Tanada - Elected Public Officials Must Not Resign for an Appointive Position

PRESS RELEASE

22 September 2004

TANADA:

ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS MUST NOT RESIGN FOR AN APPOINTIVE POSITION

Representative Lorenzo “Erin” Tanada III (Liberal Party, 4^th District Quezon Province) filed House Bill No. 2959 to ensure prohibition of resigning an elective office to accept an appointment to any government office.

“One of the implications, if I may say, is very insulting. Where have all the trustworthy and efficient public servants gone? If we really have choices, which I believe so, pulling out elected officials from their offices after being elected is very much uncalled for. There has to be someone as qualified or even better from the ranks of the unelected.” Tanada said.

“When the people have chosen you in a legitimate process like the election, serving that term becomes a primary duty. These people entrust us their very right to be represented and in times when the law does not provide for succession to the vacant position, resigning for an appointive position is abandonment. ”

“They can always claim that a special election can be held immediately. But faced with the country’s economic crisis, we definitely don’t want to throw a huge amount of public funds unnecessarily. Besides, are we not making the impression here that elective positions are disposable? We seem to be playing with the electorate’s involvement. In the final analysis, it would appear as desertion and betrayal of public trust.”

Tanada stresses out that this pernicious practice should be discouraged since it has not only led to a perversion of the political will but it likewise resulted to inordinate expenses on the part of the government.