ENOUGH WITH THE MIDNIGHT APPOINTMENTS

Submitted by courage_phil on Wed, 06/09/2010 - 04:20.

Barely
a few months before the Arroyo Administration ends, President Arroyo has
appointed almost every “Juan” who has supported her or is closely associated
with her Presidency.  Malacañang can
always claim it’s the President’s prerogative to appoint but the extent to
which this prerogative has been used and abused is simply the crux of the
matter. The recent two is revolting to say the least.

 

That
Ms. Anita Carpon is a manicurist and Mr. Armando Macapagal is a gardener has
nothing to do with the uproar that has come with their appointments to the
PAG-IBIG Board of Trustees and the Luneta Park Administration respectively. As
the national center of government employees, we are consistently advocating the
recognition, selection and promotion of ordinary government employees based on
merit, fitness and in the interest of public service. What is utterly wrong
with their appointments is that they were appointed on the basis of their
association with Malacanang and on the whims and caprice of President Arroyo.
It is patronage politics at its ugliest face, an affront to the 1.4 million
government employees who are fighting tooth and nail to retain the jobs they
hold and get the promotion they deserve.

 

Ms.
Carpon should turn down the appointment at the very least, on the first
instance. To supposedly represent the government employees now questioning her
apppointment is already a great deal that should make her think twice.  It is right that the representative of the
government employees should come from their own ranks. But we beg to disgaree
that by merely being an ordinary government employee is enough to represent
them at the PAG-IBIG Board. What matters even more is Ms. Carpon’s track record
if any, on speaking, standing and fighting for and in behalf of the government
employees.  The position carries with it
an even greater responsibility of despite being only one in the board, the
representative can always make a position no matter how different, it is
unfailingly pro-employees. The supposed employees’ representative in the GSIS
Board of Trustees is a concrete example of the opposite and enough to make us
press for genuine representation.

 

President
Arroyo can reward Ms. Carpon for being efficient in what she does best as her
personal manicurist. But for delicadeza, not a lucrative position in government
with allowances, honorarium and other perks cloaked in the guise of
representing lowly employees, to an office that manages their hard-earned
contribution.  

 

The workers of
the Luneta Park Administration who has given the best years of their lives in
service are also now demoralized. Because while it’s like passing through the
eye of a needle just to get promoted from a salary grade to another, a palace
gardener (a salary grade 1 based on the government’s own compensation and
classification system) now holds a salary grade ___ position, the second
highest decision making position in the agency. 

 

It may no
longer be a surprise if President Arroyo shall appoint her caddy girl to head
the Intramuros Administration or her housekeeper to the Housing Board. This is
what President Arroyo meant on her speech on the 1^st day in
Malacanang that she will respect the bureaucracy.  We really hope (and shall work to make sure) that
her nine-year term finally end.