GR 152949; (August, 2007) (Digest)
G.R. No. 152949 ; August 14, 2007
AKLAN COLLEGE, INCORPORATED and MSGR. ADOLFO P. DEPRA, petitioners, vs. RODOLFO P. GUARINO, respondent.
FACTS
Rodolfo P. Guarino was first hired by Aklan College, Inc. (ACI) as an instructor in 1972. In 1974, he was appointed as Acting Dean of the Commerce and Secretarial Department, and on November 26, 1990, he was additionally appointed as Acting Personnel Director, with the latter appointment stated to be temporary and revocable. After a one-year leave from November 1991, Guarino sought to reassume his positions in October 1992. ACI informed him he could not reassume his deanship due to lack of qualifications, specifically his failure to complete a Master in Business Administration degree, and that the Personnel Director post was already filled. Guarino was, however, still considered an instructor and was prodded to resume teaching duties. He subsequently filed a complaint for illegal dismissal.
ISSUE
Whether Guarino was illegally dismissed from his administrative positions as Acting Dean and Acting Personnel Director, entitling him to reinstatement and backwages.
RULING
No, the Supreme Court ruled that Guarino was not illegally dismissed from his administrative positions. The Court clarified that an employee in an educational institution holds two distinct kinds of tenure: one as a teacher, which is protected by security of tenure, and another as an administrative officer, which does not carry the same protection unless a fixed term is provided. Guarino’s appointments as Acting Dean and Acting Personnel Director were explicitly temporary and revocable, lacking a fixed term. His inability to meet the qualification standards for the deanship, as mandated by the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools, provided ACI with a valid and legal ground to withhold the position from him upon his return from leave. The Court distinguished the case from La Salette, noting that in La Salette, the administrative appointments were for a fixed term, which was not present here. Since Guarino was never dismissed from his permanent position as an instructor, and his loss of the administrative posts was due to the revocable nature of his acting appointments and his failure to qualify, there was no illegal dismissal. The NLRC and CA decisions ordering his reinstatement to the Personnel Director position with backwages were reversed and set aside.