Amended sheriff duties and functions
- Section 183 (as amended) requires that in the City of Manila and in each province there is an officer known as the sheriff.
- Section 183(a) makes the sheriff the legal custodian of the courthouse or court-room and court-office quarters, including in the City of Manila buildings occupied by the Supreme Court, and charges the sheriff with care and safe-keeping of all public property there except books, records, and papers appertaining to the clerk’s office.
- Section 183(b) requires the sheriff, in person or by deputy, to attend sessions of the Court of First Instance, enforce proper decorum in the courtroom, and preserve good order in the precincts.
- Section 183(b) directs the sheriff to carry into effect court orders made for decorum and order, and to arrest any person disturbing the court or violating the peace.
- Section 183(c) requires that, except as otherwise specially provided, the sheriff (in person or by deputy) shall serve writs, execute processes, and carry into effect orders from the Court of First Instance or made by any judge thereof.
- Section 183(c) provides execution rules by location and case type:
- In the City of Manila, the sheriff must serve or execute civil writs, processes, and orders issued from the Supreme Court or any inferior or superior court or by any judge.
- In the City of Manila, criminal case orders and processes issued by any court or judge must be served or executed by members of the police department of the city.
- In the provinces, warrants of arrest in criminal cases must be executed by members of the Philippine Constabulary or the municipal police force, though sheriffs may execute them with equal effect.
Deputies and municipal police as ex-officio deputy
- Section 184 allows provincial sheriffs in:
- provinces of the first and second class to appoint three deputies;
- provinces of the third and fourth class to appoint two deputies; and
- provinces of the fifth and sixth class to appoint one deputy.
- Section 184 makes the provincial sheriff responsible for the acts of the deputies.
- Section 184 makes the chief of police in each municipality ex-officio deputy sheriff in his municipality without additional compensation.
- Section 184 requires payment of deputy sheriffs’ salaries out of the insular funds.
Sheriff functions exercised ex officio and appointment rules
- Section 186 establishes that in the City of Manila, the clerk of the Court of First Instance shall exercise the functions of sheriff.
- Section 186 requires that in the several provinces (including specially organized provinces), sheriff functions be exercised by a provincial sheriff appointed by the Secretary of Justice.
- Section 186 bars appointment as provincial sheriff unless the appointee is:
- at least twenty-five years of age;
- a citizen of the Philippine Islands or of the United States;
- of good moral character; and
- admitted by the Supreme Court to practice law, or a person who has at least finished legal study courses in a recognized school, or who has passed the corresponding civil service examination.
Arms, courtroom protection, and attendants
- Section 187 requires sheriffs, for proper exercise of functions and protection against persons resisting authority during execution or service of judicial writs, processes, or orders, to supply themselves with a revolver and allows free carriage of the revolver.
- Section 187 allows the right to be extended to deputies upon recommendation of the sheriff and approval of the Secretary of Justice.
- Section 188 requires that in the City of Manila the Mayor, and in the provinces the Provincial Governor or municipal president, direct the detail of one or more members of the provincial guard or municipal police where a Court of First Instance or any superior court is held.
- Section 188 limits such police detail to attendance at sessions and enforcement of good order under the direction of the sheriff.
- Section 188 authorizes, when provincial guard or municipal police cannot be detailed and Constabulary service is impracticable after request to the proper Constabulary officer, that the judge appoint a bailiff as an emergency employee while the court is in session in the province.
Temporary sheriff when office is vacant
- Section 189 applies when the office of provincial sheriff is vacant or the proper appointee has not yet qualified.
- Section 189 grants the Judge of the Court of First Instance the authority, in case of emergency, to make a temporary appointment to the sheriff office pending appointment and qualification of the permanent sheriff.
- Section 189 permits the judge to appoint the deputy clerk of the court or other government service officer to act as temporary sheriff.
- Section 189 provides that the temporary appointee has all powers of a regular provincial sheriff.
- Section 189 limits duration: the temporary appointment ends only when the successor duly qualifies or at the expiration of ninety days from appointment.
- Section 189 prohibits a second appointment of the same person as temporary sheriff unless made to supply a vacancy occurring after a permanent sheriff has been appointed and qualified.
Compensation and classification rule
- Section 191 sets compensation for the sheriff and deputies.
- In the City of Manila, the clerk serving as sheriff receives additional compensation at two thousand pesos per annum.
- In the provinces, the officer or employee serving as provincial sheriff receives compensation not exceeding specified yearly amounts by class:
- two thousand four hundred pesos per annum in first-class provinces,
- one thousand eight hundred pesos per annum in second-class provinces,
- one thousand five hundred pesos per annum in third-class provinces, and
- one thousand two hundred pesos per annum in fourth, fifth and sixth-class provinces.
- Section 191 provides that deputy sheriffs receive compensation at eight hundred and forty pesos per annum.
- Section 191 directs that, in classifying specially organized provinces for this Act, the amount of insular aid received by those provinces shall not be considered.
Sheriff fees, receipts, reporting, and custody
- Section 8 provides that after approval of the Act, all fees prescribed by law and payable to the sheriff for services he performs accrue to the Insular Government, form part of the General Fund, and are paid as such.
- Section 8 requires the sheriff of the City of Manila, provincial sheriffs, and their deputies to issue official receipts for all fees collected.
- Section 8 requires sheriffs to turn over collected fees at the end of every month to the provincial treasurer for transmittal to the Insular Treasurer.
- Section 8 requires that the original receipt be furnished to the person paying the fees and the duplicate receipt be sent to the district auditor of the province.
- Section 8 requires monthly sworn reports of collections by the sheriff of the City of Manila, provincial sheriffs, and persons acting in their place, on the form prescribed by the Insular Auditor, submitted to the Secretary of Justice through the Judge of the Court of First Instance, with a copy furnished to the district auditor.
- Section 8 requires the monthly report to contain:
- the date of issue,
- the number of official receipts,
- the amount collected,
- the names of person or persons paying the fees, and
- the number of civil and criminal case under which the service was performed.
Prohibited fees, bribery liability, penalties
- Section 9 prohibits sheriffs and their deputies (and persons acting in their place) from collecting any fees not prescribed by law or excessive fees.
- Section 9 declares that persons or corporations paying sheriffs any amount exceeding the fees prescribed by law for services performed, with a view to influencing the sheriff to execute an act other than that required by law, are guilty of bribery.
- Section 9 imposes criminal liability for corporate or partnership payments on the president or manager (or the employee making the payment to the sheriff or deputy), as the case may be.
- Section 9 provides that violation of the bribery and excessive/unlawful collection rule is punished by a fine not exceeding two hundred pesos or imprisonment of not more than six months, or both, at the discretion of the court.
- Section 9 makes sheriffs’ bonds responsible for payment to the aggrieved party of fees unlawfully or excessively collected.
- Section 9 orders that the sheriff who violates the rule shall be dismissed from the service.
Appropriation for implementation
- Section 10 appropriates out of funds in the Insular Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, such sum as may be necessary to carry out the Act’s provisions, including the salaries of provincial sheriffs and their deputies.
Effective date for implementation
- Section 11 fixes effectivity on October 16, 1931.