Case Digest: OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN v. VICTORIO N. MEDRANO

OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN v. VICTORIO N. MEDRANO

569 SCRA 747 (2008), SECOND DIVISION

Ma. Ruby A. Dumalaog, a teacher filed before the petitioner Office of the Ombudsman a sworn letter-complaint against her superior herein-respondent Victorio N. Medrano for violation of Republic Act No. 7877 (Anti-Sexual Harassment Act of 1995) (criminal case), and grave misconduct (administrative case). While the administrative case was pending investigation, Dumalaog filed an Urgent Ex-Parte Motion for Preventive Suspension, and was granted by the Ombudsman ordering the preventive suspension of Medrano for six months without pay. Medrano moved for lifting the suspension but was denied. When Medrano filed a Supplemental Motion for Reconsideration, Ombudsman lifted the preventive suspension order.

The Ombudsman rendered its decision with the administrative case and found Medrano guilty of grave misconduct. Medrano moved for reconsideration of the decision and assailed not only the factual findings and conclusions of the Ombudsman, but for the first time, challenged its jurisdiction over the case. With regard to the criminal case, Ombudsman found probable cause to indict Medrano and a criminal case was filed before the Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) of Biñan, Laguna against him. By joint order, the Ombudsman affirmed its Resolution in the criminal case but modified its decision in the administrative case.

Medrano filed a Petition for Review with the Court of Appeals (CA), assailing Ombudsman‘s jurisdiction over the administrative case. The CA annulled Ombudsman‘s decision in the administrative case and dismissed the complaint on the sole ground that Ombudsman has no jurisdiction over it. The Ombudsman filed a motion for reconsideration of the CA‘s decision but was denied.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Office of the Ombudsman has jurisdiction over the administrative complaint against Medrano even if an affidavit of desistance has already been filed by Dumalaog

HELD:

The flaw in Medrano‘s argument that the execution of Dumalaog‘s Affidavit of Desistance and the dismissal of the criminal case must result in the dismissal of the administrative case is that it ignores the whale of a difference between those two remedies. In Gerardo R. Villaseñor and Rodel A. Mesa v. Sandiganbayan and Louella Mae Oco-Pesquerra (Office of the Special Prosecutor, Ombudsman), the Court stressed the distinct and independent character of the remedies available to an offended party against any impropriety or wrongdoing committed by a public officer. It provides the three remedies available: 1.) civil, 2.) criminal, and 3.) administrative. These remedies may be invoked separately, alternately, simultaneously or successively. Sometimes, the same offense may be the subject of all three kinds of remedies.

At any rate, an affidavit of desistance (or recantation) is, as a rule, viewed with suspicion and reservation because it can easily be secured from a poor and ignorant witness, usually through intimidation or for monetary consideration. And there is always the probability that it would later be repudiated, and criminal prosecution would thus be interminable. Hence, such desistance, by itself, is not usually a ground for the dismissal of an action once it has been instituted in court.

With regard to whether Ombudsman has jurisdiction over the administrative complaint, Section 5, Article XI of the Constitution “created the independent Office of the Ombudsman.” Hailed as the “protectors of the people,” the Ombudsman and his Deputies are bestowed with overreaching authority, powers, functions, and duties to act on complaints against public officials and employees, as provided in Sections 12 and 13.

When an administrative charge is initiated against a public school teacher, however, Section 9 of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers specifically provides that the same shall be heard initially by an investigating committee composed of the school superintendent of the division, as chairman, a representative of the local or, in its absence, any existing provincial or national teachers‘ organization, and a supervisor of the division. Thus, Section 23 of The Ombudsman Act of 1989 directs that the petitioner “may refer certain complaints to the proper disciplinary authority for the institution of appropriate administrative proceedings against erring public officers or employees.”

In light of this, the Court holds that the administrative disciplinary authority of the Ombudsman over a public school teacher is not an exclusive power but is concurrent with the proper committee of the DepEd.

While Ombudsman should have desisted from hearing the administrative complaint against Medrano and referred it to the proper DepEd committee, given that it had already concluded the proceedings and had rendered a decision thereon, Medrano is now barred from assailing Ombudsman‘s acts under the principle of estoppel. He had actively participated in the administrative proceedings before the Ombudsman. In his Counter-Affidavit, he asked Ombudsman for affirmative relief by seeking the dismissal of the administrative complaint allegedly for being baseless. Verily, Medrano cannot be permitted to challenge Ombudsman‘s acts belatedly.