17 years of DepEd ARMM accrued Debts to GSIS, to be settled

Celebration of Independence in Armm more meaningful

written by JK

This years celebration of independence in the ARMM will be unique and more meaningful. Not only because it could be the last celebration under the ARG but also because there is a different kind of freedom and independence that we are going to celebrate beginning today.

Since 1997, less than 10 years from the establishment of the ARMM and barely a year since the signing of The Final Peace Agreement between GPH and the MNLF, DepEd-ARMM started to remiss in remitting both the personal contribution and the government share of the teachers to the GSIS. Due to the large bureaucracy that deped-armm has, its total amount of monthly remittance was already tempting or enticing for the covetous and corrupt heads of the agency. Unknown to the public, remittances of contributions and loan repayments no longer reached the GSIS. Teachers' application for loan were denied, retiring teachers were made to repay for the loan that has long been deducted from their monthly salary by Deped, some retired teachers received lesser or no pension at all. Salaries were delayed and in one instance was never actually paid. It was the dark age of Deped-ARMM. These situations even reached the halls of congress.

For 17 long years, this account of deped-armm hangs like the sword of Damocles over every head of every retiring teacher. It makes retiring stressful rather than something that every government employee anticipates after a long service in government, something they are looking forward to be able to pay off their debts, have their son marry or in most cases pay their way to a pilgrimage to Mecca.

I still can vividly remember my friend's wife, a provisional teacher who joined the teachers' rally in Jolo sometime in 2001. The teachers were complaining about their loan benefits with the GSIS. I was there on invitation from the municipal government of Jolo to convince the teachers to get back to work. Retired teachers also joined the younger ones, among them was my friend's wife. I explained among others that the fine prints allow GSIS to deduct payments from their retirement benefit. I also told them that they should report back to work when ordered by the superintendent. I advise them to demand from the regional government and deped-armm the immediate settlement of the gsis obligations. The teachers went back to work as directed by the superintendent but no action was taken by the ARG.

Three years ago, my friend's wife died and the benefits received by her family was lesser than they expected. The superintendent that issues a return to work order retired a few years after that incident about 300,000.00 poorer than she expected.

Today, however, we are all gathered here by the generosity of the GSIS and the government under the Administration of President Benigno S. Aquino lll and the determination of my administration in making sure that every living, dead and retired teachers received what is due them from the gsis. We are here to bury the mother of all ghosts in the ARMM, placed it in its final resting place without the possibility of resurrection. The long wait, the series of sitting together and our repeated announcement of this settlement on various occasions is finally over.

Today, we have freed our teachers, in service as well as those who already retired, from the uncertainty of the full entitlement of their retirement benefit.

(note: full text was taken from an FB post)

Armm is Better Now, Thanks to the Young and Reform-oriented Executives

Revisiting that failed experiment

By Mags Z. Maglana
The Point Being
Friday, June 6, 2014

IN FEBRUARY 2011, no less than the highest official of the land was quoted as having said that the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) was a “failed experiment in terms of the aspirations of the Filipino people to give justice to our Muslim brothers.” At that time, Malacañang was championing the postponement of the Armm elections originally scheduled for August of the same year and its synchronization with the national and local polls in 2013.

With the passage of RA 10153, the Armm election was postponed and Armm Regional Government (ARG) officers-in-charge were appointed headed by OIC Regional Governor Mujiv S. Hataman. The 2013 election results gave Governor Hataman the mandate to become a full-pledged chief executive of the ARG.

Around the same period of time, the peace process between the Government of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) accelerated with the formulation and approval of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and its annexes. The FAB, in turn, led to the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro or CAB and with it, the implementation of a transition process that includes a transitional government takeover of Armm by 2015.

During the course of the formulation of the FAB and annexes, I heard reference to the Armm-as-failed-experiment numerous times, a few of them from officials of the ARG past and present, that it sounded like it was an accepted truism.

One can understand why. After all, the Armm has been in existence for a quarter of a century now. Given what it was to overcome in terms of improving the living conditions of the population and demonstrating autonomy, good governance and inclusion, and given the resources provided to the region, the assessment that the ARG has not significantly delivered for most of the years it has been in operation would not be unfounded.

And yet, things have been changing in the ARG, and I am not just referring to the inevitable change in names and faces of the top management that inevitably happens with each new term.

There are many observable improvements in the day to day operations of the regional government.

Regional planning, programming and budgeting are more aligned and coherent; simply put, the declared priorities are those that get funded. This is a big change from past practices where the so-called agenda are not the same items reflected in the investment plans.

The focus on results goes beyond the use of metrics-focused performance management systems like the OPIF and SPMS; progress in implementation and achievement of targets is periodically reported through the Internet, mass media and other channels. Despite the short period of time, the ARG has tried to report against measurements like increase in investments and productivity. One can see a direct contrast with past practices of news releases featuring mostly ribbon-cutting, MOU-signing, other inaugural ceremonies and not much else.

