PREPARATORY STATEMENT

Our Constitution safeguards our freedom to choose—the individual’s

opportunity or autonomy to perform an action selected from at least two
available options. It is so pervasive and well embraced by the mother of all our
laws, that the Bill of Rights is replete with it.
An employee would be adjudged based on his choices. Demotion,
suspension or even dismissal from service is warranted by an unintelligent choice
of action, but due process mandates that we hear him first and allow him to
articulate why he made such choice.
In Callanta vs Carnation, Phil 145 SCRA 268 the Supreme Court said, “It is a
principle well-settled in this jurisdiction that one’s employment, profession, trade
or calling is a property right and the wrongful interference therewith is an
actionable wrong. The right is considered to be a property within the protection
of the constitutional guarantee of due process of law.”
In fine, one can be stripped off of his property right; in this case, demote a
police officer who failed to attend a bail hearing scheduled on a given time, but
the reason why he made such choice must be heard first before his years of labor
and dedication to his job be discredited and turned to junk.