Mr. Antonio M. Castro, Deputy Commissioner of the National Employment Service, is charged with having approved a voucher on May 12, 1954, wherein he falsely certified that the salary claimed by one Miss Natividad Casals, Chief of the Field Supervision Division, National Employment Service, was an expense lawfully incurred by the Government for services rendered by her in the National Employment Service from December 11, 1953, to April 30, 1954; and with having violated standard office procedure as the voucher should have been signed either by the Administrative Officer or the Commissioner of the National Employment Service.

Miss Natividad Casals was proceeded against administratively for submitting the voucher above mentioned and for attempting to embezzle public funds through falsification of official documents. Her case was submitted by the Secretary of Labor to the Commissioner of Civil Service for decision in accordance with law, and on October 27, 1954, the Commissioner of Civil Service found the charges against Miss Casals unfounded and dropped the case. In dismissing the case, the Commissioner of Civil Service stated that the amount being claimed by Miss Casals would be correct, if she had not been prevented from assuming the duties of her position; that the failure of Miss Casals to render service either in the Social Welfare Administration or in the National Employment Service was not due to her fault but because she was prevented from performing her duties as Chief of the Field Supervision Division, and that Miss Casals was always available for service in the National Employment Service.

Consequently, respondent could not have committed any irregularity, much less falsity, in taking action on the salary voucher of Miss Casals.

WHEREFORE, the administrative case against Mr. Antonio M. Castro is hereby dropped and he is likewise exonerated of the charge against him.

Done in the City of Manila, this 6th day of January, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-five, 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