Entrepreneurial Farmer

Ambrosio R. Villorente

Rules of Conduct and 

Ethical Behavior

Mr. Odon S. Bandiola, secretary of Aklan Sangguniang Panlalawigan asked, “as a government employee, do you pretend to be busy in front of your desktop? laptop? netbook? and tablet during office hours? But actually you are on your facebook or twitter account punching not office research work…purely private affairs on government time, IT equipment and internet facilities? Or, encoding your research study in school?”

Bandiola asked further, “As a government employee, do you use leisurely office telephone for personal calls? Or, buy-home groceries from discretionary fund? Or, bring home office supplies? Or, use official vehicle for personal and family purposes?” 

“These and many more acts of government officials and employees just taken for granted but clear violations of the Rules of Conduct and Ethical Behavior of officials and employees in the Civil Service”, Bandiola pointed out. 

To minimize these methods of dishonesty, Bandiola reported the attendance of “23 regular staff members of the Aklan Sangguniang Panlalawigan to a 6-week Distance Learning Program on the Rules of Conduct and Ethical Behavior in the Civil Service”. The program ended on July 31, 2012.

The distance learning program taught the 23 participants the “Norm of Conduct for Public Officials and Employees such as Commitment to Public Interest, Professionalism, Justness and Sincerely, Political Neutrality, Responsiveness to the Public, Nationalism and Patriotism, Commitment to Democracy and Simple Living”. They also studied the provisions of the code of conduct and prohibited acts of public officials and employees. 

To enhance comprehension of the code, some 10 case studies were presented and discussed, Bandiola revealed.    

The report revealed the Civil Service Commission, Region VI provided the “Manual” embodying the training modules and the questionnaires. It did not tell which office served as the trainor.

With this six weeks of distance learning of the 23 regular Aklan SP staff members, the public can expect a much improved public services in the Aklan Sangguniang Panlalawigan. Can they?

EF congratulates the 23 SP employees for the additional information and skills they acquired for the good of the service. They can also apply lessons learned for their personal benefits.

Thanks to the SP top management for the human resource development initiative.

Is Woman = Man?

The World Bank found, despite growth and development in the Philippines, there is still a significant gap in opportunities between men and women. Filipino working women are paid just 76 percent of what their male counterpart gets.

East Asia and Pacific nations had not eliminated gender inequality and countries in the region, the Philippines included “need to put in place policies that would address the issue”, reported the World Bank as cited in the “Toward Gender Equality In East Asia and the Pacific”. The Filipino women are paid less than men for doing similar job. For every P100 the Filipino male are paid, Filipino female is only paid P76 for doing the same kind of work, the WB report pointed out. 

Matoo Konishi, World Bank country director in the Philippines revealed East Asian economics have been growing fast with much positive impact, but gender balance is not effected. 

Konishi suggested change of policies so that growth will benefit everybody. While the Philippines is in many ways advanced in gender and development, there are still problems that need to be addressed.

“Konishi cited the disparity in terms of opportunity to manage enterprises in the Philippines. “Only about 30 percent of medium size enterprises have female managers while about 20 percent of large enterprises have female managers.” /MP