13/02/2023
SC Upholds Dismissal from Service of Three Former Benguet Local Officials |
The Supreme Court En Banc on January 24, 2023, dismissed the Joint Petition of Certiorari filed in 2020 by three former officials of the Municipality of Buguias, Benguet assailing the decision of the Court of Appeals which affirmed the ruling of the Office of the Ombudsman finding them guilty of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service (with one petitioner specifically guilty of serious dishonesty) and dismissing them from government service.
The Court said that it did not matter that the municipality’s bids and awards committee and its functions had been suspended, or that the municipal mayor may have exerted undue pressure or influence on petitioners. Petitioners still failed to discharge their duties as municipal officials and public officers in compliance with the exacting standards required of them. Hence, their dismissal from the service and other attendant penalties were justified.
The Court added that even if petitioners were acquitted alongside the then-municipal mayor in related criminal proceedings before the Sandiganbayan 7th Division, the disposition of their administrative cases still stood, as administrative cases are independent from criminal proceedings, and the dismissal of the latter on grounds of insufficiency of evidence will not preclude the determination of the former.
Read more at https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/32719/.
