MANILA, Philippines -- The way the now-retired chairwoman of the Civil Service Commission puts it, weathering blackmail and bribery attempts and fixing glitches "in the house" put her on a "constant high" more than cutting ribbons, posing for photo ops, and affixing her signature on official papers.

In fact, declared Karina Constantino David, in her more than six years as CSC chair, she never "wasted" time on such things that often spurred self-flattery. She went straight to business.

"I am not a signature person. I don't like rituals, ceremonies, opening and closing remarks, invocations and cutting ribbons," she told the Inquirer on Thursday, the eve of her retirement.

David?s second-floor office was abuzz on that day, with friends and colleagues dropping in to say goodbye and claim their pamana (inheritance).

She said she was giving away stuff that she would no longer use as a private person. Among the first to go were pieces of Filipiniana wear, and the blazers and blouses she was required to wear on Mondays.

David, 61, was appointed CSC chair by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on February 23, 2001. She left the office on Friday, confident and satisfied that she had fully served an administration that was, however, aloof to her counsel.

But David said she was untroubled by the "estrangement" that the Arroyo administration demonstrated; she said it helped her maintain the commission's independence during her term.

Two previous Presidents had chosen her for high government posts, at which she did not stay long. Thus, completing her term at the CSC was a first in her on-and-off government career that began when she was barely 20.

David described her life in general as a "series of accidents" that drew her toward government service.

"For me, life is how you face all the accidents. It can be lousy if you shy away from accidents, [and] a great experience if you embrace [them] and try to do what you can," she said.

David started in 1966 as a teaching assistant at the University of the Philippines? Department of Sociology.

Undecided on what to do after graduation, she accepted the job when it was offered to her. She became an assistant professor four years later, and kept at it until 1975.

On the side, she spent time with civic and cultural groups concerned with women, gender, and development issues.

In 1986, by then a veteran street parliamentarian, David was surprised to be appointed by President Corazon Aquino as a social welfare undersecretary. She quit after two years.

"Strike two" was when she resigned as housing adviser of then President Joseph Estrada under grim circumstances -- he had named someone for the post, and she was also chafing at the excesses of his administration.

What prevented a "strike three" with the Arroyo administration, of which she had been equally critical, was the distance and independence that she had maintained, she said.

"I have an independent mind," David said. "I didn't serve at the pleasure of the President. I have maintained through the years that, per the Constitution, the CSC performs an advisory function to the President."

That independent mind was also one of the reasons she never became part of Arroyo?s "standard entourage."

She likewise shied away from Cabinet meetings despite invitations from Malacañang. She said this was because she did not want to compromise her oversight functions as chair of a commission mandated to manage the people resource in public service and to review the President?s appointees, among others.

David said that on many occasions, she had written to Arroyo listing observations and recommendations that she thought might be useful and helpful to the government.

There was also a time when the CSC submitted an omnibus resolution to Malacañang detailing all the issues "for which we had grave concern," she recalled.

Her correspondence merited not a single reply from any Palace official, she said.

The distance became even wider when, at a recent gathering of the Makati Business Club, David said Arroyo?s purported abuse of her appointing powers was to blame for the "worsening politicization" and unprofessional behavior of the bureaucracy.

Her speech made headlines, but in her estimation, it was just another accident and a stroke of luck:

"I've been saying these things over and over for the past three years. It was not the first time I said that. It just so happened that the media were there."

For all that, David had a fair share of good moments at the CSC. The positive feeling mainly sprang from the challenge of putting the commission in order, she said.

By these she meant instituting new policies and fine-tuning antiquated protocols, sorting out the CSC's financial state, and crafting programs and projects like organizing the records of roughly 1.4 million government employees into one computerized database.

David had especially placed importance on creating internal policies that minimized her discretionary power. "The biggest stumbling block to good governance is when you centralize discretion," she noted.

She also saw to the creation of a government compensation and classification act and a performance management system that was least subjective and discouraged palakasan (patronage) in the bureaucracy.

A known feminist, David likewise focused on instituting rules on sexual harassment and awareness of gender inequality in the bureaucracy.

Of course, she did not bring down the curtains without tweaking the Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth that each government employee is required to file yearly: "We created a new form. We took away the drudgery of [filling it out] so that more people will be more transparent about what they have."

David?s "fairly constant high" was a result of the "many things that needed to be done, new trails to be blazed."

"As long as there were challenges or something was not in its place, I was high," she said with a chuckle.

But politicians who came to see her to push a "request," bribing her with a hefty budget for the commission or designer goods for her consumption, occasionally burst her bubble.

"They were my biggest frustration -- these politicians who don't respect the bureaucracy, who think that they are powerful individuals and that the bureaucracy is just at their disposal," David said.

She said the frustration was caused, not by their pressure on her "to do certain things," but by "the increasing realization that [government officials] have no respect for professionalism."

She recalled one congressman who, in a privilege speech, threatened her with a P1 budget -- a result, she said, of her refusal to grant civil service eligibility to 200 of his personnel who were caught cheating in the exam.

"Some would also tell me to remember that I am an impeachable official [whenever I don't give in to their favors], like promoting someone close to them or ruling in favor of their administrative cases," she said.

Others resorted to discreet ways of winning her over, such as gifts that she made sure were returned to the sender or forwarded to a charitable institution.

David?s advantage is that she has neither skeletons to hide nor a liking for political power.

"I have no fear and ambition. So what the hell do I have to lose by telling the truth, by standing firm?" she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

But while David can't wait to spend time with her family, with a little traveling on the side, she has not actually given up on the government.

She said she had volunteered her services to at least three government agencies needing assistance in crafting policies and reorganization, among other tasks.

And besides, retirement does not mean going away for good.

"The retirement package of constitutional bodies is that we continue to get whatever the person occupying our position gets. I will continue to receive my salary, so I still consider myself a government employee," David said.