19 February 2007

4th plank of the revolt

MANOLO'S column today dwelt on a revolt in the making that, by poetic justice, will redeem the people's initiative provision in the Constitution and achieve three objectives:

  • the scrapping of the pork barrel;
  • the recomputation of the internal revenue allotment for provinces; and
  • the incorporation of the pork barrel into the internal revenue allotment.
A proposed law that will serve as vehicle for realizing the above, according to the article,
would make it the policy of the State to limit the work of Congress to enacting legislation (and, I presume, to its equally essential work of oversight and investigation). It would prohibit representatives and senators from implementing and following-up projects. The law would provide for a line item budget; and it would punish local officials who violate the law.
Given the above, let me propose another specific prohibition for consideration under that proposed law: putting an end to the silent practice allowing congressmen to practically appoint public school teachers to new permanent items that are being funded annually in the national budget. The Congressional Planning and Budget Department's analysis of the 2007 budget shows a provision for 10,000 new teacher items this year.

I don't know if the DepEd abets it in exchange for getting more money from Congress. But this anomaly, where division superintendents defer to a list emanating from powerful congressmen in appointing teachers, came up during the annual Synergeia retreat I attended. The Iloilo mayors were particularly vocal about this demoralizing practice, complaining that unqualified applicants -- backed by the congressman -- usually end up getting the available items, to the consternation of more experienced and better suited ones. This, in spite of a DepEd order governing the recruitment and selection process.

Expect the ranks of disgruntled teacher applicants and local execs incensed by this congressional intrusion to throw their full support to the proposed law if ever it gets included as another important provision.

7 comments:

mschumey07 said...

I hope that law passes too. And if I may add, the president's appointing power be controlled to a certain extent to rid our system of political paybacks.

I would rather see a system where officials rise through the ranks. This would create more professional public servants. Employees would then prove their worth.

Why then should we hire more government employees if we cannot assure them of basic promotions. This leads to corruption due to stagnation of their careers. They then turn to corruption since their careers won't be going anywhere anyway.

Anonymous said...

What are "permanent items"?

- Cabagis

Willy B Prilles, Jr said...

Schumey: I'm with you in regard to this proposed law.

Cabagis: "Permanent items" are permanent positions in the bureaucracy (usually Teacher I, with a basic salary of P9,939 per month) that carries security of tenure with it, together with other statutory benefits such as social security, bonuses, etc.

Anonymous said...

Willy,

Thanks for explaining

What's stopping your administrators from ignoring the Congressmens' lists? (This of course is easier said than done)

But also, who's to say that the Congressmens' candidates are less suited?

The question maybe is how do you make the selection process transparent to level the playing field?

We merit our students through exams, doesn't the permanent item selection process do something similar?

- Cabagis

Willy B Prilles, Jr said...

Hi Cabagis, the ones normally endorsed by these congressmen have no other choice but to join the DepEd ranking. But if a superintendent wants to accommodate the list, he/she will usually find a way, like exercising the "appointing authority's discretion" which means ditching the ranking and appointing the ones in the list.

Which is why the system is derisively called "wrongking" in some other places, or "color coding" as I found out in this previous post http://nagueno.blogspot.com/2006/10/different-color-coding.html

Anonymous said...

Hi Willy,

Maybe there's a way of accomodating "some" of the people a Congressman has on her/his list without allowing them to completely hijack the process.

We need to recognize and reward talented teachers but meritocracy is not the only answer.

I am sure for example that affirmative action policies in the U.S. have generally improved the lot of those who embraced it.

I'm thinking along the same lines here.

Say you allocate Congressmen 5 of the 100 permanent items that become available for their region.

You then put the criteria they only endorse teaching staff for areas deemed to be disadvantaged in the region.

With a quota and criteria in place, you are taking some pressure off the Congressman for doing favours for her/his constituents.

Just my 2 cents worth.

- Cabagis

Anonymous said...

On the subject of merit increases for teaching staff, here is an interesting model from the Australian Federal Government.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/families-get-say-in-teachers-pay-rises/2007/02/20/1171733763696.html

- Cabagis