During President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address, among those whom he lambasted were officials of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCC) for their excessive compensation. In fact, it was Noynoy’s tirades against the GOCC officials which gave birth to the Republic Act 10149, entitled “An Act to Promote Financial Viability and Fiscal Discipline in Government-owned or -controlled Corporations and to Strengthen the Role of the State In Its Governance and Management and To Make Them More Responsive to the Needs of Public Interest and For Other Purposes.”
As RA 10149 was intended to address various issues relating to GOCCs, one of its primary goals is to ensure that reasonable, justifiable and appropriate remuneration schemes are adopted for the directors/trustees, officers and employees of GOCCs and their subsidiaries to prevent or deter the granting of unconscionable and excessive remuneration packages.
A provision in the said law, specifically Section 9 states all GOCC personnel shall be paid just and equitable wages in accordance with the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. Differences in pay shall be based on verifiable Compensation and Position Classification factors in due regard to the financial capability of the GOCC; Section 9 further states that’s the total compensation provided for GOCC personnel shall be maintained at a reasonable level with due regard to the provisions of existing compensation and position classification laws, including Joint Resolution No. 4, Series of 2009, and the GOCCs operating budget.
All these were enacted in the pursuit of Noynoy’s daang matuwid concept of governance.
But apparently, this has turned out to be another of Noynoy’s straight path gone crooked.
Just recently, union members of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System bared that their present set of directors, all of whom were appointed by Noynoy, have found ways to run rings around the new GOCC Law.
While fixing their per diem compensation at P14,500 each, the MWSS directors, the union members say, would schedule four meetings a day, enabling them to collect P58,000 in allowances for a single day of work!
And we were thinking all along that the days of exorbitant compensation for GOCC officials were over.
Also, the MWSS union members reveal that their directors, led by Administrator Gerardo Esquivel, approved the hiring of additional 40 consultants with an honorarium at P50,000 each monthly. But while the request for the hiring of additional consultants was only approved in October last year, the directors antedated the date of their appointment to April 2011, entitling the 40 directors to six months of back wages amounting to P300,000 each for a total of P1,200,000.
And just recently, around last May, the board approved 152 job orders. But as in the case of the 40 consultants, they also antedated the date of their hiring to February this year, which would entitle these new hired employees to three months of back wages each.
But while the MWSS directors and consultants are feasting on their excessive allowances, the board, in an act so inhumane, decided to slash the meal allowances of the agency’s employees from P150 daily to a mere P3 a day! Just what can P3 buy these days. Even a cup of rice in a small eatery now cost P10 an order!
Incidentally, if you are wondering why we are still being charged for future projects water concessionaires Manila Waters and Maynilad are dreaming of, blame it on the present board.
According to the union members, the previous board, had in 2009, decided to stop these water concessionaires from collecting for future projects including that for the Laiban Dam. However, the present board, according the union members, in a resolution, allowed the two firms collecting fees from water consumers for projects still on the planning stage.
Is this the daang matuwid Noynoy had been dreaming of all along? Or better still, what really is his concept of daang matuwid? It seems the more Noynoy talks of his daang matuwid, the more we are dragged deeper into a quagmire of uncertainty. Is his daang matuwid only geared at his perceive enemies and exempts his allies and appointees?
It might be better if Noynoy would talk less of his straight path idea of governance and start acting on the country’s problems and start kicking asses within his own circle.