By: Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II said there is no formal order to abolish the Provincial Human Resource Management Office (PHRMO) despite a recent opinion by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) disallowing the creation of the said department.
Diaz said the order to abolish the position should have come from the Civil Service Commission (CSC), while employees working under Provincial Human Resource Management head Atty. Annabelle Palic remain under the PHRMO.
“By what legal personnel transfer are we going to remove her as head of [human resource] department? There is none,” he pointed out.
Diaz also confirmed that Palic had been holding the position for a year already and under the rules, she functions under the “presumption of regularity.”
“Until there is a clear order from the CSC that she is to vacate the position, then we don’t have any legal basis to remove her from performing the tasks and duties attached to her position,” he added.
Palic was ordered to return to her post after Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson reversed the order made by former Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., reassigning her to the governor’s office.
According to Diaz, the move is part of the ongoing inventory of the provincial government human resources.
In the closing days of the Marañon administration, then-Negros Occidental Provincial Budget Officer Jose Percival Salado called for Palic to be relieved of duty after DBM issued an opinion disallowing the creation of a human resource department.
According to Salado, the governor met with employees who would be affected by the shuffle and were asked if they preferred posts within the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist or vacancies within other departments.
