FOR OPPRESSION

BINMALEY—The Office of the Ombudsman suspended the president of Pangasinan State University (PSU) and a campus executive director for oppression for arbitrarily dismissing a faculty member.

In a 10-page decision, PSU President Dexter Buted and PSU Binmaley Campus Executive Director Marcelo Gutierrez Jr were found administratively liable for oppression.

The complainant, Ricardo Tapia, a PSU- Binmaley faculty member, received copy of the Ombudsman decision on Jan. 16 signed by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales on Nov. 17, 2016.

 

Buted declined to comment when reached for comment on Jan. 17.

Tapia filed the complaint on April 27, 2016 against Buted and Gutierrez “for conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service, grave, misconduct and oppression.”

Tapia’s complaint was triggered by Office Memorandum Number 20, series of 2016 dated Jan. 21, 2016, issued by Buted reassigning him from PSU- Binmaley campus to PSU Urdaneta campus.

His initial appeal of his reassignment to the Civil Service Commission (CSC) regional office was denied but subsequently reversed by CSC Central office saying that his reassignment amounted to constructive dismissal.

In their joint counter affidavit, Buted and Gutierrez alleged that the reassignment was made in the exigency of the service and with the approval of the PSU Board of Regents and the Commission on Elections.

Of the eight PSU faculty members transferred, only Tapia willfully disobeyed the directive, they said.

Buted eventually dropped Tapia from the rolls for “his willful disobedience to the reassignment” and consequently filed a complaint for insubordination, among others, against Tapia before the CSC.

In the Ombudsman ruling, it partly said, “Although complainant made it clear that he intends to remain reporting for work in PSU Binmaley pending the resolution of his appeal on the reassignment, the succeeding acts of respondent Gutierrez would show his intention to compel complainant to transfer immediately to PSU-Urdaneta notwithstanding the appeal.”

The decision further said, “Here respondent Buted arbitrarily dropped complainant from the roll of PSU employees. Complainant was not absent for more than thirty (30) days, as respondent Buted would put it. No record of complainant’s attendance could be found in the biometrics machine because his name and data were removed, which prevented him from logging therein. He nevertheless logged in his attendance in the visitors’ log of PSU-Binmaley to show that he was present in the campus in February and March 2016. Further, complainant’s insistence on reporting for work in PSU-Binmaley despite the reassignment order does not amount to disobedience thereto, as ruled by the CSC in its June 24, 2016 Decision, which dismissed the complaint for insubordination filed by respondent Buted against complainant. It was held that pending appeal with the CSC, a reassignment order does not become immediately effective.” (Eva Visperas)

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