By Helen Castaño | 07:29 PM September 14, 2022
Bohol 3rd district Rep. Alexie Besas-Tutor on Wednesday has urged the Civil Service Commission to create sustainable plan to gradually reduce numbers of contractuals, job order personnel in the government.
Her appeal was timely during the appoinment of Civil Service Commission Chairman Karlo Alexei Nograles on his confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.
“As I congratulate Civil Service Commission Chairman Karlo Alexei Nograles on his confirmation by the Commission on Appointments, I convey to him the sentiments of the House of Representatives on the disproportionately large numbers of contractuals and job order personnel at the national and local government levels,” Tutor said.
Tutor, the chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Professional Regulation, said that during the ongoing 2023 budget hearings, her colleagues at the House of Representatives repeatedly asked for clear paths toward regularization of the over 493,000 job order personnel and over 148, 000 contract of service workers who are rendering valuable public service as of the latest count on June 30, 2022.
She said that there are over 1.82 million career and non-career personnel in the civil service now. The total number of permanent positions for fiscal year 2023 is 1,943,1381, of which, 1,772,4702 positions are filled and 170,668 items are unfilled.
Compare that to the over 642 thousand JO and COS personnel, she said, they do not have security of tenure and do not have full benefits, including the 13th-month pay and bonuses, but do much of the heavy lifting while their regularized counterparts have much easier work days.
“We need a master plan that addresses this injustice over the next five years. I am hopeful Chairman Karlo Nograles will be up to this challenge,” she said.
She said in the Department of Health, where many of her colleagues in the health professions are working, there are 91,480 regular positions, but only 70,442 of these positions are filled, therefore there are 21,038 unfilled or vacant positions. Given the immense challenges facing the public health sector, these over 21,000 vacant positions are mindboggling, but the DOH continues to hire thousands of job orders and contract of service personnel. The latest count shows DOH has 8,188 JO/COS workers.
“We need a real, sustainable, fundable, and just path toward regularization of the qualified among the over 642 thousand JO/COS personnel consistent with fair Qualifications Standards and the Philippine Qualifications Framework,” said Tutor.
Of the JO/COS workers, those serving in local government units are 487,149 while those in national government agencies, state universities and colleges (SUCs), local water districts, and government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) number 154,928 combined.
These numbers do not yet include the hundreds of thousands of volunteers in the ranks of the barangay health workers, sanitation personnel, barangay tanods, street sweepers, and deputized Bantay Dagat, she added
Tutor said that at least three sets of solutions are needed: one for LGUs, one for the NGAs/SUCs/LWDs/GOCCs, and one for the volunteers.