UP BOARD OF REGENTS v RASUL
FACTS:
The UP Board of Regents appointed Dr. Felipe Estrella as the Director of Philippine General Hospital or PGH from September 1986 till April 1992. Barely 2 weeks after appointment, Dr. Abuava, as the President of the UP sent a memorandum to the Board of Regents to Reorganize PGH. Upon this recommendation, the Board of Regents approved the re-organization plan and Nomination Committee was formed. This committee ought to choose a replacement for Dr. Estrella as to fill up the alleged vacant UP-PGH Director. Dr. Estrella filed an injunction case against the Nomination Committee and the Board of Regents to forestall the removal or dismissal of Dr Estrella
ISSUE:
Whether Dr Estrella can be rightfully removed because of PGH’s reorganization
HELD:
NO. As held in numerous cases, appointees of the UP Board of Regents enjoy security of tenure during their term of office. Moreover, it is clear from the record that PGH itself was not abolished in the reorganization plan approved by the UP Board of Regents. The PGH was merely renamed “UP-PGH Medical Center and some of its functions and objects were expanded or consolidated. The UP-PGH Medical Center is essentially the same as PGH hence, the Medical Center Director will be performing duties very similar to the present PGH director. It cannot be invoked to sustain the argument that respondent is not entitled to security of tenure. It is true that a valid and bona fide abolition of an office denies to the incumbent the right to security of tenure. However in
this case, the renaming and restructuring of the PGH and its component units cannot give rise to a valid and bona fide abolition of the position of the PGH Director. This is because where the abolished office and the offices created in its place have similar functions, the abolition lacks good faith.
