EO vs appointees questioned at SC

Manila, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to nullify Executive Order 2 of President Aquino revoking the midnight appointees of former President Gloria Arroyo.

In separate petitions, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) director Eddie Tamondong and Department of Justice (DoJ) Assistant Secretary Jose Arturo de Castro, both of whom would be removed from their positions, prayed for to the Supreme Court
for the temporary stoppage of the implementation of the order.

EO 2 was signed by the President last July 30. The order covered 977 officials who were appointed on or before March 11, 2010 but assumed office after such date; or appointed during the 45-day ban on appointments took effect, prior to the May 10 Elections

Eddie Tamondong argues that he should not be included in the list of former President Gloria Arroyo’s midnight appointees because he was re-appointed last March 1, or 10 days before the ban on appointments took effect. He also argued further that the
Executive Order violates RA 7227 also known as the Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992, which gives him a fixed term of six years, lapsing in March 2016. He said the order “demonstrates an arbitrary misuse executive of power.”

Tamondong, says the issue is not about keeping his job, of which he receives only P17,000 a month, but on the primacy of the law passed by Congress that is being run over by a presidential issuance.

Meanwhile, in de Castro’s petition, he claims that the order violates Art. III Section 1 of the constitution which prohibits “deprivation of persons of their property rights without just cause and compliance with the cardinal requirement of due process;” and Article IX
Section 2b of the Constitution which prohibits “deprivation of civil service employees of security of tenure and summarily dismissing them without just cause and without compliance with the requirement of due process.” He also added that Mr. Aquino usurped judicial power
in issuing the said order.

Click here for full article from Philippine Star