2. Public Trust Doctrine

Concept of public office is a public trust

The concept of public office is a public trust and the corollary requirement of accountability to the people at all times, as mandated under the 1987 Constitution, is plainly inconsistent with the idea that an elective local official's administrative liability for a misconduct committed during a prior term can be wiped off by the fact that he was elected to a second term of office, or even another elective post. Election is not a mode of condoning an administrative offense, and there is simply no constitutional or statutory basis in our jurisdiction to support the notion that an official elected for a different term is fully absolved of any administrative liability arising from an offense done during a prior term. (Carpio-Morales v. CA and Binay, G.R. 217126-27, 2015)

Public officers and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.

The basic idea of government in the Philippines is that of a representative government, the officers being mere agents and not rulers of the people, one where no one man or set of men had a proprietary or contractual right to an office, but where every officer accepts office pursuant to the provisions of law and holds the office as a trust for the people whom he represents. (Bernas, 1987 Philippine Constitution: A Commentary, 924, 2009, citing Cornejo v. Gabriel, 41 Phil. 188, 1920)

Public Officers and employees owe the State and this Constitution allegiance at all times and any public officer or employee who seeks to change his citizenship or acquire the status of an immigrant of another country during his tenure shall be dealt with by law (PHIL. CONST., art. XI, § 18.)