Is the President credible to delegate power and to reorganize agencies?

By Mymannah Lou O. Dimacaling

In all these agencies where corruption thrives, power has been delegated but instead of delegation conferring the benefits of expertise to social decision-makers, it leads to anarchy 1 as written in one of the article that I read in the internet. Nowadays, many failures, struggles, issues and problems are encountered by our Government, and the credibility of our President, as a leader, is being tested. Some citizens would ask, is he a good President? Does he have powers vested in him? Can he delegate agencies? Questions that you want to answer, perhaps, you had an answer already. Right?

In Kiewiet and McCubbins: The Logic of Delegation, the concept about delegation and agency loss are being explained. The author said that Kiewiet and McCubbins outlined how delegation works, the specific problems it creates for the delegator, and the means by which principals can control their agents.2 In the same article, it was said that delegation is a common solution to collective action problems and social choice instability. The author has given an example in the article: that we (as voters) delegate to Senators to work on problems for us3, a responsibility that we gave to our officials. However, according to Kiewiet and McCubbins, delegation, in principle, can have enormous productivity gains for both principals and agents. They also state that delegation creates opportunities for agents to act against their principal's interests, and this problem is called agency loss. 4 The agency loss has three categories5. They are as follows: 1. Hidden actions: The principal cannot know all that an agent does. 2. Hidden information: The principal cannot know all that an agent knows. 3. Madison's dilemma (Federalist 51): After giving the government enough power to control the people, you must somehow force it to control itself. More broadly, after giving an agent power to do a task for you, you must prevent it from using that power against you.

Posted by nielsky_2003 on 10/21/2010, http://philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=2653 http://wikisum.com/w/Kiewiet_and_McCubbins:_The_Logic_of_Delegation#Delegation_by_Congress_to_the_Executive_.28ch_7.29 http://wikisum.com/w/Kiewiet_and_McCubbins:_The_Logic_of_Delegation#Delegation_by_Congress_to_the_Executive_.28ch_7.29 http://wikisum.com/w/Kiewiet_and_McCubbins:_The_Logic_of_Delegation#Delegation_by_Congress_to_the_Executive_.28ch_7.29 http://wikisum.com/w/Kiewiet_and_McCubbins:_The_Logic_of_Delegation#Delegation_by_Congress_to_the_Executive_.28ch_7.29

In one article written in Philippines Today, the credibility of the President as principal to delegate some powers to some agencies was being questioned, and Agency losses happened from delegation of power. Moreover, in the same article, the controversial bundle of allowances that MWSS board had was mentioned, and that the allowances were uncharacteristically approved for all the officials and employees. This action of the agency creates an Agency Loss where the principal, which is the president, lacks knowledge about an agents activities. In the same instance, the agent, which is the MWSS acted against the principals interests without the principal being aware of the indiscretion.6 In that article, the author concluded that there is a case of agency losses resulting from a kind of presidential abdication (e.g. a king giving up his throne), that for the President to act as a principal who shares common interests with the various agencies, call them agents. Also, the author mentioned that the President must delegate, but not abdicate. He should himself be an expert who can teach the agent what ought to be the desired outcome. 7 In an article written by Delon Porcalla, the power of the president to reorganize agency was being questioned. As I ask myself, can the President reorganize agency as part of his power? Well, yes. Under section 31, Chapter 10, Book II of the Administrative Code of 1987, it grants to the executive a narrower power to reorganize ringed with on two fronts: (1) the branch of the government covered and (2) the scope of authority delegated: 8 Continuing Authority of the President to Reorganize his Office. The President, subject to the policy in the Executive Office and in order to achieve simplicity, economy and efficiency, shall have continuing authority to reorganize the administrative structure of the Office of the President. For this purpose, he may take any of the following actions: (1) Restructure the internal organization of the Office of the President Proper, including the immediate Offices, the Presidential Special Assistants/Advisers System and the Common Staff Support System, by abolishing, consolidating or merging units thereof or transferring functions from one unit to another; (2) Transfer any function under the Office of the President to any other Department or Agency as well as transfer functions to the Office of the President from other Departments and Agencies; and (3) Transfer any agency under the Office of the President to any other department or agency as well as transfer agencies to the Office of the President from other departments or agencies. (Emphasis supplied)
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Posted by nielsky_2003 on 10/21/2010, http://philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=2653 Posted by nielsky_2003 on 10/21/2010, http://philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=2653

G.R. No. 166620 - ATTY. SYLVIA BANDA, ET AL vs. EDUARDO R. ERMITA, in his capacity as Executive Secretary, the Director General of the Philippine Information Agency and the National Treasurer.

Also, section 31 limits Executive discretion to reorganize the Office of the President and the enumerated ancillary offices along the following functional and structural lines: (1) restructuring the internal organization of the Office of the President Proper by abolishing, consolidating or merging units thereof or transferring functions from one unit to another; (2) transferring any function under the Office of the President to any other Department/Agency or vice versa; or (3) transferring any agency under the Office of the President to any other Department/Agency or vice versa. This listing is closed and admits of no other category of reorganization.9 In the article written by Porcalla, Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) chairman Prospero Pichay, during that time, questioned the executive prerogative of President P-Noy in reorganizing PAGC whose functions have been transferred to the office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs (ODESLA). However, Lacierda said that These are all within the sphere of the executive department and therefore, the President has control over those offices and he has the power under the revised Administrative Code to reorganize the offices as he sees fit.10 From the opinion of Justice Antonio T. Carpio, he said that Making sweeping statements that the Presidents power to reorganize pertains only to the Office of the President and departments, offices, and agencies of the executive branch and does not include the Judiciary, the Legislature or constitutionally created or mandated bodies and that the exercise by the President of the power to reorganize x x x must be in accordance with the Constitution, relevant laws and jurisprudence. 11 Hence, from that informations, facts, articles and statute that I stated, the President has the power to reorganize agencies and delegate powers to these agencies. However, delegating power may cause Agency Loss where the President lacks knowledge about the activities being done by his agencies.

G.R. No. 166620 - ATTY. SYLVIA BANDA, ET AL vs. EDUARDO R. ERMITA, in his capacity as Executive Secretary, the Director General of the Philippine Information Agency and the National Treasurer.
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http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=681022&publicationSubCategoryId=

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G.R. No. 166620 - ATTY. SYLVIA BANDA, ET AL vs. EDUARDO R. ERMITA, in his capacity as Executive Secretary, the Director General of the Philippine Information Agency and the National Treasurer.