CORAZON L. CABAGNOT vs.

CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

G.R. No. 93511
June 3, 1993

PRINICIPLE: The CSC is not revoking any appointment made by petitioner. It is merely
ordering the reinstatement of private respondents whom it found to have been demoted or
terminated.

FACTS: A new organizational structure and staffing pattern of the provincial government of
Aklan was approved by the Joint Commission on Local Government Personnel Administration.

Thereafter, twenty-one aggrieved employees of the provincial government of Aklan, jointly

appealed to petitioner Governor Cabagnot. They prayed that they be appointed to the positions
they applied to which they are eligible. They likewise sent the petitioner individual letters
reiterating their qualifications and praying for reconsideration of their new appointments, which
were positions lower in rank than their positions prior to the reorganization. Petitioner denied
their plea.

Out of the original twenty-one protestants, only seventeen private respondents herein instituted a
collective appeal before the Civil Service Regional Office. Respondent Civil Service
Commission (CSC) found that a wide disparity existed between the former positions held by
private respondents and the positions proposed for them by petitioner even if equivalent
positions were available. The CSC declared that the private respondents were demoted.
Moreover, it declared that the petitioner violated Sec. 4 of RA 6656 (An Act to Protect the
Security of Tenure of Civil Service Officers and Employees to new positions or if there are not
enough comparable ones, to positions next lower in rank.

Thus, the CSC ordered that private respondents who were demoted to be immediately appointed
and restored to their positions or positions of comparable or equivalent rank, with back salaries
reckoned from the dates they should probably have been appointed.

In the present petition, Cabagnot argues that the CSC committed grave abuse of discretion
because they encroached on her power to appoint. The petitioner also stresses the fact that since
private respondents would be receiving the same rate of salary they were receiving before the
reorganization, they are not demoted.

ISSUE: Whether or not the CSC committed grave abuse of discretion in ordering to reinstate the
demoted employees

HELD: No. The CSC committed no grave abuse of discretion in ordering that the private
respondents be reinstated. The CSC is not revoking any appointment made by petitioner. It is
merely ordering the reinstatement of private respondents whom it found to have been demoted
or terminated.

The Court agreed with the finding of the CSC that as a result of the reorganization of the
provincial government of Aklan, the private respondents have been demoted. By having the
private petitioners assigned to positions which are lower than those they previously held, or
which, though of equivalent salary grade and step, drastically changes the nature of their work
without a showing of the existence of a valid cause for such demotion, is in effect a removal,
which must be determined after due notice and hearing. The court also ruled that there is a
demotion even if the employees were allowed to receive the same salary as their previous
position.

Section 1 of RA 6656 declares as the policy of the State, the protection of the security of tenure
of civil service officers and employees in the reorganization of the various agencies of the
government. Section 2 of the said act requires prior determination of a valid cause after due
notice and hearing before any officer or employee in the career service can be removed or
demoted.

It is within the power of the CSC to order the reinstatement of government employees who have
been unlawfully dismissed. The CSC, as the central personal agency, has the obligation to
implement and safeguard the constitutional provisions on security of tenure and due process. In
the present case, the orders of the CSC is indubitably in the performance of its constitutional
task of protecting and strengthening the civil service.