Blaquera v. Alcala

Blaquera v. Alcala

G.R. No. 109406 September 11, 199

Purisima, J.

Facts:

                Petitioners are officials and employees of several government departments and agencies who were paid incentive benefits for the year 1992, pursuant to Executive Order No. 292 1 (“EO 292”), otherwise known as the Administrative Code of 1987, and the Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V 2 of EO 292. On January 19, 1993, then President Fidel V. Ramos (“President Ramos”) issued Administrative Order No. 29 (“AO 29”) authorizing the grant of productivity incentive benefits for the year 1992 in the maximum amount of P1,000.00 3 and reiterating the prohibition 4 under Section 7 5 of Administrative Order No. 268 (“AO 268”), enjoining the grant of productivity incentive benefits without prior approval of the President. Section 4 of AO 29 directed “[a]ll departments, offices and agencies which authorized payment of CY 1992 Productivity Incentive Bonus in excess of the amount authorized under Section 1 hereof [are hereby directed] to immediately cause the return/refund of the excess within a period of six months to commence fifteen (15) days after the issuance of this Order.” In compliance therewith, the heads of the departments or agencies of the government concerned, who are the herein respondents, caused the deduction from petitioners’ salaries or allowances of the amounts needed to cover the alleged overpayments. To prevent the respondents from making further deductions from their salaries or allowances, the petitioners have come before the Supreme Court to seek relief.

                Issued by the then President Corazon Aquino (“President Aquino”) on July 25, 1987 in the exercise of her legislative powers under the 1987 Constitution, 27 EO 292, or the Administrative Code or 1987, provided for the following incentive award system:

Sec. 31. Career and Personnel Development Plans. — Each department or agency shall prepare a career and personnel development plan which shall be integrated into a national plan by the Commission. Such career and personnel development plans which shall include provisions on merit promotions, performance evaluation, in-service training, including overseas and local schorlarship and training grants, job rotation, suggestions and incentive award systems, and such other provisions for employees’ health, welfare, counseling, recreation and similar services.

Sec. 35. Employee Suggestions and Incentive Award Syatem. — There shall be established a government-wide employee suggestions and incentive awards system which shall be administered under such rules, regulations, and standards as maybe promulgated by the Commssion.

In accordance with rules, regulations, and standards promulgated by the Commission, the President or the head of each department or agency is authorized to incur whatever necessary expensesd involved in the honorary recognition of subordinate officers and employees of the government who by their suggestions, inventions, superior accomplishment, and other personal efforts contribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement of government operations, or who perform such other extraordinary acts or services in the public interest in connection with, or in relations to, their official employment.

Sec. 36. Personnel Relations. — (1) It shall be the concern of the Commission to provide leadership and assistance in developing employee relations programs in the department or agencies.

(2) Every Secretary or head of agency shall take all proper steps toward the creation of an atmosphere conducive to good supervisor-employee relations and the improvement of employee morale.

                Pursuant to the provision of Section 12(2), 28 Chapter 3, Book V or EO 292, the commission adopted and prescribed the Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V of EO 292 which, among others, provide:

Sec. 1. — Each department or agency of government, whether national or local, including bureaus and agencies, state colleges and universities, and government owned and controlled corporations with original charters, shall establish its own Department or Agency Employee Suggestions and Incentives Award System in accordance with these Rules and shall submit the same to the Commission for approval.

Sec. 2. — The System is designed to encourage creativity, innovativeness, efficiency, integrity and productivity in the public service by recognizing and rewarding officials and employees, individually or in groups, for their suggestions, inventions, superior accomplishments, and other personal efforts which contribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement in government operations, or for other extraordinary acts of services in the public interest.

xxx xxx xxx

Sec. 7. — The incentive awards shall consist of, though not limited to, the following:

xxx xxx xxx

(c) Productivity Incentive which shall be given to an employee or group of employees who has exceeded their targets or has incurred incremental improvement over existing targets.

                On February 21, 1992, President Aquino issued AO 268 which granted “each official and employee of the government the productivity incentive benefits in a maximum amount equivalent to thirty percent (30%) of his one (1) month basic salary but in no case shall such amount be less than two thousand pesos (P2,000.00),” for those who have rendered at least one year of service as of December 31, 1991. 30 Said AO carried the prohibition, provided in Section 7 thereof, which reads:

Sec. 7. The  of the necessary implementing guidelines for Executive Order No. 486 dated 8 November 1991 establishing a performance-based incentive system for government-owned or -controlled corporations shall likewise be included in the comprehensive study referred to in the preceding paragraph.

The formulation of the necessary implementing guidelines for Executive Order No. 486 dated 8 November 1991 establishing a performance-based incentive system for government-owned or -controlled corporations shall likewise be included in the comprehensive study referred to in the preceding paragraph.

