G.R. No. 179255 - NATIONAL TRANSMISSION CORPORATION, VS. VENUSTO D. HAMOY, JR.. D E C I S I O N - Supreme Court E-Library

Ruling

Accordingly, petitioner's President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alan Ortiz (Ortiz) issued on 1 March 2003 Civil Service Commission (CSC) Form No. 33 which states that respondent has been appointed "(VICE-PRESIDENT JG-18) VICE-PRESIDENT SG-28 with PERMANENT (status) at the National Transmission Corporation." [4] Respondent assumed his duties on 1 March 2003. On 19 January 2004, Ortiz issued Office Order No. 2004-173 detailing respondent to petitioner's Power Center-Diliman, "under the Office of the President and CEO, to handle Special Projects." [5] Office Order No. 2004-173 was later amended by Office Order No. 2004-1229 [6] under which Ortiz assigned respondent additional duties of providing "over-all supervision, monitoring and control of all activities related to the sale of petitioner's sub-transmission assets and placed under his supervision certain personnel of the Sub-Transmission Divestment Department. In a memorandum dated 24 January 2005 from petitioner's Human Resources Department, respondent was notified of the impending expiration of the temporary appointment of some of petitioner's key officials and the fact that he was being considered for one of the positions to be vacated. [7] Yet on 15 February 2005, Office Order No. 2005-0256 was issued designating respondent as Officer-In-Charge (OIC) of the Power Systems Reliability Group (PSRG), concurrent with his duties as Vice President for Special Projects. [8] On 16 February 2005, respondent wrote Ortiz, asking that he be returned to his original assignment as Vice President of VisMin Operations & Maintenance. He reasoned that his detail under Office Orders No. 2004-173 and No. 2004-1229 already exceeded one (1) year, and that his designation under Office Order No. 2005-0256 violated Section 2 of CSC Memorandum Circular No. 21, s. 2002 because he did not give his consent thereto. [9] However, on the same date, Office Order No. 2005-0284 was issued superseding Office Order No. 2004-173 and amending Office Order No. 2005-0256, the latter order stating that respondent was designated as OIC of the Power Systems Reliability Group (PSRG). [10] Respondent was thus constrained to write another letter to Ortiz, requesting reconsideration of Office Order No. 2005-0284 and reiterating the reasons he cited in his previous letter. [11] On 1 March 2005, Ortiz issued a memorandum informing respondent that his detail to the President's Office was no longer in effect and, in view of the vacancy created by the expiration of the temporary appointment of the Vice President of the PSRG, respondent was designated as its OIC. He further stated that the matter of reassignment would be formally raised at the Board meeting and, should the Board confirm it, a corresponding Office Order would be issued reassigning respondent as head of the PSRG. [12] On 27 April 2005, the Board issued Resolution No. TC 2005-018, [13] approving and confirming respondent's reassignment to PSRG, and announcing the opening of se