THERE is this interesting case of a commissioner of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) who in 2016 had been administratively charged with corruption and other malpractices “prejudicial to the best interest of the service.” Eventually, he was found guilty of the charges by the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

Under normal circumstances, once such a ruling is issued, the official concerned is immediately slapped with a preventive suspension so that he may not be able to influence the further prosecution of the case against him, eventually leading to his lawful separation from the service. But in this particular case, it has been more than seven years since the CSC decision and the CHEd commissioner has remained scot-free, free to continue the malpractices of which he is again being accused of, at the Office of the President.

In heaps upon heaps of records made available to this column, it would appear that the commissioner’s misdeeds, of which he had been found guilty by the CSC in 2016, have gone on unabated. What gives?

Or could we just say the commissioner is living true to his name?

The guy is named Jo Mark Libre. As we all know, libre, though a Spanish word meaning free, has been adopted into the Filipino language with exactly the same meaning. As the song goes, born free, live free. In the case of the commissioner, free despite the many shenanigans committed in public office. And so long as he stays in office, free to commit one irregularity after another.

Damn! Rage the complainants against Libre.

When is it ever gonna end?

It is the good fortune of this column to have gotten a direct link to one of the major complainants, Eric Bucoy, a member of the staff of the Senate Committee on Technical and Vocational Education chaired by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero. A do-gooder who was part of the elite group that was responsible for the successful presidential campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte, Bucoy gave this column an overview of how Libre works. As CHEd commissioner, Libre is assigned to oversee the conduct of affairs of 24 state universities and colleges in the Visayas and Mindanao, for instance the Cebu State University (CSU) and the Bohol Island State University.

Bucoy confirms the allegations already forwarded by CHEd Chairman J. Prospero de Vera 3rd to the Office of the President through Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, to wit:

“Conduct of BOR (board of regents) meetings in expensive and impractical hotels and venues; Designating resource speakers and observers to sit in every BOR meeting whose honoraria and travel expenses are charged against CSU funds; Micromanagement of CSU affairs, including but not limited to, hiring and approval of international travel; Conduct of ‘supervisory visits’ at CSU’s expense; Lack of due process in the removal of CSU officials; Conduct of BOR meetings, including pre- and post-meetings, in expensive venues, which include tours to tourist sites — all charged against CSU funds; and Unreasonable requests for barongs for events which are paid for by CSU.”

According to Bucoy, none of the above is an official function of Libre, but the CHEd commissioner insists, dictator-like, in arrogating these tasks to himself.

As a corroboration of his charges against Libre, Bucoy furnished this columnist a finding by the Commission on Audit regarding the meetings he has complained about against Libre.

As for the Civil Service Commission decision against Libre, it stemmed from his travel to Singapore in 2016 to attend a seminar. Although the travel was authorized by Davao del Norte State College President Jonathan Bayogan, it was in the procurement of plane tickets and in the manipulations of funds by Libre that the CSC, in Administrative Case D 1120001717, charged him with, and ultimately found him guilty of, grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, falsification of official documents and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.

Now, why ventilate this case?

Because it touches upon the very moral fiber of the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Remember his milestone declaration in his last State of the Nation Address: zero corruption. Libre must be a huge blight in this presidential braggadocio. How could there be zero corruption in a government that tolerates one corrupt practice after another by a presidential appointee no less and right in the Office of the President at that. If some misbehaving elements may succeed with their nefarious activities in some dark nooks of the government, not in the Office of the President. That, as attested to by this Libre case, corruption flourishes right in the heart of this Bongbong administration, some grand thing must be wrong with this government.

Remove, then, Libre or Bongbong be damned.