BAGUIO CITY – The Supreme Court affirmed a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling favoring the Ombudsman’s one-year suspension of an administrative officer of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) over the alleged ghost delivery of a hemoanalyzer in 1997.
In a decision last Wednesday in this city where it is holding its summer sessions until April 25, the SC upheld the CA’s 2005 ruling denying the petition of Dr. Pedro Gobenciong, then the administrative officer of the EVRMC, to nullify his suspension by the Ombudsman in August 2000.
The case stemmed from the administrative complaint of Dr. Flora de la Peña, then the head of the EVRMC’s laboratory department, charging Gobenciong and five other hospital officers with falsification of public documents and misconduct over the alleged ghost delivery of a hemoanalyzer.
De la Peña also filed a complaint with the Department of Health, which also investigated the alleged anomaly.
In August 1998, the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas ordered all respondents, except one, be placed under preventive suspension.
Gobenciong filed an appeal before the DOH and the Ombudsman. But while waiting for any action, he got relief from the CA, which issued a temporary restraining order.
But Gobenciong, according to the SC, failed to get back his work or his salary until his suspension lapsed in May 1999.
This prompted Gobenciong to cite for contempt DOH regional chief Lilia Arteche and Ombudsman for the Visayas Arturo Mojica. The CA, however, did not act on his motion.
The tribunal said it was unconvinced that Gobenciong was not accorded due process in his suspension.
“A preventive suspension, not being a penalty for an administrative infraction, is imposable without prior hearing,” it said. – Artemio Dumlao