Casuals, non-career government workers lose jobs today

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of government workers, from Malacañang down to the line agencies, will be joining the ranks of around three million unemployed as the Memorandum Circular 1 (MC 1) of President Aquino extending their services expires today.

As of press time yesterday, Palace officials had not announced if the memorandum circular would expire or be extended today.

Non-career government personnel may also have to go as soon as the memo expires.

Mr. Aquino had extended for a month the services of contractuals and non-career personnel, with the exception of political appointees.

“The purpose of the circular is not to make any distractions in the services of the government. This is entirely different from the midnight appointees, where it will undergo more weighty academic discussions,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) yesterday said it is in favor of giving non-career service officials in government time to gain eligibility so that they can keep their jobs under the Aquino administration.

However, the decision on whether or not they will be given such consideration depends on the President alone.

“I think that’s a very legitimate appeal,” CSC chairman Francisco Duque III said in reaction to appeals made by non-Career Executive Service Officers (CESO) who stand to lose their jobs today.

He said the CSC actually recommended that non-career officials be given such an opportunity when it was consulted on the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Memorandum Order 1.

Duque said their position was to give affected non-CESO officials time to take and pass the required examinations while those with lower-career service ranks are given the chance to move up to higher rank.

“But it’s the decision of President Aquino, that’s his prerogative. I think they should push through with their appeal,” he told The STAR in an interview.

Hundreds of non-CESO officials are urging the Aquino administration to withdraw MC 1 which declares their positions vacant effective last June 30.

The same memo, purportedly drafted even before the President took over Malacañang, also extended the services of contractual workers up to July 31.

According to them, such large-scale dismissal would create a vacuum in leadership in many offices that are headed by college graduates and professionals whose only fault is that they do not possess CESO eligibility.

Offices with non-CESO chiefs are now headed by the most senior service officers and occupy the position of “officers-in-charge.”

A statement made by Maria Antoinette Alliosin, director of the Civil Executive Service Board (CESB), showed the entire bureaucracy needs at least 6,000 CESO holders.

Only 2,000 CESOs are working in the different departments and bureaus of government, CESB said, and this means 4,000 positions cannot be filled.

Non-CESO officials are now asking Mr. Aquino that they be given at least a year to gain CESO eligibility and continue their service.

Moreover, they said even as they lack CESO eligibility, all of them have gained experience in running government offices, an advantage that new CESO eligibles do not possess.

Uniform pay

Meantime, the finance and budget departments are coming up with a benchmark on how much will be the uniform salaries, allowances, bonuses and perks of every government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC), to prevent whimsical abuses such as the case of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS).

President Aquino revealed in his State of the Nation Address that MWSS officials receive P211.5 million each year, 24 percent for “normal salaries and 66 percent added on.”

Ordinary workers enjoy a 13th month pay, but those at MWSS get as much as 30th month pay.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad are working on a “standard of pay or allowances” for all GOCCs and government financing institutions, to “avoid repeating the excesses” in the MWSS.

The proposal will be submitted to President Aquino for approval.

This proposal on GOCC pay benchmarks will have to wait though because the 2011 national budget is the priority in the meantime.

What would be good news to officials and employees of GOCCs and government financial institutions is that it may after all be patterned after corporations in the private sector. - With Michael Punongbayan