Anomaly at PDIC

Irate employees of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. or PDIC are up in arms against a reorganization of this office scheduled for the end of this month.

The purpose of the reorganization is not clear. For instance, the move was supposed to implement enhanced qualification standards. So why is it that there were employees who have no masteral degrees who were placed in positions with salary grades 23 and 24 that require such level of education? And why were undergraduate employees named to positions with salary grade 10 when it is required that these positions should be occupied by college degree holders?

In addition, abolished rank and file positions were replaced with officer positions. For instance, a vice president was named for the financial resources management department with only nine personnel while the comptrollership department which has 23 people has its own senior vice president manning them all, when the respective managers can run these departments. The salary plus benefits of these senior officers one can pay for the salaries of at least five rank and file positions. The employees maintain that if the approved new PDIC staffing pattern will be analyzed using the cost-benefit approach, no savings at all was made because of these added juicy positions.

It was also claimed by the employees that the employees union is not doing anything about this anomalies because the union president himself was appointed despite being an undergraduate, obviously to silence him. To illustrate how unfair this reorganization is, one employee on a ‘leave without pay’ status was promoted at the expense of another who was demoted.

If there is really a need to streamline the corporation, these unqualified personnel should be the ones to be displaced because there are more qualified employees from the rank and file with masteral degrees. But the placement committee demoted around 50 and displaced 110 personnel including one with MBA. Most of them are contractual employees before who were deployed by PDIC in various provinces without per diem. Meaning, they have served PDIC to the fullest only to be terminated in the end.

But are these actions justified by the so-called management prerogative? The employees insist that such a prerogative has no place in a government owned and controlled corporation and PDIC president Ricardo Tan and his cohorts are not supposed to treat it as if it was their own. Why in the first place did they set these enhanced qualification standards together with the placement guidelines only to violate them later?

There are laws that protect government employees. Article 244 of the rules implementing the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees states that "any public officer who shall knowingly nominate or appoint to any public office any person lacking the legal qualifications shall suffer the penalty of arrest and a fine, not exceeding P1,000." Violation of RA 6656 on the other hand entails punishment of a fine not exceeding P10,000 or by imprisonment of not less than three years nor more than five years or both at the discretion of the court, and suffer permanent disqualification to hold public office.

In addition to these appointment anomalies, PDIC employees have also brought to our attention the manner by which the company grants financial assistance to ailing banks. Before, it was very difficult for such banks to secure financial assistance from PDIC. But now, PDIC accepts substandard collaterals as security for the loans. The collaterals offered would include signages, collapsible dividers, unserviceable chairs and tables.

These acts constitute economic sabotage to say the least, considering the situation our economy is in right now.

NAIA escort service

With power comes great responsibility.

So when a member of the press uses his power as a member of the fourth estate and his NAIA press card to escort questionable aliens to breeze through airport/customs authorities without any glitch....and that includes their equally questionable baggages, for fees ranging from as P200,000 to P500,000 per escort service (the fee charged for certain Chinese nationals who were later implicated in drug trafficking activities), this we believe is the height of irresponsibility.

This tabloid reporter, according to our sources, has earned for himself the title "Supreme S-court" for his very lucrative services. Actually, Supreme S-court used to work for a more reputable tabloid but when he was transferred by his editors to another beat, he resigned and said in his resignation letter that he loves the NAIA beat very much.

His fellow beat reporters are now wondering why despite his reputation and very glaring activities, he continues to enjoy the privilege of a NAIA press card.

I hope I’m wrong about him.

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