MARY CONCEPCION BAUTISTA vs. SENATOR JOVITO R. SALONGA, COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE, JUDICIAL AND BAR COUNCIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND HESIQUIO R. MALLILLIN, EN BANC, G.R. No. 86439 April 13, 1989.
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EVEN IF THE PRESIDENT MAY VOLUNTARILY SUBMIT TO THE COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS AN APPOINTMENT THAT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION SOLELY BELONGS TO HER, STILL, THERE WAS NO VACANCY TO WHICH AN APPOINTMENT COULD BE MADE ON 14 JANUARY 1989
Under this heading, we will assume, ex gratia argumenti, that the Executive may voluntarily allow the Commission on Appointments to exercise the power of review over an appointment otherwise solely vested by the Constitution in the President. Yet, as already noted, when the President appointed petitioner Bautista on 17 December 1988 to the position of Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights with the advice to her that by virtue of such appointment (not, until confirmed by the Commission on Appointments), she could qualify and enter upon the performance of her duties after taking her oath of office, the presidential act of appointment to the subject position which, under the Constitution, is to be made, in the first place, without the participation of the Commission on Appointments, was then and there a complete and finished act, which, upon the acceptance by Bautista, as shown by her taking of the oath of office and actual assumption of the duties of said office, installed her, indubitably and unequivocally, as the lawful Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights for a term of seven (7) years. There was thus no vacancy in the subject office on 14 January 1989 to which an appointment could be validly made. In fact, there is no vacancy in said office to this day.
Nor can respondents impressively contend that the new appointment or re-appointment on 14 January 1989 was an ad interim appointment, because, under the Constitutional design, ad interim appointments do not apply to appointments solely for the President to make, i.e., without the participation of the Commission on Appointments. Ad interim appointments, by their very nature under the 1987 Constitution, extend only to appointments where the review of the Commission on Appointments is needed. That is why ad interim appointments are to remain valid until disapproval by the Commission on Appointments or until the next adjournment of Congress; but appointments that are for the President solely to make, that is, without the participation of the Commission on Appointments, cannot be ad interim appointments.
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