This is an administrative case against Mr. Ramon N. Velasco, register of deeds of Quezon City, for having authorized his collecting clerk to pay partial salaries to employees from office collections and for having himself obtained the sum of P15 from such collections by signing a receipt therefor.

Respondent admits the charge but alleges that he did so with the best of intentions to relieve his low-salaried employees of their financial difficulties, which are not conducive to efficiency, and in the honest belief and conviction that such payments were neither illegal nor immoral. The acts committed by respondent are in violation of existing law and regulations. Considering, however, that he acted in good faith and for humanitarian reasons, and it appearing that this is his first offense, I believe that he deserves some leniency.

Wherefore, Mr. Ramon N. Velasco is hereby fined in an amount equivalent to his salary for five (5) days, with a warning that commission of similar irregularity in the future will be dealt with more severely.

Done in the City of Manila, this 6th day of March, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and fifty-one, and of the Independence of the Philippines, the fifth.


By the President:

TEODORO EVANGELISTA
Executive Secretary