Pocket rebellions in government

The minions are getting even.

With only eight months to go, they now smell blood and some are beginning to nibble. No, they have not turned into piranhas or cannibals. They are government officials who were made into goffers and ordered around by political appointees or cabinet members, who know that the days of cabinet secretaries and assistant secretaries are numbered. After five years of distasteful submission to a pretend boss, several government career executives are slowly but surely hissing back at their bosses or cutting a path of their own to make sure that they survive under the coming regime in 2016.

Recently my comrade Deo Macalma of DZRH made mention in his espesyal na balita that a career executive at the Department of Agriculture has openly defied and spoken in public that Secretary Alcala would soon be out of office to run as Congressman in Quezon Province. Deo claims that the DA official even has the guts to declare that he will be the next Secretary in the Binay administration.

This is somewhat similar to what someone at the LTO on East Avenue shared with me. She claims that there’s currently strained relations between LTO Chief Asec. Alfonso Tan and one of his OICs Jason Salvador, who has suddenly become quiet or perhaps was silenced as spokesman of the LTO because he was no longer cooperative or seemed to have a style of his own. Then there is word that Asec. Tan has stumbled on the racket of one of his trusted officers suspected of being an “AC-DC” agent. Word is an LTO official was charged with making money on “dropped plates” or registering PUVs back to regular green plates without proper documentation or processing, and after Tan backed up the charges, he now learns that the case is being “remedied.” Tan was apparently so peeved he now insists on pushing through with the case.

At a higher level, I just learned that certain supporters of Mar Roxas are so sure that Roxas will be the next President so they don’t mind making “lag-lag” or abandoning the President or protecting him from intrigues and accusations regarding P-Noy’s involvement in the DAP scams or the Mamasapano massacre. Is this the reason why one cabinet member had no problem implicating the President as the approving authority for the DAP orders?  Is P-Noy being advised against making the popular choice of supporting the income tax reduction, so that a credit grabber can eventually make the turn around announcement that he supports the income tax reduction bill? 

Anyone old enough and familiar enough with government and politics knows that these sort of things are to be expected at this stage of the “game.” Even before a new administration is in place, career officials will all be jockeying for prominence and promotion or will make sure that when the new boss comes in, they are in place to welcome the new king and be the go to guys or become dependent on them. This strategy has nothing to do with career advancement, as it has to do with protecting their hidden businesses and agendas.

I even spoke with a former LTO official who was forced to retire when the P-Noy administration came in because his enemies within managed to get him thrown in the freezer. From a senior post in a district in the Visayas, he was sent to Manila, placed behind a desk doing nothing. Far from his family, in unfamiliar ground and treated with contempt, the poor man opted for early retirement. He later discovered that his position had long been targeted by someone who was not even qualified for the position.

The LTO is well known as a place of intrigue and demolition jobs because many people still have under the table businesses going on. The Senate investigates license cards and license plates but don’t realize that the money is still in bulk or fleet registrations and documentations. And where there is money, there will always be people willing to backstab and undercut other people, even their Assistant Secretary.

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Before he is shown the door or escorted off the premises, I hope Asec Alfonso Tan can inquire from his trusted assistants at the LTO East or Pilot office whatever happened to the long promised Classic Car/ Vintage Car registration program of the LTO that would allow old cars owners and history buffs to register their classic cars as required by law. If I remember correctly, the lady in charge of the program Mennie Mortel promised me in October of 2014 that it would be approved by Asec. Tan within that year. Then 2015 came, and then I was told it would surely be approved by March 2015.

From October 2014 to October 2015 I have not seen one piece of paper or heard from Asec Tan about the program. During that period, the pre-existing window that allowed us to register our undocumented vintage vehicles was slammed shut on our faces. According to LTO regional officers all such registrations and testing could only be done at LTO East as per order  of Mortel, who claimed she did so to stop smugglers from using the same means. This was really such a bad excuse because smugglers don’t smuggle cars that are 40 years old or older! 

What happened was the systematic shutdown of the one legal means that we old car enthusiasts could use to register vehicles (a right given even in developed countries such as the US and UK) and drive them once every so many months? During that same period many enthusiasts also lost P20,000 to 30,000 paid per vehicle that were being processed for registration, but were dropped like hot potatoes. Since the “Press Release” to me was that Asec Tan was very much in favor of the program, I hope he could come out in the open and tell us what he knows. Better yet, Asec Tan could re-open the window that has been there for so many decades and was never abused. If someone is stealing old files or using old registrations then it has to be someone from within and not us!

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