Practice question
A department secretary lawfully issues a routine administrative directive within ordinary executive business. No law requires personal presidential action, no contrary exigency exists and the President has not disapproved it. An official objects solely that the President did not personally sign the directive. Which is best?
- Every executive directive needs the President’s own signature.
- The absence of personal signature alone does not defeat the departmental principle described in Villena.
- The directive becomes a court judgment.
- The secretary automatically becomes President.
- The directive is valid even if it contradicts the Constitution.
Legal references
- Villena v. Secretary of the Interior, G.R. No. L-46570, April 21, 1939, main decision, presidential departmental agents and personal-action exceptions: https://lawphil.net/judjuris/juri1939/apr1939/gr_l-46570_1939.html
- 1987 Constitution: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/3/353 Article VII, Section 17.
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