[ G.R. No. 26396. December 28, 1970 ] 146 Phil. 986
[ G.R. No. 26396. December 28, 1970 ]
ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ, PETITIONER-APPELLANT, VS. THE HON. ANDRES REYES, PRESIDING JUDGE, BRANCH VI, CFI, RIZAL, ET AL., RESPONDENTS?APPELLEES. [G.R. NOS. L-27026 & L-27027. DECEMBER 28, 1970] ABELARDO SUBIDO, AS COMMISSIONER OF CIVIL SERVICE, PETITIONER, VS. THE CIVIL SERVICE BOARD OF APPEALS, ET AL., RESPONDENTS. D E C I S I O N
MAKALINTAL, J.:
These three cases are inter-related. G.R. No. L-26396 is an appeal by Dr. Antonio Rodriguez from the judgment of the Court of First Instance of Rizal dismissing the petition for certiorari he had filed against Abelardo Subido, Commissioner of Civil Service, in connection with the latter’s decision in two administrative cases against said petitioner. G.R. Nos. L-27026 and L-27027 are original petitions for certiorari and prohibition filed in this Court by Commissioner Subido, questioning the actuation of the Civil Service Board of Appeals in taking cognizance of the appeal from the same decision rendered by him against Dr. Rodriguez.
Dr. Rodriguez was Medical Adviser (Chief of Section) in the Bureau of Medical Services. On July 1, 1959, he was detailed as head of the National Mental Hospital by the then Secretary of Health, Dr. Elpidio Valencia. On July 8, 1960 he was administratively charged on nine counts (Adm. Case No. R-23237), to investigate which the Secretary formed a committee composed of several members. Pending investigation, or on May 29, 1961, Dr. Rodriguez was appointed “Chief of Hospital IV (R-54) in the Hospital Services (National Mental Hospital), Field Operations,” which appointment was approved by the Acting Chief, Personnel Transaction Division, in behalf of then Commissioner of Civil Service Amado del Rosario. After the investigation, where evidence was adduced by both parties, the committee rendered its report on November 20, 1961, finding the respondent innocent. Upon its recommendation the Secretary of Health exonerated him completely and indorsed the findings to Commissioner del Rosario, who, however, in his decision dated May 417, 1962, found Dr. Rodriguez “guilty of indiscretion” in connection with specification “b” of the charges, for having caused slaughtered pigs (belonging to the National Mental Hospital) to be given to his superior and to the Auditor General.” The penalty administered to him was an “admonition to be more careful in his activities.”
On June 29, 1962 Dr. Rodriguez moved for reconsideration. In his motion he did not question the factual findings in the decision; he simply pointed out that the offense of “indiscretion” did not exist in the statutes or in the civil service rules and regulations. His prayer was that the verdict on that particular count “be entirely deleted from the records of the case.” Eight months thereafter, or on February 22, 1963, Rodriguez wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Civil Service withdrawing his motion for reconsideration and manifesting his conformity to the decision of May 17, 1962. The reason he gave for the withdrawal was that the administrative case had been pending for a long time and affected not only his peace of mind but also the “interest of (the) public institution committed to his responsibility.” On March 18, 1963 the request for withdrawal was granted by the Department Legal Counsel of the Civil Service Commission, who signed the corresponding indorsement “For the Commissioner.” On May 6, 1963 Abelardo Subido, then Acting Commissioner of Civil Service, revoked the grant of withdrawal as having been issued without authority.
Meanwhile, under date of January 23, 1962, another administrative complaint, No. 24354, had been lodged with the Secretary of Health against Dr. Rodriguez. One of the seven charges was electioneering. Again the Secretary created an investigating committee, to which he issued the following directive:
“To study the nature of such charges and determine the merit of each case. In case this committee finds sufficient grounds for investigation, it is hereby directed that a formal investigation be conducted in accordance with existing rules and regulations. After the investigation of the case, the Committee shall submit to the undersigned its findings, comments and recommendations.”
The investigating committee required Dr. Rodriguez to submit his explanation, which he did on March 6, 1962. On August 29, 1962 the committee, on the basis of the said explanation alone and without conducting a formal investigation, rendered a memorandum report recommending exoneration. On October 29, 1962 the Secretary of Health indorsed the recommendation, with his full concurrence, to the Civil Service Commissioner.
