Another Arroyo 'midnight appointee' challenges EO 2 before SC

Another appointee of former President and now incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is questioning President Benigno Aquino III's Executive Order No. 2 that voids all the so-called "midnight appointments" made by the previous administration. In a petition for prohibition and mandamus filed Thursday, former National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) commissioner and secretary Bai Omera Dianalan-Lucman asked the Supreme Court to declare the order unconstitutional. Lucman asked the court to "render judgment declaring EO No. 2 unconstitutional and permanently prohibiting Executive Secretary (Paquito Ochoa Jr.), and all persons acting on his authority or his behest, from enforcing or causing its implementation against petitioner and other persons similarly situated." She also asked the high tribunal to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent Malacañang from enforcing the controversial order. If a TRO will not be issued, Lucman said the court should issue a status quo ante order to restore appointments before Mr. Aquino issued EO No. 2. Midnight appointee? Lucman was appointed by Mrs. Arroyo on March 8, 2010. She took her oath on March 10 and assumed office on March 26. The 1987 Constitution prohibits an incumbent president from making appointments two months before the elections and until the president steps down from office. Applied this year, the appointments ban spans from March 11 to June 30. But President Aquino's EO No. 2 also said that those who were appointed before March 11 but took oath or assumed office on or after March 11 are considered midnight appointees — making Lucman one of the 977 government officials covered by the executive order. Lucman said EO No. 2 violated the 1987 Constitution because it expands what the Charter provided. She added that it violated Republic Act No. 9997, which says an NCMF secretary shall serve for two years. "[Executive Order No. 2] unduly expands the constitutional definition of appointments and must be stricken down as void for over-breadth," said Lucman. "In one fell swoop, through [the] mere issuance of EO 2, Malacañang has cut down the term of the NCMF secretary, amending through executive action a provision of the law which only Congress could lawfully amend," she added. Lucman also asked the court to consolidate her petition with those previously and separately filed by Justice assistant secretary Jose Arturo de Castro and Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) director Eddie Tamondong. The court has yet to act on their petitions filed in August. — RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV