Palace anti-graft office is home to boss' pets

The NBN-ZTE scam should now become an election issue. Aspirants for President, VP, senator or congressman must be asked: If you win, will you use your power to obtain justice in this heinous crime? Will you ensure that all who attempted to steal $200 million from the $329-million deal are jailed after going scot free in a crooked admin? Will you exonerate the whistleblowers for their sacrifice of lost income and death threats, and to encourage future exposers of high crime?

From their answers, voters will discern if candidates will be coddlers and copycats of the NBN-ZTE crooks.

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The Constitution states: “Public officials and employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.” Supposedly among the provision’s lead enforcers is the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission. But the elite Malacañang unit, in charge of keeping presidential appointees on the straight and narrow, can’t do its job. That’s because the boss and her minions treat it like it’s their private kingdom.

Constancia Posadas de Guzman, MNSA, PhD, heads the PAGC. Her son Reindl is her Executive Assistant. Reindl’s fiancée Atty. K1 is Executive Director, the highest staffer. K1 got the agency’s rules revised so she could hire a sister as Graft Prevention & Control Officer, serving as De Guzman’s private secretary. De Guzman’s brother’s inexperienced son Aries Christian Posadas is P30,000-a-month Technical Assistant.

 Sweethearts Reindl and K1 keep their pet dogs at the PAGC office. Not toilet trained, they stink it up. The head guard walks, feeds and bathes them as part of regular duties, assisted by one of K1’s aides. To repay his loyalty, they hired the head guard’s pal as PAGC maintenance man. The guy often spends weekdays at the De Guzman house in Nueva Ecija, doing carpentry on agency time. Another maintenance man seldom reports to office, because assigned as caretaker of the De Guzman city home. He got the PAGC to hire his two children.

 Not only dogs soil the office. One time De Guzman blew her top seeing urine splashes on her exclusive toilet seat. From the security camera, only her pesky driver and a guard had entered her office. She fired both, but later rehired the driver. And oh, De Guzman has a PAGC car assigned to her, for which she draws monthly gasoline allowance. On top of that she also gets regular transportation stipend.

Reindl doubles as K1’s special driver-valet. They are exempted from bundy-clocking since De Guzman claims they work for her weekends. Most weekdays they report to work past 10 a.m., bringing their breakfasts. Then they take two-hour lunches, when the agency allows only one. De Guzman frequently treats favorite staffers to lunch, charged to office funds. Some grumble that De Guzman makes them sign restaurant receipts marked “for special operations”. Speaking of which, under the guise of special ops, De Guzman once had the agency IT-officer open up and pry into a staff investigator’s e-mails. This illegal breach of privacy was done under the supervision of Atty. K1.

Recently De Guzman and K1 conducted a staff evaluation, to fire temporary personnel they disliked and promote to regular their favorites. Shocked employees asked to see the evaluation reports, but were denied on pretext of confidentiality. Yet De Guzman doesn’t need formalities to fire; she simply uses the catchall “loss of trust and confidence.” Once she heard that a section chief, in her college days, had voiced sympathy for the Magdalo mutineers of 2003. The very next day De Guzman dismissed her. PAGC rules are bent at will. De Guzman invoked these to fire a married couple — a clerk and a driver. In the same breath, she hired a cleaning woman and her messenger-husband.

By order, the Executive Director must manage PAGC’s day-to-day operations. But how can K1, when she’s often out with De Guzman — even on foreign trips? De Guzman brings her and others along, mindless of the need to conserve government funds. Last Sept. K1 bragged on Facebook about her shopping and touring while on their official visit to Vienna, with side trip to Venice. She recounted being chauffeured in a limousine, attending a posh premiere, and ordering expensive drinks. This, when Gloria Arroyo’s P1.75-million dinners in New York and Washington DC were the angry talk of the town.

Another time someone from PAGC was to speak in a one-day seminar in Bohol. Seven PAGC officers, including De Guzman, nephew Aries, and the Administrative Officer who hails from the province, tagged along. Based on photos, they sure enjoyed touring the island for three days, on agency time.

On prodding of De Guzman’s son Reindl, a former fitness instructor, PAGC purchased gym equipment — without benefit of public bidding. This spawned nasty talk of overpricing, including an P80,000 treadmill that could be bought for only a fourth.

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“A simplified, obvious truth gets complicated in selfish and sinful hearts. Complicated truth becomes simplified in hearts that love.” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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