THE Court of Appeals (CA) has declared illegal the dismissal from the service of lawyers Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala as deputy directors of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in 2014.
In a 24-page decision penned by Associate Justice Mary Charlene Hernandez-Azura, the CA’s Special Fourteenth Division reversed and set aside the rulings of the Office of the President issued on December 12, 2018 and January 27, 2021, which sustained the validity of the dismissal of Esmeralda and Lasala.
The Palace ruled the position of deputy Director III is considered a third level position that requires third-level Career Executive Service (CES) eligibility.
It stressed that a CES employee can only attain security of tenure if he or she is CES eligible and is appointed to appropriate CES rank.
Since the two NBI officials do not possess the required CES eligibility, thus, the Palace said they were considered as mere temporary appointees, who do not enjoy security of tenure. Esmeralda and Lasala elevated the case before the CA after their motion for reconsideration was denied by the OP.
It can be recalled that on March 13, 2014, then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima issued Department Order No. 192, directing Esmeralda and Lasala to fully wind up and turn over their affairs to the newly appointed NBI deputy directors Ricardo Pangan Jr. and Antonio Pagatpat.
The petitioners then elevated their case with the Office of the President seeking the recall of de Lima’s order and their reinstatement to their previous or similar positions. They claimed their removal from their positions was tantamount to dismissal from the service since there was no delegation given to them.
They accused de Lima of committing grave abuse of discretion and violating their right to due process because they were dismissed without any hearing or without being given the opportunity to rebut the accusation being hurled against them.
Esmeralda and Lasala claimed that they were removed from their posts because de Lima was “morally convinced” that they were the ones who prematurely informed pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles about the issuance of the warrant for her arrest in relation to the case for illegal detention filed by Benhur Luy.
“Petitioners’ dedicated and devoted service with respondent NBI was carried out with no other intention but to serve the public. In return, the government, including this Court, cannot fail them,” the CA said.
“The entire civil service will not benefit on the policy among officials, especially those belonging to the closed career system as the petitioners, who, after having honed their skills in their respective fields of service or expertise and after gaining sufficient experience, will be removed from their position based on an inexistent requirement imposed upon them,” it added.
The CA directed the Office of the President and the NBI to reinstate Esmeralda to his former position as NBI Deputy Director III or its equivalent under Republic Act 10867 or the NBI Reorganization and Modernization Act, “Without loss of seniority right and without gap in the continuity of government service as if he was not removed” from his post at all.
Since Lasala has already retired from the service, the appellate court ordered the “immediate payment of his full back wages, salaries, incentives, benefits, and other monetary privileges and emoluments at the current rate from the time of his actual dismissal from government service until he reached the compulsory age of retirement, including all the retirement and leave privileges that are due him as a retiring employee.
In their petition before the CA, Esmeralda and Lasala argued that their previous positions as deputy directors are “highly specialized in nature’ requiring highly technical, if not, scientific, expertise, which are among the positions excluded from CES coverage.”
They said their managerial or executive functions were only incidental to their main investigative functions.
In agreeing with the petitioners, the CA declared, “The NBI directorial positions belonging to the closed career system whose inherent job responsibilities are scientific and highly specialized and technical in nature were recognized as one of the premises or bases for the issuance of CESB [Career Executive Service Board] Resolution No. 1560 dated 15 October 2015, which eventually declared the NBI director’s position as beyond the coverage of the CES, thereby expressly repealing Resolution No. 1409 dated 12 July 2018.”
“Petitioners’ contested position of NBI Director III or Deputy Director definitely was not covered by the CES,” the CA added.
Likewise, the CA held that the petitioners are not required to be accredited and qualified Career Executive Service Officers (CESO) with the proper appointment in rank designation as NBI Deputy Directors III before being considered permanent appointees in their contested positions and thus enjoy security of tenure.
Likewise, the CA said the petitioners were not even the subject of any pending case that would somehow justify any action or sanction on their part.
“If at all, the petitioners were not heard by the appointing authority first before the imposition of any penalty converting their appointments in utter violation of their rights to due process and security of tenure,” the appellate court said.
Esmeralda and Lasala, according to the CA, are qualified to the position having served for a long time as NBI agents until their promotion and appointment as deputy directors having complied with all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications for the said position, foremost among them their being lawyers and their passing of the mental and physical examinations conducted by the NBI Academy in an appropriate qualifying course.
“The removal of petitioners was illegal and in violation of their right to due process. Hence, petitioners are entitled the payment of back wages and other benefits due them from the time they were replaced up to their reinstatement to their former position without loss of seniority rights,” the CA ruled.