THE Court of Appeals (CA) ruled that public officials might be held administratively liable for failure to accurately accomplish their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) even if it was not done deliberately.
In a 12-page decision, the CA’s Special Fifteenth Division, through Associate Justice Isaias Dicdican, denied the petition filed by Mario Bravo, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) assistant secretary for Administration, legal and financial affairs, who is seeking the reversal of the decision issued by the Office of the Ombudsman on October 14, 2010.
The Office of the Ombudsman found Bravo liable for simple negligence and suspended him for one month without pay for violating Section 8, in relation to Section 11, of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
The law requires public officials to file under oath their SALNs and a disclosure of business interests and financial connections under pain of imprisonment or fine, dismissal or removal, as well as disqualification, from public office.
Bravo’s motion for reconsideration was also denied by the Ombudsman in a resolution dated November 10, 2010.
The issue of the nondisclosure of SALN is one of the complaints embodied in the Articles of Impeachment filed against Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Corona is being tried by the Senate Impeachment Court for alleged culpable violation of the Constitution and/or betrayed public trust by failing to disclose his SALN as the Constitution provides.
In his petition filed before the CA, Bravo said the Ombudsman gravely abused its discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction in finding him liable for simple negligence considering that the incompleteness of his SALN was not done deliberately or willfully but due to inadvertence or honest mistake.
The appellate court noted that the purpose of RA 6713 is to promote a high standard of ethics in public service.
It added that public officials and employees are required to discharge their duties with utmost responsibility, integrity, competence and loyalty.
The CA ruled that the Ombudsman correctly held that there was enough evidence to show Bravo violated Section 88, in relation to Section 11, of RA 6713 for his failure to identify and disclose the name of his son-in-law in his SALN.
“Petitioner was negligent when he relied on his staff to fill out his SALN without disclosing his son-in-law and without verifying the correctness of the entries therein,” it added.
Court records showed that Bravo was first appointed as the assistant secretary for financial affairs at the Department of Education, Culture and Sports in 1998.
In 2005 he transferred to the DOST where he assumed the post as assistant secretary for administration, legal and financial affairs.
On January 15, 2009, Bravo received a complaint filed by the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office (FIO).
The FIO accused Bravo of nondeclaration of a residential lot located at Villa Amor Subdivision in Caloocan City; nondisclosure of a relative, his son-in-law, Richell Corilla, an employee in the DepEd; perjurious acts by indicating spurious community tax certificate (CTC) numbers used in his SALNs from1999 to 2003; and willful failure to indicate CTCs in his SALNs from 1995 to 1997, and 2004 and 2005.
