Source: CSS (2008); de Leon (2000).

69% of all career employees are working in NGAs, while 24% and 7% are in LGUs and GOCCs, respectively. Of the non-career positions, 68% are in LGUs, 21% in NGAs, and 11% in GOCCs.

Despite the implementation of the decentralization program since 1991 and the succeeding rationalization efforts, the civil service system remains top heavy, particularly in terms of distribution of government personnel. Between 1984 and 2004, the NGA comprised 67% to 68% of the total workforce. In 2008, NGA personnel declined to 63% in 2008, while LGU employees increased to 29% and GOCCs increased to 8%.

21.3.3 Recruitment and Selection

The Philippine civil service has well-established rules and procedures on recruitment and selection, which include announcement of job opportunities, competitive application, and qualification standards, among others. Each government agency has a designated human resource development office/unit responsible for performing this function.

The civil service, however, is generally not a very attractive career in the Philippines. Aside from the low compensation packages, there are concerns about the recruitment process and procedures, stigma of an inefficient bureaucracy, and rent seeking. On some occasions, political patronage and interference impede career advancement and undermine established procedures that uphold the merit system.

Table 21.3 Career Service Employees by Position Level, 2008

Source: Adapted from CSC, 2008 Inventory of Government Personnel, 2008; authors’ computations.

© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Civil Service System in the Philippines 435

civil servants. This effort needs to be complemented with strategies and programs to attract more highly skilled and intelligent graduates, board passers, and CSEs.

The Computer-Assisted Test (CAT) CAT-VIP and the Job Opportunity Data Bank System are two innovations by the CSC. CAT is a CSC-developed software program instituted to revolutionize the pencil and paper types of civil service examinations. CAT facilitates the systematic storage, updating, retrieval, checking, and scoring of examinee data through the computer software. It allows examinees to find out whether or not they have passed the examination in about an hour. Individuals with special needs like the visually impaired were initially precluded from taking the civil service examinations; however, the CAT-VIP introduced a voice-sensitive computer aid and specially designed instruments or keyboards for those with disabilities.

21.3.5 Position Classification, Compensation, and Salary Structure

During the presidency of Corazon Aquino and the CSC chairmanship of Patricia Sto. Tomas, the Salary Standardization Law (SSL) was implemented through the enactment of RA No. 6758 entitled, “An Act Prescribing a Revised Compensation and Position Classification System in the Government and for Other Purposes” or “Compensation and Position Classification Act of 1989,” on August 21, 1989, which covers all positions in the government, including GOCCs and GFIs.6

The Department of Budget Management (DBM) through its Compensation and Position Classification Bureau (CPCB), now named Organization, Position Classification and Compensation Bureau (OPCCB) determines the position and its equivalent rank in the salary grading system. A manual on position classification and compensation provides details on the operationalization of the SSL.

The staffing positions of the NG are further classified into constitutional positions, key executive positions, and other permanent positions. Constitutional positions (with 315 filled positions in 2005) cover the highest level—elective and appointive—positions in government service, including the president, vice president, senate president, Speaker of the Lower House, chief justice of the Supreme Court, senators, members of the House of Representatives, associate justices of the Supreme Court, and chairpersons and commissioners of the constitutional commissions, and the Ombudsman. Key executive positions refer to executive, managerial, and chief division or equivalent positions (e.g., executive secretary, department secretaries) numbering 21,280 positions in 2005. Other permanent positions include technical, support to technical and administrative positions, part-time, positions exempt from the SSL,7 and the uniformed personnel had a total of 1,129,086 filled positions in 2005 (DBM 2005).

These positions have salary grades (SG) and ranks, which follow 33 SG levels, each grade level with eight steps and equivalent monthly rate fees. The president has SG 33 with a monthly pay of PhP57,750 or roughly US$1,200 (computed at 47 peso to a dollar).

Table 21.6 shows the equivalent SGs for constitutional positions, which range between 33 and 30 SGs. To illustrate the monthly compensation of civil servants in the Philippines, Table 21.7 indicates the pesos equivalent of the top and bottom five SGs. Annex 2 provides the complete SG list and the estimated number of positions on each level.

6The SSL schedule was adjusted in 1994. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed Joint Resolution No. 4 Series of 2009 or the Salary Standardization Law III, which intends to raise salaries by 50%. It will be imple-

mented in tranches between 2009 and 2012.

7 Mostly, GFIs and confidential staff of Congress are not covered by the SSL.

© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC