Shabby treatment

Bank notes 1: Former Land Bank of the Philippines president and current Tarlac (3rd district) Rep. Jesli Lapus is hopping mad.

You see Jing Lapus has worked very hard to come up with a program that would help protect public school teachers from money lenders – some of whom are insurance companies – who charge between 36 percent to 1,000 percent interest a year but who have also convinced DepEd to be their collecting agent (read: the monthly loan amortizations are deducted at source before the teacher gets his/her salary).

Mr. Lapus found an ally in then Education Secretary Raul Roco, who, it turned out, didn’t sign the implementation order. Now, Mr. Lapus has to convince all over again Mr. Roco’s successor, Edilberto De Jesus.

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Bank notes 2: Why anybody would want the stress-ridden job of president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. vacated by Norberto Nazareno is puzzling. Then again, the compensation package isn’t bad.

Consider, that the PDIC president earns more than a director who gets paid P100,000 a month.

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Nobody deserves to be as shabbily treated as Ernesto Ordoñez, a career government officer with an MA from Yale University and a Ph.D. from another US university.

His position – that of Agriculture Undersecretary – was suddenly taken out of the plantilla so it’s not even clear if he’s going to be paid for December or if he’s going to get the P5,000 cash gift promised by the President to all government employees.

Effective last Monday, Ernie Ordoñez went on a month-long terminal leave after saying his goodbyes to a few friends and hinting that his next job would have something to do with "water".

The position of Mr. Ordoñez was co-terminus with that of his friend, Leonardo Montemayor, who has been replaced as Agriculture Secretary by Luis Lorenzo Jr. Cito Lorenzo’s team, who have yet to take their posts next Monday, have already been dubbed" the conquerors" by DA employees.

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Right now, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary-designate Elisea Gozun goes around town with a single female aide. And yes, she walks to the parked van where her driver waits for her.

Bebet Gozun’s first priority when she reports for work at the DENR next Monday is to make sure that she answers all letters addressed to the DENR Secretary – whether these are complaints or suggestions – are answered within 24 hours (very much like a market savvy celebrity who gets fan mails and hate mails and responds quickly to both).

Here’s Ms. Gozun’s logic. Within the DENR, the move sends a message among employees that, hey, they should serve (with a smile, please) the people who pay their salaries through their taxes. Outside the DENR, the move sends a message of, uh, people empowerment, a buzzword or even society groups where Ms. Gozun was actively involved in.

Oh yes, Ms. Gozun wants to track what all the regional officers are doing. And she insists this is possible for a hands-on manager even if the DENR offices nationwide are not wired or talking to each other through the Internet.