RE:  RECOMMENDATION FOR DISMISSAL FROM THE SERVICE OF MRS. CECILIA MENDIETTA, INTERPRETER, CIRCUIT CRIMINAL COURT, PASIG, METRO MANILA.

In a letter dated January 26, 1979,* Judge
Onofre A. Villaluz of the Circuit Criminal Court, Seventh Judicial District
(Pasig, Rizal), recommends the dismissal of his Court’s Interpreter, Mrs.
Cecilia Mendietta, for being notoriously undesirable in violation of General
Order No. 14.

The specific incident in support of the charge of notorious
undesirability is that on January 24,
1977, at about 2:30 P.M.,
Mrs. Mendietta answered a telephone call and after asking who the caller was
and the answer was that it was Atty. Buena, she replied that she was
“Señorita Malas“.  Upon
investigation the next day by Judge Villaluz, she explained that because she
had a previous call from somebody who said that he was a certain “Atty.
Tsong Tsay Tong”, she believed that it was the same prankster who
identified himself as Atty. Buena, so that jokingly, she also said that
she was “Señorita Malas“. 
When she was made to realize by officemates that the caller was Atty.
Buena of the Supreme Court, she immediately apologized to the latter.  In her own words, she said:

“x x x noong una ho may tumawag Atty.
Tsong Tsay Tong daw ho akala ko ho nangloloko pa, humingi naman ho ako nang
tawad.  x x x”

Upon the record, we believe that there is as yet no clear and
definite showing that Mrs. Mendietta was critically lacking in courtesy in
regards to superior officers.  To dismiss
her would be too drastic a punishment, considering specially the indication
that, during the same telephone call, after realizing that the caller was not
playing a joke, she had apologized already.

However, Mrs. Mendietta should be made to understand that, as an
employee of a Court of justice, she should always practice the virtue of
courtesy and that there are ways and means of dealing with molesting calls
without causing an incident such as that which actually occurred.

ACCORDINGLY, the recommendation of Judge Onofre A.
Villaluz for the dismissal from the service of Mrs. Cecilia Mendietta is
denied, but she is hereby reprimanded for her dis­courteous behavior with the
warning that any similar act of discourtesy in the future will be dealt with
more severely.

Let this Resolution be noted in the personal record of Mrs.
Cecilia Mendietta.

SO ORDERED.

Teehankee, (Chairman), Makasiar, Fernandez, Guerrero, and De Castro, JJ., concur.

* The letter-recommendation is
addressed to Atty. Arturo Buena, Executive Officer, Supreme Court.