This is an administrative case against Mr. Eugenio Maghirang, chief of the Fire Department of the City of San Pablo, who is charged by some of his subordinates with (a) inefficiency and incompetence (lack of basic knowledge of the science of firefighting); (b) conduct unbecoming a public officer (habitual drunkenness and uttering slanderous remarks against a fireman); (c) neglect of duty (absence from various scenes of conflagration); (d) oppression (assault upon a fireman); and (e) abuse of authority (ordering a fireman to cook in the house of a friend during a fiesta of San Pablo City).

The charges were looked into by a special investigator who found most of them not substantiated. The investigator observed that the respondent is an exacting executive and a strict disciplinarian, which might explain his subalterns ™ animosity toward him.

In going over the record of the case I found clear and convincing evidence that the respondent is a habitual drunkard, that in moments of intoxication he had uttered gratuitous and unkind remarks against his subordinates, and that on one occasion while drunk he rang the fire alarm to summon an absent fireman, causing panic and confusion among the people in the neighborhood of the fire station. He is therefore guilty of conduct unbecoming a public officer sufficiently serious to warrant the taking of drastic action against him. However, considering his approximately thirty-eight (38) years of service in the Government in various capacities and his advanced age of sixty-four (64), just one year short of the compulsory retirement age, I am inclined to view his case with some measure of leniency in the hope that he may yet redeem himself during the closing chapter of his government career.

All the other charges are hereby dismissed for insufficiency of evidence and lack of merit.

WHEREFORE, Mr. Eugenio Maghirang is hereby strongly reprimanded, with a warning that repetition of similar acts will be dealt with more severely.

Done in the City of Manila, this 27th day of September, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-four, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the ninth.

(Sgd.) RAMON MAGSAYSAY
President of the Philippines

By the President:
(Sgd.) FRED RUIZ CASTRO
Executive Secretary