ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 188, August 07, 1952

MALACAÑAN PALACE

MANILA

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

[ ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 188, August 07, 1952 ]

DROPPING THE CHARGES AGAINST MESSRS. FELIPE CUADERNO AND RUFINO TOLENTINO, DIRECTOR AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, RESPECTIVELY, OF THE BUREAU OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

This is an administrative case against Messrs. Felipe Cuaderno and Rufino Tolentino, director and administrative officer, respectively, of the Bureau of Telecommunications, charging them with misuse of public funds and property. After considering the complaint and respondents’ answer, supported by documentary evidence, the Integrity Board deemed it unnecessary to conduct any hearing and recommended dismissal of the case for lack of merit.

It is claimed that in 1947 respondents, in connivance with the postmaster of Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija, caused the sum of P2,500 of public funds to be spent for the expansion and improvement of the latter’s house in the municipality (now city) to which the local post office was proposed to be transferred. It turned out that the building was never occupied by the post office and the Government is supposed to have suffered a loss of P2,500 for the cost of reconditioning the postmaster’s house.

An examination, however, of the papers submitted in this case shows that the transfer of the post office from the house of Dr. Nicolas Valisno to the building owned by Mrs. Dolores Raymundo, wife of the postmaster, was recommended by the Government quarters Committee upon the recommendation of the Military Provost Marshal; that the expenditure of P2, 000, of which P1, 000 was actually spent, for reconditioning said building was authorized by competent authorities who later on decided not to transfer the post office thereto and to condone the amount spent thereon; and that respondents had absolutely no intervention in the cancelation of the transfer or in the condonation of the amount of P1, 900 spent on the building of Mrs. Raymundo as it was the Executive Secretary who did the same upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Public Works and Communication.

It is also claimed that respondent Cuaderno has been using a government automobile in going home and coming to the office and that no proper record has been made and kept of all surplus goods received by the Bureau of Telecommunications from the Surplus Property Commission and of their disposition and use. It appears, however, that the Secretary of Public Works and Communications authorized him to use the automobile in question for making trips to his home and office and that all surplus goods received by the Bureau of Telecommunication from the Surplus Property Commission, as well as their disposition and use, were duly recorded.

In view of the foregoing, and in accordance with the recommendation of the Integrity Board, the charges against Messrs. Felipe Cuaderno and Rufino Tolentino are dropped, and said respondents are hereby exonerated.

Done in the City of Manila, this 7th day of August, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-two, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the seventh.

(Sgd.) ELPIDIO QUIRINO

President of the Philippines

By the President:

(Sgd.) MARCIANO ROQUE

Acting Assistant Executive Secretary