276775 Teresita P. De Guzman, et al. Vs. Commission on Audit — Official PDF

Decision 18 G.R. No. 276775 As for the good faith of the certifying and approving officers, the Watershed/ROW Supervisor and Administrative Division Manager of the BWD certified that the questioned EME payments were necessary, lawful, and incurred under their direct supervision,” despite the absence of any in- house or Department of Justice legal opinion or ruling supporting the grant of EMEs. BWD’s accounting department also certified that the documents supporting the disbursements are complete and proper.** While the questioned EME payments were ostensibly issued in recognition of the GM and the AGM’s contribution to the meeting of the BWD’s performance targets and the completion of certain projects, petitioners nevertheless failed to present any legal opinion or ruling supporting their interpretation of the compensation-fixing power of local water districts under Presidential Decree No. 198, which, it must be stressed, has been soundly rejected by the Court in Paguio and its allied rulings. The Court thus has no choice but to find the certifying and approving officers in bad faith,®° as they relied on their own institutional reading of Presidential Decree No. 198, without regard to Republic Act No. 6758 and other legal limitations on the compensation-fixing power of the BWD. We therefore find petitioners solidarily liable for the net disallowed amount, save for petitioner Wilhelmina A. Aquino (Aquino), whose participation was limited to certifying that the documents supporting the disbursements are complete and proper.®” Unfortunately, We cannot extend this absolution to the other BWD accounting department employees with the same participation, namely, Joanna Carame and Jo Allan Baptista, who did not join the present Petition and are therefore outside the jurisdiction of the Court. Parties performing purely ministerial duties unrelated to the illegality of a disbursement may be excused from audit liability on the basis of good faith.88 As BWD’s Senior Accountant, Aquino’s certification was purely ministerial, as she could not refuse to do so if the disbursement documents were indeed complete. Similarly, We find de Guzman, Royeca and Tenedero fiable for the amounts they received, as these were granted contrary to Republic Act No. 8 Rollo, p. 34. COA Decision No. 2020-487. 85 Id. 85 See Advincula v. Commission on Audit, 897 Phil. 177, 192 (2021) [Per J. Inting, Zn Banc]. 87 Rollo, p. 34. COA Decision No. 2020-487. 88 Corvera-Cirunay v. Commission on Audit, G.R. No. 278177, May 20, 2025 [Per J. M.V. Lopez, En Banc] at 11-12. This pinpoint citation refers to the copy of the Decision uploaded to the Supreme Court website; Abrigo v. Cominission on Augil-Coimmission Proper, 921 Phil. 1067, 1084-1086 (2022) [Per J. Zalameda, En Banc}; Celeste v. Commission on Audit, 904 Phil, 199, 207-215 (2021) [Per J. Caguioa, En Banc). l