Fernandez v Sto.
Tomas
G.R. No. 116418
7 March 1995
Syllabus Topic: Valid Delegation of Leg. Power
Filling in the Details – Authority to Reorganize
Nature of the Case:
In this Petition for Certiorari, Prohibition and Mandamus with Prayer for a
Temporary Restraining Order, petitioners Salvador C. Fernandez and
Anicia M. de Lima assail the validity of Resolution No. 94-3710 of the
Civil Service Commission ("Commission") and the authority of the
Commission to issue the same.
What’s your legal basis:
ARTICLE VI: The Legislative Department. SECTION 1. The legislative
power shall be vested in the Congress of the Philippines which shall
consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives, except to the extent
reserved to the people by the provision on initiative and referendum.
RESOLUTION NO. 94-3710
WHEREAS, Section 17 of Book V of Executive Order 292 provides that '.
. . as an independent constitutional body, the Commission may effect
changes in the organization as the need arises';
WHEREAS, the Commission finds it imperative to effect changes in the
organization to streamline its operations and improve delivery of public
service;
WHEREAS, the Commission finds it necessary to immediately effect
changes in the organization of the Central Offices in view of the need to
implement new programs in lieu of those functions which were transferred
to the Regional Offices;
WHEREFORE, foregoing premises considered, the Commission hereby
RESOLVES to effect the following changes in its organization,
specifically in the Central Offices
xxx xxx xxx
The Revised Admin Code sets out in Book V, Title I, Subtitle A, Chapter
3, the internal structure and organization of the Commission
Office of Career Systems and Standards – provide leadership and
assistance in the formulation and evaluation of personnel systems
and standards relative to performance appraisal, merit promotion
and employee incentive benefits and awards.
Office of Personnel Inspection and Audit – develop policies,
standards, rules and regulations for the effective conduct of
inspection and audit of personnel and personnel management
programs and the exercise of delegated authority; provide
technical and advisory services to Civil Service Regional
Offices and government agencies in the implementation of their
personnel programs and evaluation systems.
Office of Personnel Relations – provide leadership and assistance
in the development and implementation of policies, standards,
rules and regulations governing corporate officials and employees
in the areas of recruitment, examination, placement, career
development, merit and awards systems, position classification
 Fernandez v Sto. Tomas
G.R. No. 116418
7 March 1995
and compensation, performance appraisal, employee welfare and
benefits, discipline and other aspects of personnel management on
the basis of comparable industry practices.
The Admin Code then provides that:
Each office of the Commission shall be headed by a Director with
at least one (1) Assistant Director, and may have such divisions as
are necessary to carry out their respective functions. As an
independent constitutional body, the Commission may effect
chances in the organization as the need arises. (Sec. 17,
Organizational Structure)
Therefore, the offices relate to the internal structure of the CSC
Section 26(7), Book V, Title I, Subtitle A of the 1987 Revised
Administrative Code recognizes reassignment as a management
prerogative vested in the Commission and, for that matter, in any
department or agency of government embraced in the civil service:
"Sec. 26. Personnel Actions. — . . .
xxx xxx xxx
As used in this Title, any action denoting the movement or progress of
personnel in the civil service shall be known as personnel action. Such
action shall include appointment through certi􀁆cation, promotion, transfer,
reinstatement, re-employment, detail, reassignment, demotion, and
separation. All personnel actions shall be in accordance with such rules,
standards, and regulations as may be promulgated by the Commission.
xxx xxx xxx
(7) Reassignment. An employee may be re-assigned from one
organizational unit to another in the same agency; Provided, That such
reassignment shall not involve a reduction in rank status and salary."
