Rightsizing won’t shrink government, says Escudero
MANILA, Philippines — A bill hoping to “rightsize” the government has reached the Senate plenary, with Senate President Francis Escudero himself forwarding the bill.
On Wednesday, Esscudero said the number of employees in government has ballooned to 1.9 million as of 2022, leading to a cost of P1.39 trillion for the government in the same year.
“Ang rightsizing ay hindi nangangahulugan na papaliitin natin ang gobyerno at magtatanggal tayo ng employado. Isang ibig sabihin nito, itataas natin ang kalidad ng serbisyo, manlilikha tayo ng pwesto na angkop at tunay na kailangan ng ating mga kababayan na bagay sa mga tinapos ng mga kasulukuyang employado ng ating pamahalaan,” Escudero said.
(Rightsizing does not mean that we will downsize the government and remove employees. This only means we will raise the quality of service, we will create positions more fit to the true needs of our citizens, and fitted to the current employees of the government.)
The bill, titled “An Act Rightsizing the National Government to Improve Public Service Delivery and for other purposes,” was authored by Escudero prior to assuming the senate presidency. It is one of the priority measures named by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.
In the same plenary session, Sen. Joel Villanueva expressed his support for the bill.
“The ultimate objective of this representation and measure is to streamline government roles; streamline functions, mandates, and programs in order to achieve our social and economic development goals while ensuring the protection of government workers’ welfare and promoting fiscal responsibility and the efficient use of our taxpayer's money,” Villanueva said.
Under the measure, the government may “minimize, if not eliminate, redundancies, overlaps, and duplications in its operations.”
The bill would only cover the agencies in the executive branch such as departments, bureaus, offices, commissions and more.
Other branches of government such as Congress, the judiciary, constitutional commissions are not covered by the measure.
Escudero also said personnel under the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as well as military and uniformed personnel will not be included in the measure. Teachers under the Department of Education are also exempt from the law.
If passed, the measure allows the president several powers when it comes to rightsizing, including a provision that allows them to “scale down, phase out, eliminate or discontinue functions, programs, projects or activities that could be better carried out or undertaken by the private sector.”
The Department of Budget and Management echoed the sentiments of the two senators.
In a statement on Thursday, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the goal was to enhance efficiency.
“This is optimizing our bureaucracy. We want to make a faster government that is more sensitive to the demands of the time. We do not want a government that is short on quality service. The public’s money should not be wasted,” Pangandaman said in Filipino.
However, a labor group has expressed their opposition to the bill, as an undetermined number of government employees could lose their jobs.
Federation of Free Workers president Sonny Matula said in an interview with ANC that rightsizing usually leads to mass layoffs.
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