House bill to cut down government workforce passes final reading
MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has approved on final reading a bill seeking to cut down the government workforce and eliminate redundancies across different agencies.
House Bill 7240 or the National Government Rightsizing Act, which garnered 292 votes in favor and only three votes against, allows the president to reduce the number of government employees and reorganize, merge, streamline or abolish agencies and offices through the National Government Rightsizing Program.
The measure is the first in the list of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s pet bills as mentioned in his first State of the Nation Address.
The rightsizing program, as proposed in HB 7240, will cover all agencies and personnel under the Executive Branch, except for positions related to teaching, the medical and allied-medical field and all military and uniformed personnel.
Rep. Jonathan Flores, chair of the government reorganization committee, said in his sponsorship speech for the bill that the NGRP would help speed up government transactions and public services by simplifying the government structure.
Flores added that the measure aims to “minimize duplicative, unnecessary or conflicting functions in the bureaucracy, as these often lead to confusing regulations,” as well as placing a burden on the “transacting public,” among others.
The Department of Budget and Management expressed its support for government rightsizing in 2022, believing that a smaller bureaucracy would better serve the public.
Massive unemployment
While the measure proposes a range of retirement benefits and separation incentives for public servants that will lose their jobs, Rep. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela Women’s Party) said that the removal will have the largest impact on rank-and-file and contractual workers.
“There is also the possibility that the P14.8 billion that the government will save through the program will not go to public services for Filipinos. This could be used to pay for the country’s debts and become a source of corruption,” Brosas said in Filipino. She voted against the bill, along with Makabayan bloc lawmakers Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist) and Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers Partylist).
The DBM estimated in 2022 that about P14.8 billion could be saved if the rightsizing program covers 5% of all government workers.
Manuel said that instead of removing a large chunk of its employees, the government should add more positions and regularize contractual workers to speed up the delivery of its services, especially in education and healthcare.
“The government is one of those primarily implementing contractualization, if not at the forefront, and now government will be an example of widespread (job removals),” Manuel said in Filipino.
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