Grand Plan at the Capitol (11)

Peter G. Jimenea, Hole of Justice

(After this piece, I am momentarily suspending subsequent sequels. I hope to believe myself.)

We thought that this series ended with the 8th but I was constrained to write its sequels as the characters are just incorrigible. I promised a member of Task Force Pagbag-o that I would stop dragging him in the imbroglio with Hydrocephallus who continues to oppress Ma’am Malou, the Kingdom Information Officer (KIO).

But they withheld the salaries of Ma’am Malou and her assistant Bikya for the month of February. It was downright illegal, yet, it encouraged more Hydrocephallus, Tibakla and Gin Butlog to delete the names of Malou and Bikya from the payroll. I can only imagine the torment the two ladies have gone seeing their kids writhing in hunger because their salaries have been detained.

Last Monday, February 28, Ma’am Malou paid a call to King Tura informing him of her decision to file a complaint with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) against Hydrocephallus and his co-conspirators. King Tura was sympathetic of her and immediately called Hydrocephallus. In the presence of Ma’am Malou and Bikya, King Tura gave Hydrocephallus a thorough dressing down.

I hired you and Early Riser because you both are journalists and I expect you to do the press releases and feature stories to promote the name of the kingdom. Why did you compel Malou to do what I obliged you to perform? It is your obligation to write, not hers, thundered the king.

As for the office of the KIO, Hydrocephallus has to stay put in his office upstairs while Malou stays in her office and no one, no one can ever evict her from there, so ordained the King. Here,I thought everything is fine.

But minutes after they left the king’s chamber, Hydrocephallus went to Ma’am Malou reminding her to write feature stories but Malou snap back by reminding him what the king had decreed. That does it.

Hydrocephallus has the talent to write but is just lazy. He has no bone to make the rounds to gather data, the more tedious part than writing proper itself. Since his appointment last September as head of Kawkaw, the office that supposedly links the kingdom with its community of subjects, Hydrocephallus has not written a single story.

He left the job on the shoulder of poor Early Riser who is just harassed complying with the orders of Hydrocephallus who, incidentally, is not his supervisor and, therefore, has no power of dominion over him.

What about the reported dissolution of the three divisions, namely: Kawkaw, Radyo Mo and KIO, and their merger into one super-office, Kawpid, that Hydrocephallus claims to head? Well, that is still subject of the complaint filed by Ma’am Malou with the CSC.

Her complaint hit Hydrocephallus and co-conspirators for oppression, abuse of authority, usurpation, dishonesty, among others, for forcibly evicting her from office, withholding their salaries, forcing her to concede to an inferior position without due process, and for illegally creating an office.

King Tura is sympathetic to her. You pursue your complaint, that's your right, he decreed.

Wish the CSC has the energy to resolve the complaint soonest possible. I also wish enlightenment on Hydrocephallus’s lapdogs in the press, the nitwits who repeatedly brand Ma’am Malou in their hydrocephalic praise releases “ex-KIO chief” when in truth and in fact, she is still the KIO.

Their paymaster Hydrocephallus is not the KIO and never will because he has no CSC eligibility, neither the academic qualification and experience to entitle him to the position. He is only good at turning the palace of the Kingdom by the River a motel, the way he did last February 27, a Sunday when he and Rits, his muni-muni, enjoyed their “paupas-damang” from morning until 4 pm.

Now we have to wait for the result of the complaint filed by Ma'am Malou against Hydrocephallus and company. The same is true on the fate of that office without legal personality that he lorded over less academic capability, only political expediency!