PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — Top executives of government-owned and -controlled corporations and other state agencies with still unexpired term of office will not be touched in the ongoing revamp.
This assurance was made yesterday by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita amid fears by these corporate executives that their fixed term of office will be abruptly cut short, in violation of their right to security of tenure.
“Definitely, that is being considered. The search committee is conscious of that. There are people with fixed term and there are people who are on holdover. So where it may go against jurisprudence, then of course the action of the search committee will be not to recommend that they be terminated,” Ermita told his weekly press briefing.
The Palace official reported that 301 officials from 107 GOCCs, sequestered corporations and other government agencies have submitted their courtesy resignation as of yesterday.
The term of office of officials of GOCCs is governed by their respective corporate charters. The administrator, chairmen and directors of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority have a term of seven years.
Similar officials of the Philippine Postal Corp. have a term of five years, while those in other GOCCs have a term of one year to three years.
In 2001, a Malacañang plan to replace then SBMA administrator and chairman Felicito Payumo was shelved after it was reminded that he was entitled to security of tenure. This principle was upheld in a decision of the Supreme Court.
Ermita said that corporate executives whose term of office has expired and who are on holdover capacity will have to vacate their posts once they are not reappointed.
“Whether they have submitted their courtesy resignation or not, the search committee will evaluate their performance and recommend to the President whether they should be retained, terminated or [their appointments] renewed,” he said.
Ermita said the Palace has already received the courtesy resignation of 260 officials from 77 GOCCs and government financial institutions.
He said the resignations also include 13 officials from six agencies under the Office of the President, eight officials from four sequestered corporations and 20 officials from other government agencies.