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Following the leader

Update: Martir,Preztosa and Paez were all confirmed.

Gloria Arroyo’s penchant for midnight deals seems to have rubbed on with some members of the bureaucracy.

Victoria Bataclan, president of the Union of Foreign Service Officers wrote to Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile in his capacity as chair of the Commission on Appointments to convey the grievance of the members of foreign service corps, this time not about another political appointee in violation of foreign service law but about another career foreign service officer, Patricia Ann Paez.

The CA is scheduled to meet today.

Brig. Gen. Jonathan Martir and Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza are also among those whose promotion to Major General are for confirmation today.

Martir’s name was included at the last minute. There is something wrong here because Martir is due to retire March 5. There’s a rule in the military that one cannot be promoted within one year to retirement.

We are told that a very influential member of the CA is pushing for Martir’s confirmation even if it’s in against the law because a security agency identified iwht the general supplies the guards for his son’s business. Talk of ethics!

Prestoza is lucky because Sen. Panfilo Lacson won’t be here to block his promotion. Prestoza, it will be recalled, was the one who enticed Mancao to implicate Lacson in the Dacer-Corbito double murder case. Success!

Paez, who holds the rank of career minister and is currently detailed in Malacañang as special assistant, is being promoted to Chief of Mission I. If promoted she would qualify for an ambassadorial assignment.


Paez has been one of the luckiest foreign service officers, having stayed for nine years in Washington D.C., the most coveted posting in the foreign service.

Under foreign service rules, an officer can stay in a foreign post for the maximum of six years. That means Paez overstayed in Washington D.C. for three years.

Bataclan cited Sec 26 of RA 7157, the Foreign Service Act, which establishes the process of promotion. She said “the Board of Foreign Service Administration submits a list of names of foreign service officers qualified for promotion to the next higher class to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, who then has the duty to recommend to the President.”

Bataclan said the practice covers six ranks of promotional appointments from DFA Class IV to Chief of Mission Class I. “For all intents and purposes, over a thousand promotional appointments of career officers have customarily observed this process as normative since 1991, then the law took effect,” she said.

Bataclan further said she sees “no cogent legal justification to have a deviation from such (practice) now.”

She also cited Sec. 27 of R.A. 7157 which requires rendering a minimum of continuous three year service in each class before becoming eligible for promotion to the next higher class. “This residency requirement is conspicuously absent in the case of Ms. Paez,” she said.

Bataclan said there is no lack of qualified officers qualified to an ambassadorial position. She added: “On the one hand, there are thirty-seven other officers of career ministers rank who have fulfilled the eligibility requirement and who were prejudiced by the irregular process by which Ms Paez’ promotion has been effected. Some of them have been on the career ladder for over 20 years.”

Bataclan appealed to Enrile to help them maintain a strong career service corps through a rules-based promotion system.

The bureaucracy, which is the backbone of government service, has been prostituted and damaged by Gloria Arroyo in her obsession to hold on to her stolen power. Some have seen it as an opportunity to advance their careers.

Published inForeign AffairsMalayaMilitary

9 Comments

  1. Why the hell is Gloria insisting on putting forward Martir’s promotion for confirmation?

    This woman is the scourge of the nation! She should be hanged from the highest lampost along with Villar and the rest of her plundering members of cabinet, including members of her ugly family.

  2. Anna, you should ask the senator who is Martir’s sponsor.

    Of course, the senator wants his protege to enjoy the financial benefits of a retired major general.

    This Martir has a pending case before the Ombudsman for his AWOL.

  3. Of course… Gloria and the ignoble senator are using the CoA to give this undeserving military shithead financial rewards!

    If his confirmation is confirmed, then he can sit on the his ass and laugh all the way tot he bank.

  4. chi chi

    Kanya-kanyang bata ang mga nasa poder to advance their personal interests while Gloria still holds power. Niri-rape ng husto si Inang-Bayan ng mga lider.

  5. We are told that a very influential member of the CA is pushing for Martir’s confirmation even if it’s in against the law because a security agency identified iwht the general supplies the guards for his son’s business. Talk of ethics!

    Supplies the guards? From the military? Are the guards still in active service? And is that the reason why Johnny Enrile is pushing for the confirmation of Martir?

    Gunggong talaga itong ninong na ito.

    While we are all thankful that Enrile is attacking Villar for the latter’s acts of plunder, or while we acknowledge Enrile’s usefulness in exposing Villar’s C5Taga scam, it is also important to recognise that Enrile is not doing this gratis et amore.

    In other words, he is not doing this for love of God and country — he is doing this to fulfill his role as attack dog of Erap. Absolutely nothing altruistic in Enrile’s actions at all.

    (And to those who believe that Erap is such a great example of humanity that a man like Enrile will do his bidding whatever it takes, you will be fooling yourselves — Enrile does not serve his master/s for free!)

    I know Enrile personally and have known him since I was a toddler (he was a very good friend of my Dad). He is shrewed, foxy, cunning, but most of all, he is corrupt, as corrupt as anyone can ever be. No moral bone in that decrepit human species.

    So, I’m not surprised that he is pushing for shithead Martir’s confirmation. He is rewarding Martir for a job well done for him and his family.

  6. MPRivera MPRivera

    (And to those who believe that Erap is such a great example of humanity that a man like Enrile will do his bidding whatever it takes, you will be fooling yourselves — Enrile does not serve his master/s for free!)-Anna

    Alalahanin din, Enrile is a lawyer. Dubbed as one of legal luminaries in the senate. Kaya niyang baluktutin ang tuwid at ipagpilitang tuwid ang baluktot – para sa kanyang pansariling interest.

    Calling Enrile a shrewed, foxy, cunning and corrupt is not enough – he is a prototype HUNYANGO!

  7. pranning pranning

    03 February 2010

    Geeeezzzz…. what do you expect, a lot of midnight appointments will happe.

    We should not forget the extentions of overstaying ambassadors in the foreign service. They will cite one very good example is the forthcoming election. Bakit hindi ba pwede o hindi kaya ng CDA ng ating mga pasuguan? kung ang sinasabi ng UNIFORS na ang Career Ministers are training ground for ambasadorial rank, why can’t they take over in acting capacity? there are a number of overstaying ambasaddors in ASEAN countries that is invoking(???) election ban as it bars movement in and out of the Philippines for DFA personnel or transfer of staff from one country to another country. Or worse, these ambassadors will make a short trip to Manila weeks or months before their recall or extension and will lobby the secretary to give them extension.

    I call on the UNIFORS to check on overstaying ambassadors.

    As in the case of this Paez, smack in the face of ranking offifers of the DFA. I salute Ms. Bataclan for her courage in fighting or correcting what is/are wrong DFA policies.

    Problema, iilan lang ba ang Bataclan sa DFA??? sana hindi lang career offcers anf tinitingnan ni bataclan sa isama na rin nya ang kapakanan ng mga rank and file.

    prans

  8. rose rose

    malaki ata ang utang na loob ni putot kay Martir..kaya nagpaka martir na lang siya na kahit anong mangyari ay dapat ipromote si Martir!

  9. rose rose

    Ang akala ko “folowing the leader” is a song of putot’s candidates..ang when they sing the song (like in Peter Pan) pakorapkorap like what putot did…gaya gaya ang mga aso ni gfloria.

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