"x x x.
I. Respondent is guilty of gross misconduct and dishonesty for stealing and encashing checks without authority.
The Code of Conduct for Court Personnel stresses that employees of the judiciary serve as sentinels of justice, and any act of impropriety on their part immeasurably affects the honor and dignity of the Judiciary and the people's confidence in it. No other office in the government service exacts a greater demand for moral righteousness and uprightness from an employee than in the Judiciary.[3] Thus, the failure of judicial employees to live up to their avowed duty constitutes a transgression of the trust reposed in them as court officers and inevitably leads to the exercise of disciplinary authority.[4]
By these standards, respondent was found wanting, as she never denied the allegations that she had stolen and encashed the ₱30,000 check payable to Judge Rojas. She did not even refute the allegations of Dauz and Corpuz that she misrepresented to both of them that she had authority to encash the check. Worse, neither did she ever deny the allegations pertaining to her previous acts of stealing from and paying off her obligations to other trial court judges. Thus, we conclude that she has virtually admitted her wrongdoing.
The only defense respondent has set forth is that she has been trying to settle her obligation to Judge Rojas. However, this defense cannot exculpate her from liability. The fact that she is willing to pay does not free her from the consequences of her wrongdoing.[5] This Court in Chan v. Olegario[6] found a court employee administratively liable for “willful failure to pay just debt” despite the court employee’s settlement of the unpaid obligation during the pendency of the case. In the same vein, this Court in Office of the Court Administrator v. Elumbaring[7] has emphatically ruled that not even the full payment of the collection shortages will exempt the accountable officer from administrative liability.
Following these precedents, it is clear that whether or not respondent has fully settled her obligation to Judge Rojas, and to the other trial court judges for that matter, will not exonerate her from any administrative wrongdoing. This Court in Villaseñor v. De Leon[8] has emphasized that full payment of an obligation does not discharge the administrative liability, because disciplinary actions involve not purely private matters, but acts unbecoming of a public employee:
As we have observed in Perez v. Hilario, the discharge of a court employee’s debt does not render the administrative case moot. For, the proceedings are not directed at respondent’s private life but at her actuations unbecoming a public employee. Disciplinary actions of this nature do not involve purely private or personal matters. They cannot be made to depend upon the will of the parties nor are we bound by their unilateral act in a matter that involves the Court's constitutional power to discipline its personnel. Otherwise, this power may be put to naught or otherwise undermine the trust character of a public office and the dignity of this Court as a disciplining authority. (Emphasis supplied.)
In view of the foregoing, we rule that respondent’s admitted acts of pocketing checks and later encashing them for her benefit constitute grave misconduct.[9] We have defined grave misconduct as follows:
Misconduct is a transgression of some established and definite rule of action, more particularly, unlawful behavior or gross negligence by a public officer; and the misconduct is grave if it involves any of the additional elements of corruption, such as willful intent to violate the law or to disregard established rules, which must be established by substantial evidence.[10]
Furthermore, stealing the checks and encashing them are considered acts of gross dishonesty.[11]Dishonesty is defined as a disposition to lie, cheat, deceive or defraud; untrustworthiness; lack of integrity; lack of honesty, probity or integrity in principle; lack of fairness and straightforwardness; disposition to defraud, deceive or betray.[12]
We have often ruled that the image of a court of justice is mirrored in the conduct, official or otherwise, of the personnel who work therein. Court employees are enjoined to adhere to the exacting standards of morality and decency in their professional and private conduct in order to preserve the good name and integrity of the court of justice.[13]
x x x."