Monday, May 12, 2008 Seares: Holding the chief liable By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
IT LOOKS like a Cebu public official’s misfortune is contributing a bit to jurisprudence.
Treasurer Eustaquio Cesa was suspended when paymaster Rosalina Badana fled in 1998 with more than P18 million of Cebu City Hall cash. Cesa questioned his suspension before the Court of Appeals and was rebuffed.
Before the Supreme Court, he dumped many arguments but what’s enriching the legal trove is the issue of when to hold the office chief liable.
The rule is not to blame supervisors for approving crooked deals entered into by dishonest or negligent underlings.
Bad precedent, the Court said in Arias vs. Sandigan-bayan, if the head of office, often multi-task busy, is convicted with the thief just because he didn’t “check each single detail and look into each person’s motive” before signing as final approving authority.
“Foreknowledge”
Cesa used the 1989 Arias ruling to ask the Court to nullify his suspension and allow him back wages. The Court, upholding the CA, refused.
He couldn’t get off the administrative hook because he had “foreknowledge” of things that suggested irregularity and he failed to “rectify” it. Badana’s cash advances in one period grew to a whooping P216 million and not a whimper from Cesa.
Cesa also appealed his Sandiganbayan conviction for graft. The Court is likely to confirm the finding of guilty and that his failure to stop the looting was a crime as well.
More grief for Cesa. But that won’t sadden a public fed up over incessant raids on public funds.
Infuriating though is that Badana is still out there, mocking us that the law’s arm isn’t long enough to catch her.
