No midnight appointments: Musings on executive order no. 2

So now Pnoy (Pres. Noynoy Aquino) has followed through on his objective to do away with all the midnight appointees of his predecessor.

Executive Order No. 2 was inked and signed specifically to recall withdraw and revoke all midnight appointments.

There is a thorny bit to this EO though. The definition of midnight appointments is rather expansive.

The ban on appointments for president GMA started at about 11 March 2010. Interestingly, Pnoy includes those who were appointed even before that date but accepted or took their oath after the said start of the ban.

So take for instance an individual who was travelling abroad for business or leisure and receives word that he was appointed on 1 March 2010 well before the ban. But because he is out of the country he did not take his oath or get to begin serving until after 11 March 2010.

Because of Pnoy's expansive definition, his appointment will be recalled, withdrawn and revoked.

To make matters worse, what if he had left a government post in order to accept his new appointment. Then he would be out on the street.

Midnight appointments are really a no no. They are prohibited by our Constitution. Yet, I hope the guidelines can take situations like this into account so as not to be too expansive.