“The Honorable
Representative from Marikina is barking on the wrong tree in claming that the
use of social networking sites is adversely affecting the productivity and
quality of public service of the government workers. If only he would do his
homework, it’s low pay and the patronage system in government and definitely not
facebook and twitter use”.

This was the reaction
of the militant COURAGE, the national center of government employees on House Resolution No. 184 filed by
Marikina Representative Romero Federico “Miro” Quimbo which seeks to regulate
the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in government
offices and state-run corporations.

In a statement, COURAGE National
President Ferdinand Gaite said Quimbo should have known better, himself a
former chief of the PAG-IBIG Fund. “No matter how hardworking the employees may
be, this will come to naught if the policies and program of the government that
they are bound to implement are inadequate or worse, inimical to public
service. Even the supposed increased in power expenses is negligible compared
to the millions of funds being pocketed by the fat cats in the government offices
some of whom rarely spend time at the office to do their jobs”.

“While the rest of the world are
recognizing the use of the internet for better communications and information
dissemination, the legislator is proposing to limit their use. It is also
disheartening given that some government offices especially in the provinces
have yet to have access to the net”. Gaite added that the national broadband
project that is supposed to interconnect offices and speed-up public service
has been shelved due to corruption. He was referring to the NBN-ZTE deal.

The leader stressed Rep. Quimbo
should sponsor a legislation to increase the employees salaries and improve
their working conditions. “His suggestion for employees to use their own
laptops and internet connection for Facebook use is an insult to us because a
majority of the government employees’ take home pay could not even take them
home”.