The right size of government

Aside from being the strongest driving force of the Philippine economy, the government is also the single biggest employer in our country. Based on the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), we have a total of 51.89 million Filipinos of working age as of end June this year. Of this total workforce, 50.27 million are gainfully employed.

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman reported a total of 1,848,661 million workers being State employed. The latest data from DBM showed a total of 2,017,380 million plantilla positions in the government and only about eight percent remain unfilled. So this would mean about 168,719 positions are unfilled, although the payroll for these personnel has a special provision in the annual budget in case the positions are filled.

Per the inventory of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Chairman Karlo Nograles yesterday told the House committee on appropriations that about 203,000 positions in the government are still unfilled. Testifying on the proposed 2025 budget of the CSC, Nograles explained the unfilled positions were traceable to delays in some agencies’ publishing of vacancies, qualification requirements and uncompetitive salaries for some positions.

Of the total unfilled positions, the DBM record showed 41.424 are teaching positions while another 5,819 are teaching-related positions.

During our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last week, the DBM secretary disclosed a little over one million State workers are employed by the Department of Education (DepEd) and they are mostly teachers, supervisors and administrators in all public schools nationwide. The uniformed services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) count about 130,000 to 140,000 each. The next biggest employer is the Department of Health (DOH) with 98,555 and third biggest are the state colleges and universities with 91,945 in the civil service.

Pangandaman admitted quite a sizeable number of government workers are still employed either on job orders (JOs) or under contract of service (COS). Thus, they are not in the regular payroll of the government. Worse, they do not enjoy tenure of office and can be terminated once the period of JO or COS lapses.

Contract of service is defined as the engagement of the services of an individual, private firm, another government agency, non-government agency or international organization as a consultant, learning service provider or technical expert to undertake a special project or job within a specific period.

Job order, on the other hand, covers piece work, locally known as “pakyaw,” intermittent or emergency jobs to be undertaken for a short duration and for a specific job.

Sadly, they are not protected under our country’s civil service laws since they are non-regular employees of the government.

However, Pangandaman assured those working as JOs and COS that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) has already issued an Executive Order (EO) that extended their contracts of employment in government until Dec. 31, 2025 yet. And the same EO has directed agencies to help these non-regular workers or those with JOs and COS to find permanent posts. PBBM noted with concern that many of these non-regular workers have been working in the government for many years. Thus, the Chief Executive instructed heads of agencies to ensure these non-regular workers would be assisted to obtain the required qualifications so they could get first crack to finally be hired in permanent positions and enjoy the benefits like the rest of the State workers.

Based from the latest DBM record, Pangandaman noted the national government accounts for 69.7 percent of the total workers hired as 832,812 JOs. On the other hand, local government units (LGUs) have 583,323 workers employed under COS. The national government accounts for only 28.8 percent of the COS, or about 13,227. Again, the SCUs are the next biggest employers of workers under JOs at 44,168 while there are 28,667 JOs employed in government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

Of these GOCCs, the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) employs the biggest number of JOs at 6,427. Curiously, the LWUA has been kicked like a football, transferred from one department to another. Originally attached to the Department of Health, it was transferred to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). During the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, she issued EO 279 in February 2004 that had the LWUA temporarily attached to the Office of the President in transition to its transfer to the Department of Finance.

But during the term of the late president Benigno Simeon Aquino III, he issued EO 62 on Oct.26, 2011 returning the LWUA to the DPWH. In the same directive, PNoy designated the DPWH to head the inter-agency committee on water sector that started the ball rolling for the organizational structure for all concerned agencies of the government to implement the “water sector masterplan.”

Fast forward. PBBM issued EO 22 on April 27 this year creating the Water Resources Management Office (WRMO). Envisioned as a transition body, the WRMO put together all water-related agencies of the government, including the LWUA, under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The WRMO will function until such time the proposed Department of Water Resources (DWR), an administration-endorsed bill, is created and passed into law by the 19th Congress.

For now, Pangandaman told us at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay, the proposed creation of DWR remains in the priority list of the common legislative agenda of PBBM and Congress. She strongly took exception to criticisms that the proposed creation of the DWR goes against the objective of another administration-endorsed bill on the proposed rightsizing of the government. 

No less than Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero recently filed his own bill on the proposed Rightsizing of the Government that is closely similar to the administration-endorsed bill, the DBM chief noted. “I think he (Escudero) believes in this idea because he has done that while he was the governor of Sorsogon,” Pangandaman quipped.

But what is the right size for the government?