On September 12, 1963 Commissioner Abelardo Subido rendered a joint decision in the two cases. In Case No. 23237 he found Dr. Rodriguez guilty of misconduct in office for having loaned government construction materials to a private contractor in connection with a project the latter was doing for the National Mental Hospital. It was a charge not touched upon in the motion for reconsideration of Dr. Rodriguez, and of which he had already been found innocent by the investigating Committee created by the Secretary of Health, by the Secretary himself and by Civil Service Commissioner del Rosario. In Case No. 24354 the Commissioner found the respondent guilty of the charge of electioneering. The penalty imposed was dismissal from office, which the Commissioner ordered, in the same decision, immediately executed “in the public interest.”
Dr. Rodriguez personally received a copy of the decision on September 14, 1963. On the same day he filed a petition for certiorari with preliminary injunction in the Court of First Instance of Rizal, alleging that the decision had been rendered without due process of law, and without jurisdiction or with grave abuse of discretion. The injunction was issued by the Court, restraining immediate execution of the verdict of dismissal.
On February 23, 1966 Dr. Rodriguez appealed the decision of Commissioner Subido to the Civil Service Board of Appeals. On May 4, 1966 the Court of First Instance dismissed the petition for certiorari on the ground of non-exhaustion of administrative remedies. Dr. Rodriguez moved to reconsider, and after his motion was denied, filed a petition for review with preliminary injunction in the Court of Appeals, which thereafter certified the case to this Court, where it was docketed as Case No. 26396.
Commissioner Subido, on his part, tried to have the Civil Service Board of Appeals dismiss the respondent’s appeal before it on the ground that the same had been filed out of time and that his decision was already final. The Board turned down the plea, and Commissioner Subido came to this Court on certiorari and prohibition, his petition being docketed under Nos. L-27026 and 27027.
On January 5, 1967, this Court issued an order temporarily restraining the Civil Service Board of Appeals from taking cognizance of and assuming jurisdiction over the appeal taken by Dr. Rodriguez, but the order failed to take effect because two days before, or on January 3, the Board had decided the appeal, declaring the decision of Commissioner Subido null and void for having been rendered “without jurisdiction and without due process of law,” and ordering the reinstatement of Dr. Rodriguez to his position.
There are two issues presented for resolution: (a) whether or not the decision of Commissioner Subido was rendered with jurisdiction and/or due process; and (b) whether or not the appeal taken by Dr. Rodriguez to the Civil Service Board of Appeals was timely.
1. With respect to Administrative Case No. 23237 our position is that the decision of Commissioner Amado del Rosario dated May 17, 1962, finding Dr. Rodriguez guilty of indiscretion and imposing upon him the penalty of admonition, had already become final and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of Commissioner Subido to set it aside when he did sp and rendered his own decision on September 12, 1963. True, Dr. Rodriguez moved for reconsideration of the del Rosario decision. But he withdrew that motion on February 22, 1963; and since no action thereon had yet been taken at the time, the withdrawal was a matter of right on his part, subject neither to approval nor to disapproval by the Commissioner.
It has been said, however, that the complainant in the said administrative case sent a letter to the Commissioner on December 20, 1962, asking for a “revaluation of the entire evidence in this case …..” We do not believe, however, that the step thus taken by the complainant kept the case open independently of the motion of Dr. Rodriguez and its subsequent withdrawal. It bears emphasis that this motion of Dr. Rodriguez did not question the findings of fact in the del Rosario decision. The only point it raised was a legal one - that in connection with the specific charge of which he had been found guilty, there was no such offense in the civil service law or regulations as “indiscretion”; and on this ground he asked that the decision be modified accordingly.
The letter of the complainant was evidently not intended to be a motion for reconsideration, since the complainant was later on to request the Commissioner that it be considered as such a motion - this on April 3, 1963, after Dr. Rodriguez had withdrawn his own motion. If the letter was but an answer or opposition to the said motion-of Dr. Rodriguez, then it became functus oficio after the latter was withdrawn. On the other hand, if it was an independent motion for reconsideration in itself then it was filed out of time - more than seven (7) months after the del Rosario decision was rendered. In either case that decision had already become final when Commissioner Subido reconsidered it and rendered his own decision on September 12, 1963.
