G.R. No. 86439 April 13, 1989 MARY CONCEPCION BAUTISTA, petitioner , vs. SENATOR JOVITO R. SALONGA, COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE, JUDICIAL AND BAR COUNCIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND HESIQUIO R. MALLILLIN, respondents.

FACTS: Pursuant to the second sentence in Section 16, Art. VII, that is, without the confirmation of the Commission on Appointments because they are among the officers of government "whom he (the President) may be authorized by law to appoint and Section 2(c), Executive Order No. 163, 5 May 1987, authorizes the President to appoint the Chairman and Members of the Commission on Human Rights On 27 August 1987, the President of the Philippines designated herein petitioner Mary Concepcion Bautista as" A c t i n g Chairman, Commission on Human Rights." Subsequently, on 17 December 1988, extended the petitioner to a permanent appointment as Chairman of the Commission submitting such appointment (more accurately, nomination) to the Commission on Appointments for confirmation.

On 20 January 1989, or even before the respondent Commission on Appointments had acted on her "ad interim appointment as Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights" petitioner Bautista filed with this Court the present petition for certiorari with a prayer for the immediate issuance of a restraining order, to declare "as unlawful and unconstitutional and without any legal force and effect any action of the Commission on Appointments as well as of the Committee on Justice, Judicial and Bar Council and Human Rights, on the lawfully extended appointment of the petitioner as Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, on the ground that they have no lawful and constitutional authority to confirm and to review her appointment."

I S S U E : Whether or not the presidents appointment of the petitioner’s ad interim appointment needs confirmation by the CA.

HELD: Under the Constitutional design, an ad interim appointment does not apply to appointments solely for the President to make. Ad interim appointments, by their very nature under the 1987 Constitution, extend only to appointments where the review of the Commission on Appointments is needed. That is why ad interim appointments are to remain valid until disapproval by the Commission on Appointments or until the next adjournment of Congress; but appointments that are for the President solely to make, that is, without the participation of the Commission on Appointments, cannot be ad interim appointments.

The Court holds that petitioner Bautista is the lawful incumbent of the office of Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights by virtue of her appointment, as such, by the President on 17 December 1988, and her acceptance thereof, is not to say that she cannot be removed from office

before the expiration of her seven (7) year term. She certainly can be removed but her removal must be for cause and with her right to due process properly safeguarded.