CSC rebuffs national artist anew on whistle-blower’s suspension

Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino chair Virgilio Almario: Rebuffed anew. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has again rebuffed Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino chair Virgilio Almario who had placed under preventive suspension the KWF human resource officer who had reported Almario’s unauthorized alteration of the country’s name to Filipinas from Pilipinas.

The CSC has denied for lack of merit Almario’s motion for reconsideration of the CSC’s Jan. 30 ruling voiding the directives Almario had issued against Almira Divina Alejandrino.

In a June 19 resolution, CSC Chair Francisco Duque III and Commissioners Robert Martinez and Nieves Osorio also ordered Almario to pay back the salaries of Alejandrino for the periods covered by the two suspension orders—from Oct. 11 to Nov. 10, 2013 and then Nov. 20 to Dec. 5, 2013.

The suspension orders were issued against Alejandrino for supposedly loafing during office hours, dishonesty and unauthorized use of a KWF vehicle, were “not in order,” the CSC ruled.

The CSC, however, has yet to resolve Alejandrino’s appeal for reinstatement to her post.

The CSC said that Almario, a National Artist for Literature, had “imposed upon [Alejandrino] the penalty of a one-year suspension” even before her appeal for the lifting of the preventive suspension orders were settled by the commission.

“While Alejandrino may not be reinstated in view of the one-year penalty of suspension imposed upon her (by Almario), which is executory pending appeal, she is nevertheless entitled to payment of back salaries for the period covering the entire duration she was placed under two preventive suspensions pursuant to the commission’s declaration of its invalidity,” it explained.

Last August, Malacañang had taken Almario to task for tampering with President Aquino’s official message on the 225th birth anniversary of the poet Francisco Balagtas.

“Any message of the President cannot be changed or revised without permission from the Office of the President,” Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) said in an Aug. 16, 2013, memorandum to Almario.

It was apparently Alejandrino who had furnished the PCDSPO with a copy of the KWF publication “Araw ni Balagtas” where the word “Pilipinas” in Aquino’s message was changed to “Filipinas.”

Commenting on the CSC decision, Alejandrino said: “Apparently, Chairman Alamario is still blaming me for reporting to Malacañang last year the “P” to “F” issue, for being responsible for the three-month suspension of another top KWF official for giving me the dirty finger, and for blocking the appointments of three unqualified personnel, all of whom were Almario’s recruits.”

She lamented that her troubles were not over yet. “Chairman Almario’s suspension order, this time for one year without pay, supposedly covers the same alleged offenses,” she said.

But she expressed confidence the CSC and Malacañang would not affirm the suspension order.

Earlier, Duque described the KWF as “pasaway” (recalcitrant) for tampering with the official messages of the CSC and three other government agencies—the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, Department of National Defense and the Department of Tourism—during last October’s celebration of National Language Month.

Almario blamed the unauthorized “P” to “F” alterations on an unnamed KWF proofreader who “may have passionately believed in the wisdom of the language reform we are now undertaking.”

But he said it was necessary to promote the “P” to “F” campaign to explain the wisdom of adopting Filipinas as the country’s international name.