Cherie Mae F.

Aguinaldo
Guanzon v. Pelaez
G.R. No. 93252

FACTS:

Mayor Ganzon, of Iloilo City, after having been issued three successive 60-day of

suspension order by Secretary of Local Government, filed a petition for prohibition with the CA

to bar Secretary Santos from implementing the said orders. Ganzon was faced with 10

administrative complaints on various charges on abuse of authority and grave misconduct.

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.

ISSUE:

Whether or not the Secretary of Local Government, as the President’s alter ego, can

suspend and or remove local officials.

HELD:

The SC held that the Secretary of Local Government as the President’s alter ego can

suspend and remove local officials. 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

to the petitioner.