G.R. No. 238566 - PHILIP JOHN B. MORENO, ACOUNTANT III/DIVISION CHIEF II, PHILIPPINE RETIREMENT AUTHORITY, VS. COURT OF APPEALS (SPECIAL FORMER TENTH DIVISION) AND OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN.D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, administrative penalties must be meted out with utmost prudence, taking due consideration of the particular circumstances of each case. This is especially true when the charge warrants the penalty of dismissal, which affects not only the public servant, but also those who depend on him or her for support. With these precepts in mind, the Court must tread lightly in treating of the instant petition, which may spell the difference between the possibility of continuation in public office and the loss of all that accompanies nearly two decades of exemplary service. This petition for review on certiorari [3] challenges the February 22, 2017 Decision [4] and March 14, 2018 Resolution [5] rendered by the Court of Appeals (CA) in CA-G.R. SP No. 145445, through which the dismissal of the petitioner, Philip John B. Moreno (Moreno), as ordered by the Office of the Ombudsman in OMB-C-A-11-0477-H, was affirmed. The Factual Antecedents On February 1, 2001, the Philippine Retirement Authority (PRA) hired Moreno as Accountant III. He was subsequently promoted to Finance Division Chief and, later, to Department Manager. [6] On March 5, 2010, the Ombudsman's Field Investigation Office charged Moreno with Gross Neglect of Duty and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service. The charge was later amended to include Grave Misconduct and Dishonesty. [7] The complaint stemmed from Moreno's act of signing Disbursement Vouchers (DVs) pertaining to the foreign travel cash advances of the PRA Chairman, Jose Antonio Leviste (Leviste), for the year 2003. In the relevant DVs, Moreno certified that Leviste's previous cash advances had been liquidated or accounted for, when in fact the contrary was true. This, in effect, allowed Leviste to secure subsequent advances without first settling his prior outstanding obligations, in violation of Presidential Decree (P.D.) No. 1445, or the Government Auditing Code. [8] The anomaly was discovered by State Auditor Marissa Fajardo­-Pariñas, who, in a Narrative Report on Unliquidated Cash Advances dated October 15, 2009, found that Leviste had failed to account for P151,358.42 in government funds. Relevantly, the report revealed that Moreno was responsible for the certification of the following DVs: [9] Foreign Travel DV No. Amount of Advance Amount Unliquidated USA (May 29-Jun 5) 0305848 P182,022.00 P13,190.00 China (Sept 4-17) 03091472 P247,320.00 P208,848.00 Japan (Sept 28-Oct 2) 03091647 P27,575.00 P27,575.00 Japan (Oct 24-29) 03101835 & 03101840 P113,252.25 P58,007.25 Taiwan (Nov 16-23) 03111942 P149,485.50 P110,730.00 Hong Kong & China (Dec 5-11) 03122129 P149,526.00 P27,690.00 TOTAL P869,180.75 P446,040.25 LESS: Liquidations Application of amount for Hong Kong trip (Dec 7-12) to outstanding cash advance balance P294,654.83 UNLIQUIDATED CASH ADVANCES AS OF DEC 31, 2007 P151,385.42 Essentially, the charge against Moreno was that his recurrent false certification of DVs caused the loss of P151,358.42 in public