EUFEMIO C. DOMINGO, CELSO D. GANGAN, PACASIO S. BANARIA, SOFRONIO B. URSAL, ALBERTO P. CRUZ, MARIA L. MATIB, RACHEL U. PACPACO, ANGELO G. SANCHEZ, AND SHERWIN A. SIP-AN, VS. HON. GUILLERMO N. CARAGUE, IN HIS CAPACITY AS CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON AUDIT, HON. EMMANUEL M. DALMAN AND HON. RAUL C. FLORES,

Ruling

Accordingly, the award for the automation of the electoral process was a matter of public concern, imbued with public interest. Second, the individual petitioners, as taxpayers, asserted a material interest in seeing to it that public funds are properly used. Here, petitioners have not shown any direct and personal interest in the COA Organizational Restructuring Plan. There is no indication that they have sustained or are in imminent danger of sustaining some direct injury as a result of its implementation. In fact, they admitted that they do not seek any affirmative relief nor impute any improper or improvident act against the respondents and are not motivated by any desire to seek affirmative relief from COA or from respondents that would redound to their personal benefit or gain. Clearly, they do not have any legal standing to file the instant suit. We are well aware of the averments of petitioners Matib, Pacpaco, Sanchez, and Sipi-An that they were demoted and unceremoniously divested of their previous designations as Unit Head, Team Supervisor, or Team Leader; that they were deprived of their RATA; that they were relegated to being mere Team Members, entitled to only a reimbursable transportation allowance; and that they were denied due process. Such averments lack merit. Actually, they were not demoted. Under Section 11, Rule VII of the Omnibus Rules Implementing Book V of the Administrative Code of 1987, a demotion is the movement from one position to another involving the issuance of an appointment with diminution in duties, responsibilities, status, or rank which may or may not involve reduction in salary. [15] A demotion by assigning an employee to a lower position in the same service which has a lower rate of compensation is tantamount to removal, if no cause is shown for it. [16] Here, there have been no new appointments issued to Matib, Pacpaco, Sanchez, and Sipi-An under the COA Organizational Restructuring Plan. Thus, their contention that they have been demoted is baseless. Moreover, the change in their status from COA auditors (receiving monthly RATA) to COA auditors (receiving only reimbursable RATA) cannot be attributed to the COA Organizational Restructuring Plan but to the implementation of the Audit Team Approach (ATAP), pursuant to COA Resolution No. 96-305 dated April 16, 1996. Under the ATAP, an audit team, not a resident auditor, is deployed to conduct an audit. An audit team may be composed of two (2) or more members under an Audit Team Leader. Whenever practicable, an Audit Team Supervisor supervises at least three (3) audit teams. The composition of an audit team is not permanent. Hence, an Audit Team Member may be designated or assigned as an Audit Team Leader for one assignment and subsequently as a Team Member in another engagement. The designation depends upon the position or rank of the one who is designated as an Audit Team Leader. Thus, a State Auditor III who may have been assigned as an Audit Team Leader