208 SCRA 254
FACTS:
In 1989, RA 6715 was passed. This law amended PD 442 or the
Labor Code. RA 6715 provides that the Chairman, the Division Presiding
Commissioners and other Commissioners [of the NLRC] shall all be appointed by
the President, subject to confirmation by the CoA. Appointments to any vacancy
shall come from the nominees of the sector which nominated the predecessor.
Pursuant to the law, Cory assigned Carale et al as the Chairman and the Commissioners
respectively of the NLRC, the appointment was not submitted to the CoA for its
confirmation. Calderon questioned the appointment saying that w/o the
confirmation by the CoA, such an appointment is in violation of RA 6715.
Calderon asserted that RA 6715 is not an encroachment on the appointing power
of the executive contained in Sec16, Art. 7, of the Constitution, as Congress
may, by law, require confirmation by the Commission on Appointments of other
officers appointed by the President additional to those mentioned in the first
sentence of Sec 16 of Article 7 of the Constitution.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Congress may, by law, require confirmation by
the CoA of appointments extended by the President to government officers
additional to those expressly mentioned in the first sentence of Sec. 16, Art.
7 of the Constitution whose appointments require confirmation by the CoA.
RULING:
The SC agreed with the Sol-Gen, confirmation by the CoA is
required exclusively for the heads of executive departments, ambassadors,
public ministers, consuls, officers of the armed forces from the rank of
colonel or naval captain, and other officers whose appointments are vested in
the President by the Constitution, such as the members of the various
Constitutional Commissions. With respect to the other officers whose
appointments are not otherwise provided for by the law and to those whom the
President may be authorized by law to appoint, no confirmation by the
Commission on Appointments is required.
Jurisprudence established the following in interpreting Sec
16, Art 7 of the Constitution
1. Confirmation by
the Commission on Appointments is required only for presidential appointees
mentioned in the first sentence of Section 16, Article VII, including, those
officers whose appointments are expressly vested by the Constitution itself in
the president (like sectoral representatives to Congress and members of the
constitutional commissions of Audit, Civil Service and Election).
2. Confirmation is
not required when the President appoints other government officers whose
appointments are not otherwise provided for by law or those officers whom he
may be authorized by law to appoint (like the Chairman and Members of the
Commission on Human Rights).
