Karina David’s parting shot: Bullseye!

Outgoing chair Karina Constantino-David of the Civil Service Commission had a parting shot for the Arroyo administration and it was, indeed, a bullseye. Citing this current administration’s penchant for paying political debt by appointing people left and right to positions they are not even qualified for, David touched a nerve that has been festering with disease deep into GMA’s governing body.

We’ve long felt the symptoms but can’t seem to determine what is either causing it or aggravating the problem --- poor services from the executive departments, zero improvements and projects, substandard infrastructure --- you name it. It would now come into full view what exactly is promoting the deterioration in the public’s belief this government can help its constituency. Government is helping a select few who are beneficiaries of Pres. Gloria Arroyo’s political debts . Thanks to the “ultrasound images” now revealed by no less than the chair of the Civil Service Commission. This is all not to say that the GMA reign has not benefited the people at all and in no way. But those who truly need the help could have so much more --- if those who had no right to receive the manna to begin with had a lot less.

David, in a Makati Business Club Speech, said that less than half of around 3,500 Presidential appointees to managerial positions in government have managerial capabilities. They don’t make it to Civil Service minimum requirements and skip the CSC process of determining eligibility. Former President Marcos’ Presidential Decree also, according to David, only allows for Presidential discretion in appointments only in “exceptional situations”. But so far, David emphatically underscored, not only are the appointees not qualified, they are in unlawful abundance particularly in the departments of Agrarian Reform, Interior and Local Government, Environment and Natural Resources and National Defense. And, mind you, for every appointee among undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and presidential consultants come their staff of at least five people each.

A chain reaction from the public, industries and, you can imagine, Malacañang soon followed David’s brave revelations. The media wasted no time asking, “Who? Who are these incompetents? Who are those benefiting from hard earned taxpayer’s money only because the powers that be in Malacañang wanted to say “thanks” to a campaign supporter? Or, perhaps, “thanks SO much” to someone who voted against her impeachment? Or what about to those who hold the guns and keep the crucial loyalty of the military during events we all thought would be the tipping point for her ouster? David’s revelations include GMA appointing too many of the retired military and police generals who know nothing about management or anything about the departments they were assigned to. We must remember that, while government service should mean to be governance and service, a position in a government agency also means influence, power, access to transactions, bribes and under the table deals. This is why, instead of outright money, many Congressmen and local officials take commitments from the President to place relatives or henchmen in these managerial positions of power.

President Arroyo, two days after news of David’s pronouncements hit the headlines, immediately ordered the recall of 20 political appointees. The basis for choosing 20 out of at least 1,500 reported incompetents or unlawful appointees is still unclear. David said to us over a radio interview that she was never remiss in telling the President about the ineligibility or excess in number of these appointees --- and that this is all that she is responsible for doing. Apparently, GMA takes her political appointment powers very seriously and exercises without restraint. Even upon the reminders of the CSC Chair. The sudden recall of 20 of these appointees come way belatedly and is, obviously, a PR band-aid to the injurious gash David has inflicted on the already bloodied GMA Government body.

Long before David’s luncheon surprise we had briefly chatted in an intimate social about her dismay over Arroyo’s presidency. Needless to say she shares many of the sentiments against the Arroyo administration with columnist Professor Randy David who was a victim and now a mascot against the notorious Proclamation 1017. Among numerous other issues against the Arroyo Administration the then CSC Chair said she could hardly wait to leave and be free from the shackles of silence she then felt she was bound by and speak about what she thought people should know about how GMA was running civil service.

I hadn’t asked her then why she stayed aboard even as she witnessed what was happening. I called her today and finally got to ask, “So why didn’t you leave earlier?”. Karina’s response: “The Civil Service Commission is a constitutional body. We were not serving at the pleasure of the President. I believed I could fight from within trying to keep things straight as far as I could. They (Malacañang) were asking why didn’t I write to them then about my disagreement to the appointments? As early as 2002 I was already writing letters to the Executive Secretary! In 2006 the CSC Board wrote an Omnibus Resolution opposing the appointments. And what did she (GMA) do? She replaced the entire Board! That even made it to the papers. The media was then hounding me for the letters. I told them these were privileged communication.”.

The CSC Chairmanship has a fixed term of six years. She performed the best she could and completed the mandate of her commitment to government all the while, as she explained, respecting the relationship between the Office of the President and Office of the CSC Chairman. After completing her terms, duty to the public as a citizen then dictated to David what she eventually revealed.

This isn’t, shouldn’t be, the end of it. Already, the media is hot on the trail of the who’s who among those we all pay with hard earned tax duties and mostly do not contribute at all to public well-being. After David’s courageous act of patriotism it is now, again as always, up to media to make sure civil service becomes what it should be and not have to wait for the end of GMA’s term to clean it up.