This case has been cited 1 times or more.
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2016-01-26 |
MENDOZA, J. |
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| The ZCWD employees who merely received the disallowed amounts, are not obliged to refund the same because they had no participation in approving the release of the per diem. In Silang v. Commission on Audit,[31] the Court cleared the employees who received the disallowed benefits on the basis of good faith, to wit: In this case, the majority of the petitioners are the LGU of Tayabas, Quezon's rank-and-file employees and bonafide members of UNGKAT (named-below) who received the 2008 and 2009 CNA Incentives on the honest belief that UNGKAT was fully clothed with the authority to represent them in the CNA negotiations. As the records bear out, there was no indication that these rank-and-file employees, except the UNGKAT officers or members of its Board of Directors named below, had participated in any of the negotiations or were, in any manner, privy to the internal workings related to the approval of said incentives; hence, under such limitation, the reasonable conclusion is that they were mere passive recipients who cannot be charged with knowledge of any irregularity attending the disallowed disbursement. Verily, good faith is anchored on an honest belief that one is legally entitled to the benefit, as said employees did so believe in this case. Therefore, said petitioners should not be held liable to refund what they had unwittingly received. | |||||