Budget Secretary Butch Abad has the
ignominious record of having nine relatives in government, including his wife,
daughter, three nieces and four nephews. Never mind Abad’s wife Henedina who got
herself elected in Congress.
But what about Abad’s daughter
Julia, who heads the Presidential Management Staff? How about Abad’s other
relatives who got appointive posts in this
administration? Would all of them be employed by government had they not been
relatives of Butch Abad?
That’s the overriding question even
if we assume that all of them are qualified for their posts. While nepotism may
not technically apply since it was not Abad himself who appointed his relatives
to their posts, how about the simple lack of delicadeza they have shown?
Do they have a monopoly of the
skills, experience and patriotic fervor to be “serving” in government? Mind
you, two of Abad’s nieces are directors in, lo and behold, Abad’s own turf at
the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and in the appointments office
of Malacañang.
Those directorships surely carried
fat paychecks and perks that should have gone to career civil service workers
as some kind of a reward for serving government for decades, before being doled
out to political appointees like Abad’s relatives.
No matter how one looks at this,
this is petty corruption, this is patronage politics that insults the
intelligence of Filipinos. And it’s not an aberration or something exclusive to
the Abads because Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Environment
Secretary Ramon Paje also have eight relatives apiece “serving” in government.
Sila lang ba ang mga anak ng
Diyos?
END
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento