MANILA, Philippines – Senator Richard Gordon did not forfeit his seat in the Senate when he assumed the chairmanship of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC), the Supreme Court said.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the high court said PNRC was “a private organization merely performing public functions and that “PNRC chairman was not a government official or employee.”

Not being a government office, the PNRC chairmanship might be held by any individual including a Senator or Member of the House of Congress.

Former Representative Dante Liban of Quezon City filed the ouster move against him before the Supreme Court and the Senate committee on ethics headed by Senator Panfilo Lacson.

Liban claimed that Gordon violated the Constitution in accepting the chairmanship of the PNRC in 2006 while he was still a senator.

Liban anchored his claim on Section 13 Article 6 of the Constitution which provided that “no senator may hold any other office or employment in the Government.”

But the high court, in its ruling said that PNRC was “autonomous, neutral and independent” of the Philippine government.

The high court said PNRC was a voluntary organization that “does not have government assets and does not receive any appropriation from the Philippine Congress.”

In determining that the PNRC is neither owned nor controlled by the government, the high court said that PNRC charter provided that only six of the 30 members of the PNRC Board of Governors shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines. The chairman is elected by the members of the board.

“The President has no control in the decisions nor actions of the PNRC Chairman. The lack of Presidential supervision proves that the PNRC chairman is not an official or employee of the Executive Branch or any of the remaining branches of the government but rather a private official,” the high court said.

Concurring with Justice Carpio are Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Associate Justices Leonardo Quisumbing, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Minita Chico-Nazario, Presbiterio Velasco Jr., and Teresita Leonardo-De Castro.