Time to give gov't casuals security of tenure!

We read with a keen interest about that report on the 14 employees of the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) whose contracts were not renewed by Mayor Michael Rama. The complainant, Cynthia Luces, gave a presscon last Friday at the Patambayayong Foundation, Inc. to air her grievances, and asked the Mayor why she and 13 others were summarily dismissed? I don’t know about you, but this has always been the problem with the City of Cebu where jobs are given to political supporters.

 That Ms. Luces openly admitted to be a supporter of the Bando Osmeña Pundok-Kauswagan (BO-PK) speaks volumes about this reality. So now that Mayor Mike is outside the BO-PK “kulambo” I don’t blame him for doing this, because it is easy for him to suspect that the supporters of the BO-PK are out to sabotage his plans and programs. Yes, it is strictly politics!

 Mind you, when I got appointed to Chair the Cebu City Traffic Operations & Management (CITOM) in the year 2001, I asked then Mayor Tomas Osmeña to already do what he had to do about the supporters of then Mayor Alvin Garcia because I did not want to assume the chair in CITOM and go out on a political witch hunt as I don’t have the heart to do these things. It is for this reason why I have a distaste for our kind of politics.

 A few months ago I wrote about this very issue on the casuals of City Hall all over the country, where human beings with families to feed are used like political toys to be yanked out when there is a new dispensation. What ever happened to security of tenure? In the private sector, if you hire a person, you have six months to size him out. If you don’t like the person, then you can replace that person. But if you like the person, then you have to make that person a permanent employee otherwise your company will be in trouble with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

 I have asked the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in so many columns that they create a special clique of government employees called the Career Executive Service Officer (CESO), yet the majority of government employees are mere casuals who, more often than not, are used by politicians for their support. But we were not born yesterday. A lot of these employees also openly allow themselves to be used by politicians for their own selfish or greedy ends. That’s the reality and it just happened to Ms. Luces!

 In the end, as the old saying goes, “To the victors, belong the spoils.” So if you backed the wrong horse, then you lose your job! That’s the reality today and I can only hope and pray that under the so-called PNoy reforms, he would give justice to the millions of casuals who have worked for the government without any security of tenure. If you ask me, the Civil Service ought to wake up and do something to undo this injustice.

 That Ms. Cynthia Luces asked the support of the Patambayayong Foundation, Inc. founded by my good friends Francisco “Bimbo” (and Tessie) Fernandez who was City Administrator of then Mayor Tomas Osmeña only proves that the Patambayayong Foundation, Inc. has become too allied with BO-PK for its own good. Don’t get me wrong because I have always admired the work and efforts of both Bimbo and Tessie Fernandez in helping the urban poor in Cebu City. But now that there is a split in the BO-PK, they should take stock of the situation and perhaps distance themselves from taking sides in this political conflict, lest they suffer credibility problems.

 Perhaps the Patambayayong Foundation was just too comfortable with being allied with the BO-PK, but the game has changed in Cebu City Hall, hence they too must look at their options more carefully. I’ve been attacking the Civil Service Commission (CSC) on the issue of the casuals for so long, perhaps this is what the Patambayayong Foundation ought to engage themselves, rather than take sides in a political game, fighting for victims of a political ballgame, but ensure that such incidents would never happen again.

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 I doff my hat to Rep. Pablo John Garcia (2nd District) on his filing of House Bill No. 4786 seeking to abolish the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK). From day one, when then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos created the SK for the young Imee Marcos to play with, we knew that the whole thing was not going to help the youth become better citizens of this country.

 For me, the SK has become an unwitting tool by our politicians to promote their own vested political interests and many of the SK youth actually are the children of the supporters of those politicians. I have known a couple of former SK members who once told me that when they were with SK, their salaries or honorariums were even bigger than the salaries of their parents. This is because billions are spent for the SK annually and it has not resulted in our having a more responsible youth for the future of the nation.

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