The Supreme Court (SC) declared that effective Tuesday, March 2, all government appointed officials running in the May 10, 2010 elections are deemed resigned.

In a full court session, the SC voted 10-5 to deny with finality the motion filed by administration lawyer Romeo Macalintal seeking to reconsider its Feb. 22 resolution declaring that appointive officials are considered resigned upon the filing of their certificates of candidacy (CoCs).

“That means that effective today (Tuesday), all appointive officials who filed their CoCs are deemed resigned,” Court Administrator and SC Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez told a press conference.

There are a number of appointive officials seeking elective posts in the upcoming local elections. Some of them have already resigned but others continue to hold on their posts and plan to resign only on March 26, which is the start of the campaign period for the local polls.

Asked if there was any specific order in the decision requiring the Executive Department to implement the ruling, Marquez said: “I think that is already given. The decision speaks for itself. The provision of the law says appointive officials are deemed resigned. The provision is plain and simple.”

Marquez said the court ruled that “no further pleadings shall be entertained (in the case).”

In a motion for reconsideration filed on behalf of his clients former Environment Undersecretary Eleazar Quinto and former Director Gerino  Tolentino of the Land Management Bureau, Macalintal sought a clarification from the court on the effect of its pronouncement in the case of Penera vs. Comelec that a person can be considered a candidate only at the start of the campaign period, not upon filing of CoC.

President Arroyo’s election lawyer argued that “if a person who files his CoC is not yet considered a candidate, it would be absurd to rule that an appointive official should be deemed resigned once he files his CoC when the law says that the filing of such CoC does not make him a candidate.”

Macalintal, who is known to be President Arroyo’s election lawyer, is filing the motion on behalf Quinto and Tolentino.

Responding to Macalintal’s argument, Marquez said the issue involved in the Penera case is entirely different from that in the Quinto case.

“The issue raised in the Penera case involves premature campaigning while the issue in the Quinto case involves the resignation of appointive officials. Those are two different issues,” Marquez explained.

“The court has already spoken: Appointive officials are deemed resigned from their appointive offices,” he added. “We have a special law governing appointive officials and that law should govern.”

Last February 22, the SC, voting 10-5, upheld the constitutionality of the country’s election laws that deemed appointive officials automatically resigned after they have filed their respective CoCs.

The ruling is a reversal of its December 1, 2009 decision allowing appointed government officials seeking election to remain in office even after their filing of CoCs and even during the campaign period. The voting then was 8-6.

In that 44-page resolution penned by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, the SC ruled as constitutional Section 4(a) of the Comelec Resolution 8678, the second provision in the third paragraph of Section 13 of Republic Act 9369 or the Poll Automation Law and Section 66 of the Omnibus election Code.

It held that the subject provisions, which all deemed appointive officials automatically resigned once they filed their CoCs, do not violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

The court said the assailed original decision failed to consider a different threat to the government posed by the partisan potential of a large and growing bureaucracy: the danger of systematic abuse perpetuated by a “powerful political machine” that has amassed “the scattered powers of government workers’ so as to give itself and its incumbent workers an “unbreakable grasp on the reins of power.”

"In the case at bar, the probable harm to society in permitting incumbent appointive officials to remain in office, even as they actively pursue elective posts, far outweighs the less likely evil of having arguably protected candidacies blocked by the possible inhibitory effect of a potentially overly broad stature,” the court said.

Meanwhile, all the replacements of Cabinet members seeking public office will be known by next week.

President Arroyo on Tuesday gave herself until March 10 to fill the vacancies in her Cabinet following the Supreme Court decision deeming as resigned appointed officials running in the May polls.

The President disclosed her deadline in issuing new Cabinet appointments during her visit in to Florencio Vargas College in Tuguegarao City, a day after she announced that Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla would replace Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap.

Yap, who is seeking a congressional seat in Bohol, is among the eight Cabinet members affected by the SC ruling. Most of these Cabinet members, including Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, have already submitted their courtesy resignations to President Arroyo in compliance with the decision of the High Court.

Other Cabinet members running in the May elections are Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., Presidential Management Staff chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Presidential Adviser for External Affairs Edgardo Pamintuan, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Augusto Syjuco Jr.

Also, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes yesterday assured that he would stay in his post despite being nominated as representative of party-list group United Transport Koalisyon (1-Utak). (With reports from Genalyn Kabiling and Chai M. Luci)