Topic

Power of General Supervision over LGUs

Title

Ganzon vs. Court of Appeals

Citation

200 SCRA 271

I.

Facts
Rodolfo Ganzon was the then mayor of Iloilo City. 10 complaints were
filed against him on grounds of misconduct and misfeasance of office.
The Secretary of Local Government issued several suspension orders
against Ganzon based on the merits of the complaints filed against him
hence Ganzon was facing about 600 days of suspension. Ganzon
appealed the issue to the CA and the CA affirmed the suspension order
by the Secretary. Ganzon asserted that the 1987 Constitution does not
authorize the President nor any of his alter ego to suspend and remove
local officials; this is because the 1987 Constitution supports local
autonomy and strengthens the same. What was given by the present
Constitution was mere supervisory power.

II.

Issue:
Whether or not the Secretary of Local Government, as the
Presidents alter ego, can suspend and or remove local officials.

III.

Ruling:
Yes. Ganzon is under the impression that the Constitution has left the
President mere supervisory powers, which supposedly excludes the
power of investigation, and denied her control, which allegedly
embraces disciplinary authority. It is a mistaken impression because
legally, supervision is not incompatible with disciplinary authority.
The SC had occasion to discuss the scope and extent of the power of
supervision by the President over local government officials in contrast
to the power of control given to him over executive officials of our
government wherein it was emphasized that the two terms, control and
supervision, are two different things which differ one from the other in

meaning and extent. In administration law supervision means

overseeing or the power or authority of an officer to see that
subordinate officers perform their duties. If the latter fail or neglect to
fulfill them the former may take such action or step as prescribed by
law to make them perform their duties.
Control, on the other hand, means the power of an officer to alter or
modify or nullify of set aside what a subordinate officer had done in the
performance of his duties and to substitute the judgment of the former
for that of the latter. But from this pronouncement it cannot be
reasonably inferred that the power of supervision of the President over
local government officials does not include the power of investigation
when in his opinion the good of the public service so requires.
The Secretary of Local Government, as the alter ego of the president,
in suspending Ganzon is exercising a valid power. He however
overstepped by imposing a 600 day suspension.