THE Department of Justice has ruled that the administrator of the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) has the authority to appoint CDA personnel with a rank lower than a deputy administrator.
This was contained in a legal opinion dated March 26, 2024 that was only made public yesterday and rendered by Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez in response to the letter of CDA chief Joseph Encabo requesting the department’s opinion on the matter.
Encabo sought the DOJ’s help after the CDA Board of Administrators expressed “two conflicting views” on the issue concerning the power of the CDA chief to appoint personnel.
Encabo said one view holds that the appointing power granted to the administrator is merely administrative in nature and that the former only signs the appointment of personnel lower than the positions of Deputy Administrators after a final determination and decision is made by the Board of Administrators.
Encabo said the opposing view held that the appointment is well within the authority of the CDA administrator, and as such, the Board should not intervene in the process.
Encabo said he believes that Republic Act 11364, otherwise known as the Cooperative Development Authority Charter of 2019, had amended RA 6839.
Under RA 6839, the CDA Board of Administrators had the power to appoint all CDA personnel, regardless of position and rank. Hence, all matters involving the issuance of appointments were elevated to the Board which would assess the merits of the Personnel Selection Board’s recommendation for appointment before it would be issued and signed by the chairperson.
The DOJ agreed with Encabo, saying that Section 13 of RA 11364 “states in no uncertain terms” that the power to appoint CDA personnel with a rank lower than a deputy administrator is vested with the CDA chair.
“A cardinal rule in statutory construction is that when the law is clear and free from any doubt or ambiguity, there is no room for construction or interpretation. There is only room for application,” Vasquez held.
“As the statute is clear, plain and free from ambiguity, it must be given its literal meaning and applied without attempted interpretation. This is what is known as the plain-meaning rule or verba legis,” Vasquez added.
