GOCCs, excessive salaries, etc.

The  agency I work with is classified as a Government Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC). In Cebu the various GOCCs have an athletic association named Government Corporations Athletic Association or GCAA for short. One time the GCAA held its sports activities at the Cebu City Sport Complex (Abellana grounds for the locals). They had these banners emblazoned with GCAA Sportsfest or something to that effect. While parading around the Abellana oval an onlooker surveyed the marching participants and then glanced at the initials on the banners and said "GCAA - Gulang Caayo Ang Athletes".  Ouch! You have to be a Bisdak to feel the sting of the comment. (Here's the best essay so far about being Bisdak. And yes, I agree with Prof. Tan that Ms Gloria Diaz was just misquoted.)

This agency I am working with  is also categorized as a Government Financial Institution (GFI). However, it is not an ordinary GOCC or GFI because it is one those so-called constitutionally mandated body. You can read  Article 20, Section 12 here if you wish to know where I work.

With the latest brouhaha on excessive salaries and perks of GOCCs and GFIs I have been fielding queries left and right from well-meaning friends and acquaintances on whether I am also one of those "greedy" GOCC employees. My stock answer is that if you get the average of what the employees of the lowest and highest paid GOCCs are getting then ours would be somewhere in the middle.

The usual rationalization for high salaries in GOCCs/GFIs is to make the workplace competitive with other institutions. My stand would be similar to the Inquirer editorial:

Officials of GOCCs like the MWSS say that their pay must be at par with the pay of private corporations so they can attract talented executives. Has that objective been achieved? Most of the officials and trustees/directors appointed to GOCCs are candidates who lost in previous elections, politicians’ protégés and campaign volunteers who do not have the necessary experience and expertise in the business of the institution to which they have been appointed.

So the question is: What necessary experience, expertise and talent does anyone need to qualify for a place in the institution where I work?

Up until the beginning of 2010 when I was promoted to another department I used to lecture to school groups who came for institutional visits. Every year we get an average of  500 students from various schools in the Visayas and Mindanao. (Interestingly, I have a current classmate in law school who remembers me lecturing when his group from Silliman University came for a visit. He is now a CPA.)

I always end my lecture by inviting students to work with us. I tell them all they need to bring with them are 3 H's: head, hand, and heart. They must have their heads filled with ideas and knowledge they can contribute to the institution. Next, they must be handy with various skills because they will be wearing several hats. And lastly, and more importantly, they must have the burning desire in their heart to work so that the institution will be able to contribute in nation-building because that's one of the things we need in order to be a progressive country - capable institutions.

What then, did I bring to the institution? Modesty shield down!

I had two years of teaching fisheries, and general science in a government high school. This was followed by several years in the private sector in various avionics and marine electronics job. Later I had 2 years in another government department concerned with environment as writer in its extension and information section. When I transferred to my present work I had enough knowledge of computers. Back then the internet was still a foreign concept in the country. But I was already accessing information through the Fidonet courtesy of some friends who were internet pioneers in Cebu.

My programs  which I made to make my work easier are still used in our property management system and payroll claims. (These are in Clipper. I  never got to finish converting them to VB.Net because I ran into problem with the SQL Server Express backend. I got a working version in VFoxPro but which I discarded. My dogfooding days ended when I was transferred to my present unit.)

After a little while in the institution I became a founding member and officer of the Association of Government Information Officers - Region 7 (AGIO7). I was also an original officer of the Government Organization for Information Technology, R7 (GO-IT7).

Then in order to be considered for promotion I finished my Masters in Management from the UP where I was a Civil Service scholar during my final year.

Now keep in mind that I am only an average guy in our institution. So do I and my fellow employees earn our keeps? You tell us!

Back to school

It's back to school for me. My eldest, a daughter, got her CPA license in October 2009 and was lucky enough to immediately find an auditing job. Yes, it is mostly a matter of luck. In fact, if you got the brains to ace the CPA or the Bar thank your lucky star for being  born out of the union of the right chromosomes. Which brings me to the point.

 I am aiming for the Bar once again. More than a decade ago I made the first steps by enrolling in the law course. It was very difficult but not impossible. But I dropped out eventually because I concluded that it was more feasible for me to finish a Master's degree than an LlB. Much of the reason was my membership in  a cult at that time. We were then strict followers of the sabbath and the Jewish holidays; as a matter of fact stricter than the Jews themselves. There was no way I could pass my Criminal Law subject because I was always absent every Friday evening.

When I finished my master's  I was already out of the church and anything that has got to do with religion. (Regretfully, many of my friends are still in the clutches of my former cult.) It should have been back to law school. But by then the children were also going to school. The money had to be prioritized for their schooling.

So when my daughter finished her studies, I found the siren call of the law  irresistible. But a lot of things have changed since I last read a ponencia. Back in the early 1990s you have to get early to the library in order to find the volume of SCRA you needed. And all of my books were not originals. (Read: xeroxed copies. This was before the intellectual property law, ok?) Now, with the advent of the internet you have "free access to law" as proclaimed by the Arellano Law Foundation resource site.  Another resource is  the Chan Robles site. Thanks, guys! You made my life easier. But I think your postings can profit from a lot of proofreading.

About a quarter of my classmates are bringing PCs - notebooks and netbooks - to the classroom. They have free access to the WiFi facility in the college. I wonder if anybody is having a free ride of the broadband connection while sipping beer in one of those drinking joints beside our school. I hope they are reading the same jurisprudence we have been assigned.

