S1L53 – Learning what a “valid appointment” is on a ferriswheel
Hello, professor! Happy New Year! We didn’t know you liked riding the ferriswheel!”
What are the odds I would find five of my students in the same place, lining up to buy tickets at an amusement park near the mall to take a ride in a giant ferriswheel that offers a spectacular view of the city?
But there they were: Miss Deema Niwala, Miss Kata Ngahan, Miss Laarnee Iwasan, Mr. Juan Dimacaawat and Mr. Jack Makataruz.
“If this is a triple date, I think you miscounted. You are one guy short,” I said, “and this is not a ferriswheel. They call it a revolving viewdeck.”
“Would you look at that,” Deema said, “now with you, sir, we’re a perfect triple pair! Did you know that the capacity of each one of these viewing cars is exactly six persons?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. I was planning on paying for six tickets but riding one of these viewing cars alone, you know, just getting a little bit of ‘me time’ before classes resume after this new year holiday,” I said.
They all let out a disappointed, “Aaaaaaw…!” except Deema who seemed certain we would all share one car.
“They won’t let you ride alone by yourself in one car, sir, even if you pay for the full capacity. It’s not all a matter of economics but also safety dynamics,” Deema said confidently.
“What do you mean?” I queried, as I prepared the money to pay for MY six tickets.
“Well, if you’re all by yourself while the other cars are full, the uneven weights will upset the balance of the entire ferriswheel. That’s why they won’t let you ride alone, sir,” Deema explained as she snatched the money from my hands, “but they’ll allow you pay for six tickets…six please!”
Before I could object, Deema had already gotten six tickets with MY money. We were all seated in one viewing car and the ride attendant was locking the cage’s gate. I kissed my ‘me time’ plans goodbye. Now I was in solitary confinement with five of my most contentious students who I had hoped not to see for two more weeks.
“This giant wheel takes 15 minutes to make one full turn, sir, more than enough time to take all the selfies we want!” Juan Dimacaawat enthused.
“Which means as long as you’re stuck with us, you might as well answer some of OUR questions, like a reverse-recitation kind of thing,” Deema said provocatively.
“Oh, really? Well I have bad news for you, people. When I’m doing the answering, I usually charge one thousand pesos an hour. I don’t waive my consultation fee unless you are indigent or you’re in a position to coerce me with some kind of bodily harm,” I joked.
Deema turned to Jack Makataruz, “How high is this ferriswheel again, Jack?”
“About 200 feet, I think” said Jack.
“Is it? 200 feet! wow, that’s a long way to accidentally fall down,” Deema said aloud.
“Uh…what’s your question again?” I surrendered.
Deema spoke up first. “Actually, sir, it’s Laarnee here who has a question. We’ve been helping her sort out some legal crisis at her office.”
I said, “Wait—Miss Laarnee, aren’t you the one working in an electric cooperative? The one fighting for its life as you said in recitation one time?”
“Yes, sir. I recruited my classmates to form a legal advisory group to help me suggest to my boss some legal remedies,” Laarnee said.
“I see. We’ll you definitely signed up some of my ‘A-material’ from Alpha Section. You got Jack and Juan there, those two alone probably have a combined I.Q. north of 300,” I said, curious how Deema would react to my excluding her.
“So would five monkeys,” the feisty girl said before rolling her eyes.
Laarnee continued, “Anyway, sir, our problem is there are two general managers in the picture, one who is running our day-to-day operations, and this other woman pretending to be general manager also but none of us recognize her, and none of us take orders from her.”
“Well, in that case she seems pretty isolated and totally contained then, how much trouble could she cause?”
“How much?? Try 58-million-pesos-plus, sir!” Kata chimed in.
“58 Million what???” I said.
“That’s right, sir, she withdrew 58-million pesos from our cooperative’s bank account that was intended to pay for some rural electrification projects.” Laarnee said.
“But that’s impossible! How did she convince your bank—any bank!—to take out money that big if she is not the general manager?”
“She must have shown the bank manager her appointment paper, sir” Juan said.
“WHEN did I ever define ‘appointment’ as a piece of paper in class, huh??” I asked the Alphans in front of me.
“Never, sir. You said an appointment is an order for the taking of an oath to discharge a duty attached to a particular office after assuming such office and positively discharging the duty,” Deema said.
“Correct. So what are the 5 ELEMENTS OF A VALID APPOINTMENT then? Does anyone among you remember?”
Juan raised his hand. Deema, slapped it down,
“You don’t have to raise your hand, silly, we’re in a ferriswheel, for crying out loud!”
“Sir, they are: AVAILABLE OFFICE, QUALIFICATIONS, SELECTION, ACCEPTANCE and ASSUMPTION,” Juan rattled off the elements.
“Right,” I said, “but do you remember what each element means?”
“I do, sir,” Kata chimed in, “First, you cannot be appointed to a non-existent office or to an office that is not vacant; Second, an appointment must be based on rigid qualifications because those qualifications are what enable the appointee to perform the job description; Thirdly, the selection process must be competitive and non-arbitrary and subject to equitable traditions or sound practice like hierarchy, succession, seniority, etc.; Fourthly, the appointee must expressly accept the appointnent to preclude involuntary servitude, and lastly the appointee must actually assume the office to which she was appointed and there must be a showing of actual discharge of the duties of the office.”
