The Supreme Court has dismissed a court stenographer from the service for her role in a spurious annulment case decision, with the court finding that she gave the fake ruling to the complainant and asked for money supposedly for its registration.
The SC en banc forfeited the retirement benefits of court stenographer Rosalie Sarsagat of the Paniqui, Tarlac Regional Trial Court and directed her to return the additional P30,000 she received from one of the complainants after finding her guilty of two counts of gross misconduct.
Complainant Mario Barrozo, an overseas Filipino worker in Saudi Arabia, met Phyllis Castañeda through his friends, and she promised to help process his annulment of his marriage in nine months.
Barrozo paid Castañeda P250,000, and Castañeda referred him to Sarsagat.
Since Barrozo was in Saudi Arabia, it was his sister who went to the court and coordinated with Sarsagat.
In 2018, when Barrozo went home to the Philippines, Sarsagat handed him a decision purportedly signed by Assisting Judge Agapito Laoagan, declaring his marriage null and void ab initio, along with a Certificate of Finality and a Certificate of Authenticity. She told him to wait for official copies of the decision and Certificate of Finality.
A year later, she asked Barrozo’s sister for P30,000 supposedly for registration purposes, and when Barrozo paid the money, she blocked all forms of communication with them.
Barrozo’s lawyer later discovered that there was no record of the annulment proceedings and the decision was a sham, leading to the filing of a complaint against Sarsagat.
Sarsagat denied the allegations and said she never met the complainants and was not involved in the case.
But in its June 3 2026 ruling penned by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting, the SC said she is administratively liable as there was no doubt that she engaged in corrupt activities.
It said that Barrozo had identified her as the person with whom he transacted and who had handed him the fake decision.
It also noted that Sarsagat clearly knew Castañeda, the sister of Judge Liberty Castañeda who was dismissed for bogus annulment proceedings.
It also found that Sarsagat committed not just one, but two distinct acts of gross misconduct, as she did not refute the allegation that she had asked for P30,000 for the supposed registration of the decision.
The SC said she does not deserve to remain in the judiciary, pointing out that this case was not her first administrative offense as she was earlier fined P5,000 in an earlier probe of Judge Castañeda’s annulment proceedings.