BY DENNIS GADIL

SENATE minority leader Aquilino yesterday said President Arroyo cannot be held liable for appointing unqualified people to government posts, but nevertheless advised her to take back her appointments.

"The rule of law should impel GMA to recall or terminate these appointments," Pimentel said.

He said the appointments of government officials occupying career positions should be withdrawn or revoked if they fail to comply with civil service eligibility requirements and there are qualified people who can replace them.

Pimentel also said that President Arroyo, due to her immunity from suit, cannot be sued if she appoints people who fall short of qualifications.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita the other day said he has recommended to Arroyo that the services of at least 15 idle presidential assistants be terminated.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo yesterday said the President, who is in Switzerland, ordered in the morning the dismissal of the redundant officials.

Pimentel said any abuse of presidential discretion in appointing officials to career positions can be corrected by tightening the rules.

This can be done by the enactment of a new Civil Service Code by Congress. Pimentel authored Senate Bill 1162, a proposed Civil Service Code.

Pimentel was reacting to the recent revelation of outgoing Civil Service Commission chairman Karina Constantino-David that about 40 percent of 3,500 appointees of President Arroyo to managerial positions have no career executive service eligibility.

Under the Civil Service Law, the President can make appointments to career positions, like assistant secretary, bureau director and regional director, even if the appointees are not career executive service officers. According to this law, however, the appointments are good for only one year.

David has said the appointment of unqualified people to managerial positions is unfair to about 4,000 persons with CESO eligibility. Most of these eligible are already employed in the government and are waiting to be promoted to higher posts.

Fajardo said the review of the performances of presidential advisers and assistants were undertaken last year, long before David’s disclosure.

"We’re also being asked to give our year-end reports. We have regular evaluations," she said.

She said the Palace would have appreciated David’s comments more had she submitted these to Malacañang during the early years of her seven-year term so that the proper corrections would have been made.

Fajardo, a former mayor of Palayan City in Nueva Ecija, asked her colleagues who are presidential appointees to also get civil service eligibility although she admitted that the process could be tedious.

Presidential Management Staff director general Cerge Remonde said if David truly believed that there was something wrong with the system, she should have done something about it earlier.

Remonde said the Palace has a search committee, of which the PMS serves as secretariat, that screens presidential appointees.

Deputy spokesman Anthony Golez said government employees should not demoralized by David’s statements.

Cabinet secretary Ricardo Saludo defended the appointment of 90 retired police and military generals in the Executive department. There are four such persons in the Senate.

"Our people elected four of them to the Senate. Why should generals not serve in the Executive branch as well, with their proven discipline and leadership experience?" Saludo asked.

He said "performance, not paper credentials, is the ultimate qualification that matters to our people" and that questions on qualifications are best addressed through due process instead of "sweeping generalizations in luncheon speeches."

He said growth in the economic and the decline in poverty and hunger showed that the President’s appointees are doing well. "The few who falter are replaced, as the President has recently done," he added.

Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, a retired police chief, said retired military and police generals "have more actual experience and leadership qualities" and that most of them have degrees in business administration.

He said he is qualified to head the transportation department because it is mostly involved in regulations and law enforcement. He said most of the Asean transportation ministers are retired generals.

He said he was confirmed by Commission on Appointments in 2003 and 2005, and he described the procedure as "like passing through the eye of a needle." – With Regina Bengco