I still cannot decide whether to get a notebook now or wait it out until an affordable Ipad makes it to our shores. I am also considering the Barnes & Noble's Nook. But I wanted to really get my hand on a unit for a live demo before I decide. I'll be happy to have a simple e-reader which would allow me to make notes. Reading from an LCD screen is tiresome. Perhaps they can use the kind of screen of the Ipad on the netbook.

In the meantime, my notebook carries the brand of Cattleya.

P.S. The reason I did not have an entry since May is that I was busy preparing for my return to law school. The entrance exam was one of the hardest I have ever hurdled. The whole of June was spent acclimatizing myself to the rigors of researching and digesting dozens of cases each week and to measure if I have the guts to make it through. This is now July, so far so good.

P.P.S. If I'll make it to graduation I am expecting an award for being the oldest guy. :-)

Why No Bandwagon for Noynoy Altho He is Winning by a Landslide

This Lady Governor is for Gibo. The Governor's father and brother who are congressmen also claim to support Gibo. But two other siblings who also very influential - one is head of a very vital and controversial GFI - are supporting Villar.

It is a common practice for business families and aspiring political clans to divide their loyalties among whoever is in power, whether in Malacañang, the provincial capitol or the city and municipal hall, and a possible winner in the opposition. There was Roberto Ongpin for Marcos and his brother Jimmy for Cory among businessmen. The political families are even more adept at this game. Whoever is in power the family is protected.

During election time loyalties are divided among the front runners. So the division should have been between Noynoy and Villar. So why did this governor and her family choose to be either with Gibo or Villar?

For them it is a matter of palabra de honor to support Gibo whose "winnability" has been in doubt right from day one of the current election campaign. Most probably they are hoping against hope that the administration machinery can still work miracles for Gibo. But just in case the miracles will not come, they better make a side bet for Villar whose vast campaign kitty is being marshaled effectively. Hence the alliance of the other siblings with the Villar camp.

But why not assign other family members to support Noynoy? I think the only reason is that if Noynoy wins there is nothing to fear. Noynoy is such a decent man that he bears no grudge against anyone. So those congressmen or governors or mayors who are campaigning on the other camps have nothing to worry about. They know that their development funds will not be cut off even under a Noynoy presidency.

That is why a Cebu congressman urged the students of his family-owned university to vote and to ask their parents to vote for Noynoy. He was telling them about how Noynoy is an honorable and likable fellow. He said that you could ask even the security guards of the Senate who they would vote for and they would say Noynoy. Yet he is campaigning for Villar. If Villar wins, good for him. If Noynoy wins, no problem for him. He can always claim he campaigned for Noynoy.

Even Arroyo is assured that any viable projects in her district will be funded accordingly. No matter that in the presidency of Macapagal, Noynoy's father, Ninoy, while governor of Tarlac  complained bitterly that projects for his province were not given the funds by Malacañang. Noynoy has enough noblesse oblige  not to stoop to that level.

Gotcha ye rating agencies!

Those sanctimonious, preachifying rating agencies are a bunch of hypocrites. Glad to know I am on the same side with Prof. Krugman on this issue.

My office colleagues do not have a clue

It seems my colleagues at the office are clueless about the pedophilia and sexual abuse controversies recently hounding their clergy. Do they skip pages on their papers which report these incidents? Like this one or this from the Sunstar.

And I am always amazed at their bishops who believe that they are on higher moral grounds than everyone else as in this news item.

Perhaps they get their news about the issue from the Onion like this one or this.

Now Quezon is in the election equation

Sometime back I said that some candidates who are not descendants of Osmeña, Roxas or Aquino are in fact using those names in their election campaign.

Now a presidential candidate who is not a Quezon is being assailed in the news for using Quezon in furthering his bid. And another candidate sees no problem in using the name.

What will Manolo say about this? :-)

Where have all the coins gone?

As far as I can remember there have always been complaints about coin shortage. Usually the basic story, a kind of an urban legend, of a coin shortage begins with a complaint by a buyer that at supermarkets or groceries  candies instead of coins are used as change. Or as some are alleging, the cashier at the counter would simply tell you if it's ok if the change is short by 25 centavos. On the other hand, some cashiers are ready to give you 1-piso change instead of 75 centavos if you insist.

Bank officials too have been heard to complain that their clients, meaning businesses, are badgering them for coins.

How about some hard data on coin circulation in Cebu? From records available at the Cebu Regional Office of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas   one can glean the amount and number of pieces of the various denomination of coins that were shipped from Manila since 2003. Records for earlier years only show the total amount of coins. Still the amount and number of pieces from 2003 to 2009 is staggering.

Leaving aside the figures for the smaller denominations, the data from 2003 to 2009 are as follows:

      Denomination        Amount               No. of Pieces
     10-piso                  P279,600,000       27,960,000
       5-piso                    165,750,000       33,150,000
       1-piso                      65,800,000       65,800,000
     25 centavo                 22,987,500       91,950,000
      Total                     P534,137,500     218,860,800

So where have all the coins gone?

There are several reasons for coin shortages in the Philippines. See here and here for  a definitive two-part article.

On a personal note, I think banks should be at the forefront in ensuring an efficient circulation of the coins already in private hands. I am hearing, too, that banks are not keen on receiving deposits in form of coins especially from their small depositors. It would mean additional investment in coin counting machines or  manpower which would affect their bottomline, right? This could very well explain a big part of the problem.

Or if banks are willing to receive coin deposits but are not seeing the coins come, perhaps they can try more creative ways of attracting coin depositors.