Facts:
Fernandez was serving as Director of the Office of Personnel
Inspection and Audit ("OPIA") while petitioner de Lima was serving as
Director of the Office of the Personnel Relations ("OPR"), both at the
Central Office of the Civil Service Commission in Quezon City. While
petitioners were so serving, Resolution No. 94-3710 signed by public
respondents Patricia A. Sto. Tomas and Ramon Ereneta, Jr., Chairman and
Commissioner, respectively, of the Commission, was issued on 7 June
1994
The resolution stated that the OPIA, the OPR, and the Office of Career
Systems and Standards (OCSS) were to be merged into the Research and
Development Office
Petitioners filed this petition arguing that Resolution No. 94-3710 effected
the "abolition" of public offices, something which may be done only by
the same legislative authority which had created those public offices in the
first place.
Issues:
1. Does the Civil Service have legal authority to merge the OCSS,
the OPIA, and the OPR?
2. Was the security of tenure of the petitioners breached by the
resolution?
 Fernandez v Sto. Tomas
G.R. No. 116418
7 March 1995
2. No. It must be remembered that appointments to the staff of the
Held:
1. Yes. The Resolution rearranged some of the administrative units.
The reason why the Commission resorted to rearranging was to
streamline operation. Commission's Office Order assigning
petitioner de Lima to the CSC Regional Office No. 3 was
precipitated by the incumbent Regional Director filing an
application for retirement, thus generating a need to find a
replacement for him. Fernandez's assignment to the CSC Regional
Office No. 5 had, upon the other hand, been necessitated by the
fact that the then incumbent Director in Region V was under
investigation and needed to be transferred immediately to the
Central Office.
The term "public office" is used to refer to the right, authority and
duty, created and conferred by law, by which, for a given period
either fixed by law or enduring at the pleasure of the creating
power, an individual is invested with some portion of the
sovereign functions of government, to be exercised by that
individual for the benefit of the public.
The Court cannot accept petitioner’s argument
The Resolution does not abolish any public office. When the
Admin code defined the offices, it certainly did not mean to cast
them in stone and freeze them in place. In fact, the legislative
authority had expresslyauthorized the Commission to carry out
"changes in the organization," as the need [for such changes]
arises."
Commission are not appointments to a specified public office but
rather appointments to particular positions or ranks.
Revised Administrative Code recognizes reassignment as a
management prerogative vested in the Commission and, for that
matter, in any department or agency of government embraced in
the civil service. Therefore, the reassignment of Fernandez and de
Lima were effected with express statutory authority and did not
constitute removals without lawful cause
Second, there is a long line of cases that support this
DepEd v. CA
A person who had been appointed as "Secondary School
Principal II" in the Division of City Schools, District II,
Quezon City, National Capital Region, and who had been
stationed as High School Principal in the Carlos Albert
High School in Quezon for a number of years, could
lawfully be reassigned or transferred to the Manuel Roxas
High School, also in Quezon City, without demotion in
rank or diminution of salary
Fernando v. Hon. Sto. Tomas
Re: appointments of petitioners as "Mediators-Arbiters in
the National Capital Region" in dismissing a challenge on
certiorari to resolutions of the CSC and orders of the
Secretary of Labor. They were not appointed to a specific
station or particular unit of the Department of Labor in the
National Capital Region (DOLE-NCR). Consequently,
they can always be reassigned from one organizational
 Fernandez v Sto. Tomas
G.R. No. 116418
7 March 1995

unit to another of the same agency. No vested right can be

claimed in the station where they are assigned
Quisumbing v. Gumban
Re: appointment in the Bureau of Public Schools of the
DECS the appointment of private respondent Yap is
simply that of a District Supervisor of the Bureau of
Public Schools which does not indicate a specific station
she could be assigned to any station and she is not entitled
to stay permanently at any specific station.
Ibanez v. COMELEC
Re: appointment as Election Registrars in the COMELEC
without any indication of what city, municipality, or
district they were appointed to since petitioners "were not
appointed to, and consequently not entitled to any security
of tenure or permanence in, any specific station," "on
general principles, they [could] be transferred as the
exigencies of the service required," and that they had no
right to complain against any change in assignment.