A lot of movement is expected in the foreign affairs department in the coming weeks but nothing promises to correct the prevailing anomalous situation where violation of the law is more the rule than the exception.
With the departure of Sonia Brady for Beijing, Erlinda Basilio takes over as undersecretary for policy. Basilio, whose previous assignment was assistant secretary for Asia Pacific Affairs, is a good choice for this important position, from where inputs for our bilateral, regional and multilateral relations emanate.
As far as competence in the substance of foreign relations is concerned, we have not heard any unflattering remark about Mrs. Basilio. The problem is the case of her husband, Norberto, ambassador to Bangladesh.
Norberto Basilio’s appointment as ambassador to Bangladesh was one of those that riled foreign service officers because he is due for retirement in March. It’s a violation of the Foreign Service Law that prohibits posting of career foreign service officers two years before retirement.
R.A. 7157 explicitly provides that career personnel must “compulsory and automatically retire” upon reaching the age of 65.
Nobody in the DFA expects Basilio to retire in March. (Same thing with Estrella Berenguel, ambassador to Vietnam for two months who will turn 65 next month.) Why would the DFA spend at least a million pesos for the transport of his belongings if he would be there only for three or four months? And what could he accomplish in that short a time?
Basilio, Berenguel and many other retireable officers were given foreign assignments with the full knowledge by top officials of the DFA that these were a violation of the law. That is not surprising because the official in the DFA directly in charge of implementing the law is, herself, a personification of a violation of that law.
Ophelia Gonzales, assistant secretary for Personnel and Management Service, turned 65 April 2005. In her stint as head of personnel, she has perfected the art of making foreign assignments a personal perk rather than a public service. In 2003, when she was barely a year in the home office, she was already preparing for her foreign assignment when she was no longer qualified for it. The regulation in the DFA is at least three years service in the home office in between foreign assignments.
Gonzales had two assignment orders signed by Foreign Secretary Blas Ople, one for Vancouver and the other for Milan. How she did it is a source of wonder among DFA personnel.
The talk in the DFA is that Gonzales really wanted to be sent to Milan, Italy but since she was only barely year in Manila, she sent instead Romeo Manalo to Milan with the plan to transfer him to Sydney once she was ready to go overseas.
But Manalo, after six months in Milan, refused to go along with Gonzales’ plan. Gonzales had also planned to get the Sydney post but Teresa Lazaro, who is the current consul general there, refused also to yield.
Knowing how violators get rewarded in the DFA, we would not be surprised if Gonzales gets another plum foreign assignment. Take the case of Clemencio Montesa, who was shunted to Hamburg, Germany as consul general after he figured in a case of maltreatment of a domestic helper while ambassador to Belgium. Imagine an ambassador, whose job is to protect Filipino nationals in his jurisdiction, being accused of maltreatment by his Filipina maid!
Montesa turned 65 in October 2005. Despite his tainted record, Romulo extended his service up to December 2005. Last week, Uniffors, the underground organization of foreign service officers, issued a statement saying they learned that Montesa has requested for an extension up to March 2006.
Uniffors said: “The younger generation of Filipino diplomats is aghast over the continued service of the likes of Mr. Montesa. It is shocked by the way the mutual protection society at the Department has covered up a wrongdoing that cries for justice.”
Uniffors further said, “Crime pays in the DFA because a felon like Mr. Montesa not only gets away with severe maltreatment of a domestic helper he is obliged to protect by reason of his office. He is even rewarded with another juicy assignment and extended at such post while other more deserving officers without any criminal record wait for him to be put to pasture.”
But then, what do you expect when the number one criminal in the country is up there lording in Malacañang?
so much for meritocracy in government… I wonder what CSC Chair Karina David has to say about this.
government sucks! sadly, am part ofthe establishment.
so, ellen, what else is new in our government?
–butch f.
Nothing new, really. But that doesn’t mean we will accept it. We have to continue exposing and condemning it.
The DFA is a microcosm of all that is wrong in our society.
The GMA Administration is deeply flawed, so are the opposition groups and some of the characters who are passing
themselves off as leaders of the opposition.
The same thing is happening in the DFA.
Romulo is implementing policies in violation of law but the
so-called checks of such violations are also deeply flawed.
UNIFORS has transformed itself into a company union. UNIFFORS the underground group of FSOs, has the same program
as GMA and Romulo when it comes to implementing RA 7157.
