Dizon cleans home at DPWH. Can civil servants be compelled out?

‘We are going to comply with the Civil Service Legislation. However anybody, even those that are civil service-eligible or everlasting could be eliminated for trigger. And I feel a ghost challenge is a trigger sufficient to be eliminated,’ says new DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon

Newly-appointed Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon needed a clear slate for his new home that’s on the middle of the flood management tasks scandal.

On his first day in workplace, September 1, Dizon ordered the “unqualified courtesy resignation” of all incumbent undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, regional administrators, bureau administrators, service administrators, challenge administrators, and district engineers within the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), efficient no later than September 3. He famous that the order is “topic to pertinent civil service legal guidelines, guidelines, and rules.”

Dizon mentioned throughout the Home finances deliberations on Friday, September 5, that 100% of the DPWH officers topic of his order have already resigned. Dizon mentioned they’re within the strategy of reviewing the resignations.

The transfer shouldn’t be unprecedented.

Bear in mind when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. requested for courtesy resignations from his Cupboard after the 2025 midterms? Some have been axed, however many — like Manuel Bonoan, the man Dizon simply changed — survived the purge. Marcos known as it a “daring reset.”

Native leaders have carried out the identical. In Makati, Mayor Nancy Binay mentioned after successful the elections that she needed all division heads to resign after she changed her estranged sister Abby. In Manila, Isko Moreno swept out virtually all division heads in Metropolis Corridor after ousting his former ally-turned-rival, Honey Lacuna.

However whereas courtesy resignations have grow to be a political ritual every time new leaders take over, the sweeping directive additionally raises questions. 

Safety of tenure

The 1987 Structure ensures safety of tenure for civil servants below Article IX-B, Part 2(3), which states that “no officer or worker of the civil service shall be eliminated or suspended aside from trigger supplied by legislation.”

The Civil Service Legislation additionally reinforces this in Part 46 (a): “No officer or worker within the Civil Service shall be suspended or dismissed aside from trigger as supplied by legislation and after due course of.”

The precept of safety of tenure is supposed to guard profession officers from being eliminated arbitrarily every time leaderships change. Within the case of Dizon’s order, regional administrators, bureau administrators, service administrators, challenge administrators, and district engineers fall below civil service protection. 

Cupboard secretaries, undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries, however, are political appointees and don’t get pleasure from full safety of tenure as a result of they serve on the pleasure of the appointing authority.

For profession officers, elimination is allowed provided that there may be lawful trigger — resembling misconduct, neglect of responsibility, gross insubordination, or fraud — and solely after due course of. This implies they have to be given discover of the fees, a possibility to defend themselves, and a call based mostly on substantial proof.

One of many first to be made an instance of was former Bulacan district engineer Henry Alcantara, who was dismissed on Thursday, September 4.

“We are going to comply with the Civil Service Legislation. However anybody even those that are civil service-eligible or everlasting could be eliminated for trigger. And I feel a ghost challenge is a trigger sufficient to be eliminated,” Dizon informed reporters in an opportunity interview on Friday.

For an company usually accused of being the nation’s most corrupt, Dizon’s order appears like a sweeping reset. However courtesy resignations don’t robotically imply accountability. Will dismissal imply no sanctions in any respect for suspected wrongdoing by dismissed officers? The true burden now’s on Dizon to show this purge isn’t only for present and that it could actually result in real reform contained in the DPWH. – Rappler.com