The personnel hiring process, particularly in education which accounts for about 25,000 of the 35,000 workforce of the ARG, has demonstrated very dramatic shifts. The consistent use of policies and processes has helped move hiring away from its previous very politicized and patronage-oriented nature where appointments had to be bought at high prices.

And where in the past convergence of delivery of services by regional agencies was mostly at the discussion level, the ARG's record from 2013 to 2014 in actual provision of health, education, livelihood and peace through convergence and synergy has improved.

When asked what made these changes possible within a short period of time, a high official of the ARG attributed it to three factors: the crop of relatively young and reform-oriented executives, the leadership of the Regional Governor, and the timely reforms in national processes, as well as support from National Government.

These ARG executives and leaders are laboring with full knowledge that regardless of what they accomplish, they would still be considered part of a failed experiment. Much of what they have put in place that are reform and performance-oriented could still be undone or set aside when the Bangsamoro Government takes over. But they are offering very concrete gains and experiences and lessons that ought not to be ignored.

Another layer of the failed Armm experiment that need revisiting is that of local governance. Among the structural weaknesses of the current Armm is the relative non-involvement of local governments in service delivery, which became the role of the regional agencies. Where elsewhere LGUs were at the forefront of delivering or facilitating services to communities, in Armm LGUs played limited roles. This led to the unfortunate situation where in the face of growing and complex needs of citizens and stakeholders, Armm regional bodies had the mandate but insufficient resource, while LGUs had resources to invest but could point to fuzzy mandates as an excuse for not focusing on serving the social, economic, environmental, cultural and other requirements of their communities.

The thing about failed experiments is that on them often rest the stuff from which successes are made. The Armm failed experiment, particularly the episode from 2013 to 2015, has to be studied rather than ignored to derive lessons needed by the Bangsamoro peoples to move forward in the next phase of their continuing journey.

Email feedback to magszmaglana@gmail.com

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on June 07, 2014.
Opinion

How the Pro-Kidnapping Groups Curtail Right to Decent Work in Sulu

Jolo, Sulu, the Land of Many Missed out Opportunities.

Missed out opportunities in Sulu looks like to have been orchestrated by the rich, powerful, and the famous in Sulu.

Let me explain why, and allow me to begin with the ARMM PSPB.

The hopefuls.

The ARMM Personnel Selection and Promotion Board (PSPB) was in Sulu last April 28-30, 2014. The PSPB was mandated to assess, screen and rank aspirants to government positions or promotion in the ARMM. It must ensure an equitable and fair process of selection and promotion of employees in ARMM. You will seek for them no longer, they had come to your door!

In the 24-year long history of ARMM, nothing of that sort happened where the applicants were sought to their own place, where they would pass through three gruelling phases of mental and personality tests:

Phase I: Registration and preliminary assessment:

The transparent list of vacancies.

Phase II: Computerized examination:

Applicants going through the computerized exam.

Phase III: Panel interview:

The members of the Interview Panel ask the applicants.

The happy CabSec Khal Mambuay-Campong with one of the job seekers in Sulu.

“Gone are the days that all are secret. Gone are the days that the job vacancies are not being publicized. Today, everything is transparent. We don’t give room for influence-peddling and other anomalies in the hiring and promotion of employees,” ARMM Cabinet Secretary and PSPB Chair Khal Mambuay-Campong.

What is ARMM?

ARMM stands for Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, one of the 17 regions in the Republic of the Philippines and the only one with "Autonomous" government, wherein it has its own Executive and Legislative branches of government, just like its national counterpart.

Article X Section 15 of the 1987 Constitution assures two autonomous regions in Muslim Mindanao and in the Cordilleras. But only the Muslim Mindanao said yes in the subsequent referendum.

PSPB missed out Sulu twice or thrice

While frequent updates about the conduct of the selection process in the ARMM website was posted last February and March, the schedule for Sulu had always been tentatively re-scheduled time and again. Reason: frequent incidence of kidnappings in Sulu in those months.

You might wonder: were the kidnapping scenarios played out to prevent the PSPB from coming to town on the scheduled dates? Were there plan to keep the old system of "palakasan" system to prevail in Sulu, where the recommendations of the powers-that-be were a sure bet to land a decent job?

It is still fun to remember now that when the #BassaKao tried to organize the people of Jolo to become indignant against the spate of kidnappings, the group was mercilessly attacked from all sides. They said the call for the mass action and protest was self-serving and childish.

