Autencio V
Autencio V
Autencio V
MANARA
J. PANGANIBAN | RULE 45 PETITION
FACTS:
1. On December 27, 1996, City Administrator Rodel M. Maara lodged a complaint
against petitioner Inocelia S. Autencio with the Office of the City Mayor for dishonesty
and misconduct in office
2. The complaint alleged that on the third week of October 1996, Riza Bravo, an
employee of the City Assessors Office charged with the preparation of the payroll of
casual employees, changed the September 1996 payroll prepared by her upon the
order of petitioner.
3. The first prepared payroll for the said month reflected five (5) days attendance of
seven (7) casual employees. It was made to appear in the second prepared payroll
that the seven casual employees worked for the whole month of September. Despite
the fact that the seven casual employees rendered services only for five days for the
month of September and two weeks for the month of October 1996, the petitioner
directed them to prepare and reflect in their respective daily time records full
attendance for the months in question. The petitioner told them that one-half of their
salaries for the month of September 1996 will be deducted as their contributions for
the Christmas party of their office and that this matter will be a surprise for the
regular employees and must be kept secret among themselves.
a. Mrs. Bravo personally collected the salaries of the seven casual employees
from the City Treasury Office upon instruction of the petitioner on October 28,
1996, and distributed to them only one-half of their salary and gave the
remainder to the petitioner.
b. Pending investigation of the administrative complaint, on January 2, 1997,
petitioner was preventively suspended for a period of ninety (90) days
4. After the hearing, the Office for Legal Services of the City of Cotabato, on June 30,
1997, issued a resolution/decision which was approved by the City Mayor Ludovico D.
Badoy, declaring the petitioner guilty of misconduct in office for allowing irregularities
to happen which led to illegal payment of salaries to casuals. However, as regards to
the charge of dishonesty, the same was found wanting due to insufficiency of
evidence.
a. A penalty of forced resignation with forfeiture of retirement benefits except for
earned leave accumulated before the filing of the complaint was
imposed.l^vvphi1.net
5. On June 9, 1998, the CSC issued Resolution No. 981413 modifying the decision of the
City Mayor to grave misconduct and imposed on her the penalty of dismissal for
cause with all its accessories MR denied
a. In her Motion for Reconsideration of CSC Resolution No. 98-1413, petitioner
alleged that she had waived her right to present her evidence at a formal
hearing and agreed to submit the case for resolution, only because of the
manifestation of the complainant and the hearing officer that she could be
held liable only for the lesser offense of simple negligence.
6. CA: petitioner had not been denied due process; records show that she was informed
of the formal charges against her; she was able to file her Answer as well as
documents evidencing her claim; and she was represented by a lawyer during the
pre-hearing conference; P and her lawyer just failed to take full advantage of such
opportunity