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This is an administrative case against Mr. Vicente G. Bunuan, Sugar Quota Administrator, filed by Mr. Abelardo, L. Dizon, formerly chief, field service division, of the Sugar Quota Administration, for allegedly forcing the complainant to resign, tampering with public record, and persecuting the complainant. The charges were investigated by a special investigating committee created to look into alleged irregularities in the Sugar Quota Administration which found the same without merit and accordingly recommended their dismissal.

After going over the records, I am satisfied that there is no sufficient evidence to show that the complainant signed his letter of resignation as chemist of the office effective December 3, 1950, because of undue pressure from the respondent for having allegedly denounced anomalies in the office. I am rather persuaded to believe that he did so voluntarily because of personal and business reasons as stated in his letter in question.

As to the second charge, it appears that a draft of the appointment of the complainant as chief of the field service division was sent to the Secretary of Commerce and Industry by Mr. R. L. Paguia, then acting Sugar Quota Administrator, together with the resignation of Mr. Paguia as chief of said field service division. However, said draft of appointment was later returned to the Sugar Quota Administration with the information that it was not acted upon by the Department Head, as the position to which complainant was being proposed had not been vacated by Mr. Paguia whose resignation had not been accepted.

Subsequently, complainant’s appointment was approved by the Department Head, the Commissioner of the Budget, the Commissioner of Civil Service and the Office of the President for a limited period only, that is from March 5 to August 15, 1952, corresponding to the time when the regular incumbent was designated as acting administrator. It has not been satisfactorily shown that the respondent tampered with the public record by substituting the original draft of complainant’s appointment with a new one containing the limitation as to the period of its effectivity.

Finally, I am convinced that in requiring the complainant to reimburse the salary received by him from March to August 1952 as “chief” of the field service division, the respondent was of the honest belief that such payment was unauthorized for the reason that the position involved had not been legally vacated by the regular incumbent.

Wherefore, and upon the recommendation of the investigating committee, Mr. Vicente G. Bunuan, sugar quota administrator, is hereby exonerated of the charges against him.

Done in the City of Manila, this 6th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-six, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the tenth.

(Sgd.) RAMON MAGSAYSAY
President of the Philippines

By the President:
(Sgd.) MARIANO YENKO, JR.
Assistant Executive Secretary