I have been asked to wear red to the office for the next few days. The request is not based on my skin's compatibility with that particular color-- it (my skin) is not. It is also not being made because someone in the office is celebrating his or her birthday next week-- no one is.
The request is being made in line with a campaign to protest one of Chief Justice Davide's latest Memorandum Orders-- Memorandum Order No. 20-2005, AMENDING THE NATURE OF THE APPOINTMENT TO THE PLANTILLA POSITIONS IN THE PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO) FROM COTERMINUS TO PERMANENT OR AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 71-2001.
Some background. The Program Management Office (PMO) is the office responsible for overseeing the projects of the Supreme Court under the Action Program for Judicial Reform, or APJR. The APJR is the Court's modernization program, which the Chief launched shortly after he began his term. Projects under the APJR include the Court's Electronic Library, Court Administration Management Information System, and the Justice on Wheels mobile court. The PMO's job is to source funds for these projects, and oversee them from conceptualization to implementation.
The status of the appointments of PMO personnel were-- per the Administrative Order that created them (AO No. 71-2001)-- originally coterminus with the Chief, meaning they would have had to go upon the Chief's retirement in December. Memorandum Order 20-2005 changes that. Under the order, the positions in the PMO are now permanent, regular positions.
This hasn't sat well with some people. A few days after the memo came out, a white paper was circulated among the different offices of the SC. It criticizes the Chief's order to make the PMO's plantilla permanent, and calls on Court employees to wear red as sign of protest.
I won't, for a number of reasons.
First, as I said, red doesn't suit me.
Second, I don't have red clothes.
Third, I just don't believe in supporting causes being espoused by nameless, faceless people.
(I won't even go through the points made by the white paper, which really don't tackle the main issue, which is whether the PMO should be made a permanent office. There are a lot of side issues raised, but they distract from the main issue, and don't do much in strengthening their case.)
I've always subscribed to the belief that the courage to speak one's convictions must be accompanied by the courage to stand by them. There are a lot of accusations made in the white paper, but the anonymity of the accuser(s) coupled with the paper's less-than sound arguments have made it impossible to determine the motivation and logic behind this so-called protest. For all I know, the paper could have been written by someone with an axe to grind with the PMO, or the Chief. Heck, the way the white paper was written, it probably was.
The Memo-- and the office it benefits-- should be judged on its own merits, not by the personalities involved. Any commentary on the Chief's Memo and the issues it raised should spark intelligent debate, not fuel petty jealousies.
Till somebody has the guts to claim responsibility for the white paper, and can make a logical case against the permanent existence of the PMO, I'm sticking to what I usually wear.
The request is being made in line with a campaign to protest one of Chief Justice Davide's latest Memorandum Orders-- Memorandum Order No. 20-2005, AMENDING THE NATURE OF THE APPOINTMENT TO THE PLANTILLA POSITIONS IN THE PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO) FROM COTERMINUS TO PERMANENT OR AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER NO. 71-2001.
Some background. The Program Management Office (PMO) is the office responsible for overseeing the projects of the Supreme Court under the Action Program for Judicial Reform, or APJR. The APJR is the Court's modernization program, which the Chief launched shortly after he began his term. Projects under the APJR include the Court's Electronic Library, Court Administration Management Information System, and the Justice on Wheels mobile court. The PMO's job is to source funds for these projects, and oversee them from conceptualization to implementation.
The status of the appointments of PMO personnel were-- per the Administrative Order that created them (AO No. 71-2001)-- originally coterminus with the Chief, meaning they would have had to go upon the Chief's retirement in December. Memorandum Order 20-2005 changes that. Under the order, the positions in the PMO are now permanent, regular positions.
This hasn't sat well with some people. A few days after the memo came out, a white paper was circulated among the different offices of the SC. It criticizes the Chief's order to make the PMO's plantilla permanent, and calls on Court employees to wear red as sign of protest.
I won't, for a number of reasons.
First, as I said, red doesn't suit me.
Second, I don't have red clothes.
Third, I just don't believe in supporting causes being espoused by nameless, faceless people.
(I won't even go through the points made by the white paper, which really don't tackle the main issue, which is whether the PMO should be made a permanent office. There are a lot of side issues raised, but they distract from the main issue, and don't do much in strengthening their case.)
I've always subscribed to the belief that the courage to speak one's convictions must be accompanied by the courage to stand by them. There are a lot of accusations made in the white paper, but the anonymity of the accuser(s) coupled with the paper's less-than sound arguments have made it impossible to determine the motivation and logic behind this so-called protest. For all I know, the paper could have been written by someone with an axe to grind with the PMO, or the Chief. Heck, the way the white paper was written, it probably was.
The Memo-- and the office it benefits-- should be judged on its own merits, not by the personalities involved. Any commentary on the Chief's Memo and the issues it raised should spark intelligent debate, not fuel petty jealousies.
Till somebody has the guts to claim responsibility for the white paper, and can make a logical case against the permanent existence of the PMO, I'm sticking to what I usually wear.
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