October 2009 - Philippine Supreme Court Decisions/Resolutions
Philippine Supreme Court Jurisprudence
G.R. No. 181559 - Leah M. Nazareno, et al. v. City of Dumaguete, et al.
EN BANC
[G.R. NO. 181559 : October 2, 2009]
LEAH M. NAZARENO, CARLO M. CUAL, ROGELIO B. CLAMONTE, FLORECITA M. LLOSA, ROGELIO S. VILLARUBIA, RICARDO M. GONZALES, JR., ROSSEL MARIE G. GUTIERREZ, NICANOR F. VILLAROSA, JR., MARIE SUE F. CUAL, MIRAMICHI MAJELLA B. MARIOT, ALMA F. RAMIREZ, ANTOLIN D. ZAMAR, JR., MARIO S. ALILING, TEODULO SALVORO, JR., PHILIP JANSON ALTAMARINO, ANTONIETTA PADURA, ADOLFO R. CORNELIA, IAN RYAN PATULA, WILLIAM TANOY, VICTOR ARBAS, JEANITH CUAL, BRAULIO SAYSON, DAWN M. VILLAROSA, AGUSTIN A. RENDOQUE, ENRIQUETA TUMONGHA, LIONEL P. BANOGON, ROSALITO VERGANTINOS, MARIO T. CUAL, JR., ELAINE MAY TUMONGHA, NORMAN F. VILLAROSA, RICARDO C. PATULA, RACHEL BANAGUA, RODOLFO A. CALUGCUGAN, PERGENTINO CUAL, BERNARD J. OZOA, ROGER JOHN AROMIN, CHERYL E. NOCETE, MARIVIC SANCHEZ, CRISPIN DURAN, REBECO LINGCONG, ANNA LEE ESTRABELA, MELCHOR B. MAQUILING, RAUL MOLAS, OSCAR KINIKITO, DARWIN B. CONEJOS, ROMEL CUAL, ROQUETA AMOR, DISODADO LAJATO, PAUL PINO, LITO PINERO, RODULFO ZOSA, JR. and JORGE ARBOLADO, Petitioners, v. CITY OF DUMAGUETE, represented by CITY MAYOR AGUSTIN PERDICES, DOMINADOR DUMALAG, JR., ERLINDA TUMONGHA, JOSEPHINE MAE FLORES AND ARACELI CAMPOS, Respondents.
D E C I S I O N
DEL CASTILLO, J.:
The integrity and reliability of our civil service is, perhaps, never more sorely tested than in the impassioned demagoguery of elections. Amidst the struggle of personalities, ideologies, and platforms, the vigor and resilience of a professional civil service can only be preserved where our laws ensure that partisanship plays no part in the appointing process. Consequently, we affirm the validity of a regulation issued by the Civil Service Commission (CSC or the Commission) intended to ensure that appointments and promotions in the civil service are made solely on the basis of qualifications, instead of political loyalties or patronage.
This Petition for Review on Certiorari filed under Rule 45 of the Rules of Court seeks to reverse the Decision1 of the Court of Appeals dated August 28, 2007 and its Resolution2 dated January 11, 2008 in CA-G.R. CEB-SP No. 00665. The case stemmed from CSC Field Office's invalidation of petitioners' appointments as employees of the City of Dumaguete, which was affirmed by the CSC Regional Office, by the Commission en banc and by the Court of Appeals.
Legal and Factual Backgrounds
Accreditation of Dumaguete City by the Civil Service Commission
On October 25, 1999, pursuant to the Commission's Accreditation Program, the CSC issued Resolution No. 992411,3 which granted the City Government of Dumaguete the authority to take final action on all its appointments, subject to, inter alia, the following conditions:
1. That the exercise of said authority shall be subject to Civil Service Law, rules and regulations and within the limits and restrictions of the implementing guidelines of the CSC Accreditation Program as amended (MC No. 27, s. 1994);
x x x
5. That appointments issued under this authority shall be subject to monthly monitoring by the [Civil Service Field Office] CSFO concerned;
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9. That appointments found in the course of monthly monitoring to have been issued and acted upon in violation of pertinent rules, standards, and regulations shall immediately be invalidated by the Civil Service Regional Office (CSRO), upon recommendation by the CSFO.
Appointments made by outgoing Mayor Remollo
Then Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Antonio B. Remollo sought re-election in the May 14, 2001 elections, but lost to respondent Mayor Agustin R. Perdices. Thereafter, on June 5, 7, and 11, 2001, outgoing Mayor Remollo promoted 15 city hall employees, and regularized another 74 city hall employees, including the herein 52 petitioners.
On July 2, 2001, Mayor Perdices publicly announced at the flag raising ceremony at the Dumaguete City Hall grounds that he would not honor the appointments made by former Mayor Remollo. On the same day, he instructed the City Administrator, respondent Dominador Dumalag, Jr., to direct respondent City Assistant Treasurer Erlinda C. Tumongha (now deceased), to refrain from making any cash disbursements for payments of petitioners' salary differentials based on their new positions.
