04/02/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly also open the floodgates to possible abuse. The outgoing President may x x x [simply] antedate [the] appointment papers to make it appear that they were legally signed prior to the ban[.] The CA’s reasoning, unfortunately, does not validate its conclusion. The CA upheld the extension of the scope of the prohibition to the acts of the appointee on the reasoning that these acts “give effect or allow the furtherance of the President’s prohibited act of making appointments within the same prohibited period.” The CA ruling obviously failed to consider the situation where the making and issuance of the appointments were made outside of the prohibited period. To be sure, limiting the term “appointment” to the mechanical act of making the appointment, i.e., the date appearing on the appointment paper, will severely encroach on the constitutional prerogatives of the incoming president. An appointment whose validity stands solely on the date appearing on the appointment paper will practically leave the operation of the appointment ban at the sole determination of the outgoing President since he can simply antedate the appointment to avoid the prohibition. This situation would bring us back to the days of Aytona when the validity of the appointment would have no reference to specific time frames but would be resolved on a case-to-case basis, rendering practically useless the elevation and modification of the Aytona ruling into a constitutional provision. With the date of actual issuance or release as the reckoning point under the Constitution, however, the feared “encroachment” on the prerogative of the incoming President loses ground: if the appointee rejects the appointment at a time when the ban has already set in, then the President’s exercise of his appointing power simply failed to produce the desired outcome. If the appointee accepts the appointment (which was actually issued before the ban) during the ban, then the acceptance simply renders the timely exercise of the power of appointment efficacious. The fact remains that before or after the ban sets in, the President remains to be the Chief Executive until his successor legally assumes the Presidency; and before the ban sets in, the Constitution allows him to exercise his power of appointment, subject only to constitutional limitations. Regardless of the appointee’s action, the prohibition is maintained since the third stage in the appointment process is no longer within the outgoing President’s control. The evils sought to be addressed by Section 15 is kept intact by a constitutionally timely exercise of the appointing power.[156] The conclusion I reach is but in keeping with the common observation that presidential appointees do not necessarily accept their appointments right away since most (if not all) of these appointees have current professional affiliations or undertakings elsewhere, be it in the government or in the private sector, which they need to wind up before assuming their new positions. This is an obvious fact that the framers of the Constitution could not have ignored in crafting Section 15, Article VII. Consequently, assumption of office or taking of oath of office may take some time after their appointment papers have been issued. Including these acts within the phrase “make appointments” is a completely unwarranted expansion of the text and a clear departure from the intent of the Constitution. In this light, E.O. No. 2 is unconstitutional to the extent that it unduly expanded the scope of prohibition in Section 15, Article VII. [157] elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/60717 58/75