MANILA – In a major reversal of its earlier decision, the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ordered all appointed officials of the Arroyo administration, who are running in the May elections, to immediately resign.
Voting 10-5, the SC, through Chief Justice Reynato Puno, pointed out that such officials have been deemed as resigned by law once they filed their certificates of candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in November.
The decision represented a major reversal of an earlier ruling by the SC which allowed the appointed officials to retain their posts even if they had already filed their certificates of candidacy.
The High Court made its ruling in a petition which asked the tribunal to reconsider its earlier decision, according to GMA News, one of the country’s biggest television and radio network.
In the majority decision penned by Puno, the SC ruled as constitutional provisions in two laws – the Omnibus Election Code and the Amended Automated Election System Law – which said that appointed officials who have filed their certificates of candidacy for the May 10 polls are deemed automatically resigned.
Puno pointed out there is a valid distinction between appointed and elective officials as provided by law.
Such provisions, the SC stressed, aims to level the playing field by removing the advantages that such officials have over their rivals possibly through the use of the vast government resources.
When contacted, lawyer Midas Marquez, the SC spokesman and court administrator, explained this means the decision now requires the Arroyo administration to look for replacements of officials who are running in May.
In Malacanang, Charito Planas, one of three presidential spokesmen, said they would abide by the High Court ruling,
Planas disclosed that there are now only two Cabinet members who are affected by the decision – Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Secretary Agnes Devanadera of the Department of Justice.
She said Ermita is running for Congress in his home province of Batangas in Southern Luzon and Devanadera is seeking a similar elective position to represent Quezon province, also in Southern Luzon.
But it is up to President Arroyo to announce the successors of Ermita and Devanadera in compliance with the High Court ruling, Planas said.
According to Planas, two other Cabinet officials have already resigned when they filed their certificates of candidacy.
She said Secretary Arthur Yap earlier resigned as the head of the Department of Agriculture to run for Congress in the island province of Bohol in the Visayas followed by former Cabinet secretary Silvestre Bello, one of the senatorial candidates of the ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats.
Another official who already quit much ahead of Yap and Bello, Planas said, is former secretary Gilberto Teodoro of the Department of National Defense who is the presidential candidate of Lakas-Kampi in the May elections.
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