SC finds CSC exec guilty of selling used exam stamps

The Supreme Court has permanently kicked out of the government a Civil Service Commission (CSC) official found guilty of selling recycled examination stamps needed by civil service examinees in their applications.

Dismissed from the service was Delia Cortez, former chief personnel specialist of the examination and placement services division (EPSD) of the CSC regional office in Cagayan de Oro City.

In a per curiam decision dated June 3, the Supreme Court en banc reversed the decision of the Courts of Appeals which considered Cortez merely resigned from the service with all her benefits.

Despite her "important and senior position which should have impelled her to set a good example to her co-employees and other civil servants," the tribunal said Cortez "flagrantly and shamelessly violated the law by selling, for her own financial gain, used examination fee stamps, right in her own office and during office hours."

By "irreparably tarnishing the integrity" of the CSC, Cortez "did not deserve to stay" in the agency and in the government service, the High Court added.

The CSC earlier found Cortez guilty of dishonesty, grave misconduct and conduct grossly prejudicial to the best interest of the service and recommended her dismissal.

The case stemmed from an incident on June 26, 1998 when two teenagers, June Grace Abina and Rubielyn Ofredo, appeared at the CSC’s Region 10 office to submit the application forms for the Career Service Professional Examination of their aunt and her co-employees.

When they presented the application forms at the EPSD for approval, Cortez pasted a stamp worth P150 on each of the application forms and collected P600 from Abina and Ofredo as payment for the four stamps.

However, the clerk at the cashier’s office got suspicious of the stamps and informed the acting cashier, Angeline Lim, about them. Lim accompanied the teenagers to the EPSD and confronted Cortez who, in turn, returned the money to the two teenagers.

When Lim traced their serial numbers, she found out that the four stamps Cortez sold to the teenagers had been used in the 1995 professional board examinations for teachers.

Cortez even tried to dissuade Lim from reporting the matter to their superiors, warning her that the source of the stamps would make sure both of them would lose their jobs.

Cortez denied the allegations when the CSC investigated the matter. However, the CSC found the story of the teenagers, backed by the statements of the CSC clerk and acting cashier, more credible.

Cortez went to the appellate court and argued that the penalty imposed on her was too harsh and that her 21 years of service in the government should be considered since it was only her first offense.

However, the Supreme Court said it could not consider length of service in Cortez’s favor because of the gravity of her offense.

Besides, the tribunal said it was in fact her length of service in the CSC which helped her commit the offense.

"As chief of the EPSD, she naturally had access to the previously processed and approved application forms wherefrom she detached the stamps and later on sold to new civil service examination applicants and pocketed the proceeds of the sale," it said.