The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
On behalf of state workers, particularly the over 800,000 contractuals and job order civil servants who retain their jobs for another year or until December 2025, because of the April order of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Bohol Rep. Kristine Alexie Besas Tutor thanked the Chief Executive on his birthday last Friday (Sept. 13).
In a press statement, Tutor, in her role as chair of the Committee on Civil Service and Professionals, said: “I can say that civil servants and professionals have quite good reasons to thank President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on his birthday.
On top of wage hikes resulting from Salary Standardization 6 retroactive to January this year, better benefits and access to PhilHealth are being rolled out gradually.
The President also extended to December 2025 the work contracts of contractual employees in government. That should give the Civil Service Commission enough time to implement some permanent solutions to regularize most of the contractuals.
Employment opportunities for professionals are on the rise because of a growing economy which some forecasts chart as much as 7% GDP expansion.
Unemployment fluctuates depending on the quarter, but this year, it dipped to 3.1%, while underemployment is in the 9.9% to 14.6% range.
I am confident the President has the right economic team and progressive policies to push GDP growth to as high as 7.5% before the end of his term in 2028.
Last April, the President extended the employment of contract of service (COs) and job order (JOs) workers whose contracts will expire in December, and has directed agencies to help them find permanent posts.
CO is 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. JO covers piece work, locally known as “pakyaw,” intermittent or emergency jobs to be undertaken for a short duration and for a specific piece of job, the Star reported.
The Department of Budget and Management earlier said that the government has 832,812 contracts of service and job order workers as of June 30, 2023. The number is higher by 22.90 percent from the 642,077 workers in 2022.
LGUs have the highest number of such workers with 69.68 percent or 580,323, up from 487,149 in 2022. COs and JOs in state universities and colleges also grew from 22,937 in 2022 to 44,168 last year. The national government has 173,227 casual workers.
The five national government agencies with the highest number of contract of service and job order workers are the Department of Public Works and Highways with 29,275; Department of Health with 18,264; Department of Education with 15,143; Department of Social Welfare and Development with 13,770; and Department of Environment and Natural Resources with 10,990.
Marcos ordered agencies to develop the skills and capabilities of the non-regular government workers and to reeducate and train them with the help of higher learning institutions so they would be qualified for permanent positions.
The inner truth
The reason job vacancies in government persist is the tedious processing requirements of personnel departments of the different departments and agencies, which discourages professionals from grabbing the chance to serve the country. The procedures are tantamount to a refusal by the HR departments to absorb any professional, except those with links to officials in their departments or the palakasan system, to be hired with ease.
The processing time takes months and for those finally hired, they get their pay at least three months later, which is another factor for the low absorption rate of hiring by state agencies.
Also, some contracts are renewable every month (last I heard this was what is required from a department in Quezon City) and every renewal naturally entails an additional cost of at least P100 for every notarial and documentation requirement.
As to the directive of the President for departments to ensure that contractuals get new skills and permanent positions, this is non-existent still. Those that have been hired by political appointees and have managed to stay in their positions because of palakasan, do not generally care to learn new skills because they are assured of being rehired anyway by their patrons who have managed to endear themselves to officials holding permanent items in government.