MARCELINO NUVAL, PETITIONER AND APPELLANT, VS. HON. MANUEL DE LA FUENTE, ETC., ET AL., RESPONDENTS AND APPELLEES.

The petitioner-appellant is a member of the Manila Police
Department. He was charged administratively before and investigated by
the summary court of the Manila Police Department for gross misconduct,
and based on said investigation the respondent Mayor ordered his
dismissal from the service effective September 20, 1950, the date of his
suspension.

The appellant instituted a petition for certiorari and mandamus
in the Court of First Instance of Manila, praying that the proceedings
followed by the respondents City Mayor de la Fuente, Chief of Police
Quintos and Colonel Juan that led to his suspension and dismissal be
declared null and void, and that he be reinstated as regular member of
the Manila Police Department with salary from September 20, 1950. After
hearing, the Court of First Instance of Manila rendered a decision
dismissing the petition, from which the petitioner has appealed.

In the appealed decision the Court of First Instance of Manila
held that Republic Act No. 557, approved on June 17, 1950, has repealed
Republic Act No. 409 with reference to the matter of suspension and
removal of members of the Manila Police Department. Even so, the court
proceeded to dismiss appellant’s petition on the ground that, in his
affidavit of September 13, 1950 (Exhibit 1), he had admitted the
commission of gross misconduct in office. In other words, the lower
court held that, although the procedure prescribed in Republic Act No.
557 was not followed, in view of appellant’s alleged admission, his
immediate dismissal by the respondent Mayor was in order.

The lower court erred. In the petition for certiorari and
mandamus the question presented is whether the summary court of the
Manila Police Department had jurisdiction to conduct the investigation
of the administrative charges against the appellant, and whether the
dismissal based on said investigation is legal. Said petition does not
involve the merits of the findings of the summary court and of the
decision of the respondent Mayor.

It being admitted that the procedure followed by the
respondents in investigating, suspending and dismissing the appellant is
not in conformity with Republic Act No. 557 which, as we have already
held in Manuel vs. de la Fuente, et al., G.R. No. L-5009, decided
November 29, 1952, has repealed or modified section 22 of Republic Act
No. 409, insofar as the power of investigation over members of the
Manila Police Department is concerned, we have to rule, as we hereby
rule, that the investigation conducted by the summary court of the
Manila Police Department and the appellant’s suspension and removal
premised on said investigation are of no force and effect.

Counsel for the appellant has intimated — though not raised in
respondent’s answer in the court below — that Republic Act No. 557 would
be rendered unconstitutional if construed as repealing section 22 of
Republic Act No. 409, because while its title speaks of “the suspension
or removal of members of the provincial governor, city mayor or
municipal mayor,” the body of the Act vests the same power in the
provincial board and municipal or city council, in violation of section
21 of Article VI of the Constitution providing that no bill which may be
enacted into law shall embody more than one subject which shall be
expressed in the title of the bill. From a reading of Republic Act No.
557, however, it is plain that the provincial governor, city mayor and
municipal mayor are conferred the power of suspension conformably to the
provisions thereof, and although the Act vests the power of
investigation in the provincial board and municipal or city council, it
does not provide that the power or removal is in said bodies. Hence, it
cannot be argued that the subject as expressed in the title is not the
same as that embodied in the body of the Act.

Wherefore, the appealed decision is hereby reversed and the
respondents are ordered to reinstate the petitioner-appellant in his
position as regular member of the Manila Police Department, with right
to receive his salaries from September 20, 1950. So ordered without
costs.

Feria, Pablo, Bengzon, Padilla, Tuason, Montemayor, Reyes,
Jugo, Bautista Angelo and Labrador, JJ., concur.