Cena v CSC

Facts:

Gaudencio Cena worked for 7 years as a Legal Officer of the Law Dep’t of Caloocan City. He was then transferred to the Office of the Congressman where he worked as a Supervising Staff Officer for 3 months.  He was then appointed as Registrar of the RD (Register of Deeds) in Malabon. In total, he has rendered gov’t service for 11 years, 9 months and 6 days. Before reaching his 65^th bday, he requested the LRA Administrator that he be allowed to extend his service to complete the 15-year service requirement to enable him to retire with full benefits of old age pension.

The LRA Administrator sought a ruling from the CSC. The CSC denied the extension but Cena filed a motion for reconsideration. This time around, CSC granted a 1-yr extension to him. Cena still filed a case against CSC for grave abuse of discretion when it granted an extension of only 1 yr. He contends that the law(Sec 11, PD 1146 also known as Revised Gov’t Insurance Act) does not limit or specify the maximum number of years the retiree may avail of to complete the 15-year service. Thus, the CSC has no authority to limit through a memorandum the number of years.

In defense, CSC said that since it is the central personnel agency of the gov’t, it is vested with power to grant or allow extension of service beyond retirement age.

Issue:

Whether or not Cena is allowed to continue in the service to complete the 15-year service requirement?

Held:

Yes. An administrative circular, such as a memorandum of the CSC cannot limit PD 1146, on extension of service of employees who reach 65. While it is true that CSC is given the authority to take appropriate action on all appointments and other personnel matters in the Civil Service, it cannot extend to matters not covered. The CSC’s authority is limited only to carrying into effect what PD 1146 says. It cannot go beyond the terms and provisions of the basic law.

The CSC Memorandum, being in the nature of an administrative regulation, must be governed by the principle that a regulation must be in harmony with the provisions of the law and should be for the sole purpose of carrying into effect its general provisions. CSC has no power to supply or add perceived omissions in PD 1146.