Only the secretary of the Department of Health has the authority to institute a revamp, reshuffle, transfer, detail and reassign directors and assistant directors of center and field offices of the Food and Drug Administration, according to the Department of Justice.
In a legal opinion released recently, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II stressed that only the DoH secretary who has the power to effect reassignments, among others, of various officials who have previously been appointed pursuant to Republic Act (RA) No. 9711, otherwise known as the “Food and Drug Administration Act of 2009.”
Aguirre rendered the opinion sought earlier by Director General and Health Undersecretary Nela Charade G. Puno, head of the FDA.
The DoJ chief cited Section 8 of RA 9711, which provides that “the FDA shall review its staffing pattern and position titles subject to the approval of the Secretary of Health.”
However, Aguirre emphasized that the FDA is merely empowered to review its staffing pattern, but clearly, it is the DoH chief who shall approve the same.
“This department is of the view that the power to appoint entails the power to reshuffle, transfer, detail, or reassign those appointed by the appointing authority,” Aguirre said, in his legal opinion.
“Since under the law the authority to appoint directors and assistant directors of center and field offices is lodged with the Secretary of Health, it then follows that the [DOH chief] likewise possesses the authority to reshuffle, transfer, detail, or re-assign the directors and assistant directors that he appointed to other center and field offices of the FDA,” he added.
Thus, it is the DOH head who has the power to do the same and not the Director-General of the FDA, the DOJ chief stressed.