FLORES VS.

DRILON AND GORDON

GR No. 104732; June 22, 1993

FACTS: The constitutionality of Sec. 13, par. (d), of R.A. 7227, otherwise known
as the "Bases Conversion and Development Act of 1992," under which
respondent Mayor Richard J. Gordon of Olongapo City was appointed
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Subic Bay Metropolitan
Authority (SBMA), is challenged. Petitioners maintain that such infringes to the
constitutional provision of Sec. 7, first par., Art. IX-B, of the Constitution and that
Congress encroached upon the discretionary power of the President to appoint.

ISSUE: Whether or not said provision of the RA 7227 violates the constitutional
prescription against appointment or designation of elective officials to other
government posts.

RULING: Yes, the court held the Constitution seeks to prevent a public officer to
hold multiple functions since they are accorded with a public office that is a
fulltime job to let them function without the distraction of other governmental
duties. The Congress gives the President the appointing authority which it cannot
limit by providing the condition that in the first year of the operation the
Mayor of Olongapo City shall assume the Chairmanship. The court points
out that the appointing authority the congress gives to the President is no power
at all as it curtails the right of the President to exercise discretion of whom to
appoint by
limiting his choice.