DECLINING COMPETITIVENESS OF RP TRACED TO UNQUALIFIED ARROYO APPOINTEES AND CORRUPTION

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today advised Malacañang not to close its eyes to criticisms that it has packed the government bureaucracy with unqualified appointees in managerial and executive positions if it is to address the disturbing problem of the country's declining competitiveness in many fields of endeavor.

Pimentel lamented that the Palace has tried to belittle the revelation of outgoing Civil Service Commission Chairman Karina David that about 50 percent of 3,500 government executives appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo do not possess Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) eligibility that is required by law, instead of acknowledging this shortcoming and doing something about it.

He said the presence of these mediocre public officials and the rampant graft and corruption should be blamed for the inefficient delivery of essential services and failure to meet development goals, which consequently result in the downgrading of the ranking of the Philippines by the international community in various areas of competition, from education to business environment.

"Obviously, there is a connection between a competent public official and the delivery of service that is expected of his office. Naturally, if the official is incompetent and unqualified, how can he deliver the services expected of him?" Pimentel said.

"Likewise, graft and corruption destroys the ability of government to render public services."

Pimentel bewailed that the Arroyo administration's failure to curb corrupt practices has earned for the Philippines the dubious tag as "the most corrupt country in Asia," according to a survey conducted last year among expatriate business executives in the region by the Hongkong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).

Pimentel said that while the President is allowed by law to appoint people to career executive positions even if they have no CESO eligibility, their appointments are temporary in nature and good only for one year.

He said the appointments of these officials should be terminated if they fail to secure the required civil service eligibility after one year. He said their replacements can be chosen from the pool of 4,000 individuals with CESO eligibility, most of whom are already employed in the government.

Pimentel said the Palace is only deceiving the public by making it appear that it has started to tackle the problem by removing some 20 presidential assistants in the Office of the President or sending them back to their mother units.

Presidential assistants are performing only support functions and are not required to have CESO eligibility. They are classified as political appointees whose tenure in office is coterminous with that of the President who appointed them.

Decrying that the country's competitiveness continues to fall, Pimentel noted the Philippine ranking slipped by five notches - from 121st in 2005 to 126th of 175 countries in 2006 in the World Bank's survey on the ease of doing business.

In the same survey, Thailand ranked 18th, Malaysia 25th, Taiwan 47th and Vietnam 104th.

Just recently, the country's aviation safety was downgraded by the United States Federal Aviation Administration from Category 1 to Category 2, which prompted the US to advise American nationals to avoid riding commercial aircraft of the Philippines.

Pimentel noted a Washington report that the Philippines fell short of Millennium Development Goals in three areas - education, reducing infant mortality and reproductive health.

He said that even in the aspect human rights, the Philippines has received a blackeye as it has been removed by the New York-based Freedom House from the list of democratic countries due to the spate of extrajudicial killings and curtailment of the people's right to peaceful assembly as a means of seeking redress for legitimate grievances.

Likewise, the World Economic Forum, the International Institute for Management and Transparency International have reported a deterioration of the Philippines' competitiveness ranking.