Administrative Order No. 76




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 76, September 12, 1938 ] REVOKING THE SUSPENSION OF PROVINCIAL BOARD MEMBER ENRIQUE MEDINA OF NEGROS ORIENTAL This is an administrative case against Enrique Medina, Member of the Provincial Board of Negros Oriental, for alleged theft of water belonging to the Dumaguete Waterworks System, filed by Celerino L. Martinez. The respondent alleged in his defense that the complaint was malicious and without foundation, it having been prepared by his political enemies. On May 14, 1936, however, the Provincial Fiscal filed an information in the Court of First Instance of Negros Oriental (Criminal case No. 2397) accusing Member Enrique Medina and one Maximo Guerrero of the crime of qualified theft, and on August 31, 1937, judgment was rendered convicting the respondent and his co-accused of the crime charged. While the case was pending on appeal in the Court of Appeals, the Secretary of the Interior recommended the suspension of the respondent in accordance with the precedent laid down in the case of Provincial Board Member Eusebio Paz of Ilocos Sur who was suspended from office pending the determination of an information for murder filed against him in the Court of First Instance of Ilocos Sur. The respondent was, therefore, suspended on December 22, 1937, pending the final determination of his appeal from the decision of the Court of First Instance of Negros Oriental. In a decision promulgated on August 20, 1938, the Court of Appeals acquitted the respondent and his co-accused of the crime charged and observed that “personal ill-feeling between the appellant, Medina, and the district engineer, fomented perhaps by local politics and politicians,” formed the basis of the prosecution of the respondent. The Secretary of the Interior now recommends the lifting of the order suspending the respondent from office In view of the foregoing, I, MANUEL L. QUEZON, President of the Philippines, do hereby revoke the order of suspension of Enrique Medina as Member of the Provincial Board of Negros Oriental, issued on December 22, 1937, and further declare him innocent of the administrative charges filed against him. Done at the City of Manila, this 12th day of September, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, and of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the third. (Sgd.) MANUEL L. QUEZON President of the Philippines The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation