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Civil Service Commission: Constitutional Bodies
Civil Service Commission: Constitutional Bodies
Commission
CONSTITUTIONAL BODIES
Composition
and Qualifications
Issue: WON Armed Forces of the Philippines Commissary and Exchange Services were
subject to the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Commission considering that the entity
was engaged in proprietary functions, the CSC rules were never followed with respect
to the hiring, appointment, discipline and dismissal of said employees and that they
were enrolled in the SSS not GSIS
Hidalgo v. Republic of the Philippines
It cannot be denied that petitioners are government employees, the proper body that
has jurisdiction to hear the case is the CSC. Such fact cannot be negated by the failure
of respondents to follow appropriate civil service rules in the hiring, appointment,
discipline and dismissal of petitioners. Neither can it be denied by the fact that
respondents chose to enroll petitioners in the SSS instead of the GSIS. That cannot be
used against the CSC to deprive it of its jurisdiction. It is the regulation or the law
creating the service that determines the position of the employee. Petitioners are
government personnel since they are employed by an agency attached to the AFP.
Positions in the civil service are classified under
Administrative Code of 1987 into the career service
and the non-career service.
CAREER SERVICE IS CHARACTERIZED BY
Entrance based on
merit and fitness to be Opportunity to
determined by advancement to higher Security of Tenure
practicable and career positions
competitive exams
NON CAREER SERVICE CHARACTERIZED BY
Entrance on bases
other than those of the Tenure which is limited
usual tests of merit and to a period specified by
fitness utilized for law
career service
APPOINTMENTS
Appointments in the civil service may be either
permanent or temporary. A permanent appointment
shall be issued to a person who meets all the
requirements for the position to which he is being
appointed, including the appropriate eligibility. In
the absence of appropriate eligibilities and it
becomes necessary in the public interest to fill a
vacancy, a temporary appointment shall be issued
to the person who qualifies all the requirements
except the eligibility provided that such
appointment shall not exceed twelve months but
the appointee may be replaced sooner if a qualified
person becomes available
The purpose of a temporary appointment is to
prevent a pause in the discharge of official
functions by authorizing a person to discharge it
pending the selection of a permanent holder of the
position
EXCEPTIONS
Excepted from the requirement of competitive
examinations are the policy-determining, primarily
confidential and highly technical positions. Policy-
determining position is charged with the laying down of
principal guidelines or rules, such as that of a head of a
department. Primarily confidential position is one
denoting not only confidence in the aptitude of the
appointee for the duties of the office but primarily
close intimacy which ensures freedom from betrayals
of trust on confidential matters of state
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation v. Angara
Among those positions judicially determined as primarily confidential positions are the following: Chief Legal Counsel of the
Philippine National Bank; Confidential Agent of the Office of the Auditor, GSIS; Secretary of the Sangguniang Bayan; Secretary
to the City Mayor; Senior Security and Security Guard in the Office of the Vice Mayor; Secretary to the Board of a government
corporation; City Legal Counsel, City Legal Officer or City Attorney; Provincial Attorney; Private Secretary; and Board
Secretary II of the Philippine State College of Aeronautics. The Court in these instances focused on the nature of the
functions of the office characterized by such ‘close intimacy’ between the appointee and appointing power which insures
freedom of intercourse without embarrassment or freedom from misgivings or betrayals of personal trust on confidential
matters of state.
A “highly technical position” requires the appointee thereto to possess technical skill or
training in the supreme or superior degree. Thus, the position of a city engineer may be
technical but not highly so because he is not required or supposed to possess a supreme
or superior degree of technical skill. The duties of a city engineer are eminently
administrative in character and can be discharged even by non-technical men.