Closely following poll case

LETTER

02/27/2009

Dear Editor:

I have been closely following the protest of Koko Pimentel against Jose Miguel Zubiri for the 12th Senate seat contested in the 2007 elections because the public must be 100 percent sure that those whom they did not vote for are not allowed to represent them.

The protest of Pimentel had been found by the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) to be backed by prima facie evidence based on its Resolution 07-27, which stated that in six of the nine pilot municipalities of Maguindanao and Lanao del Norte, 70,922 of the 72,256 votes that had been cast were spurious.

In short, in the pilot municipalities identified by Pimentel where he was cheated, only 1,334 votes were genuine. On this and on the other findings of the SET, it ordered a recount of the votes and asked Zubiri to reply on the damning initial findings.

Zubiri answered by filing a counter-protest but that, as can be seen from the progress of the SET recount is backfiring on him.

From what I remember reading in a news report, Pimentel has already been awarded about 250,000 more votes from the recount of his identified polling precincts, while Zubiri had even lost votes in the recount of his counter-protest.

I think the votes that will be added to Pimentel will be more than enough for him to wipe out the slim margin of Zubiri over him. In view of the fact that yet another election is due next year, the SET must expedite the recount so we can be assured of who between Pimentel and Zubiri won in 2007.

Rudy Cañete

Japitan Barili, Cebu City

Career exec officer exam brouhaha

Dear Editor:

Since I have “foreseen” that I have only three years to “live,” I have to do something right before it is too late: I have to fight for what is right and for my own rights.

Admittedly, I have doubted the result of the Civil Service Examination’s third-level Career Executive Officer Examination until now, and it did not do me any justice at all.

For few years I kept my silence, but I am surprised that until now google.com (thanks to this Web site) has not erased the Nov. 15, 2006 letter I composed to the former chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) that I included in the blog http://doleaffairs.blogspot.com wherein I requested for the rechecking of my paper.

On Jan. 31 2007, Ms. Azucena Perez-Esleta, Director IV of the Examination, Recruitment and Placement Office of the CSC wrote a letter with regard to the result of my request for the rechecking of “your Career Officer Executive Examination (CEOE) Written Test held in Quezon City on June 25, 2006.” Though I paid a fee (worth P300) for the rechecking, I did not see it personally to erase doubt on political harassment.

She continued (in her letter): “We hand-scored your test paper and you obtained an aggregate score of 91, the same score you obtained when your answer sheet was machine-scored. Your score in the three competency areas are, as follows: Verbal Ability — 24; Analytical Ability — 43: Managerial Ability — 24. To pass the written test, an examinee must have an aggregate score of at least 99. In addition, the scores of the examinee in the three competency areas must not be lower than the following scores: Verbal Ability — 27; Analytical Ability — 36; Managerial Ability — 27.

But thanks to the Imus, Cavite post office (even if the letter came late). The CSC letter dated Nov. 8, 2006 contradicted to the rechecking result. The letter stated that I obtained an aggregate scores of 95 and my scores in the three competency areas were as follows: Verbal Ability — 24: Analytical Ability — 43; Managerial Ability — 28. This meant that I passed both the Analytical Ability and Managerial Ability which contradicted the result of the rechecking which indicated that I only passed the Analytical Ability. And this only strengthened my fear on political harassment and my doubt on the authenticity of the exam result which stated that I obtained the same machine-scored and hand-scored test paper. It is impossible that it is a typographical error, considering the future career of a person is at stake.

What was mysterious was that whenever I went to the main CSC office in Quezon City to apply for rechecking, I always saw a PNP man looking me in the eye, and the last time after I took the exam in Quezon City, a PNP man entered the same restaurant where I ate my late lunch in Manila. You may call it a significant coincidence.

Though I am no longer a permanent government employee (with Salary Grade 22), I am still hoping for justice to come along the way at the right time.

Rogelio Constantino Medina

c/o Ramon G. Orlina,

2174 Ilaw ng Nayon St., Balic-Balic, Sampaloc, Manila 1008

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