2. Going now to Administrative Case No. 24354, our view is that the decision of the Commissioner suffers from a basic infirmity - that it violated the principle of due process, having been rendered without investigation and without first affording the respondent an opportunity to defend himself. It must be remembered that the authority given by the Secretary of Health to the investigating committee he had created was “to study the nature of (the) charges and determine the merit of each case (and) in case this committee finds sufficient grounds for investigation, it is hereby directed that a formal investigation be conducted in accordance with existing rules and regulations.”
The validity of the Subido decision is sought to be justified by the argument that under Section 32 of the Civil Service Act of 1959 Dr. Rodriguez had the right to elect a formal investigation, and since he made no such election he cannot later on be heard that an investigation was denied him. There is here a confusion as to the order of priority among the rungs of the procedural ladder. Dr. Rodriguez could hardly have asked for a formal investigation at the stage in which the administrative case was at the time. He had merely been required to submit his explanation in writing, which he did. The committee was still to determine whether there were sufficient grounds for investigation, and if there were, to conduct a formal investigation. This is explicit in the instruction given by the Secretary of Health. The committee found, on the basis of the charges and the explanation, that no formal investigation was necessary, and hence it recommended that the charges be dropped for lack of merit. The recommendation was thereupon favorably indorsed by the Secretary of Health to the Commissioner of Civil Service. There was manifestly neither need nor occasion for Dr. Rodriguez to elect a formal investigation pursuant to the Civil Service Law. It would have been not only premature but inconsistent for him to ask that he be formally investigated on charges of which he had already been exonerated.
If, despite the findings of the investigating committee and the concurring recommendation of the Secretary of Health, the Civil Service Commissioner still considered the charges grave enough to warrant further action, the basic principle of due process required that Dr. Rodriguez be first heard in his own defense, or at least allowed to express a choice to undergo a formal investigation or not in accordance with Section 32 of the Civil Service Act. This right was not accorded him. Ironically enough Dr. Rodriguez was found guilty of electioneering on the strength of a letter he had annexed to his explanation submitted to the investigating committee - a letter which, if anything, was exculpatory in the light of the charge against him and the explanation that he had submitted. He was accused of electioneering for the benefit of the Nacionalista Party; the letter was sent to him by some Liberal Party men in Bulacan thanking him for having employed fourteen (14) skilled workers who turned out to be “Liberals.”
A revealing sidelight on this aspect of the case, which shows how precipitate and groundless was the pronouncement, of the guilt of Dr. Rodriguez, is the following excerpt from the decision of the Civil Service Board of Appeals:
“In the instant case, the Commissioner, without giving the respondent a chance to be heard, found him guilty of partisan political activity on the basis of a letter from Liberal Party officials thanking him for having employed skilled laborers, 14 of whom were election inspectors of the party in Malolos, Bulacan. If a hearing had been conducted by the Commissioner before he convicted the respondent of electioneering, the latter could have had the opportunity to explain how he came to employ the 14 skilled laborers referred to. Upon questioning by the Board at the hearing of this appeal, the respondent informed the Board that he did not know the 14 men before he employed them; that they were screened by a screening committee in the hospital, before they were employed, together with hundreds of other recommendees; that these 14 were only part of the 300 casual laborers employed in the hospital because it was greatly undermanned; that the screening committee recommended the employment of the 14 because they were found to be skilled and with tools; that these applicants for employment who were not skilled or did not have tools were not employed in the hospital regardless of recommendation; that the 14 workers were not employed at the same time, but they represent the total workers from Malolos who had been employed at various times; and that he came to know that the 14 were election inspectors of the Liberal Party in Malolos after he had already the letter of thanks regarding their employment. Respondent, however, was barred from making this explanation by his immediate conviction and dismissal without a hearing. Consequently, respondent was denied due process.”
