Garcia: Former budget officer’s fate depends on Civil Service Commission

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The decision of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) will determine the fate of Capitol’s former budget officer Danilo Rodas, who has not received his salary since August 2019.

Rodas, an appointee of former governor Hilario Davide III, has been in “limbo” since the assumption of Governor Gwendolyn Garcia into office in July 2019 when she reinstated Emme Gingoyon as the Capitol’s budget officer.

Garcia has not issued an appointment for Rodas to assume his previous position as assistant department head pending the resolution of the issue with the CSC.

“I want to proceed very carefully. This is why until now there is no appointment order from the governor because the matter is still pending before the Civil Service Commission,” Garcia said in a news conference on Wednesday, November 6.

During the budget deliberation last Tuesday, November 5, Vice Governor Davide questioned why Rodas was not included in the personnel roster of the Provincial Budget Office.

Since Gingoyon was reinstated, Davide said Rodas should have slid back to his former position as assistant head of the Budget Office based on the undertaking that Rodas executed upon his appointment.

Former Provincial Budget Officer Danilo Rodas

Davide, who was then governor, appointed Rodas in 2015 after the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Gingoyon, along with other members of the province’s Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) over the Balili property backfilling case.

Gingoyon, however, appealed his dismissal before the Court of Appeals (CA).

In 2017, the courts reduced the penalties of the BAC members as simple misconduct and simple neglect of duty, which only carries a sanction of a three-month suspension.

The other dismissed BAC members were reinstated but Gingoyon, according to Davide, did not heed his reinstatement letter.

In 2018, Garcia filed a case before the Ombudsman against Davide, former vice governor Agnes Magpale, former administrator Mark Tolentino, Rodas and former health officer Rene Catan pertaining to the “illegal” appointment.

In his appointment, Rodas signed an undertaking that he will revert as assistant department head of the Budget Office when Gingoyon will be reinstated.

This undertaking was validated by the CSC.

But Garcia said whether or not Rodas go back as the assistant head is not up to the undertaking but to the decision of the CSC.

She added that Rodas’ undertaking even “aggravates” his position.

“[The undertaking] only proves the fact nga in the first place they had their own misgivings…it aggravates the case. It is an admission that there is a possibility that the position was not vacant,” Garcia said.

“Now he is insisting on this undertaking which aggravates his illegal appointment. Kun i-appoint diay ka as department head, mag-issue diay kag  undertaking nga kon ugaling mobalik ang tinuod nga department head monaog kog balik sa akong position,” she added.

(Is it proper for a person who is appointed as a department head to issue an undertaking that he will go back to his old position once the original office head comes back?) / celr