LEGAZPI CITY: The initial order for a reshuffle at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Bicol region have been aborted as representatives reportedly would not honor replacements of their favored engineers.

The reshuffle sought by a November 16 order signed by DPWH secretary Rogelio Singson initially affected three assistant districts engineers.

Public Works regional director Danilo Dequito could not be contacted for comment but the region’s maintenance chief Antonio Saguinsin said that the affected assistant district engineers are from Sorsogon first district engineering, Albay first district engineering and third district engineering. He refused to elaborate.

A source said the reshuffle was an effort of the department to appoint junior engineers who successfully hurdled the DPWH-Civil Service Commission (CSC) promotional tests held last year.

It was not clear when will the reshuffle for overstaying district engineers would take place as reports said that no one from the 16 district engineers and assistant district engineers had survived the two DPWH-CSC promotional tests conducted under the Aquino administration—the latest was conducted on June 16 this year.

Early last year, Dequito said that district engineers will be reshuffled in October 2011, the first move under the current administration to affect only overstaying district engineers.

District engineers that at least had been in their assignment for three years were considered candidates for reshuffle to avoid close fraternization with politicians.

Public Works department records showed that one of the five district engineers assigned in Camarines Sur had been promoted as district engineer for his assignment and had never been assigned in other districts for almost 18 years until his retirement last month; another engineer in an island province had similar status with almost 12 years as district engineer.

Department insiders said that the appointments of the said district engineers would have look like as if they were appointed purposely for a particular district until their retirement. A source wonders why the much-awaited reshuffle for district engineers in 2011 did not materialize.

The department’s regional office under the present administration had experienced being rebuked when one of the Albay district engineers following the 2010 elections personally sought for his reassignment in Camarines Sur. Feeling uncomfortable in his assignment under a new representative who had threatened to prosecute him during the election campaign for alleged graft and corruption together with the defeated reelectionist lawmaker, the district engineer personally sought for his reassignment.

According to Dequito, it was a frustrating efforts that when the reassignment of the engineer was finally granted by the management committee, the concerned lawmaker suddenly for unknown reason would not release the district engineer he had publicly maligned.

The department’s insiders said that Singson had revived the DPWH-CSC promotional test envisioned by then secretary Gregorio Vigilar in 1997 to avoid political intervention in the promotions of engineers and to find out who are competent.

Last year’s promotion test had only five junior engineers from Bicol who hurdled the test—none of them came from the rank of district engineers and assistant district engineers.

Dismayed by the test results, Singson ordered another test in June 2012, each of over 50 examinees from Bicol flunked. According to a source who claimed that he was among the failed examinees, only three of about 400 engineers throughout the Philippines who took the test had reportedly passed.