1,500 Arroyo appointees may lose their jobs by Oct. 31

MANILA, Philippines - One thousand five hundred appointees of the previous Arroyo administration may finally lose their jobs on Oct. 31 after the lapse of a three-month reprieve granted by President Aquino.

Aquino ordered the dismissal of the officials last July 30 through Memorandum Circular 2 but later allowed them to keep their jobs for three more months. Aquino said there was no legal impediment to the removal of the Arroyo appointees because they were not Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) rank holders.

Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chairman Francisco Duque III said the officials - undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and directors - might ask for another extension considering that the legality of MC 2 is now being contested before the Supreme Court.

Duque maintained that it was wrong to remove non-CESO officials who were civil service eligible.

“If you’re eligible, you can’t be removed because you have a right to the position not to the rank, you have security of tenure based on Section 9B of the 1987 Constitution,” Duque explained.

“But anyway, it’s now subject to SC jurisprudence. We will just have to wait,” he said. He expressed belief that Mr. Aquino would grant another extension.

Civil service eligibility is acquired by simply taking and passing CSC-administered examinations while there are four stages to earning a CESO rank beginning with passing the Management Aptitude B (MAP) test.

An applicant will also have to pass through an assessment center, process of validation, CES Board interview, and a Career Executive Service Performance Evaluation System (CESPES). It takes about a year to complete the requirements for the lowest rank of CESO 6.

Non-CESO officials who have been affected by MC 2 have appealed to the President to reconsider his decision saying a large-scale dismissal would create a leadership vacuum in many vital offices.

The affected officials said they have been serving the government for years and that their not being CESO eligible should not be taken against them.

The CSC said the officials concerned don’t have enough time to gain CESO rank within three months.

Contesting MC 2

A former chief of the Quezon City Prosecutors Office has joined other officials in seeking the Supreme Court’s help in their bid to get reinstated after being removed through MC 2.

Dindo Venturanza has petitioned the SC to stay his dismissal through the issuance of a status quo ante.

Last Oct. 13, the High Tribunal issued a similar order to temporarily stop the dismissal of National Commission on Muslim Filipinos Secretary Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman. The Oct. 13 order was said to have emboldened other Arroyo appointees to seek the same relief.

Named respondents in Venturanza’s 52-page petition were the Office of the President, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Prosecutor General Claro Arellano and Assistant Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon.

The petitioner argued Aquino’s MC 2 “deprives persons of their employment as public servants without due process.”

He said Article IX-B Section 2 of the Constitution states that “no officer or employee of the civil service shall be removed or suspended except for cause provided for by law.”

Venturanza maintained that EO 2 erroneously interpreted the provision on midnight appointments under Article VII Section 15 of the Constitution. The provision bars the President from issuing appointments two months before the next presidential elections and up to the end of his or her term.

“The definition of ‘midnight appointee’ under the assailed executive order makes the acts of the appointee of taking an oath and assumption of office subject of Article VII Section 15. This should not be the case considering that nowhere is it stated in this constitutional prohibition that an appointee is prohibited from taking an oath and assuming his office during the two-month period prior to the next presidential elections,” he added.

Venturanza also noted that President Aquino failed to consider Civil Service Memorandum Circular 40, which allows an appointee to actually assume office within 30 days from the date of his or her appointment.

He also said his dismissal was unfair because he and 80 other lawyers had applied for the post and undergone a rigid selection process.

Venturanza was promoted as city prosecutor of Quezon City on Feb. 23 by then President Arroyo and took his oath before former Justice secretary Alberto Agra last March 15.

He was eventually removed from his post and temporarily replaced by Fadullon in an acting capacity.

Meanwhile, the Palace has renewed its appeal for the lifting of SC’s status quo ante order on Lucman’s appointment.

In its second very urgent supplemental motion, the Palace said Lucman’s appointment would cause “unnecessary delay” in the Nov. 11 Hajj pilgrimage of Muslim Filipinos to Mecca.

Solicitor General Joel Cadiz explained that the law provides that the NCMF chief should be the pilgrimage leader or Amirul Hajj. The law allows only a male to lead a batch of pilgrims to Mecca. 

“The prompt resolution of the pending motions to lift the Status Quo Order will resolve the issue as to who shall be appointed Amirul Hajj and to enable the Hajj to proceed without unnecessary delay,” he said. The Aquino appointee to the NCMF is Aminoddin Barra. – With Edu Punay