UNIFFORS maintains that Bello and Gonzales should be
exempt from the provisions of RA 7157. However, in the same breath it claims that it is wrong for Romulo and GMA
to do the same i.e. exempt Siazon, Berenguel, Basilio, et al from the provisions of RA 7157. Thus we have a strange case whereby an underground group is claiming prerogatives
which it claims an incumbent Secretary and President cannot
do.
Through all these controversies, the DFA press corps has not
reported any of the violations of RA 7157. The ordinary
Filipino is not fully aware of what is happening in the DFA.
09 January 2006
Good Day to You MAdam Ellen,
What’s the use of having a law crafted for the purpose of being use by the agency??? RA 7157 (Foreign Service Act of 1991)clearly states that no one who has two years or less should be asiigned anymore, but, somehow, these people were able to get what they want, clearly it is a violation of RA7157.
ANother thing, why is it only officers are given assignment with less than two years on their retirement, are there any rank and file who get assigned two years before they retire???
ANother observation, although according to RA 7157 only those who have passed the FSO examination can go far???why is it that rank and file are forbidden to become consuls or vice consuls or even reach up the rank of ambassadors???is this the practice of other line agencies???
WHy is it that only the administrative side of RA 7157 is being implemented???according also to 7157, the DFA should also be considered a foreign post, how come it is not being implemented (isn’t it finance part of adminstrative)???
It seems that, most of the officer corps of the DFA are only thinking for themselves, It seems that they dont worry about their rank and file ( hope that i’m wrong on this???), Is/Are there someone who are taking care of the concerns of the rank and file???
Why is it that the salary grades of the DFA employees are very low in comparison to other line agencies??? (accordingly, when these people assigned abroad, they are being abused by government officials, Is this part of their job???) Can’t this agency take care of their people??? I heard that the lowest salary of a DFA employee is the same as a janitor or messenger in some line agencies (if this is tha case, kawawa naman pala sila), premier agency pa naman daw??? ang DFA.
It seems that most of the officers corps at the DFA are sipsip, when the new secretary assumes his/her post at the DFA parang mga BUWITRE!!!, kanya-kanya, mga officers pa naman.
Dhell
Still, we have to feel sorry for all the professionals and dedicated men and women in the Foreign Service. Imagine having to represent this government AS YOUR JOB. Smile even if it hurts and God only knows what they’re saying behind your back!
Rizalist,
I know what you mean because that’s precisely what’s happening here in the European capital – Philippine government reputation is greatly diminished. You get that feeling when some European officials attending a social function ask you about, i.e., ‘what actually is jueteng?’, ‘do you think she (Gloria) will survive the impeachment complaint?, what has happened to the tape (Garci) controversy?, etc.
hope you can also poke attention to how it is practiced by other agencies deploying attaches and consular staff such as the DOLE’s corp of labor attaches and welfare officers of oWWA, DTI’s trade attaches, etc.
ang yayabang kasi ng mga yan akala mo kung sino e ang tatamad naman pag nasa home office dito sa pinas.
Ellen,
This concerns Dina Ya’s comment.
Personally, I find the yabang attitude in an attaché almost harmless provided the attachés perform with a capital P.
I personally would overlook the yabangs of someone in an embassy but would be quick to the draw on his/her performance. In other words, the bottom line is performance – either good or bad.
The baddies must be eliminated while the good encouraged.
To Dell,
You asked a ton of questions. Let me answer some of them:
The Home Office was declared as a post under RA 7157 so that those on assignment in Manila can claim part of their overseas allowances. In this manner the inadequate compensation received particularly by those at the bottom
of the hierarchy, will become a “living wage.”This provision of the law needs an Implementing Order. But no such order has been prepared.
The key officials who are supposed to prepare this order
are the heads of Personnel and of Fiscal Management. Both
officials have been too busy inventing creative means to
violate the law to benefit themselves. They have no time
to look after the well being of the lower level personnel.
To make this story stranger, the DFA proposed in the Omnibus Amendment to RA 7157 to abolish the provision for
paying allowances in the Home Office.
Agencies go to Congress to increase their benefits. This is the first known case whereby an agency is asking Congress to reduce the already inadequate benefits of its personnel. Some members of Congress may rightfully conclude,
on this basis, that the DFA is run by nutheads.
The rank and file cannot be commissioned as diplomatic or
consular officers because of the restrictive provisions
of RA 7157. Section 8 limits the issuances of diplomatic and consular commissions to presidential appointees, that is from the rank of FSO IV to Chief of Mission only. But just the same, the DFA had violated this provision. At this moment two non-presidential appointees are holding commissions as diplomatic secretaries. They are Jose Ebro in Washington DC and Deanna Recto in Paris. Both are Foreign Affairs Advisers, a position in the non-career service. Both positions do not even need civil service eligibility. I believe both have commissions as FSO Class I; a clear cut violation of Section 8.
