EMPLOYEES TO P-NOY: DON’T RUSH APPOINTMENT, LOOK DOWN BELOW

Submitted by courage_phil on Thu, 08/19/2010 - 12:40.

Government employees represented by their national center,
COURAGE, today said President Benigno Aquino III should’nt rush the
appointments of Government Owned and Controlled Corporations chiefs and other
heads of agencies if these would only mean compromising  the integrity of public office and undemining
public trust. They also advised President Aquino to look at qualified carreer
service officers or those who rose from the ranks in lieu of what he earlier
claimed as few good men and women.

 

In a statement, COURAGE National President Ferdinand Gaite
said President Aquino this time should carefully consider his choices. “So far,
except for Justice Secretary Leila De Lima, all his appointments were really a
disappointment. They are either recycled Arroyo’s men or businessmen and politicians
who campaigned for him last election. The resurfacing of the Kamag-anak Inc.
this time in the likes of the Abads is also sending a wrong signal, a
deviationfrom Aquino’s earlier pronouncements”.

 

Gaite is refering to Budget Secretary Butch Abad who recently
came under fire because daughter Julia is head of the Presidential Management
Staff; wife is Representative of Batanes and son is Chief of Staff to the
Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications. Some
department secretaries were former executives of private businesses engage in
basic utilities such as power, water, telecommunications etc. a fact that
violates the conflict of interest clause in the ethical standards for public
officials. The militant group also raised opposition to fomer Negros Occidental
Governor Daniel Lacson’s appointment as GSIS Chairman.

 

“We do not agree with President Aquino’s statement that there
are a few good men and women in the civil service. If only he and his search
committee will look beyond patronage and politics and look down below the
hierarchy in the bureaucracy, they will find selfless, hardworking and eligible
carreer service officers and middle managers who came from the rank and file
employees and who have given the best years of their lives in public service.
These men and women too are victims of politics that made a mockery of the
merit and promotion system in the civil service. They’ve become subordinates to
political appointees who are less qualified”, Gaite stressed.

 

COURAGE said on top of P-Noy’s list should be the replacement
of GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garica. “We are counting the days
and looking forward to the change he promised the employees and teachers during
his campaign”.#