EDITHA B. SALIGUMBA, PETITIONER, VS. COMMISSION ON AUDIT AND LEONARDO ESTELLA, RESPONDENTS.

This is a petition to review the decision of the Commission on Audit
(COA) in Administrative Case No. 81-525 for disgraceful and immoral conduct.

On the basis of the sworn complaint of Editha Saligumba, the COA
instituted the administrative case against Leonardo Estella, Auditing Examiner
III, in the Auditor’s Office of Misamis Occidental.  The charge was that the respondent raped
Editha Saligumba on several occasions.

On April 12, 1982,
the COA rendered a decision with the following judgment:

“Wherefore, for insufficiency of evidence, the instant charge
is hereby dropped.  Respondent is,
however, warned to comport himself henceforth in such a manner as would
forestall the filing of similar complaints in the future.”

Editha Saligumba now wants Us to review
the COA decision.  She insists that the
decision of the COA is contrary to the evidence.  Thus she raises these “vital
issues”:

“a).    Was the petitioner raped on three (3) occasions by
respondent Estella, with grave abuse of confidence?

“b)     Was petitioner
fabricating her charges against the respondent?

“c).    Is respondent Estella
the father of the child of the petitioner by his manuevers of amicable
settlement indicating his guilt?

“d).    Whose
testimonies are more credible, that of petitioner or that of respondent Estella
including their witnesses?

“e).    Is
respondent Estella guilty of immorality and fit to be dismissed from service?

“f).     Is the commission on
audit ignoring the evidence on record of the petitioner, because the investigating
lawyer who received the evidence in Oroquieta City, Philippines, the mother of
the in­vestigator, is the superior of respondent Estella’s wife as a classroom
teacher?”

The petition has to be dismissed for the following reasons:

1. Our power to review COA decisions refers to money matters and
not to administrative cases involving the discipline of its personnel.

2. Even assuming that We have jurisdiction to review decisions on
administrative matters as mentioned above, We can not do so on factual issues;
Our power to review is limited to legal issues.

Accordingly, the petition is dismissed.

SO ORDERED.

Makasiar, (Chairman), Aquino, Concepcion, Jr., Guerrero, De
Castro, and Escolin, JJ.,
concur.