Government employees belonging to the militant group COURAGE today advised incoming president Benigno Aquino III to spare the rank and file employees in the expected shuffle following the turnover of power come June 30.
In a statement, COURAGE National President Ferdinand Gaite cited the case of the Official Palace cooks, food handlers, waiters, kitchen staff, and other rank and file employees of Malacanang especially those who have been in service for several years now.
“These employees have survived the Presidency of Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo. Ika nga, nag-trabaho lang sila, walang pulitika. We trust that P-Noy would seriously consider maintaining them especially that Malacanang today revealed more than 50,000 government employees positions are vacant and can be filled-up by the new administration”.
Gaite is referring to the announcement made by Presidential Management Staff Chief Elena Bautista-Horn that some 50,000 positions are vacant following the implementation of Executive Order 366 and the terms of office of contractual employees set to end on June 30. This is aside from the earlier announcement of 4,301 vacant positions for the cabinet, management and Executive levels in government.
Gaite stressed Noynoy should be cautious not to court the ire of the government employees by displacing them with those to be hired by the new administration. “Noynoy Aquino can instead make use of the said vacancy to regularize the thousands of casuals and contractual employees of the government”.
COURAGE also pressed Aquino to consider the Career Service Executives in filling-up the 4,301 positions. “Aquino should start right and set an example by upholding the merit and promotion system in the civil service. There are a lot of eligible and qualified career executives and middle managers in the bureaucracy who often gets bypassed by political appointments. If the new administration’s search committee would genuinely search, then there won’t be a need for recycling Arroyo’s cabinet members and other former government officials who already had their time in public service”. #