3. Assuming that Commissioner Subido could validly render his joint decision of September 12, 1963, the next question is was the appeal taken by Dr. Rodriguez to the Civil Service Board of Appeals timely? As already observed hereinabove, over the Commissioner’s objection the Board took cognizance of the appeal, held itself with jurisdiction to entertain the same, and on January 3, 1967 promulgated its resolution declaring the decision appealed from null and void and ordering the reinstatement of Dr. Rodriguez to his position.
The recourse taken by Dr. Rodriguez to the Court of First Instance of Rizal on certiorari with preliminary injunction was eventually dismissed by that Court on the ground that the petitioner had not exhausted the administrative remedy available to him, namely, by appeal to, the Civil Service Board of Appeals. It is, to out mind, open to serious doubt whether such an appeal was an adequate remedy for the purposes sought by the petitioner in that case. He was, first of all, challenging the jurisdiction of the Commissioner to render the decision with respect to the first administrative case, and pleading lack of due process and grave abuse of discretion with respect to the other. And the immediate relief prayed for was preliminary injunction to restrain the execution of the decision already ordered by the Commissioner. These remedies, while clearly spelled out in the Rules of Court as within the dispensation of the courts, are nebulous and unsettled when sought in administrative bodies. An appeal to the Civil Service Board of Appeals connotes a review of the case on its merits, a reappraisal of the evidence and of the penalty meted below. When the need of the moment, however, is to stop immediate execution of that penalty and, after hearing, to set aside the decision altogether on grounds of jurisdiction and due process, we are not prepared to say the doors of the courts must remain shut. It is preferable to overlook slight deviations from procedural paths which even to the discerning may appear quite hazy than disregard the greater imperatives of justice and fair play. After all the course pursued in the court below was one in equity, and the function of equity is to avert or prevent civil injury which may otherwise be irreparable.
Considering all these circumstances, we are of the view that the issuance of the writ of preliminary injunction by the Court of First Instance interrupted the running of the period within which an appeal could be taken from the Civil Service Commissioner to the Civil Service Board of Appeals; and that therefore the appeal, actually taken on the day Dr. Rodriguez received copy of the court’s decision, wherein the injunction was dissolved, was a timely one. In the case of Geukeko vs. Araneta, etc., 102 Phil. 706, decided December 24, 1957, the party adversely affected by a decision of the Director of Lands relative to a disputed lot in the Tambobong estate went directly to the Court of First Instance and sought to annul the said decision instead of appealing to the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources, which he was supposed to do within 60 days under the rules promulgated by that official. No injunction was issued by the court, which dismissed the case after more than two years on the ground that the plaintiff had not exhausted his available administrative remedies. An appeal was then taken from the decision of the Director of the Bureau of Lands to the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources. This Court held, when the matter came up before it on mandamus and prohibition, that the institution of the court action suspended the running of the period for such appeal, making reference to the administrative policy of the Department to that effect.
In connection with the administrative cases against Dr. Rodriguez, the Civil Service Board of Appeals similarly took cognizance of his appeal and held that it was timely. Indeed in its decision it cites a number of cases where appeals (forwarded to it by the Commissioner) were entertained even after the expiration of the time limit. It did no more than what the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources did in the Geukeko case, and with even greater justification, for there was a judicial injunction issued against the execution of the decision of the Civil Service Commissioner.
When the vote on these cases was taken, four members of this Court, including the undersigned, concurred in this opinion; two members dissented; four abstained from voting; and the last one, Justice Felix V. Makasiar, had not yet been appointed. Since the votes on either side are short of the required majority, the petition of Commissioner Abelardo Subido in G. R. Nos. L-27026 and L-27027 should be, as it is hereby, dismissed, and the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Board of Appeals in the appeal taken by Dr. Antonio Rodriguez is deemed upheld. Considering that the said Board has already rendered its decision, the petition in No. L-26396 is likewise, dismissed as moot and academic.
Concepcion, C.J., concurs in the separate dissenting opinion of Justice J.B.L., Reyes. Reyes, J.B.L., J., dissents in a separate opinion. Dizon, Zaldivar, Castro, and Villamor, JJ., concur. Fernando, Teehankee, and Barredo, JJ., did not take part.