MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management has backed the Marcos government's push to thin out the workforce in government to make it more "lean, efficient and responsive," it disclosed Wednesday.
To recall, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s economic team said it was reviving earlier pushes to “rightsize” the bureaucracy to get rid of redundant and inefficient government bodies — a move seen to free up some P14.8 billion in savings to be spent on social welfare programs instead.
Speaking in an interview aired over DZBB, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman disclosed that a proposal to rightsize the bureaucracy is being polished for submission to Congress before Marcos’ first State of the Nation Address on July 25.
"The overarching objective of this [rightsizing] is to have a smaller bureaucracy that is agile and responsive to these new times. We will fix these programs of the agencies that repetitive functions or overlapping functions," Pangandaman said in mixed Filipino and English.
Some two million personnel are seen to be affected by the move should it push through, she admitted based on her department's initial estimates.
Pangandaman added that the proposal would ultimately look to rationalize the functions of government agencies and determine which among the 187 government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations, may be streamlined through merging, restructuring, or abolition.
An initial proposal will be included among the priority bills listed by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council ahead of Marcos' SONA in end-July.
Savings
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, though, has admitted that abolishing government agencies would require action on the part of Congress, which would only slow the process down.
But Pangandaman said that with the proposed rightsizing, the national government will be able to save a significant amount of the budget which may be used to fund priority projects such as building much-needed infrastructure, social services, programs in the health sector, agriculture, among others.
"For example, if 5% is affected by the program, the equivalent is P14.8 billion per year that we will save on our personnel services," she also said.
The Budget chief said that affected personnel may apply to positions that will be created as an effect of the rightsizing.
The government will also provide a retooling program for personnel so they may apply for vacant positions. Those who opt to retire will receive appropriate retirement benefits.
“They (affected personnel) can apply for other positions that we can do and develop because of the rightsizing. The rest of you, we will provide the right program for them for retooling. The Civil Service Commission is possible with us. ‘Those who retire, we will provide retirement benefits for them,” Pangandaman said.
“Those who would lose their jobs could apply to the new positions which will be created by the rightsizing bill. We will also have retooling programs for other affected personnel in cooperation with the Civil Service Commission."
The new proposal for rightsizing, however, excludes teaching and teaching-related positions, medical and allied medical positions or those in the health sector, and the military as well as other uniformed personnel.
Proposals in Congress to build new offices had seen their way into former President Rodrigo Duterte’s priority legislative agenda before he stepped down last month. The bills replaced a rightsizing measure thrown out from the list after being there since 2016 due to tepid backing from lawmakers.