Administrative Order No. 138




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 138, February 13, 1951 ] DISMISSING THE CHARGES AGAINST PROVINCIAL FISCAL AMADO S. SANTIAGO OF NUEVA ECIJA This is an administrative case against Mr. Amado S. Santiago, provincial fiscal of Nueva Ecija, who stands charged with incompetence, corruption, dereliction of duty, unauthorized practice of law, immorality and dishonesty. He is also charged with being a quarrelsome person and of violent character. After a careful review of the record, I find that the charges have not been substantiated. The record discloses that respondent had several incidents hot only with his assistants in the office but also with practising attorneys, a court clerk and a member of the provincial board. Most of these incidents would have ended not merely in an exchange of hot words but also in a physical encounter had not cooler heads intervened. Although respondent does not consider the incidents to be of a serious nature, claiming that they were mere discussions and misunderstandings which were easily patched up soon after their occurrence, the unusual number of such incidents with different persons in Cabanatuan City cannot but reveal his utter lack of tact in his dealings with them. Nevertheless, I am convinced that he is not exactly a quarrelsome person but rather one of an impulsive type and who is easily provoked. I am also convinced that respondent was motivated in practically all these squabbles by his excessive zeal to protect the interests of his office and the personnel thereof and by what he considered was the proper discharge of his official duties. On the whole the acts imputed to respondent are not of such a character as to warrant drastic disciplinary action.1âшphi1 In view of the foregoing, the charges against respondent are hereby dismissed. He is, however, admonished to be more tactful in his official and private dealings with other persons, to observe calmness and self-control at all times and not to allow himself to be carried by passion oven under trying circumstances. Done in the City of Manila, this 13th day of February, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the fifth. (Sgd.) ELPIDIO QURINO President of the Philippines By the President: (Sgd.) TEDORO EVANGELISTA Executive Secretary The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation