What’s wrong with the civil service today?

That there is a huge rift between Malacañang and the Career Service Executive Board (CSEB) is a reality that’s happening today because of Resolution No. 619, which the latter issued last March 20 where it accused Malacañang of "transgressions" of civil service laws, rules and regulations. That resolution denounced the supposedly unjust termination of Education Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz. Wait! I thought this fellow resigned.

Anyway, security of tenure is supposedly guaranteed those people who are Career Executive Service Officers (CESOs) and so many other government bureaucrats. However, the reality on the ground is, those supposed "chosen few" act more like princes of the government rather than servants of our people! Most of them believe that they have become so untouchable and thus, they refuse to listen to anyone because no one can fire them anyway!

I don’t know how many columns we’ve written in sheer frustration about government bureaucrats who, if only they worked in the private sector, would have long been fired for laziness, ineptitude or worse, stupidity. In fact, if there were anything I really would like to find out is how many of those CESOs, who are assigned in the most corrupt or graft-ridden government agencies, would pass the lifestyle check of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC).

Yes, the CESB has been around for 33 years now and yet our government bureaucracy has gone from bad to worse! So the question is, why can’t our government bureaucrats — CESOs or otherwise — start giving better service to our citizenry… or taxpayers who pay their salaries? We’re not saying that all civil servants are corrupt; I’m sure that the majority are honest 8-to-5 workers… but it is the corrupt few who destroy the government’s image and reputation and most of them are protected by the Civil Service.

But corruption is only one problem that our government is facing. What about sheer incompetence? How come no one gets fired for this? As we’ve said so many times before… the Civil Service is so great in protecting government bureaucrats, yet they don’t give a hoot if these supposed civil servants are nothing but bumbling idiots who waste taxpayers’ money!

The great difference between private companies and government offices is that in a private firm, there’s no room for the lazy, the incompetent or the corrupt… perhaps this is why the government has been the breeding ground for such people, and I dare say that they are the very reason why privatization is such an ugly word for government employees! Talk about privatizing a government-owned or controlled corporation and immediately, you will be denounced, vilified or your effigy burned!

I should know because this is exactly what happened to us 15 years ago when, together with the members of the Regional Development Council (RDC), we asked that the thermal and diesel power plants of the Napocor in Naga, Cebu be privatized. We were attacked in newspapers, TV and radio. But nonetheless, the Naga power plants were privatized… they are now operated by Salcon Power and ever since, the former Napocor employees who were absorbed by Salcon Power have enjoyed better salaries and benefits from this private company. In fact, a few months ago, I met one executive and he told me things were better than when he was with the government.

There’s more! What is the Civil Service Commission doing about those poor government casual employees who have been working in their positions for more than 15 or 20 years of their lives… yet have had no security of tenure and can be terminated for any reason? Just ask your barangay tanods or your traffic enforcers and you’ll know what I mean.

If the CSC has not given them job security, perhaps it is because the CESB is just too busy creating and protecting that special breed of government bureaucrats called CESOs, who when they pass an examination can be eligible to run any multimillion-peso government facility even if they have never even learned to operate a simple sari-sari store! The reality on the ground is, there are just too many top government offices all over the country not yet managed by career service eligibles, when supposedly the position requires a CESO. Just ask your regional director if he or she is a CESO and chances are… he or she is not!

Perhaps, the strangest incident involving the CESB happened at the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), where the CESB insisted that the general manager should be a CESO eligible. There’s no question that Civil Service has its laws. But then, a special law also created the MCIAA and since it began operating in the early 1990s, not a single general manager was a CESO eligible and the CSC never made a fuss on this issue for more than 12 years.

Then finally came my good friend, Angelo Verdan, who retired from Philippine Airlines (PAL) and eventually was appointed as MCIAA manager. Then suddenly, interested parties claiming to be CESO eligible applied for the job… and the poor Angie Verdan, who came from the private sector, could not hold on to his position despite the honest truth that he was the most qualified person to run this very vital international airport facility. But no, Civil Service wants a CESO to run this facility even if he doesn’t have any managerial experience and whose only claim to fame is he has passed the exams.

Stranger still is the position of current MCIAA general manager Adelberto Yap who is also under fire by the Civil Service, again for non-eligibility. Yet, a few years ago, Gen. Yap was the head of the Air Transportation Office (ATO) that runs all the airports in the entire Philippines and a member of the board of both the MCIAA and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). If you ask me, he is the most qualified person to run an airport… any airport in this country. Yet the Civil Service refuses to look into this case and would rather see this international airport run by nincompoops just because they have political and media connections!

I have met a lot of CESOs in my day and believe me, I would never hire those I’ve met to manage even a small restaurant! What we need are professional people with real experience to run our vital multimillion-peso government installations, regardless of whether they are CESO eligible or not!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns in The Freeman can also be accessed through The Philippine STAR website (www.philstar.com). He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown on Mondays, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.