XII.

CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSIONS
2. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION
b. DISQUALIFICATION
(i). Flores v. Drilon
(G.R. No. 104732, June 22, 1993)
Bellosillo, J.
FACTS:
R.A. 7227, or the Bases Conversion & Development Act (BCDA), provides in Sec. 13 (d)
that an Administrator to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) shall be appointed by the
President and that for the first year of the SBMA’s operations, the Mayor of Olongapo City,
Zambales, shall serve as the Administrator. Under this section, then Mayor Richard J. Gordon
was appointed as Administrator.
Petitioners, as taxpayers and employees of the U.S. military base in Subic, assail Sec.
13(d), as it violates Sec. 7(1), Art. IX-B of the 1987 Constitution, which provides that “no elective
official shall be eligible for appointment or designation in any capacity to any public office or
position during his tenure”. Since Gordon is holding an elected office and the Administrator of
the SBMA is a public office, Gordon’s appointment, according to petitioners, clearly violate the
Constitution.
Respondents argue that Sec. 94 of the Local Government Code (LGC) permits the
appointment of an elective official to another public office if allowed by law or by the primary
functions of his elective office. In addition, they also claim that the office of Administrator of the
SBMA is ex officio to the office of Mayor of Olongapo City.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Mayor Gordon’s appointment, pursuant to Sec. 13(d) of RA 7227, violates the
prohibition of Sec. 7(1), Art. IX-B of the Constitution?
HELD:
Yes. As the Mayor of Olongapo City is an elected position, Gordon clearly falls under the
strict prohibition of Sec. 7(1), Art. IX-B. The language of Sec. 7(1) stemmed from the intent of
the framers of the Constitution to prevent the possibility of an elective official neglecting their
constituents in their pursuit of a higher office. Sec. 94 of the LGC cannot prevail over this
constitutional prohibition, for it goes against the clear and strict language of Sec. 7(1).
With regards to the claim that the Administrator of the SBMA is ex officio to the office of
the Mayor of Olongapo City, this is without basis, for Sec. 13(d)’s use of the phrase “shall be
appointed” shows the intent of Congress to make the position of Administrator an appointive
position, not an ex-officio position. Indeed, if it were the intent of Congress to make the SBMA
Administrator ex officio to the Office of the Mayor of Olongapo city, they would have used the
phrase “shall be ex officio to…” instead of “shall be appointed...”.
Because Mayor Gordon cannot be appointed as SBMA Administrator, it must also be
said that the proviso of Sec 13(d) of RA 7227, wherein Congress effectively sanctioned the
invalid appointment of Mayor Gordon in the first place, must also be seen as unconstitutional,
for the same reason as discussed above.