But to continue with this depradation by the DFA, the top
officials of the DFA knew that they were violating the law
when they issued these commissions. There is indisputable
evidence to this effect because in the Omnibus Amendment to
RA 7157, there is a provision to amend Section 8 so that
commissions could be issued to FSSO Is. So the DFA is
knowingly violating the Foreign Service Act when they issued these commissions to the Foreign Affairs Advisers
who are non-presidential appointees.
Whichever way you look at it, the DFA is not merely inefficiently managed. It is under corrupt management.
Benefits under the law for the rank and file have not been
implemented, however, the officials in charge of implementing the law had invented means to violate the same left and right.
As Ellen says, we only hope that by continually talking about it, we can move the public to join the clamor for reforms in the DFA. Let us also hope that the DFA Press
Corps join finally in this endeavor. Otherwise, the DFA
Press Room should be labeled the “DFA Slumber Room.” That is
what the DFA media people have been doing all these years – sleeping on their jobs.
Please note this correction :
In the first paragraph, please read “living wage” instead of
“iving wage.”
10 January 2006,
Amb. Cruz,
Thanks for the reply, I just hope that somebody from the DFA could take a closer look at the inadequate compensation of the DFA employees, I’m not stopping on the rank and file alone, lest if it will help the officers corps of the DFA so much the better.
Thus it mean that my questions are valid??? It seems that you used to work at the DFA, maybe you/we could help the DFA employees get their deserve compensation.
Accordingly, it’s not justified that these people are asked to do lot of things, but receives a mediocre compensation.
Thank you very much and more power to you, sir.
Dhell
JJ Ebro and Deanna Ongpin have left the foreign service. But that doesn’t erase the fact that their positions in the DFA were a violation of the law.
Come to think of it Ms Ellen,
the fishes that got away could
fill the stinking Pasig river.
Ellen,
If the Foreign Affairs Advisers have left the service and none have been appointed to replace them, then it means that
our efforts to enforce the FS Act has at least shown some results. We had filed a case before the Civil Service
Commission and the Ombudsman challenging the practice of
issuing commissions to the FAAs. The DFA must have noted
our arguments and decided to retreat. As you said, there
is still the issue of the violation of law not to mention
the enormous amount of money illegally disbursed by the top
officials of the DFA led by Bello and Gonzales.
Discussing the other violations may, hopefully, still bring
positive results.
The DFA is a place that needs a thorough shakeup. Especially at the top.
Ang sa akin lang po naman, kung gusto nating mabawasan sa pang-aabusong nangyayari sa DFA, at sa lahat ng opisina’t kagawaran ng gobyerno, dapat mag-simula tayo sa sarili natin.
Kung ayaw nating lumaganap ang korupsyon at pamumulitika, eh di sa bawa’t transaksyon natin sa gobyerno, huwag tayong humanap ng shortcut. Dumaan tayo sa proseso. Pumila tayo kasama ng ibang tao.
Simple lang na solusyon, pero ang hirap gawin ‘di ba? Lahat tayo gipit sa oras at pera, kaya madalas, kahit papaano, nagpipilitan pa rin tayo humanap ng shortcut. Lalo na kung oras at pera ang kapalit.
Kasalanan ba ng tao na humanap ng shortcut? Para sa akin hindi. Ganyan talaga ang tao: laging maghahanap ng mas madaling paraan. Ang hirap ay kung sa paghahanap natin ng shortcut, may mababangga tayong ibang tao.
Yan ang tinatawag ni Garett Hardin na “Tragedy of the Commons”, isang weakness ng isang free-for-all enterprise. Hahanap ka na ng shortcut, kahit na mali, kahit na kaibabagsak ng lahat ng tao. Kasi kung hindi, ibang tao ang gagawa nito at ikaw rin ang madedehado.
Ang ibig sabihin ba ng demokrasya sa Pilipinas ay “free-for-all” na tayong mga Pinoy? I.e. kanya-kanya na tayo, bahala na ang mahuli, garapalan na kung garapalan?
Sa palagay ko ay hindi dapat.
Pero sa hirap nga ng buhay sa Pilipinas, hindi maiiwasan ang ganitong klase ng ugali sa mga kababayan natin.
So anong solusyon?
Kaya nga may Gobyerno. Ang Gobyerno ay siyang dapat naninigurado na may umiiral na batas sa buhay ng mamamayan.
