Court steno sacked for leaving post to work as caregiver
Posted 07:35am (Mla time) Jan 31, 2005
Inquirer News Service
The Supreme Court dismissed a court stenographer for abandoning her post to work as a caregiver in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
In a 10-page ruling on Jan. 13, the high tribunal dismissed Raquel Bautista for leaving her job at the Guiguinto (Bulacan) Municipal Trial Court without getting the proper authorization from her superiors.
The court said Bautista lied when she claimed that she was remaining in the country when she went on vacation. She also failed to get a clearance to leave the country.
And in her hurry to fly to her new job, Bautista failed to submit the transcripts of seven criminal cases she was supposed to transcribe, the court said.
"The alleged urgency of her job abroad is no justification for her dishonest conduct which has no place in the judiciary," the tribunal said.
The high court ordered the forfeiture of all her benefits and privileges, except accrued leave credits, and barred her from future employment in the government.
showed Bautista applied for a leave in October 2003 and from November 2003 to January 2004.
Her immediate superior, Judge Luis Enriquez Reyes, approved her leave after reminding her to finish the transcripts of the cases assigned to her.
"(Reyes) was surprised when he learned that (Bautista) had already left the country (on Oct. 16, 2003), considering that her application for leave had stated that she would be spending her vacation in the Philippines," the tribunal said.
Bautista said she decided to work overseas "to give her family a better future" and that she was not able to secure the required clearances because she was "urgently needed" at her new job.
Philip C. Tubeza