Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
GR 136809
FACTS
The City of Butuan, through its Sanggunian, passed SP Resolution 427-92 authorizing
the City Mayor to sign the “Memorandum of Agreement for the Devolution of the DSWD
to the City of Butuan”. Pursuant to the MoA, Mayor Plaza issued EO No. 06-92
reconstituting the City Social Services Development Office (CSSDO), devolving or adding
thereto 19 additional DSWD employees headed by Virginia Tuazon as Officer-in-charge.
Its office was transferred from the original CSSDO building to the DSWD building.
Upon expiration of their suspension, the respondents informed the Mayor that they are
willing to return to work but only to their old office, not the DSWD building. They also
failed to report to Tuazon at the DSWD building despite the Mayor’s instructions to do
so.
Mayor Plaza then dropped the respondents from the rolls pursuant to the CSC
Memorandum Circular No. 38, Series of 1993 which provides that “officers & employees
who are absent for at least 30 days without approved leave…may be dropped from the
service without prior notice.“
ISSUE
2. Whether private respondents were denied due process when they were dropped
from the rolls.
HELD
1. Sec.17 of the LGC authorizes the devolution of personnel, assets & liabilities, records
basic services, and facilities of a national government agency to LGUs. Under this Code,
the term “devolution” refers to the act by which the government confers power and
authority upon the various LGUs to perform specific functions & responsibilities.
Mayor Plaza is empowered to issue EO No. 06-92 in order to give effect to the
devolution decreed by the LGC. As the local chief executive of Butuan City, Mayor Plaza
has the authority to reappoint devolved personnel & may designate an employee to
take charge of a department until the appointment of a regular head.
EO No. 06-92 did not violate respondents’ security of tenure as they were not
transferred to another office without their consent. Transfer is a movement from one
position to another which is of equivalent rank, level or salary without break in service
& may be imposed as an administrative penalty. The change of respondents’ place of
work from the CSSDO to the DSWD building is not a transfer. It was only a physical
transfer of their office to a new one done in the interest of public service.
2. Dropping from the rolls is not an administrative sanction. Thus, private respondents
need not be notified or heard. Their assertion that they were denied due process is,
therefore, untenable.