DELA CRUZ V. COURT OF APPEALS
FACTS
Petitioners are public school teachers who were simultaneously charged, preventively suspended, and eventually dismissed by Sec. Carino in Oct. 1990. It was alleged that the teachers participated in the mass action/ illegal strike on Sept. 1990. The teachers also violated the return-to-work order issued by the DECS. Respondents failed to explain to the DECS despite the 5 day period given. Hence they were found guilty as charged, and subsequently dismissed from office by Sec. Carino of the DECS. The Civil Service Commission, upon appeal, found the teachers guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service, and imposed upon them the reduced penalty of six month’s suspension. However in view of the length of time that the teachers had been out of service due to the dismissal issued by Sec. Carino, the CSC likewise ordered their immediate reinstatement without back wages.
ISSUE
1. Whether the teachers’ conducts are prejudicial to the best interest of service.
2. Whether or not the teachers are entitled to back wages for the period of 3 years pending their appeal deducting the 6 months’ suspension eventually meted out to them.
HELD
1. YES, the mass actions amounted to a prohibited strike of civil service servants. Although the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances is guaranteed by the Constitution, this liberty must be exercised within reasonable limits. The public school teachers committed acts prejudicial to the interest of the service by staging the mass protests on regular school days, abandoning their classes and failing to return despite the return to work order.
2. NO, they are not entitled to backwages. The teachers were neither exonerated nor unjustifiably suspended, the 2 circumstances necessary for the grant of backwages in administrative disciplinary cases.
