POLLO VS DAVID GR. NO.

181881, OCTOBER 18
2011
• FACTS: Petitioner Pollo is a former Supervising Personnel Specialist of the CSC Regional Office No.
IV and also the Officer-in- of the Public Assistance and Liaison Division(PALD) under the
Mamamayan Muna Hindi Mamaya Na" program of the CSC. On January 3. 2007, CSC Chairperson
Karina Constantino-David received an unsigned complaint letter whichwas marked "Confidential" and
was sent through a courier service (LBC) from certain Allan San Pascual of Bagong Silang, Caloocan
City. The letter contains allegations stating that the petitioner has been helping a number of individuals
who have pending cases in the CSC. The letter sender's intention was that the CSC should investigate
this anomaly to maintain the clean and good behaviour of their office. Chairperson David immediately
formed a team of four personnel with background in information technology (1T), and issued a memo
directing them to conduct an investigation and specifically "to back up all the files in the computers
found in the Mamamayan Muna (PALD) and Legal divisions."
• After a briefing, the team went to the CSC-ROIV office at Panay Avenue, Quezon City.
The backing-up of all files in the hard disk of computers at the PALD and Legal Services
Division (LSD) was witnessed by several employees, together with Directors Castillo and
Unite who closely monitored said activity. At around 6:00 p.m., Director Unite sent text
messages to petitioner and the head of LSD, who were both out of the office at the time,
informing them of the ongoing copying of computer files in their divisions upon orders of
the CSC Chair.
• ISSUE: Whether or not the search conducted in the petitioner's office computer and
the copying of his personal files without his knowledge and consent, alleged as a
transgression of his constitutional right to privacy is justified
• RULING: YES. The search conducted on petitioner's computer was justified at its inception and scope,
there being reasonable ground for suspecting that the files stored therein would yield incriminating
evidence relevant to the investigation being conducted by the CSC as government employer of such
misconduct subject to the anonymous complaint. The fact that these documents were retrieved from the
computer of Pollo raises the presumption that he was the author thereof
The search of petitioner's computer files was conducted in connection with investigation of work-related
misconduct prompted by an anonymous letter-complaint addressed to Chairperson David regarding anomalies
in the CSC-ROIV where the head of the Mamamayan Muna Hindi Mamaya Na division is supposedly
"lawyering" for individuals with pending cases in the CSC. A search by a government employer of an
employee's office is justified at inception when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that it will turn up
evidence that the employee is guilty of work-related misconduct
THANK YOU!