Destroying the career bureaucracy

I am certain that historians would look at today’s events in this country with utter disdain. Filipino politicians have never been known to place the national interest ahead of their own, but this one takes the cake. Mr. Marcos may still hold the dubious honor of being first in our national rouges gallery of leaders, but at least Mr. Marcos respected some basic ground rules in handling the career bureaucracy.

The problem with Ate Glue, even before her personal survival crisis, is her attitude towards the bureaucracy. She gives the impression that everyone under her, that’s everyone in the bureaucracy, are extensions of her household help. (Must be her elitist Assumption upbringing. Us guys from Peyups are very egalitarian). Everyone should follow her orders without question and she has the power of hiring and firing everyone, regardless of whatever guarantees there may be under the Constitution for a fairly independent civil service.

To be honest, I have never been a real fan of the bureaucracy either. My experiences in dealing with them as a journalist and as a plain citizen have been a mixed bag, mostly of frustration and disgust. At the same time, I have also had wholesome and refreshing interactions with the bureaucracy at the career level. Even at the lower level, there were rare times when I experienced sincere attempts to be helpful.

The segment of the bureaucracy I have a healthy respect for, is the foreign service. I started my journalism career as a reporter covering foreign affairs when Carlos P. Romulo was foreign secretary. That was one challenging and intellectually stimulating assignment. CPR provided the color and the headline grabbing stories and the career Foreign Service Officers provided the background and the thinking that went into the formulation of our foreign policy.

Those must have been the glory days of the Philippine foreign service. Covering Padre Faura at that time was almost the equivalent of taking a graduate course in political science and diplomacy. Of course there were times when an Ermita or Malate bar was our classroom as we continued our learning under the tutelage of friendly FSOs beyond office and office hours, over beer.

And our Foreign Service Officers were a deservedly proud group. Their morale was high and they got the respect of otherwise cynical journalists. The important difference then and now is that even when Malacañang intervened to impose its political influence on them, neither Marcos nor Kokoy Romualdez imposed the kind of political appointees being imposed on the foreign service today by Ate Glue. Kokoy selected the best and brightest from among the career officers and used their expertise in some of the most vital diplomatic tasks.

I chanced upon the weblog of a group of foreign affairs officers who call themselves the Union of Filipino Foreign Service Officers (UNIFFORS). I can understand why they must vent their frustrations anony-mously, given the vindictiveness of this administration. I get the impression that they are now one demoralized bunch, aggrieved by the liberties taken by the national leadership on a once highly motivated group of civil servants.

And that’s where the danger lies. In their own words, our career foreign service officers expressed worry in their weblog, that our present diplomatic service could be selling our country short. "In this globalized world marked by fierce competition, our Foreign Service can be effective only to the extent that its personnel are competent, efficient and dedicated. When they are demoralized due to external and internal factors, our diplomats cannot maximize their potential to effectively promote and protect the national interest abroad."

On top of the list of gripes I often hear from FSOs is the appointment of too many political cronies in key diplomatic posts that are better served by better trained career officers. The ratio of political versus career appointees in important embassies abroad must now be tilted in favor of the political cronies.

While Ate Glue has the right to appoint ambassadors with the concurrence of the Commission on Appointments, she has abused this power to the disadvantage of the service and at a huge cost to the morale of our corps of career foreign service officers. While it is accepted that some posts are reserved as payback for presidential friends, a delicate balance must be observed to make a career in the diplomatic service a worthwhile endeavor for the highly intelligent people normally recruited for it.

And because of the highly politicized manner of managing the diplomatic service, some career officials out of self preservation become political as well. Hence, we have foreign service officers who cling to assignments beyond retirement age or beyond normal rotational limits, thanks to politicians who exert pressure on their behalf. Promotions and assignments no longer go on the basis of who are the best and brightest but to who are the best connected. That’s not a good signal to encourage the best performance.

Sometimes too, even political appointees (and this happens to the more competent ones) get sidetracked when Ate Glue changes her mind on a whim. Take the case of former SEC Chairman Lilia Bautista who already got an "agrement" from the receiving country, found her appointment recalled even before she could leave for her post. Ate Glue decided at the last moment that journalist Amando Doronila should go instead. I wonder how they explained the abrupt change to the Belgian government, after the Belgians gave Ms. Bautista their "agrement".

It pains me to use this example at all because I have always looked up to "Doro" who was my professor twice at journalism school at UP, my senior colleague when I was covering foreign affairs and my editor at the Manila Chronicle. Mr. Doronila is most competent to take on the assignment and I am sure he would do justice to the challenge of representing the country at the capital city of the European Union. But the manner by which Malacañang appointed him and dis-appointed Ms. Bautista, speaks of how little Ate Glue thinks of a foreign ser-vice assignment.

Long after Ate Glue is unglued from Malacañang, the negative effect of her tenure would still be felt by our foreign service. The damage done has got to be long term.

Yet, our FSOs need not feel alone. What happened to Mike Luz, a career executive service officer (CESO) is equally appalling. The CESO is one of our attempts to institute a competent corps of career civil service officers. Undergoing the CESO certification procedure is not easy. Under the system, positions of undersecretary down are supposed to be filled up by CESOs. Only the Cabinet positions are supposed to be political.

This system is important, specially if we are to go parliamentary. There must be reasonable assurance that the bureaucracy goes on even if the government changes every other week. Yet, I understand that Career Executive Service Board records show that 6,386 positions are supposed to be occupied by CESOs, of which 3,486 are in the National Government and 2,900 in government corporations. In all, there are 5,976 CESOs in and out of the government service. However, only 39.5 percent of the more than 6,000 positions have been given to eligibles under the Arroyo administration.

The penchant of Ate Glue for appointing non-CESOs to these managerial positions is bad enough. She is also fond of creating new items for assistant secretary and undersecretary that are now being occupied by non-eligibles. She has bloated the bureaucracy with her political appointments, using government resources to pay off her political debts.

It is just as well that Mike Luz is fighting this one. Mike does not need the position for his survival. He will in fact, make more money in the private sector. This makes him the ideal one to stand up for all the other CESOs eased out and transferred to other positions or put in the freezer to accommodate the non-CESOs appointed by Ate Glue. Luckily, we have someone like Karina David at the Civil Service Commission and that her position is a constitutional one, not subject to the retribution of Ate Glue.

The irony is, Ate Glue loves to talk of good governance every chance she gets. She may fool a lot of people now but I am sure history is not going to be kind to her for having severely retarded our already feeble attempts to establish a competent, respectable career bureaucracy.

Ten Questions

Reli German texted me 10 questions.

1)What did Henry sy? 2) Why is Norman black? 3) Does Jennifer love Hewitt? 4) Where did Vincent van gogh? 5) Is Marvin gaye? 6) Where did Sandra park? 7) Is Chow yung fat? 8) Why is Alonzo mourning? 9) Is Lucio tan? 10) When will Orlando bloom?

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]