EN BANC
G.R. No. 123708 June 19, 1997
CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION and PHILIPPINE AMUSEMENT AND GAMING CORPORATION, petitioners,
vs.
RAFAEL M. SALAS, respondent.
Separate Opinions
VITUG, J., concurring:
The appeal in this case appears to confine itself to the issue, in main, of whether or not respondent Rafael Salas, an Internal Security Staff member of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation ("PAGCOR") assigned to the casino at the Manila Pavilion Hotel, is a confidential employee.
The Civil Service Commission ("CSC") which upheld the dismissal of Salas ruled that the latter was a confidential employee by operation of law and that, consequently, there was no act of dismissal to speak of but, rather, a mere expiration of an employee's term of office. The Court of Appeals held otherwise and ordered the reinstatement of Salas with full backwages for having been illegally dismissed by PAGCOR albeit without prejudice to the filing of administrative charges against him such as may be warranted.
I agree with the thorough and exhaustive ponencia of Mr.ℒαwρhi৷ Justice Florenz D. Regalado supporting the theory of the appellate court that Salas, not being a confidential employee, may not dismissed for mere lack of trust or confidence; nevertheless, I should like to bring into focus the phrase, "without prejudice to the filing of administrative charges against (Salas) if warranted," found in the dispositive portion of the decision of the appellate court. It would seem to me that the adverse findings arrived at by the intelligence Division of PAGCOR which the Board of Directors relied upon to terminate the services of Salas on ground of loss of confidence could well be constitutive of the administrative infractions that the appellate court must have had in mind. The ponencia itself states:
The summary of intelligence information claimed that respondent was allegedly engaged in proxy betting as detailed in the affidavits purportedly executed by two customers of PAGCOR who claimed that they were used as gunners on different occasions by respondent. The polygraph tests taken by the latter also yielded corroborative and unfavorable results.
In my view, the case should, instead, be remanded to the CSC to specifically meet head-on PAGCOR's foregoing findings and to thereby fully ventilate, as well as pass upon, the appeal to it (CSC) on that basis with an opportunity for a hearing adequately accorded to Salas.
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