CESO eligibility
a parting gift?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

It is not only the proliferation of “midnight appointments” that has marked the last days of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. As disclosed to the members of the Philippine Press Institute at the recent forum for its members, by former Chairperson of the Civil Service Commission, Karina Constantino David, there is another phenomenon that is the issuance of what could also be a “midnight” Executive Order.

And this is Executive Order No. 883, issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on May 28, 2010 that grants the very extraordinary privilege of a civil service eligibility equivalent to that of a passer of the Career Executive Service Officer III to all lawyers presently employed in the government executive service!

The eligibility, known to civil servants by its abbreviation as “CESO,” is a qualification that entitles its holder to any position equal to the rank of a Regional Director. This is an eligibility that is much sought after by executives in the government because it qualifies them for promotions to high offices that they would never be able to attain without it.

That is why we sometimes have government agencies or offices that are headed by those only in acting capacity. They cannot be given permanent status, nor can they receive the compensation allocated for it, for lack of the CESO eligibility.

And the acquisition of the CESO qualification is no easy one. It entails exhaustive studies, researches and examinations before it can be granted to any official. But here we have, in one fell swoop, hundreds, maybe more, of lawyers, whose only claim to the eligibility is their inclusion in the executive service, without even any specification as to their tenure in them.

What a blow this Executive Order has struck on the hardworking and well proven workers in government service who will soon be seeing themselves becoming the subordinates of newcomers or untested people who have literally just been gifted with such a qualification, without having to work for it. Nobody should be surprised if rank demoralization will follow when this highly questionable executive order is implemented.*