“So, Miss Laarnee,” I said, “if you say this woman cannot give orders that the employees obey, then we can’t say she is able to discharge the duties of the office, can we?”
“No, sir, but she seems to control some of our bank accounts.”
“Well, a bank account is NOT the office, and a bank account has no duties attached to it that is in the job description of the office, does it?”
“None, sir.”
“Then like I said she is not able to discharge any office function, even if she is physically inside the office building,” I said.
“Oh, she doesn’t hold office in our building sir, she holds office in various places—in a gym, in a hotel, everywhere except in our office building,” Laarnee said.
“Doesn’t that amount to non-assumption of office and therefore non-effectiveness of the appointment, sir?” Deema asked.
“Yes, it does Miss Deema,” I said, “that’s why that bank manager is in trouble. She should not have been swayed by proof of appointment alone. She should have been on the lookout for proof of ASSUMPTION. And when you are releasing 58-million pesos, that would have been a perfect opportunity. How so do you think, Miss Deema?”
“She could have sent the bank’s armored car to the cooperative’s main office to deliver the cash, sir, or she could have sent her chief accountant to deliver the manager’s check personally. Had she done that, had she gone to the office, she would have found out that the impostor GM doesn’t even report for work there!” Deema gushed.
“Ah, but Miss Deema, bank managers are very busy people. You can’t expect them to go avisiting clients’ offices everytime they withdraw substantial amounts like that,” I said with sarcasm in my voice.
Laarnee chimed in, “then she could have at least called our office on the phone, sir, we could have told her, ‘no! That woman is not our GM!’ but that bank manager did not even make an effort.”
“Tell me, Miss Laarnee, did this woman meet the qualifications for GM?” I asked.
“No, sir! She lacks almost all the minimum qualifications based on the law, she’s not even an engineer as required by the law.”
“As required by the law?” I echoed the last point, “the law actually makes it mandatory? Are you sure of that?”
“Yes, sir, the law used the word ‘shall’—that IS mandatory, isn’t it, sir?”
“It certainly is,” I said, “so why is this woman, as you say, insisting that she is the GM, evidently strongly enough to convince a bank manager?”
“Well, sir, she keeps telling everyone that her appointment is ‘valid until annulled’—that her appointment enjoys a presumption of validity,”
“Oh, no, no, no—of course, not. That is wrong,” I said, “Jack, you always have a copy of the Civil Code tucked on your backpocket don’t you?”
“Yes, sir!” Jack answered as he pulled out a totally dilapidated mini-hardbound copy of the Civil Code.
“Jack, read for us Article 5, please.”
“Yes, sir, Article 5: Acts executed against the provisions of mandatory or prohibitory laws shall be void, except when the law itself authorizes their validity.”
“Good. Now, read for us the third paragraph of Article 7.” I ordered.
“Yes, sir, here it is: administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only when they are not contrary to the laws or the Constitution.”
“What do you call those provisions, Miss Deema?”
“They are both positive statutory declarations, sir.”
“Right. Now since the minimum qualifications for GM are compulsory, what does that make of the ACT of appointing this woman general manager, Miss Kata?”
“It’s a void act under Article 5, sir.”
“Is there any chance of it being valid under section 7, Juan?”
“Not a chance, sir, not after it fails the standard that an order can only be valid if it is not contrary to law.”
“Right. Now listen carefully, people, here you have TWO positive statutory declarations saying that the ACT OF APPOINTING itself is VOID and can never be valid—as opposed to this woman invoking a disputable presumption that her appointment is ‘valid until annulled’ which one must prevail, Miss Deema?”
“Statutory declaration MUST PREVAIL over disputable presumption, Sir”
“How often, Miss Deema?”
“ALWAYS, sir, and twice on Sundays!”
“There you go, you have your answer, people,” I said, “Miss Laarnee, share it with your boss–that’s how you prove to anyone that this woman’s appointment is VOID. Two provisions in the Civil Code is all you need.”
It was Deema who butted in—like always—and told her four classmates, “Let’s go, lotta people we need to talk to!”
The ferriswheel car we were in finally touched ground, and the ride attendant opened the gate. The five bubbly, wriggly law juniors began piling out of the car.
“Maybe I should go with you, perhaps I can help explain also,” I said.
“Aaaaw, that’s so sweet, Professor,” Deema said, making her voice sound so soothing, “but careful, don’t lose your cellphone now…”
I spun around inside the cage, expecting to see my cellphone lying on the bench where I sat. It wasn’t there! I looked at where the five had sat, not there either. Maybe under the seats? It wasn’t there either. It took several anxious panicked moments before I realized where my cellphone was—in my hand!
That’s also when I realized the ride attendant had reclosed the gate and the ferriswheel had resumed its rotation. The car I was riding in was now several feet off the ground.
I saw Deema and her classmates waving to me from the ground, “Enjoy your ‘me time’ Professor!” they all yelled.
Those devils!
About the Author
The author is a writer and lawyer based in Baguio City, Philippines. Former editor of the Gold Ore and Baguio City Digest, professor of journalism, political science and law at Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF). He is a photographer and video documentarist. He has a YouTube channel called “Parables and Reason”
About Images: Some of the images used in the articles are from the posts in Atty. Joel Rodriguez Dizon’s Facebook account, and/or Facebook groups and pages he manages or/and member of.