                On January 19, 1993, President Ramos issued AO 29 which granted productivity incentive benefits to government employees in the maximum amount of P1,000.00 31 for the calendar year 1992 but reiterated the proscription under Section 7 of AO 268, thus:

Sec. 2. The prohibition prescribed under Section 7 of Administrative Order No. 268 is hereby reiterated. Accordingly, all heads of government offices/agencies, including government-owned and/or controlled corporations, as well as their respective governing boards are hereby enjoined and prohibited from authorizing/granting Productivity Incentive Benefits or any and all similar forms of allowances/benefits without prior approval and authorization via Administrative Order by the Office of the President. Henceforth, anyone found violating any of the mandates in this Order, including all officials/employees and the COA Auditor-in-Charge of such government office/agency found to have taken part thereof, shall be accordingly and severely dealt with in accordance with the applicable provisions of existing penal laws.

Consequently, all administrative authorizations to grant any form of allowances/benefits and all forms of additional compensation usually paid outside of the prescribed basic salary under R.A. No. 6758, the Salary Standardization Law, that are inconsistent with the legislated policy on the matter or are not covered by any legislative action are hereby revoked.

The implementation of Executive Order No. 486 dated November 8, 1991, as amended by Executive Order No. 518 dated May 29, 1992, is hereby deferred until a more comprehensive and equitable scheme for the grant of the benefits that can be applied government-wide is formulated by the Department of Budget and Management.

Issue:

                whether or not A.O 29 and AO 268 were issued in the valid exercise of presidential control over the executive departments

Held:

Yes. CSC handles personnel matters of the government. As the central personnel agency of the Government, it is tasked to formulate and establish a system of incentives and rewards for officials and employees in the public sector, alike.

The functions of the Commission have been decentralized to the different departments, offices, and agencies of the government —

Sec. 1. Declaration of Policy. — The State shall insure and promote the Constitutional mandate that appointment in the Civil Service shall be made only according to merit and fitness; that the Civil Service Commission, as the central personnel agency of the Government shall establish a career service, adopt measures to promote morale, efficiency, integrity, responsiveness, and courtesy in the civil service, strengthen the merit and rewards system, integrate all human resources development programs for all levels and ranks, and institutionalize a management climate conducive to public accountability; that public office is a public trust and public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people; and that personnel functions shall be decentralized, delegating the corresponding authority to the departments, offices and agencies where such functions can be effectively performed. (Section 1, Chapter I, Subtitle A, Title I, EO 292) (emphasis added)

Specifically, implementation of the Employee Suggestions and Incentive Award System has been decentralized to the President or to the head of each department of agency —

Sec. 35. Employee Suggestions and Incentive Award System. — There shall be established a government-wide employee suggestions and incentive awards system which shall be administered under such rules, regulations, and standards as maybe promulgated by the Commission.

In accordance with rules, regulations, and standards promulgated by the Commission, the President or the head of each department or agency is authorized to incur whatever necessary expenses involved in the honorary recognition of subordinate officers and employees of the government who by their suggestions, inventions, superior accomplishment, and other personal efforts contribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement of government operations or who perform such other extraordinary acts or services in the public interest in connection with, or in relation to, their official employment. (EO 292) (emphasis added)

The President is the head of the government. Governmental power and authority are exercised and implemented through him. His power includes the control executive departments —

The president shall have control of all the executive departments, bureaus, and offices. He shall ensure that the laws be faithfully execute. (Section 17, Article VII, 1987 Constitution)

Control means “the power of an officer to alter or modify or 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.” 32 It has been held that “[t]he President can, by virtue of his power of control, review, modify, alter or nullify any action, or decision, of his subordinate in the executive departments, bureaus, or offices under him. He can exercise this power motu proprio without need of any appeal from any party.”

When the President issued AO 29 limiting the amount of incentive benefits, enjoining heads of government agencies from granting incentive benefits without prior approval from him, and directing the refund of the excess over the prescribed amount, the President was just exercising his power of control over executive departments.

                The President issued subject Administrative Orders to regulate the grant of productivity incentive benefits and to prevent discontentment, dissatisfaction and demoralization among government personnel by committing limited resources of government for the equal payment of incentives and awards. The President was only exercising his power of control by modifying the acts of the respondents who granted incentive benefits to their employees without appropriate clearance from the Office of the President, thereby resulting in the uneven distribution of government resources. In the view of the President, respondents did a mistake which had to be corrected. In so acting, the President exercised a constitutionally-protected prerogative.

Neither can it be said that the President encroached upon the authority of the Commission on Civil Service to grant benefits to government personnel. AO 29 and AO 268 did not revoke the privilege of employees to receive incentive benefits. The same merely regulated the grant and amount thereof.

Sound management and effective utilization of financial resources of government are basically executive functions, not the Commission’s.

Conformably, it is “the President or the head of each department or agency who is authorized to incur the necessary expenses involved in the honorary recognition of subordinate officers and employees of the government.” It is not the duty of the Commission to fix the amount of the incentives. Such function belongs to the President or his duly empowered alter ego.