Ganzon V Court Of Appeals.docx

GANZON v COURT OF APPEALS FACTS: A series of administrative complaints, ten in number, were filed before the Department of Local Government against petitioner Mayor Rodolfo T. Ganzon by various city officials sometime in 1988 on various charges, among them, abuse of authority, oppression, grave misconduct, etc. Finding probable grounds, the respondent Secretary of the Department of Local Government Luis T. Santos issued 3 successive 60- day suspensions. The petitioner then instituted an action for prohibition against the secretary in the RTC of Iloilo City where he succeeded in obtaining a writ of preliminary injunction. He also instituted actions for prohibition before the Court of Appeals but were both dismissed. Thus, this petition for review with the argument that the respondent Secretary is devoid, in any event, of any authority to suspend and remove local officials as the 1987 Constitution no longer allows the President to exercise said power. ISSUE: Whether or not the Secretary of Local Government (as the alter ego of the President) has the authority to suspend and remove local officials. RULING: The Constitution did nothing more, and insofar as existing legislation authorizes the President (through the Secretary of Local Government) to proceed against local officials administratively, the Constitution contains no prohibition. The Chief Executive is not banned from exercising acts of disciplinary authority because she did not exercise control powers, but because no law allowed her to exercise disciplinary authority. In those case that this Court denied the President the power (to suspend/remove) it was not because that the President cannot exercise it on account of his limited power, but because the law lodged the power elsewhere. But in those cases in which the law gave him the power, the Court, as in Ganzon v. Kayanan, found little difficulty in sustaining him.