JOSE V. RODRIGUEZ, ET AL., PETITIONERS AND APPELLANTS VS. IGNACIO SANTOS DIAZ, ET AL., RESPONDENTS AND APPELLEES.

In Administrative Order No. 4 issued by the President on January 30,
1962, the immediate investigation of the National Rice and Corn
Corporation was ordered in order to determine the causes of the failure
it has so far incurred in attaining its objectives which consist in
developing and improving the rice and corn industries as well as
promoting the social and economic conditions of those engaged therein,
including the stabilization of the prices of rice and corn, and,
pending such investigation, Jose V. Rodriguez, Chairman of the Board of
Directors, and Maximo Calalang, Conrado Estrella, and Ramon Enriquez,
members, were suspended. To carry out the investigation, Ignacio Santos
Diaz was appointed by Executive Secretary Amelito E. Mutuc as
presidential investigator.

On February 10, 1962, certain administrative charges were
additionally filed against the same Jose V. Rodriguez and his capacity
as acting general manager of the same office, whereupon it was
also ordered that they be investigated jointly with the matters
involved in the above administrative order.

The investigation was set for hearing on February 23, 1962, on which
occasion Rodriguez, et al. questioned the jurisdiction of investigator
Ignacio Santos Diaz to conduct the investigation of the charges
preferred against Rodriguez in his capacity as NARIC Acting General
Manager for the reason that under the law the power to file charges
against said manager belongs to the board of directors, and not to the
President, which is not the case herein. But this objection was
overruled by the special investigator who scheduled the continuation of
the hearing on March 3, 1962.

Consequently, alleging that a joint investigation of Rodriguez, in
his capacity as acting general manager, and Maximo Calalang and Ramon
Enriquez, as members, would prejudice the latter as they will not be in
a position to object to the introduction of any evidence that may be
presented during the investigation, they filed the instant petition for
prohibition with preliminary injunction before the Court of First
Instance of Manila against Ignacio Santos Diaz, as presidential
investigator, and Amelito R. Mutuc, as executive secretary, praying
that they be restrained from proceeding with the administrative
investigation, or from inquiring into the actuations of petitioner
Rodriguez in his capacity as NARIC Acting General Manager because the
same is beyond the jurisdiction of said respondents. They also asked
that, pending the case, a writ of preliminary injunction be issued
restraining respondents from proceeding with the investigation.

The court a quo ordered respondents to answer the petition
setting at the same time the hearing of the petition for preliminary
injunction. Respondents opposed the issuance of the writ, but
manifested that they were going to move for reconsideration of the
order requiring them to answer since after filing the answer they could
no longer file a motion to dismiss. Thereupon, they filed a motion for
reconsideration with the request that it be considered as a motion to
dismiss.

In said motion, respondents alleged that the court a quo
should not have given due course to the petition because it was not
sufficient in substance, petitioners having failed to exhaust their
available administrative remedies, besides the fact that petitioner
Rodriguez was only an Acting General Manager of the NARIC who could be
relieved any time, as in fact he was considered relieved when another
was appointed as general manager. In this connection, respondents filed
a manifestation annexing thereto a certified true copy of the
appointment of Jose Y. Feliciano as General Manager of the NARIC.

After petitioners had filed their opposition to the motion to dismiss, the court a quo
dismissed the petition in an order dated March 13, 1962 stating therein
that the motion for reconsideration was in order and the petition for
preliminary injunction dismissed. Hence the present appeal.

On April 10, 1962, after the appeal was docketed in this Court,
petitioners filed a manifestation informing this Court that the
administrative investigation against them had terminated on April 5,
1962, thus rendering their petition academic, and so they prayed that
their petition be considered one of certiorari to the end that the con-
ducted administrative proceeding may be annulled insofar as it concerns
the investigation of Jose V. Rodriguez in his capacity as acting
general manager for lack of jurisdiction.

