I am battled-scarred from the many encounters I have survived but I have never been scared to fight any battle.
Your Sanggunian, Panglungsod, and specifically my person, has again been highlighted over the weekend for another alleged legal controversy on my authority to sign appointments and/or sign contracts of services for job orders.
I was being challenged to give up this authority, and our Mayor was even directed to render illegal my imprimatur on the service contracts that I issued to one hundred twenty-one (121) job order personnel hired and assigned in the Sanggunian Panglungsod, and other offices where they are detailed too.
I have spoken to our Mayor Lorelie Pacquiao in a public event lately and directly asked her, whether she knew about the latest very public controversy about job order contracts. The answer is “I have no idea about it!”
Deeply surprised by her response, I was now unsure as to whether there is someone who just wants a rift between the Mayor and your Sanggunian.
Panimalos ba kini tungod among gitan-aw og tarong ang ilang budget nga gipasa og ato silang gikoreksyunan sa atong nakitang mali?
Under the proposed 2023 Annual Executive Budget that is being deliberated at your Sanggunian Panlungsod, under the account of Other Professional Services of the City Mayor’s Office where the Job Orders are charged there is more than Php128 million pesos allocation.
The budget for the same account for job order under the Vice Mayor’s Office is only Php5,086,056.00.
In my years of experience, there was never an instance that the authority to hire job orders was ever deprived of the vice mayor nor the budget disbursed for their salaries and wages ever disapproved upon audit by the Commission on Audit (COA) nor that the budget was disapproved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
I wonder what would the opinion of my fellow members of the League of Vice Mayor in the Philippines be if they hear that this is happening in our city?
What will happen to the whole country if this opinion is true? Can we name one LGU, even those Sanggunian with political parties, the same as the mayor in nearby municipalities, where the vice mayor cannot appoint Job Orders and the Job Orders contracts will be approved by the Sanggunian?
The issue of job orders and contract services is not new. It was opined to Mayor Pacquiao to fire these job orders because my authority is null and void and it is a new jurisprudence.
Here is my defense:
1. SEPARATION OF POWERS: My legal basis This issue has already been settled by the Supreme Court (not the Court of Appeals) on May 10, 2005, in the Atienza v. Villaroza case. G.R. No. 161081, the high court ruled that the governor can appoint officials and employees and those allowed by law provided that the funds come from his office. Meanwhile, the Vice Governor can appoint provided the funds to be utilized come from the Sanggunian Panlalawigan.
According to our administrative officer, the salaries of our job order in the Sanggunian are charged to the other professionals and other general services allocated for the Office of the Vice Mayor and the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
This is within the funds provided for the Sanggunian. No further argument should be made.
I understand that the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land and by principle, decisions by the Supreme Court become part of the laws of the land.
Any lawyer knows this!
I would like to quote my good friend, Senator Aquilino Pimentel, and author of Rep. Act No. 7160, “The City Vice-Mayor presides at meetings of the Sangguniang Panlungsod and the Municipal Vice-Mayor at the sessions of the Sangguniang Bayan. The idea is to distribute powers among elective local officials so that the legislative, which is the Sanggunian, can properly check the executive, which is the Governor or the Mayor, and vice versa and exercise their functions without any undue interference from one by the other.”
The legislative branch (makes the law), the executive branch (enforces the law), and the judicial branch (interprets the law).
Separation of Powers! Section 456 (a)(2), RA 7160 provides for the authority of the Vice Mayor to appoint all officials and employees of the Sanggunian Panlungsod.
The mayor on the other hand is given the authority under Section 455 (b)(1)(v) the power to appoint employees and officials, including those authorized by law for him to appoint when their salaries and wages are wholly or mainly paid out of city funds. Section 77, of RA 7160, is clear about where the local chief executive may employ emergency or casual employees or laborers for local projects authorized by the Sanggunian concerned.
Both of us have been given varying authority under the law; so there should be no quarrel among us officials because each of us is granted our separate authority.
Using DILG Opinion No. 31 s. 2009 and that Court of Appeals decision, the power to appoint job order employee whose item/position is contained in the plantilla of the Sanggunian and to be assigned to the Sanggunian whose salaries will be paid out of the Sanggunian funds pertains to the Local Vice Chief Executive; this is also the same as the Atienza Supreme Court ruling.
The same ruling and opinion propose that there are two types of appointment- one, those whose appointments were authorized by the budget given to the Vice Chief Executive under the plantilla of the Sanggunian and two, those who were hired under contracts of services for job orders, the latter, this time, it is only the Mayor who is authorized to sign.
