PLAZA II vs.

CASION
G.R. No. 136809 July 27, 2004

FACTS:

The City of Butuan, through its Sanggunian, passed SP Resolution 427-92

authorizing the City Mayor to sign the “Memorandum of Agreement for the Devolution
of the DSWD to the City of Butuan”. Pursuant to the MoA, Mayor Plaza issued EO No.
06-92 reconstituting the City Social Services Development Office (CSSDO), devolving
or adding thereto 19 additional DSWD employees headed by Virginia Tuazon as Officer-
in-charge. Its office was transferred from the original CSSDO building to the DSWD
building.
Aggrieved by the development, Respondents refused to recognize Tuazon as their
new head & to report at the DSWD building contending that the issuance of EO No. 06-
92 & Tuazon’s designation as the CSSDO’s Officer-in-charge are illegal. Respondents
failed to report for work despite Mayor Plaza’s series of orders directing them to do so.
Thereafter, they were administratively charged for grave misconduct & insubordination
and were preventively suspended for 60 days.
Upon expiration of their suspension, the respondents informed the Mayor that
they are willing to return to work but only to their old office, not the DSWD building.
They also failed to report to Tuazon at the DSWD building despite the Mayor’s
instructions to do so.
Mayor Plaza then dropped the respondents from the rolls pursuant to the CSC
Memorandum Circular No. 38, Series of 1993 which provides that “officers & employees
who are absent for at least 30 days without approved leave...may be dropped from the
service without prior notice.”

ISSUES:

1. Whether EO No. 06-92 directing the devolution of 19 national DSWD employees

to the city DSWD to be headed by petitioner Tuazon should be upheld as valid.

2. Whether private respondents were denied due process when they were dropped
from the rolls.

HELD:

1. Sec.17 of the LGC authorizes the devolution of personnel, assets & liabilities,
records basic services, and facilities of a national government agency to LGUs. Under
this Code, the term “devolution” refers to the act by which the government confers power
and authority upon the various LGUs to perform specific functions & responsibilities.
Mayor Plaza is empowered to issue EO No. 06-92 in order to give effect to the
devolution decreed by the LGC. As the local chief executive of Butuan City, Mayor Plaza
has the authority to reappoint devolved personnel & may designate an employee to take
charge of a department until the appointment of a regular head.
EO No. 06-92 did not violate respondents’ security of tenure as they were not
transferred to another office without their consent. Transfer is a movement from one
position to another which is of equivalent rank, level or salary without break in service &
may be imposed as an administrative penalty. The change of respondents’ place of work
from the CSSDO to the DSWD building is not a transfer. It was only a physical transfer
of their office to a new one done in the interest of public service.

2. Dropping from the rolls is not an administrative sanction. Thus, private

respondents need not be notified or heard. Their assertion that they were denied due
process is, therefore, untenable.