Republic of the Philippines

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT

8th Judicial Region
BRANCH 38
Gamay, Northern Samar

10 December 2019

IMELDA R. OBALLO
State Auditor III
Audit Team Leader
Commission on Audit
Regional Office No. VIII
Candahug, Palo, Leyte

MARINA Q. BARROT
State Auditor IV
OIC-Regional Supervising Auditor
Commission on Audit
Regional Office No. VIII
Candahug, Palo, Leyte

RE: AOM No. 2019-024A (19) dated 18 November 2019

Madams:

Greetings!

In consonance with Audit Observations Memorandum (AOM) No. 2019-024A (19) dated 18
November 2019 issued by your office relative to the audit conducted on the operations of
Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 38, Gamay, Northern Samar, the undersigned hereby
submits the following comments thereto:

1. The disbursements on Fiduciary Fund (FF) for the release of cash bail bond are thru
withdrawal slips based on court order and directly paid to the claimant contrary to
COA Circular No. 97-002 dated February 10, 1997.

The undersigned agrees with the preceding observation. However, when the undersigned
sought clarification from the Court Management Office - Supreme Court regarding the matter,
the former was informed that courts are not required to have a checking account for its fiduciary
funds as the latter have the option to maintain either a savings account or a checking account.
This is clear from the wording of OCA Circular No. 50-95 as cited by the AOM – “Deposits
of fiduciary funds shall be made under a savings account. A current account may also be
maintained provided that a savings account is also maintained with automatic fund transfer
arrangement.”
 2. Deposits of 36 plaintiffs/petitioners amounting to P36,000.00 representing 72 percent
of the P49,840.00 balance of unwithdrawn deposits as of October 31, 2019 under the
Sheriff’s Trust Fund comprising of unused deposits and excess from the defrayed
expenses relative to the trial of the case, remained unreleased despite the termination
of the corresponding cases therein, thus, depriving the plaintiff/petitioner from its use
of their money.

The undersigned agrees with the foregoing observation. It is to be noted, however, that the
reason conveyed by the undersigned during the audit as to the non-withdrawal/non-release of
unused STF deposits is primarily because those terminated cases with unused STF deposits
were decided many years ago and the petitioners/plaintiffs are no longer residing within the
territorial jurisdiction of RTC-Branch 38, Gamay, Northern Samar and not because
“plaintiff/petitioners are hesitant to get the excess because they will file for a motion for the
withdrawal and would again entail additional lawyer’s fee.” Matter-of-factly speaking, a total
amount of Ten Thousand Pesos (P10,000.00) from the STF deposits was withdrawn by the
undersigned on May 2018 but was re-deposited on November 2019 due to the failure of the
plaintiffs/petitioners to claim their STF deposits despite the lapse of considerable length of
time.

Thank you very much.

Very truly yours,

ATTY. CESAR NORMAN Y. CALAMAY

Clerk of Court VI