DILG Opinion dated June 27, 2014, highlighted the fact, that should the Mayor exercise her right to appoint contracts of services for job orders, as the advisor insisted, Section 22 of the Local Government Code will also be followed where it provides that no contract may be entered into by the local chief executive on behalf of the local government unit without prior authorization by the Sanggunian concerned.
Section 22 of RA 7160 was interpreted in another en banc Supreme Court decision (Quisumbing et al v. Garcia, G.R. No. 175527, December 8, 2008) where the High Court said this is the Power of Review by the Sanggunian of new obligations that will entail the disbursement of government money in favor of a contract that was not specifically emphasized in a submitted annual or re-enacted budget, must be submitted for approval to the Sanggunian.
In relation to the DILG Opinion, the latter opined that the Sanggunian has the power to review the contracts of job orders executed, as mandated by Section 22, RA 7160.
I will not bore you with all these legal parlances and even legal citations, I am just pointing out that there were other facts omitted, in the published opinion.
In fact, I learned while studying this issue, that in the interpretation of law there is the “Doctrine of Necessary Implication.”
The doctrine states that what is implied in a statute is as much a part thereof as that which is expressed. And every statutory grant of power, right, or privilege is deemed to include all incidental power, right, or privilege.
This is so because the greater includes the lesser, expressed in the Maxim, “in eo plus sit, simper inest et minus.” Every statutory grant of power, right, or privilege is deemed to include all incidental power, right, or privilege. (Chua vs. CSC et al G.R. No. 88979 February 7, 1992).
When the law, RA 7160 granted me the power to appoint regular employees, and when the budget is specific to my office, why will the law also not allow me to appoint my job orders, under my budget? That to me is a necessary implication.
2. CHECKS AND BALANCE: My moral basis
In DILG Opinion No. 113 s. 2021, September 13, 2021, the DILG said that the code requires approval or authorization from the Sanggunian in hiring job order personnel in the office of the executive branch.
This authorization is necessary to see to it that the system of Checks and Balances is maintained.
According to the DILG, “The authority must be canalized within the ambit of good governance, administrative necessity and fiscal adequacy of the LGU so as to ensure the efficiency of fund spending and temper any propensity of abuse.”
If I have no authority to sign contracts of service of job orders, and the Mayor, on the other hand, was not given authority by the Sanggunian to hire and sign the job orders of the LGU, are we going to fire all our job orders? Is this the intent of Mayor Pacquiao?
Gusto niya ba tangalan og trabaho ning mga tawhana?
In our private and personal talk with the Mayor, I told her, about these 121 job orders about which we are talking. They are actually “our people” most from the political camps we had when we all used to be under her political party the People’s Champ Movement. There are no strangers here, they are just people who took their individual stand, politically.
There are no permanent friends in politics, my years of experience are proof of it, but permanent scars can happen should we continue to fight each other and argue all the time.
I do not think the issue is about new wine being placed in an old wineskin; the rulings of the Court must stand as dura lex sed lex, but whether it applies to our situation, is a different theory, all over.
Local Budget Circular No. 147, July 29, 2022, provided for the seven (7) guidelines for financial management:
1. That it should be policy based where government policy is emphasized.
2. That it should be comprehensive and transparent.
3. That the budget should be realistic and implemented as intended.
4. That there is an exercise of control and supervision in budget execution.
5. That there is accounting and recording.
6. That there can be scrutiny of public finances by the executive and the legislative; and
7. That there is citizen’s participation in the Budget Process.
I believe our review of the budget and the priorities of the Mayor are valid, and our issuance of service contracts to our job order personnel is valid.
The CA nor an opinion cannot reverse a Supreme Court decision, is elementary to any lawyer!
This subject matter is not new, and it has been resolved. Paying respects to arguments of law, I submit, but since it is the budget given, it is of the same nature, the same account number, the same allocation but separated by department, but in one executive budget, it is simply, each to his or her own, with the law as our guide.
I hate repeating myself when I say, there are a lot of things to be done and we have too little time to do them.
There are many issues prevailing in the city that needs the attention of both the Executive and your Sanggunian, and these are very much apart from the seeming conflict being painted by some of the Mayor’s advisors, with the Mayor herself denying knowledge about it.
“Kawawa si Juan!”
When politicians fight, the people suffer. When politicians reconcile, it is for the good of the people.
I do not understand, why my person, be it personal or Official is being pursued by these rabid individuals, but as I have said in the beginning, I have survived many battles already; I am proud of my scars because I could readily show them to the people that I kept my integrity intact.
Thank you!
