Administrative Law Cesar Dario v. Salvador Mison G.R. No. 81954 August 8, 1989 FACTS: On March 25, 1986, President Corazon Aquino promulgated Proclamation No. 3 reorganizing the government. Incumbent Commissioner of Customs Salvador Mison issued a Memorandum prescribing the procedure in personnel placement. 394 officials and employees were given notices of separation. A number supposedly sought reinstatement with the Reorganization Appeals Board while others went to the CSC. The CSC ordered the reinstatement of the 279 employees, and later an additional five. The Commissioner filed a motion for reconsideration which was denied by the CSC. Commissioner Mison instituted certiorari proceedings with this Court. ISSUE: Whether the separation of even meritorious personnel is justifiable RULING: YES. To be sure, the reorganization could effect the tenure of members of the career service, and may even result in the separation from the office of some meritorious employees. But even then, the greater good of the greatest number and the right of the citizenry to a good government, and as they themselves have mandated through the vehicle of Proclamation No. 3, provide the justification for the said injury to the individual. In terms of values, the interest of an employee to security of tenure must yield to the interest of the entire populace and to an efficient and honest government. But a reorganized employee is not without rights. His right lies in his past services, the entitlement to which must be provided for by law. EO 127 provides for the same in its Section 59, and so does SECTION 16 when the latter specified that career civil service employees separated from the service not for cause: shall be entitled to appropriate separation pay and to retirement and other benefits accruing to them under the laws of general application in force at the time of their separation. In lieu thereof, at the option of the employees, they may be considered for employment in the Government or in any of its subdivisions, instrumentalities, or agencies, including government-owned or controlled corporations and their subsidiaries. This provision also applies to career officers whose resignation, tendered in line with the existing policy, has been accepted. This is a reward for the employee's past service to the Government. But here is no vested property right to be reemployed in a reorganized office. The right to an office or to employment with government or any of its agencies is not a vested property right, and removal therefrom will not support the question of due process". A civil service employee does not have a constitutionally protected right to his position, which position is in the nature of a public office, political in character and held by way of grant or privilege extended by government; generally he has been held to have no property right or vested interest to which due process guaranties extend.
