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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Talk back: Still airport manager
By Accra Law Offices
Counsel for Adelberto Yap
This is in reaction to the news article published in your July 27 issue entitled, “Yap hangs on to job,” referring to our client, Adelberto Yap, the general manager of the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA).
While the public may have been apprised through the media of the purported preventive suspension that was ordered by the board of the MCIAA, Yap has yet to receive from the board any such written directive or order.
Thus, for the information and guidance of the public, Yap is still the general manager of MCIAA and any matter/s concerning the operation of the Mactan airport must, and should, be brought to his attention by the board for his appropriate action.
In fact, Yap, through the undersigned counsel, has formally written Romeo Bersonda last Friday, July 28, 2006, that his assumption and discharge of the position of general manager of the MCIAA in an acting capacity is without legal basis.
As usurper, Bersonda should therefore be ready to face appropriate administrative, civil and criminal actions, if any one is so minded, should he transact business with the public concerning the operations of the MCIAA.
The board of the MCIAA is bereft of legal authority to discipline Yap as general manager of the MCIAA.
That administrative power to discipline and to place any public officer under preventive suspension belongs exclusively to the head of the department to which the MCIAA is attached, or to the Civil Service Commission as the case may be.
Yap is the de jure officer of the MCIAA and he remains as such to the exclusion of any other person.
As the position of Yap is not vacant, any person appointed to his position even in an acting capacity is considered a usurper.
Moreover, the principle that “the power to appoint carries with it the power to discipline or remove” is not an absolute principle in administrative law.
It generally applies only to an appointee of the President of the Republic of the Philippines or any of the latter’s duly authorized representative, who holds his/her position at the pleasure of the President, or to a public officer whose appointment in office is not protected by security of tenure.
For sure, whoever is speaking in public for the board of the MCIAA is not the President of the Republic.
In sum, contrary to the news article, Yap is not facing “another” suspension.
The action of some members of the board of the MCIAA purportedly placing Yap under preventive suspension is void ab initio.
The public is thus hereby put on notice.
Yap is ready, able and willing to face whatever charges are leveled against him by any person, provided these charges are brought before the appropriate agency of government empowered to discipline him.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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