Karina the demoralizer

‘At least she is not being tagged as a “destabilizer.” Not yet, anyway.’

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said David’s figures are wrong. There are only six presidential advisers and 43 presidential assistants, most of whom don’t get paid. Nonetheless, he said, the walking papers of about 15 idle presidential aides are being processed. He added that all appointments by Arroyo are legal in that she is so authorized under the Administrative Code.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye took a different tack. He said David, by her sweeping generalization, did a disservice to the over one million civil servants who work diligently each and every day to serve the people.

The reactions are par for the Palace. To defend an indefensible position, the rule for the propagandist is to distort the issue, attack the messenger’s motive and draw a totally irrelevant and misleading conclusion.

What did David say? She said 1) there are 60 excess undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, and 2) Arroyo appointees occupy 3,500 of 6,000 available managerial positions (with 2 out of five of these appointees lacking in qualification), effectively blocking the career advancement of 4,000 qualified ones.

For specifics, David said there are eight excess undersecretaries at agrarian reform, seven each at defense and at environment, and six at the interior. David was talking of positions not carried on the regular plantilla, not factotums or hucksters sporting the titles "presidential advisers" or "presidential assistants."

In the case of managerial positions, these are supposed to be filled by career executive service officers. Appointments to these positions, which range from regional directors and up, are signed by the President.

Since Arroyo’s signature is needed on the appointment papers, the twisted logic of Palace officials takes this to mean Arroyo could appoint any Tan Fulano, usually in an acting capacity to skirt the rules, to any available position.

This, the damage to the career executive service system, was David’s beef. She correctly identified the problem – Arroyo’s claim to unlimited powers of making appointments – and came up with a proposed solution in the form of a career executive service law.