Former Cagayan de Oro Water District general manager Rachel Beja speaks before a city council committee before the firm’s board of directors terminated her services. The Civil Service Commission has upheld the COWD board’s decision. (Gold Star Daily file photo)
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By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent .

THE Civil Service Commission (CSC) dismissed a petition that questioned a 2018 move to boot out Cagayan de Oro Water District (COWD) general manager Rachel Beja.

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In a May 20, 2019 decision, the CSC declared as valid the order of the COWD board to terminate the services of Beja on grounds of loss of trust and confidence.

The nine-page decision, a copy of which Gold Star Daily secured yesterday, was signed by CSC chairperson Alicia dela Rosa-Bala and commissioners Leopoldo Roberto Valderosa Jr., and Aileen Lourdes Lizada.

Engr. Beja had questioned the Feb. 21, 2018 order of the COWD board through a written plea submitted to the CSC’s Office of Legal Affairs on March 8, 2018.

Beja requested the Commission to review the order, and on Sept. 21, 2018, she filed a motion that asked the CSC to make a ruling based on the allegations of the COWD board.

She called the move to end her seven-year service as COWD general manager illegal. In earlier interviews, she said she was protected by civil service rules because the COWD is a government-owned and -controlled firm.

Beja, a daughter of a former COWD director, started serving as the facility’s general manager on April 14, 2011. Her career in the COWD ended in February last year.

The CSC however ruled that “that Beja was not illegally removed”and that her government service “ceased through the expiration of term.”

The CSC noted that Beja was given due process by the COWD board when it asked her verbally and through a show-cause order, dated Feb. 5, 2018, why she should not be sanctioned for her alleged discourtesy.

The CSC also noted that Beja was reprimanded verbally by COWD chairman Eduardo Montalvan during an executive session on Jan. 8, 2018 for allegedly being “disgraceful” towards members of the board on three separate occasions.

The Commission noted that Beja was instructed by Montalvan to explain why she shouldn’t be sanctioned. This was repeated on Feb. 5, 2018 when the COWD board directed Beja to state why she should not be sanctioned due to loss of trust and confidence. She received her walking papers 16 days later; the order took effect Feb. 28 last year.

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