not among her duties.[12] A legal researcher's duty focuses mainly on verifying legal authorities, drafting memoranda on evidence, outlining facts and issues in cases set for pre-trial, and keeping track of the status of cases.[13]
In Salvador v. Serrano,[14] the Court held that courts have the inherent power to amend and control their process and orders to make them conformable to law and justice. But such power rests upon the judge and not to clerks of court who only perform adjudicative support functions and non-adjudicative functions. In the same vein, the power to amend court orders cannot be performed by a legal researcher. It is well to remind that court personnel are obliged to accord the integrity of court records of paramount importance, as these are vital instruments in the dispensation of justice.
Under Section 52 (A) (1),[15] Rule IV of the Uniform Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service,[16] promulgated by the Civil Service Commission through Resolution No. 99-1936 dated August 31, 1999 and implemented by Memorandum Circular No. 19, series of 1999, dishonesty is a grave offense punishable by dismissal from the service for the first offense. However, the Court, in certain instances, has not imposed the penalty of dismissal due to the presence of mitigating factors such as the length of service, being a first-time offender, acknowledgment of the infractions, and remorse by the respondent.[17] The Court has also ruled that where a penalty less punitive would suffice, whatever missteps may be committed by labor ought not to be visited with a consequence so severe. It is not only for the law's concern for the workingman; there is, in addition, his family to consider. Unemployment brings untold hardships and sorrows on those dependent on wage earners.[18]
The compassion extended by the Court in these cases was not without legal basis. Section 53, Rule IV of the Uniform Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service, grants the disciplining authority the discretion to consider mitigating circumstances in the imposition of the proper penalty.
Considering that this is respondent's first offense in her twenty-two (22) years of service in the Judiciary, the admission of her act and her sincere apology for her mistake, her firm resolve not to commit the same mistake in the future, and taking into account that she is a widow and the only one supporting her five children, the recommended penalty of suspension for a period of six (6) months is in order.
WHEREFORE, respondent ELIZABETH G. AUCENA, Court Legal Researcher II, Regional Trial Court, Branch 4 of Baguio City, is found GUILTY of dishonesty. She is hereby SUSPENDED for a period of six (6) months without pay, effective immediately upon her receipt of this Decision. She isSTERNLY WARNED that a repetition of the same or similar acts in the future shall be dealt with more severely. The period of suspension that respondent had previously served shall be DEDUCTED from the six-month suspension and shall be considered as partial service of the penalty imposed.