The Anti-Kidnapping was successful

But the Anti-Kidnapping rally in March 14, 2014 was successful in many ways, for instance:

1) It encouraged the Regional Police Director Noel delos Reyes to send down additional policemen to contain the security risk;

2) It strengthen the PSPB's resolved to come down to Jolo after the pandemonium.

There were other advantages of the Anti-Kidnapping rally, but the #BassaKao was not too happy about the subsequent military operations in the hinterland. But what choice do we have?

We were calling out for milder options, for instance, the Ulamah's participation in the negotiation process. The Ulama, we believe, should lead the re-education of the kidnappers to please stop the activities of kidnapping. The kidnappers would surely listen to the enlightened words of the Holy Men.

But the surprising thing was that, the Ulama (not all), blatantly lead an Anti-Anti-Kidnapping rally by influencing people not to attend the Anti-Kidnapping rally because the #BassaKao, they claimed, would bomb themselves thrice during the event. They substantiated that claim by saying that the #BassaKao was trying to weaken the leadership of the Governor in the province. Further, they said, the BassaKao would put the blame on the local government unit when the bombing incident happened.

Surprising turn of events

A mass action in Plaza Marina in May 4 in support of the BBL.

When the March 14 Rally was about to be squeezed out like an empty toothpaste bottle -- all expected speakers had withdrawn because someone rung them up and scolded them not to attend -- an unexpected help from the Jolo town Mayor came as a nice surprise. The Mayor gave us the official Mayor's Permit for the rally.

But somebody called the Mayor up and reportedly quarreled with him about that. The mystery caller accordingly ordered the Mayor to take the permit back. When the Mayor did not agree with it, the mystery caller yelled at the Mayor and told the Mayor: "Kabus" and other unprintable words that made the Mayor's angry.

So the Mayor held his stand. He said the freedom of his people, the people of Jolo, should not be curtailed by their leaders. The people has the constitutional right for peaceful assembly.

And to give his stand more flesh and blood, the Mayor lent the BassaKao his workforce and a firetruck to clean up the venue, the Plaza Marina a day before the rally. The Mayor also ensured that the Barangay Police Action Team (BPAT), the Jolo Internal Defence Force (JIDF), and the Jolo Municipal Police Station (JMPS) would come to protect the rallyists. He also provided other things whenever the BassaKao found out something lacking from their preparation.

What was the Pro-Kidnapping counterpunch?

They turned off all forms of communications: TV, Cable TV, Radio, Cellular Phone signals. The electric lights was even dead the whole day that day! My friends said, those were just coincidences. What delightful coincidences, indeed.

Fortunately, the Jolo Municipal sound system with its own generator was put to good use that day.

Let's get back to the PSPB then

I was about to relate with you my own experience in failing the selection process, but let me talk about that another day. The post is already long, di ba?

Let me just share with you na lang this 50 possible questions that would have been asked in the Panel Interview. Study it, and wish you luck on your successful journey.

The following Common Interview Questions are shifted by Glassdoor Blog from thousands of interview reviews.

50 Most Common Interview Questions

1. What are your strengths?
2. What are your weaknesses?
3. Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
5. Why do you want to leave your current company?
6. Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?
7. What can you offer us that someone else can not?
8. What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
9. Are you willing to relocate?
10. Are you willing to travel?
11. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
12. Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
13. What is your dream job?
14. How did you hear about this position?
15. What would you look to accomplish in the first 30 days/60 days/90 days on the job?
16. Discuss your resume.
17. Discuss your educational background.
18. Describe yourself.
19. Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
20. Why should we hire you?
21. Why are you looking for a new job?
22. Would you work holidays/weekends?
23. How would you deal with an angry or irate customer?
24. What are your salary requirements? (Hint: if you’re not sure what’s a fair salary range and compensation package, research the job title and/or company on Glassdoor.)
25. Give a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.
26. Who are our competitors?
27. What was your biggest failure?
28. What motivates you?
29. What’s your availability?
30. Who’s your mentor?
31. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.
32. How do you handle pressure?
33. What is the name of our CEO?
34. What are your career goals?
35. What gets you up in the morning?
36. What would your direct reports say about you?
37. What were your bosses’ strengths/weaknesses?
38. If I called your boss right now and asked him what is an area that you could improve on, what would he say?
39. Are you a leader or a follower?
40. What was the last book you’ve read for fun?
41. What are your co-worker pet peeves?
42. What are your hobbies?
43. What is your favorite website?
44. What makes you uncomfortable?
45. What are some of your leadership experiences?
46. How would you fire someone?
47. What do you like the most and least about working in this industry?
48. Would you work 40+ hours a week?
49. What questions haven’t I asked you?
50. What questions do you have for me?

I hope you found this useful. Be blessed po. Assalamu Alaykum wtwb!

The political giants in Sulu could have been afraid of reform, because many people not to their liking would have been appointed to the government under this present transparent selection process.