I started my internship at the Regional Trial Court 163- Coron, Palawan on February 16, 2022. Atty. Mary Ann Marigondon is the Clerk of the Court that handles me. The day efore my internship, I have met her to inform her that I am going under OJT and I informed her that I will start on February 16, 2022. On my first day of OJT, she said some minor policies at the court such as wearing casual clothes and being mindful about having mask all the time because of Covid-19. She introduced me to the staffs of the RTC and especially to the Presiding Judge - Hon. Arnel Cezar. After that, she said that I should just observe what they are doing for the whole day and honestly, she don't really know what tasks she would give me because she's very hesitant to give me paper works for confidential reasons and I was the first student to have an OJT in the RTC.
The next day and the following weeks, I handled paper works such as reading cases and watching the hearing. My tasks are very simple but it's really tiring. And all in all I learned a lot from it base on the terms and different cases that I have encountered. There are most busy days such as when there's hearing and the following days or weeks are not very busy at all. There are also tasks that they are the only one who should do it and I'm restricted to do it. And when Atty. Marigondon is not around, Ma'am Jeanelyn B. Pimentel, Ma'am Melody C. Abis, Mr. Byan P. Tumamao and Ma'am Jo Ann A. Garlitos are the one that handles me and giving me the tasks of what I should do. If Atty. Marigondon have free time, she always giving me advices about what I can do in my future.
I am honestly glad that they are not very strict in the RTC because there are only few personnel who worked there and the other offices are the PAO and the Fiscal office and we still managed to be civil around each other and they are not treating me as an outsider. I always feel that I belonged in the office.
Based on my realizations, I learned to deal with clients, visitors and lawyers when I'm in the staff room because they are asking things about the files/cases, date of hearing, subpoena, etc. but I can't really answer what they are asking for so I always asked for some help to the other staffs because they are the one who knows it very well. When I'm in the court room , I witnessed a lot of things during the hearing and I have learned a lot from it just by watching. The one thing that keeps going in my mind in my OJT is when I learned in my OSDP seminar before I go into the internship, is that "If there are any problems at the office, just leave it there so it could not affect your relationship with your family and vice versa"
I always use laptop when I have given tasks to encode and I also use photocopy machine for scanning and photocopying. But those times that I used it are not too often.
The equipment and machinery available in the office are the laptops, desktop computers, telephone, printers, mobile phone, photocopy machine with a printer and a scanner. Even though I don't usually use those machineries, I have knowledge on how to operate those.
I honestly enjoyed the company of the staffs of Regional Trial Court because they treated me as one of them or as a friend and they always makes jokes, talking to me, giving food and also inviting me to their events such as team building and picnics during weekends. Unfortunately, I can't come when they invited me because I have to do the requirements of my OJT and I also have conference during weekends. They are also very kind when I'm asking things that I don't know and they are very willing to help me.
One of the best practice I used and applied is when I'm greeting and talking to the visitors such as the civilians and lawyers because I usually don't know what they are asking for so I have to ask for some help to the other staffs.
During my internship, the personnel are very polite and well mannered. But the one thing that I noticed is that some clients and visitors that are asking about the case in the office as well as through phone calls are very rude but fortunately, the personnel are very polite and have patience answering them. I have encountered visitors and clients that don't usually wear formal or casual attire, some of them wore simple clothes which is not allowed in the court but we managed it by making a poster to not wear flip flops/slippers and sando/ shorts. I guess there are reason that they wore it, one of the reason is because they are in a hurry to go in the court or they are not informed that it is not allowed to wear those. Also, the personnel has their own downsides, when they are doing the task somehow they slightly complain about it secretly. But they still managed to accomplished the tasks.
The strong points of the office are the team work of the staff because they have closer relationship and they are not selfish for the things they have. Even the highest position in the RTC - the presiding Judge, we are also feel welcomed because of him and he's not very strict about things. We feel like we can talk to him anytime and he's very kind but also it is our instinct to set boundaries and giving respect to each other.
I only encountered minor weak points at the office such that some of the staff talk behind someone's back if they are irritated and some staff are very bossy because of their position and I think it's wrong to give tasks to someone that have a lower position to do the tasks everyday that are not part of their job. It's okay to help each other and doing the tasks willingly but if you command someone to do it by their own as well as it's not part of their job, it's not okay.