EDITORIAL - The right connections

Meritocracy, the rule of law, transparency — you name it, President Arroyo has set it back during her long years in power. Malacañang spokesmen say that poor government employees deserve representation in the board of the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund. If this nation is ever going to improve its competitiveness instead of turning into Asia’s basket case, something should be added to that noble explanation for the appointment of the President’s manicurist, Anita Carpon, to the Pag-IBIG Fund, and her gardener Armando Macapagal to the Luneta Administration: poor government employees can be promoted, why not, but only if they deserve it. This is called merit, and it has nothing to do with regular contact with the President’s ingrown toenails and fingernails.

Government employees cannot possibly be rich if all they have to rely on is their pay. The point is not the income of the one who received the promotion, but the qualification for it. Every promotion in government must be deserved. 

What do the rest of the country’s low-income manicurists and gardeners have to say about the unbelievable good luck of Carpon and Macapagal? Will they also demand similar sinecures in government?

Does the surname have anything to do with Macapagal’s promotion? And what do members of the bureaucracy have to say about the promotion of the two, who even enjoy fixed terms? Civil service personnel must meet educational requirements and hurdle tests at every step of their promotion to the next higher position and salary grade. Police and military officers, apart from hurdling tests, often find themselves having to lick the boots of political patrons and religious leaders to receive a promotion.

The Constitution also bans midnight appointments during election periods except for “temporary” positions in the executive branch, “when continued vacancies therein will prejudice public service or endanger public safety.” Of course the Arroyo Supreme Court, which has now earned its place in history alongside the Marcos Supreme Court, can always “interpret” the ban to allow the appointments of Carpon and Macapagal in case these are challenged.

In the twilight of her presidency, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is showing the world that her critics are not just hallucinating, but are describing reality, when they say that under her watch, what matters is not merit but connections — in bagging lucrative contracts, in amassing wealth, and in promotions and appointments to government positions.