Jorge vs Mayor

Jorge vs Mayor

G.R. No. L-21776            

February 28, 1964

FACTS:

                Nicanor G. Jorge, is a career official in the Bureau of Lands. He started working there as a Junior Computer in the course of 38 years service, from February 1, 1922 to October 31, 1960, and attained the position of Acting Director, through regular and successive promotions, in accordance with civil service rules. On June 17, 1961, he was designated Acting Director of the same Bureau, and on December 13, 1961 was appointed by President Carlos Garcia ad interim Director. He qualified by taking the oath of office on the December 23, 1961. His appointment was on December 26, 1961, transmitted to the Commission on Appointments, and on May 14, 1962, petitioner's ad interim appointment as Director of Lands was confirmed by the Commission.

                On November 14, 1962 he received a letter from Benjamin Gozon, then Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Macapagal administration, informing him that pursuant to a letter from the Assistant Executive Secretary Bernal, served on Jorge on November 13, his appointment was among those revoked by Administrative Order No. 2 of President Diosdado Macapagal; that the position of Director of Lands was considered vacant; and that Jorge was designated Acting Director of Lands, effective November 13, 1962. Upon learning that Mayor, an outsider, had been designate by the President to be Acting Director of Lands Jorge protested (in a letter of November 16, 1962) to the Secretary of Agriculture informing the latter that he would stand on his rights, and issued office circulars claiming to be the legally appointed Director of Lands. Finally, on September 2, 1963, he instituted the present proceedings.

ISSUE:

                Whether or not Administrative Order No. 2 of President Macapaga operated as a valid revocation of Jorge's ad interim appointment.

RULING:

                No. The SC ruled that Nicanor G. Jorge is declared to be the duly appointed, confirmed, and qualified Director of Lands.

                Petitioner Jorge's ad interim appointment is dated December 13, 1961, but there is no evidence on record that it was made and released after the joint session of Congress that ended on the same day. It is a matter of contemporary history, of which SC may take judicial cognizance, that the session ended late in the night of December 13, 1961, and, therefore, after regular office hours. In the absence of competent evidence to the contrary, it is to be presumed that the appointment of Jorge was made before the close of office hours, that being the regular course of business. The appointment, therefore, was not included in, nor intended to be covered by, Administrative Order No. 2, and the same stands unrevoked. Consequently, it was validly confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, and thereafter, the office never became vacant.

                In common with the Gillera appointment sustained by the SC, Jorge's appointment is featured by a recognition of his tenure by the Macapagal administration itself, since he was allowed to hold and discharge undisturbed his duties as de jure Director of Lands for nearly eleven months and it was only in mid-November of 1962 that the attempt was actually made to demote him and appoint a rank outsider in his place in the person of respondent Mayor.

                If anyone is entitled to the protection of the civil service provisions of the Constitution, particularly those against removals without lawful cause, it must be the officers who, like Jorge, entered the Civil Service in their youth, bent on making a career out of it, gave it the best years of their lives and grew gray therein in the hope and expectation that they would eventually attain the upper reaches and levels of the official hierarchy, not through political patronage, but through loyalty, merit, and faithful and unremitting toil.