ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 138, February 13, 1951

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 of violent character.

After a careful review of the record, I find that the charges have not been substantiated.

The record discloses that the respondent had several incidents not only with his assistants in the office but also with practicing 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 the respondent does not consider the incidents to be of a serious nature, claiming that they were mere discussions and misunderstandings that 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 who is easily provoked. I am also convinced that the 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 to be the proper discharge of his official duties. On the whole, the acts imputed to the respondent are not of such a character as to warrant drastic disciplinary action.

In view of the foregoing, the charges against the 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 even 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