Memorandum Circular No. 46




MALACAÑAN PALACE MANILA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES [ MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR No. 46, s. 1963, October 14, 1963 ] To all Departments, Bureaus, Offices, Agencies and Instrumentalities of the Government, including the Provincial, City and Municipal Governments, and all Government-owned or Controlled Corporations. Reports have been received or certain officers and employees who have filed certificates of candidacy in the coming elections for national and local elective offices but who nevertheless continue to hold their respective positions in the government offices, agencies and government-owned or controlled corporations. In this connection, attention is invited to pertinent legal provisions. The Constitution (Art. XII, Sec. 2) and the Civil Service Act of 1959 (Sec. 29) forbid officers and employees in the civil service to engage, directly or indirectly, in partisan political activities or take part in any election except to vote. The Civil Service law embraces all branches of the government and expressly places government-owned or controlled corporations, without distinction as to whether they perform governmental or purely proprietary functions, under the civil service (Sec. 3). The Revised Election Code (Sec. 26) decree the automatic cessation in office of appointive officers and employees who are candidates. The purpose of these constitutional and statutory provisions is to prevent officials and employees from utilizing their offices to promote their candidacies for elective posts with the consequent prejudice to the public service. Pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution laws above referred to, this Office laid down the policy in 1959, which has since been consistently adhered to and enforced, that upon the filing of a certificate of candidacy for a public elective office any officer or employee in any government office, agency or instrumentality, including government-owned or controlled corporations, is deemed to have automatically ceased in office. Included in the coverage of the policy are directors and other officers of government-owned or controlled corporations performing not only governmental functions but purely proprietary functions as well.1âшphi1 In view of the foregoing, it is hereby directed that any officer or employee in the government service, including those in government-owned or controlled corporations whether performing governmental or proprietary functions, shall be deemed as having automatically ceased in office from the time of the filing of their respective certificates of candidacy for public elective offices. Hence, their further continuance in their appointive offices is against the law and they should be required to stop holding office if they are still doing so. Strict observance hereof is required. By authority of the President: RUFINO G. HECHANOVA Executive Secretary Manila, October 14, 1963. The Lawphil Project - Arellano Law Foundation