Can Gwen and Edgar be magnanimous to employees?

The winners can be either too harsh and unforgiving or a bit compassionate and understanding. I am worried for the small guys in the Capitol and the City Hall. What shall happen to them?

I hope I did not hear it right when governor-elect Gwen Garcia warned that she did not forget which Capitol employees were loyal to her and who betrayed her while she was out of the provincial government. That, to me, sounded like a threat to the lowly employees who were appointed by outgoing governor Hilario Davide III and outgoing vice governor Agnes Magpale. There is now an atmosphere of gloom and doom in the Capitol and non-civil service personnel, those whose tenure are coterminous with the appointing power, and those in the confidential services are now in a limbo. There is a mad rush to search for employment. It is not easy for those who do not have civil service eligibility and for those who are politically aligned with the vanquished party.

I am not so much worried for the City Hall employees because the incoming mayor, Atty. Edgar Labella, is an insider who knows most of the rank-and-file personnel and they know him since many years ago. He is a compassionate and forgiving man who may find some soft spot in his heart to forgive the rabid partisans of outgoing Mayor Tomas Osmeña. But I am not sure of that also because his inner circle may have another agenda. And the incoming vice mayor, Atty. Mike Rama, would always remind Edgar to remember those who were loyal to the party and who worked hard to defeat Tomas and Mary Ann in the last polls.

I have no right, at all, to give unsolicited advice to both Governor Gwen and Mayor Edgar. But if they can rise higher than their partisan interests and decide not to use the shotgun approach of massive dismissals of all personnel allied to the opposite camps, then they may yet become statesmen in the eyes of the people, and pleasing to the eyes of God. Of course, politics is politics and to the victors belong the spoils. Nonetheless, if they remove people based only on partisan interests, they will just follow traditional patronage politics and that would make them second-rate, average trapos, with no conscience, with no heart, and with no soul. I always believe that both Gwen and Edgar have qualities higher than the ordinary political leaders.

If they want to listen to the advice of a veteran HR and labor law practitioner, I would strongly propose that each of them appoint a professional HR team to review and screen all appointees. The team should just give political partisanship at the most 20 percent weight. The other criteria should include competence, character, conscientiousness and commitment. Although the governor and the mayor are political creatures, they should remember that the work in the Capitol and the City Hall are not all politics. There are infrastructures, health, education and social services. They need experts and proven excellence along these lines.