The Senate will seek a clearer policy definition of the new administration’s intent to “rightsize” the bureaucracy when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. convenes a meeting with lawmakers after his State of the Nation Address on July 25.
This is according to Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, who is expected to be the next Senate President following a declaration of support by a majority of the senators who will assume their seats when Congress opens.
The government rightsizing as well as other matters that the Marcos administration deems priority legislation should be clarified as soon as possible when the President calls the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac), Zubiri recently told reporters. This, after several colleagues raised issues on initial pronouncements by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), which is finalizing a rightsizing blueprint for Marcos to approve.
Among those who have raised issues and concerns about how rightsizing will be done are Senators Koko Pimentel—expected to be the new minority leader—and Joel Villanueva, the incoming majority leader, as well as Risa Hontiveros and Chiz Escudero.
The biggest alliance of government workers had also warned officials against rushing to abolish agencies or lay off people at a time when unemployment is high and most households are still reeling from the economic impact of the pandemic.
According to Zubiri, the Ledac is the best forum where lawmakers can seek clarity on Malacañang’s plans for rightsizing the government or dismantling certain agencies and laying off workers doing redundant functions.
Zubiri expects other priority matters for legislation to be pitched by the Executive at their Ledac meeting.
The President chairs Ledac and is the one who convenes its members, including the Vice President, the Senate President and three senators he or she will choose; the Speaker of the House and three members he or she will choose; and seven Cabinet members to be chosen by the President.
Key representatives of local governments, the youth and private sector comprise the rest of the membership.
The Ledac was created as a forum for forging a common legislative agenda for the Executive and Congress.
Senators’ concerns
On Sunday, Pimentel reiterated in a radio interview his concern over the direction of the rightsizing initiative as undertaken by DBM. He reminded Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman that “rightsizing” is not simply cutting off units or people, but looking for ways to make workers in redundant units more productive by, among others, moving them where their expertise might be put to good use. This, given the fact that the government has had thousands of vacancies the past several years—a fact that Villanueva, the Labor committee chairman, had flagged earlier.
“Where should we put government workers so they can spend hours more productively?” Pimentel asked on Sunday, speaking partly in Filipino in a radio interview.
He noted that some agencies have overlapping jurisdictions, which should be redressed. Those doing redundant jobs, however, should be given a chance to work in other units or agencies where their expertise may be needed.
Pimentel also frowned on plans to delegate to the President the power to abolish certain agencies. “Only legislation can repeal a law that created an agency,” he said.
Finally, he suggested that government researchers identify agencies, bureaus, offices, councils doing redundant work; as well as some agencies that continue to exist even after completing their mandate. The staff in these agencies may find room in other agencies that have plenty of vacancies, he added. The lawmaker had reminded the DBM that current efforts to finalize plans for the bureaucratic rightsizing must follow existing laws on the abolition or reorganization of government agencies.
Pimentel, a bar topnotcher, stressed that if an agency was created by law, it would require Congress to pass another law to abolish it.
He added that it will also require an enabling legislation to grant compensation and benefits to the employees of the agency being abolished.
The same is true in disposing of other assets of the agency.
Pangandaman was earlier reported to be in consultation with the economic team of President Marcos Jr. in crafting a rightsizing bill to carry out the streamlining of the bureaucracies functions and potentially cut operational costs.
According to Pimentel, the Executive identifies the agencies to be dismantled or reorganized but Congress makes the final decision.
For his part, Escudero said it was only right to implement rightsizing to generate savings for the government and also force agencies to be more efficient and provide better services.
Escudero said, however, that it requires thorough study on what positions or agencies are to be abolished and clear determination of the proper compensation for those who will lose their jobs.
The process is long, Escudero said, and he expects many parties will oppose it but he expressed the hope that Pangandaman will stand her ground.
Pressing issues
Earlier, Villanueva said he supports moves of the national government to improve its efficiency and institutional capacity to deliver public service.
“Before we start discussing the issue of rightsizing of the government bureaucracy, we need to discuss two pressing questions,” he said.
“First, why is it that roughly 1 out of 10 [or 178,128 out of 1,899,925] authorized positions in the national government remain unfilled? We want to know how these unfilled positions will be filled up. There should also be a comprehensive study of the staffing pattern of government agencies to determine whether some existing plantilla positions are already obsolete, redundant or unnecessary.”
Villanueva noted that the Senate has been calling the attention of the Executive on this issue since 2016, but it has remained unaddressed.
“Second, why is there a significant number of government workers under Job Order [JO] or Contract of Service [COS] positions in the government, when there are a lot of unfilled positions?”
Citing data from the Civil Service Commission as of August 2021, the lawmaker noted that there are 100,895 JO and COS positions in the national government and more than 40,000 additional JO/COS positions are in government-owned and -controlled corporations and state universities and colleges.