The Petition for Mandamus before the Regional Trial Court of Dumaguete City
Thus, on August 1, 2001, petitioners filed a Petition for Mandamus with Injunction and Damages with Prayer for a Temporary Restraining Order against the City of Dumaguete, represented by respondent city mayor Perdices and city officers Dumalag, Tumongha, Josephine Mae Flores, and Araceli Campos. The petition was docketed as Civil Case No. 13013, and raffled to Branch 41 of the Regional Trial Court of Dumaguete City. Petitioners sought the issuance of a writ of preliminary injunction to enjoin respondents from taking any action or issuing any orders nullifying their appointments.
In a Decision4 dated March 27, 2007, the Regional Trial Court dismissed the petition; petitioners' Motion for Reconsideration was also denied in an Order5 dated April 26, 2007. The issues involved in Civil Case No. 13013 have twice been elevated to and eventually resolved by the Court in G.R. NOS. 1777956 and 168484.7
Revocation of Appointments by the Civil Service Commission Field Office
Relative to this main case, on August 1, 2001, the CSC Field Office in Dumaguete City, through Director II Fabio R. Abucejo, revoked and invalidated the appointments of the petitioners (the August 1, 2001 Order) based of the following findings:
1. There were a total of 15 promotional appointments and 74 original appointments issued as reflected in the submitted [Report of Personnel Actions] ROPA for the month of June 2001.
2. There was only one (1) en banc meeting of the City Personnel Selection Board (PSB) held on 5 June 2001 to consider the number of appointments thus issued and there was no other call for a PSB meeting certified to by the City [Human Resource Management Officer] HRMO.
3. There were no minutes available to show the deliberations of the PSB of the 89 appointments listed in the ROPA as certified by the City HRMO.
4. There were no PSB statements certifying that there was actual screening and evaluation done on all candidates for each position.
5. The appointing officer of the 89 appointments was an outgoing local official who lost during the 14 May 2001 elections for City Mayor of Dumaguete City.
6. The 89 appointments were all issued after the elections and when the new city mayor was about to assume office.8
Director Abucejo invalidated the appointments as the same were done in violation of CSC Resolution No. 010988 dated June 4, 2001, the pertinent portions of which provide:
WHEREAS, the May 14, 2001 national and local elections have just concluded and the Commission anticipates controversies that would arise involving appointments issued by outgoing local chief executives immediately before or after the elections;
WHEREAS, the Commission observed the tendency of some outgoing local chief executives to issue appointments even after the elections, especially when their successors have already been proclaimed.
WHEREAS, the practice of some outgoing local chief executives causes animosities between the outgoing and incoming officials and the people who are immediately affected and are made to suffer the consequences thereof are the ordinary civil servants, and eventually, to a large extent, their constituents themselves;
WHEREAS, one of the reasons behind the prohibition in issuing appointments or hiring new employees during the prohibited period as provided for in CSC Memorandum Circular No. 7, series of 2001, is to prevent the occurrence of the foregoing, among others;9
WHEREAS, local elective officials whose terms of office are about to expire, are deemed as "caretaker" administrators who are duty bound to prepare for the smooth and orderly transfer of power and authority to the incoming local chief executives;
WHEREAS, under Section 15, Article VII of the Constitution, the President or Acting President is prohibited from making appointments two (2) months immediately before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his term, except temporary appointments to executive positions when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety;
WHEREAS, while there is no equivalent provision in the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act 7160) or in the Civil Service Law (Book V of Executive Order No. 292) of the abovestated prohibition, the rationale against the prohibition on the issuance of "midnight appointments" by the President is applicable to appointments extended by outgoing local chief executives immediately before and/or after the elections;
x x x
NOW THEREFORE, the Commission, pursuant to its constitutional mandate as the control personnel agency of the government, hereby issues and adopts the following guidelines:
x x x
3. All appointments, whether original, transfer, reemployment, reappointment, promotion or demotion, except in cases of renewal and reinstatement, regardless of status, which are issued AFTER the elections, regardless of their dates of effectivity and/or date of receipt by the Commission, including its Regional or Field Offices, of said appointments or the Report of Personnel Actions (ROPA) as the case may be, shall be disapproved unless the following requisites concur relative to their issuance:
a) The appointment has gone through the regular screening by the Personnel Selection Board (PSB) before the prohibited period on the issuance of appointments as shown by the PSB report or minutes of its meeting;
b) That the appointee is qualified;
c) There is a need to fill up the vacancy immediately in order not to prejudice public service and/or endanger public safety;
d) That the appointment is not one of those mass appointments issued after the elections.
4. The term "mass appointments" refers to those issued in bulk or in large number after the elections by an outgoing local chief executive and there is no apparent need for their immediate issuance.
On September 4, 2001, petitioners filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the August 1, 2001 Order before the CSC Region VII Office in Cebu. The motion was, however, denied on the ground that it should have been filed before the office of Director Abucejo in Dumaguete City. Thereafter, on October 31, 2001, petitioners asked the CSC Region VII Office in Cebu to treat their previous Motion for Reconsideration as their appeal.???�r?bl?�
