Funa Vs Agra
Funa Vs Agra
Funa Vs Agra
Issue 2: W/N Agra may concurrently hold the positions by virtue of the hold-over principle
No. Agras designation as the Acting Secretary of Justice was not in an ex officio capacity, by which
he would have been validly authorized to concurrently hold the two positions due to the holding of
one office being the consequence of holding the other.
Being included in the stricter prohibition embodied in Section 13, Agra cannot liberally apply in his
favor the broad exceptions provided in Article IX-B, Sec 7 (2) of the Constitution to justify his
designation as Acting Secretary of Justice concurrently with his designation as Acting Solicitor
General, or vice versa. It is not sufficient for Agra to show that his holding of the other office was
allowed by law or the primary functions of his position. To claim the exemption of his concurrent
designations from the coverage of the stricter prohibition under Section 13, he needed to establish
that his concurrent designation was expressly allowed by the Constitution.
Issue 3: W/N the offices of the Solicitor General and Secretary of Justice is in an ex officio capacity
in relation to the other
No. The powers and functions of the Solicitor General are neither required by the primary functions
nor included in the powers of the DOJ, and vice versa. The OSG, while attached to the DOJ, is not a
constituent of the latter, as in fact, the Administrative Code of 1987 decrees that the OSG is
independent and autonomous. With the enactment of RA 9417, the Solicitor General is now vested
with a cabinet rank, and has the same qualifications for appointment, rank, prerogatives, allowances,
benefits and privileges as those of Presiding Judges of the Court of Appeals. #