THE COURT ADMINISTRATOR, COMPLAINANT, VS. SANCHO G. GAPASIN, RESPONDENT.

Sancho G. Gapasin,
Deputy Sheriff of the Court of First Instance, Branch IV, Bauang,
La Union, was charged with “grave abuse of authority, insubordination and
conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service” under an
administrative complaint dated June
18, 1981.  The complaint was
referred to Hon. Angel A. Daquigan, Acting Presiding
Judge of said Court for investigation, report and recommendation.  In his answer to what he described as
“the unfounded administrative complaint of the Honorable Administrator of
the Supreme Court,” Gapasin did nothing more
than to invoke Section 19, Article IV of the “New Constitution of the
Philippines”, dealing with the rights of an accused in a criminal
prosecution, in as much as, according to him, he had a “pending Criminal
Case at the Sandiganbayan
Court ** for:  Violation of Republic Act
No. 3019, Sub-paragraph (e)”. 
Hearings were thereafter had on the charges before Judge Daquigan, the respondent Gapasin
being represented at all said hearings by counsel, Atty. Ponciano Arnobit.  Gapasin testified
in his own behalf.  He also presented the
testimony of his wife, and that of a police officer.  He submitted, too, documentary proofs,
inclusive of the medical report of Dr. Rosa Tibayan,
the Head of the Psychiatry Department of the Baguio General Hospital, and the record of her testimony before the Sandiganbayan.

Judge Daquigan found that the evidence
clearly and convincingly established the charges against respondent Gapasin, the “defense put up by the respondent **
(being) not only nil, but untenable and unmeritorious.” According to His
Honor, the evidence showed that respondent Sheriff Gapasin
had been commissioned to enforce a writ of execution issued by the Municipal
Court of Naguilian, La Union in Civil Case No. 300
entitled, “Alejandro Casilla vs. Tranquilino Soriano“; that
in the company of several persons, Gapasin had levied
on and taken actual custody of two (2) pregnant carabaos
in implementation of the writ despite the protestations of the possessor that
the animals did not belong to the judgment debtor; that he had thereafter loaded
the carabaos on a pick-up and brought them to the
residence of one of his companions, a Pedro Castaneda, to whom, on the same
day, he sold and delivered the carabaos in
consideration of the price of P3,300.00, which was paid to him the following
day; that the carabaos in fact belonged to a Mr.
Rivera Camacho, and a Mr. Alfredo Cales, and had an
aggregate value of P11,000.00; that the sale was consummated by respondent
sheriff privately and not by public auction, and without any notice to any
party whatever; that Gapasin turned over to the
judgment creditor only the amount of P3,000.00, appropriating P300.00 for
himself; and that at the time he carried out the execution in the manner just
described, there was a standing administrative order issued by CFI Executive
Judge Romeo N. Firme dated Ocrtober
17, 1977, prohibiting him from exercising the duties of a deputy sheriff.  The evidence further shows, indeed it is
admitted by respondent Gapasin, that on the basis of
these acts, he was prosecuted in the Sandiganbayan for a violation of the Anti-Graft and
Corrupt Practices Act, convicted thereof, and sentenced to suffer imprisonment
of at least four (4) years, with the accessory penalty of perpetual
disqualification from public office, but without any declaration of forfeiture
of benefits due him under the law.

A review of the record convinces us of the correctness of the
findings of the Investigating Judge, as well as his recommendation for the
“dismissal of respondent Sancho G. Gapasin from the service with special perpetual
disqualification from public office but without forfeiture of whatever benefits
due him under the law by reason of his service.” The non-forfeiture of
benefits is justified by the fact that respondent may have acted under some mental
or psychiatric aberration, as indicated by the above mentioned report of Dr. Tibayan, who had occasion to examine Gapasin.

WHEREFORE, the Court APPROVES the report and
recommendation of the Investigating Judge and ORDERS THE DISMISSAL from the
service of respondent Sancho G. Gapasin
as Deputy Sheriff, without forfeiture of whatever benefits may be due him under
the law by reason of his past services.

Teehankee, C.J., Yap, Fernan, Narvasa, Melencio-Herrera, Gutierrez, Jr., Cruz, Paras,
Feliciano, Gancayco, Padilla, Bidin,
Sarmiento, and Cortes, JJ.,
concur.