Administrative Order No. 4 of the President reads as follows:

“WHEREAS, it appears that the National Rice and Cora
Corporation has failed to attain its objectives, namely, to develop and
improve the rice and corn industries, to promote the social and
economic conditions of those engaged therein, and to stabilize the
prices of rice and corn;

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, DIOSDADO
MACAPAGAL, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested
in me by law and pursuant to the provisions of Section 34 of Republic
Act No. 2260, do hereby order an immediate investigation of the
National Rice and Corn Corporation in order to determine the causes of
said failure, particularly in regard to its inability to stabilize the
prices of said prime commodities, and the responsibility therefore of
the officials thereof; and pending such investigation, Dr. Jose V.
Rodriguez, Chairman, Board of Directors, and Messrs. Maximo Oalalang,
Conrado Estrelia and Ramon Enriquez, members of said Board, are hereby
suspended from office.”

The excerpt of the minutes of the meeting of the’ Board of Directors
of the NARIC held on January 25, 1962, removing petitioner Jose V.
Rodriguez reads as follows: meet

“The new Board of Directors of the Corporation in
this initial meeting took up the directives of the President in his
Executive Order of January 25, 1962, creating the President’s Rice and
Corn Committee, and after deliberating lengthily on the ways and means
of implementing1 the instructions of the President as contained in the
Executive Order referred hereto decided upon and approved the following:

1. Appointment of Jose F. Feliciano as General Manager of the National Rice and Corn Corporation, vice Dr. Jose Rodriguez.”

It should be noted that the petition does not question the authority
of the President to investigate and suspend petitioner Jose V.
Rodriguez as Chairman of the NARIC Board of Directors, nor of
petitioners Maximo Calalang ,and Ramon Enrjquez as members for they
recognize that they come under the control and supervision of the
President. Petitioners only question the investigation of certain
actuations of petitioner Rodriguez in his capacity as Acting General
Manager of the NARIC on the ground that under Section 9 (a) of Republic
Act 663 it is the board of directors that can appoint the general
manager and under Section 6(b) of the same saw it is only the
board that can discipline him, so much so that the petition for
prohibition only seeks to stop respondents from exercising
administrative jurisdiction over said petitioner in his capacity as
NARIC Acting General Manager.

Such being the only issue now before us the same would seem to be
academic not only because the administrative investigation which
petitioners seek to stop had already been terminated but because
petitioner Jose V. Rodriguez has already been relieved of his position
as Acting General Manager of the NARIC as a result of the appointment
of Jose Y. Feliciano as general manager on January 26, 1962. Such
appointment has the effect of removing petitioner automatically as
acting general manager, for as this Court has held, an acting position
is precarious and the holder thereof can be relieved of his position at
any time without hearing and without case by the appointing authority.^[1]

Moreover, petitioner cannot claim that his investigation as acting
general manager is for the purpose of removing him as such for having
already relieved, the obvious purpose of the investigation is merely to
gather facts that may aid the President in finding out why the NARIC
failed to attain its objectives, particularly in the stabilization of
the prices of rice and corn. His investigation is, therefore, not
punitive, but merely an inquiry into matters which the President is
entitled to know so that he can be properly guided in the performance
of his duties relative to the execution and enforcement of the laws of
the land. In this sense, the President may authorize the appointment of
an investigator of petitioner Rodriguez in his capacity as acting
general manager even if under the law the authority to appoint him and
discipline him belongs to the NARIC Board of Directors. The petition
for prohibition, there fore, has no merit.

Wherefore, the order appealed from is affirmed. Costs against petitioners.

Bengzon, C. J. Padilla, Labrador, Concepción, Parades, Dizon, Regala, and Makalintal, JJ., concur.

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^[1] Austria, vs. Amante, 79
Phil. 780; Castro vs. Solidum, L-7750, June 30, 1955; Mendez vs.
Ganzon, et al., L-10483, April 12, 1957.