SC orders Hagonoy Water District employees, directors to return rice allowance

THE SUPREME Court (SC) has dismissed the petition of Hagonoy Water District (HWD), a governmentowned and controlled corporation, to allow its disbursement of rice allowances to employees and directors in 2012 amounting to P558,000.

In the High Court’s decision dated March 2 and made public on Sept. 17, it held that the board members of HWD who approved the release of the bonuses “fell short of the standard of good faith and diligence required in the discharge of their duties” as they relied merely on the basis of a 1992 board resolution.

The water district’s board of directors released Resolution 16 in 1992 to give rice allowances to its employees, but the High Court held that under Republic Act 6758 that took effect July 1, 1989, “all allowances of government officials and employees, including those in the GOCCs, are deemed included in the standardized salary rates.”

The Supreme Court invalidated the claim of HWD officers that the grant of rice allowances “had long been an established practice in HWD,” and asserted that a “practice, no matter how long continued, cannot give rise to any vested right if it is contrary to law.” — Bianca Angelica D. Añago