Roselle A. Corvera-Cirunay and Ligaya Q. De Guzman vs. The Commission on Audit, Chairperson Gamaliel A. Cordoba, et al.

Facts:

Petitioners Roselle A. Corvera‑Cirunay (an NCIP Accountant III) and Ligaya Q. De Guzman (then NCIP Chief, Finance and Administrative Division) challenged Notices of Disallowance issued by respondent Commission on Audit (COA) and the COA Proper’s affirmation of those disallowances. The petition was filed as a Petition for Certiorari under Rule 64 in relation to Rule 65 of the Rules of Court.

In November 2009, Taganito Mining Corporation (TMC), Taganito HPAL Nickel Corporation (THPAL), the Mamanwa Tribes of Barangays Taganito and Urbiztondo, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Regional Office No. XIII executed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for a downstream nickel processing project within Mamanwa ancestral domain. The MOA provided (inter alia) a 1% royalty (Item 4.1) and a separate annual financial assistance of PHP 2,000,000.00 from THPAL to the NCIP to be deposited in a Trust Account “to be exclusively used for their Socio‑Economic Projects for the IPs of Surigao del Norte” (Item 5.6, including 5.6.b. directing payments to a Trust Account).

In March 2012, the Mamanwa CADT‑048 passed Resolusyon No. 14 (2012) endorsing to the NCIP En Banc an annual socio‑economic program and proposing that the MOA financial assistance be used to fund various items including hiring of community organizers, trainings, and also items described as operating expenses of NCIP RO No. XIII (rental, capital outlay, maintenance, communications, supplies). Between January–November 2013 and January–August 2014, COA audit observations (AOM Nos. 2014‑003 and 2014‑004) remarked that PHP 913,240.10 (2013) and PHP 509,205.79 (2014) from the financial assistance were used for NCIP operating expenses rather than socio‑economic projects. Notices of Suspension requested accomplishment reports or an addendum to the MOA; on failure to comply, COA issued five Notices of Disallowance (NDs) dated May 26 (the rollo contains dates referenced as 2015 and 2016) totaling PHP 1,573,227.83 and naming, among others, petitioners as approving/certifying officers.

The NCIP and others executed an Addendum to the MOA in 2016 (the rollo records a September 16, 2016 date in its pages and the Addendum sought expansion/clarification of Item 5.6 to allow broader use of the financial assistance — including augmentation of NCIP MOOE, wages of contractual staff, purchase/rental of vehicles and equipment — and stated the amendments shall have retroactive application). Appeals by the NCIP officers to the COA Regional Director were recommended for grant by the audit team and the Regional Director accordingly granted the appeals. On automatic review, however, the COA Proper reversed the COA Regional Director (disapproving COA Regional Decision No. 2017‑012 dated June 30, 2017) and AFFIRMED the NDs, holding that the financial assistance constituted a trust fund that must be spent only for the specific purpose for which it was created and that Resolusyon No. 14 and the later Addendum could not validate the earlier expenditures. The COA Proper invoked Section 4(3) of Presidential Decree No. 1445 and provisions of Republic Act No. 7942 (Sections 16–17) and denied the appeals, thereby prompting the present petition.

Petitioners argued the COA Proper...(Pro-only)

Issues:

• Whether the COA Proper committed grave abuse of discretion in affirming the Notices of Disallowance....(Pro-only)

Ruling:

• (Pro-only)

Ratio:

• (Pro-only)

Doctrine:

• (Pro-only)