Wednesday, August 04, 2004 Arroyo to head values formation commission
PRESIDENT Arroyo Tuesday announced that she will chair the Presidential Commission on Values Formation (PCVF), with several religious leaders invited as members.
Arroyo made the announcement during the second meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) after Congress opened last July 26. The Ledac tackled measures on corruption and good governance.
Arroyo signed Executive Order (EO) 314 last April 30 creating the PCVF, which will be under the Office of the President. The EO provides that the Commission shall be headed by a chairperson with the rank of presidential adviser, with six members to be appointed by the President.
The PCVF shall serve as the lead agency by which government may work with civil society and the private sector to "establish a strong foundation for moral value formation in the government bureaucracy."
The PCVF shall coordinate with and support non-governmental organizations and the private sector to "eradicate from the government bureaucracy, every form or manner of graft and corruption, patronage politics, apathy, passivity, mendicancy, factionalism and lack of patriotism and to replace the same with honest public service and love of country."
Its function includes giving seminars and congresses that will strengthen honesty, modesty, integrity and good work ethics in the government bureaucracy.
Bunye said among the religious leaders invited to be members of the PCVF are Manila Archbishop Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches general secretary Efraim Tendero, Jesus Is Lord leader Eddie Villanueva, Iglesia ni Cristo deputy executive minister Eduardo Manalo, El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde, and born-again Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
The PCVF chairmanship was reportedly initially offered to Villanueva at the height of the campaign period in exchange for his support for Arroyo but he declined.
Bunye said he does not know if the religious leaders have accepted the invitation to join the PCVF but he expressed confidence that most of them would be willing to share their time, expertise and knowledge to push Arroyo's value formation program.
He said Arroyo decided to chair the PCVF herself because "this is a very important agenda as far as the President is concerned and she feels that the fight against corruption merits her personal attention."
During the Ledac meeting, the bills that Congress was asked to pass include the Government Re-Engineering Act, the strengthening of the Ombudsman by giving him powers similar to Hongkong's Independent Commission Against Crime, and a bill protecting whistleblowers (aptly titled Acsa Ramirez Law).
The President also ordered her Cabinet to work closely with the Bishop-Businessmen's Conference to craft enforceable anti-corruption programs.
Presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao delivered his lecture on "The Roadmap for the Campaign Against Corruption" which focused on the Hong Kong experience and the bills that need to be passed by Congress.
Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin said government has readied P15 billion to finance the incentives and retirement package for an estimated 30,000 government employees. She said government will be able to recover the funds in two to three years.
She said there are about 1.4 million government employees, including 300,000 from the local governments and government corporations. Of the 1.1 million employees from the government, half are teachers and 200,000 are soldiers and policemen.
This means, she said, the 300,000 remaining are the targets of the re-engineering program, and government is targeting to reduce the number by at least 10 per cent. The timeframe is up to early next year.
She said government hopes to generate savings of P6 billion to P7 billion from the program.
She said aside from the usual retirement pay, those who opt to leave government will get an incentive of additional one fourth to double their pay, depending on their length of service. She said these include casuals and contractuals.
Boncodin said she is "very, very positive" that Congress will pass the re-engineering bill because there was no negative feedback during the LEDAC. In the absence of the bill, she said each agency can make its own internal re-engineering as long as it has the permission of the President.
She said those who opt to stay will not get a pay cut even if they are assigned to a post lower than their original job.
She said the new offices that Arroyo created will not impact on the rationalization plan.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said those questioning the transfer of agencies from the Office of the President to a department or from a line agency to another are just suffering from "fear of the unknown." JMR
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