Para sa akin, mahalaga na palakasin muli ang Gobyerno ng Pilipinas. Hindi sa pamamagitan ng paraan ni Makoy nung Martial Law, pero sa pamamagitan ng pagpapatibay ng mga institusyon ng gobyerno na nagpapa-iral ng batas.
At papapaano naman natin papatibayin ang mga institusyon natin sa gobyerno? Muli, ang sagot ay nasa indibidwal na tao.
Tao ang bumubuo ng institusyon. Hindi batas.
Kahit anong ganda ng batas na pina-iiral ng gobyerno, kapag ang mambabatas at taga-gobyerno mismo, hindi susunod rito, bale wala rin.
Bilang taga-gobyerno, hindi ako umaambisyon na baguhin ang ugali ng aking mga nakakataas. Problema na nila yun. Tao lang naman sila at papanaw rin sila.
Ang mahalaga ay ako mismo, sumusunod sa batas na dapat pina-iiral ng gobyerno.
Mahirap gawin? Oo. Tanga ba ako’t sumusunod ako sa batas gayun mismo ang mga nakakataas ko’y umaabuso? Siguro. Mamamatay ba ako na mas mahirap (at mas mababa ang puwesto) kaysa mga umaabuso sa batas? Malamang.
So bakit ko gagawin ito?
Dahil mahal ko pa rin ang Pilipinas.
Pinanganak akong Pilipino. At kahit tumakbo ako’t maging mamamayan ng bansang Kano o Europeo, hindi ko pa rin maitatago ang kulay ng balat ko, o hugis ng ilong ko.
Gusto ko pa rin isipin na balang araw, unti-unti, dahan-dahan, aahon rin ang Pilipinas. Na may mga kamag-anak pa akong mabubuhay na makakakita sa panahong ito.
Sarap mangarap ano?
Pero nangangarap ako ng gising, mulat sa gusto kong mangyari, at sumisikap na huwag masilaw sa kinang ng pera at ginhawa na dala ng shortcut.
Yun lang naman po. Salamat po kasamang Ellen sa pagkakataong ibinibigay ng blogs mo na makisali sa usaping pambayan.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas.
to: Amb. H.C Cruz
how easily you judge the dfa reporters. nandoon ba kayo? nakikita nyo ba sila magtrabaho? alam nyo ho kahit araw-araw nila isulat yang tungkol sa RA7157 na yan kung di naman pinapatulan ng mga dyaryo nila eh wala silang magagawa.
at saka nakakalungkot ,amh isipin, ang dfa na beat hindi ho pang-masa. mahirap arukin hindi katulad ng mga politcal beats tulad ng malacanang, senate, congress o police beats.
in fairness to the dfa reporters, may nagsusulat naman tungkol dyan tulad ng Tribune and Malaya. Kaso hindi nasusustain, siguro dahil limited lang ang sources of info. kadalasan galing lang sa uniffors.
Isa pa, wala namang opisyal na may hinanakit sa dfa na malakas ang loob na magpakilala at isiwalat lahat ng anomalaya dyan. puro anonymous sources lang. nakakapagod din pag minsan.
kung sana may mga tipo ni gen. gudani at col. balutan dyan na hindi natatakot mas mabuti sana.
dahan-dahan lang ho sa panghuhusga amb. cruz
Gng. Reporter,
Ilang periodista ang miyembro ng DFA Press Corps. Bakit
Tribune lang at Malaya ang nagbubungkal ng anomalya? Ano ang
ginagawa ng ibang miyembro ng DFA Press Corps ?
Let’s not lose our focus on the violators of law.
sorry ellen ha, eto kasi si amb. cruz pinag-iinitan agad ang media.
maraming reporters sa dfa. pati mga taga-tv and radio. meron pa ngang mga foreign correspondents. pero gaya ng sinabi ko di na nila ginagawa or fina-folo up ang story kasi hindi naman ginagamit sa dyaryo or network nila.
I understand how frustrating it is to be working hard on a story and not being appreciated by the desk. Our desk, and for that matter the Philippine journalism world, is a reflection of the attitude of our government. They don’t appreciate the importance of foreign relations.
Unlike in other countries, where the foreign ministry (in the U.S., it’s the state department) is the premier department (and that is reflected in the seating arrangement in the cabinet. the foreign secretary sits next to the president) the dfa here is regarded as a dumping ground for political stooges.
I’m lucky that I have an assured space three times a week. But it’s a different matter with reporters who have to compete with others in the news pages.
But we should not give up. Sige lang.
Follow the law.