Civil Service System: The

Philippine Experience
JULIFE B. TEBIA
MM Student/ Reporter
Civil Service- refers to the body of employees in any
government including all employees of the government in
general.
- the body of government officials who are employed in civil
occupations that are neither political nor judicial. The term
refers to employees selected and promoted on the basis of a
merit and seniority system, which may include examinations.
(Britannica.com)
- it embraces all branches, subdivisions, instrumentalities and
agencies of the government including GOCC’s
- It is basically the workforce of the government
 CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM
- Is a product of the American regime in the country inspired by the Pendleton Act
of the early 1900s
- (Pendleton Act- federal govt jobs be rewarded on the basis of merit and that govt
employees be selected through competitive exams.)
Philippines:
- CS shall be administered by the CSC composed of the Chairman and two
Commissioners who shall be a natural born citizen of the Philippines, at least 35
years of age, with proven capacity for public administration, and must not have
been candidate for any elective position in the elections immediately preceding their
appointment. (Art. IX, Sec. 1, 1987 Philippine Constituiton)
Development of Civil Service in the Philippines
• 1900- 2nd Philippine Commission established formally the Civil Service System in the
Philippines pursuant to Public Law No. 5- “An Act for the Establishment and Maintenance of
Our Efficient and Honest Civil Service in the Philippine Island.”
• Civil Service Board- (Composition: Chairman, secretary, chief examiner) they administered
civil service examinations and set standards for appointment in government service. The
board was reorganized into a bureau five years later in 1905
• 1935 Phil. Const.- merit system was established as the basis for employment in the
government and became a statutory body under the Commonwealth period beginning in
1935. It expanded in its jurisdiction to include the national government, local government
and government corporations
• RA 2260- Civil Service Law(1959)- the 1st integral law on the Philippine bureaucracy,
superseding the scattered administrative orders relative to govt personnel administration
issued since 1900. This Act converted the Bureau of Civil Service into the Civil Service
Commission with department status.
• 1975- PD 807 (The Civil Service Decree of the Philippines)- redefined the role of
the Commission as the central personnel agency of the government.
• CSC- institutionalized under Art. IX-B of the 1987 Philippine Constitution that
was given effect through Book V of EO 292 or the Administrative Code of 1987.
• reiterates existing principles and policies in the administration of
the bureaucracy and recognizes the right of government employees to self-
organization and collective organizations under the framework of the 1987
Constitution
 CATEGORY OF CIVIL SERVICE
Career Service- the entry to a civil service career is based on merit and be determined as
far as practiceable by competitive examinations based on highly technical qualifications,
opportunity to advancement to higher career positions, and security of tenure.
• This includes:
• Open career positions- appointment to any level in the career service which requires
qualification in an appropriate examinations or other modes in accordance with law;
• Closed career positions- scientific and highly technical. This includes the faculty
members of state colleges and universities.
• Career executive service- department secretary, undersecretary, bureau director,
assistant bureau director, regional director, and other or ranks as identified by the Career
Executive Service Board;
• Permanent laborers- skilled, semi- skilled, or unskilled
• Personnel of GOCC, whether performing governmental or proprietary
functions
• Commissioned officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces, which shall
maintain a separate merit system
• Non- Career Service- characterized by entrance on bases other than the usual tests of merits
and fitness utilized for the Career Service and tenure which is limited to a period specified by
law, tenure which is co-terminus with that of the appointing authority or subject to his
pleasure, or which is limited to the duration of a subject for which purpose employment was
made.
• Examples: elective officials and their personal and confidential staff; department heads and
officials with cabinet ranks; chairmen and members of Commissions and boards with fixed
term of office and their personal or confidential staff; contractual personnel to undertake a
specific work or job, requiring technical skills not available in the employing agency; and
emergency and seasonal personnel
 Positions exempt from Examinations

• Policy determining- a position is reserved to someone who exudes competent in

decision- making process and public policy system like positions of cabinet secretaries.
• Highly technical office- one should possess technical and necessary skills and trainings
in a related field. Professional and competent persons fit this particular degree or office
like professors or scientists.
• Confidential positions- requires confidence in the aptitude of the appointee for the duties
of the officials, but has close intimacy which ensures freedom of intercourse without
embarrassment or freedom of misgiving or betrayals of personal trust or confidential
matters of the state. Ex. Clerks or drivers
 Recruitment and Appointment in Civil Service
• Opportunity for government employment shall be open to all qualified citizens and positive
efforts shall be exerted to attract the best qualified to enter the service. Employees shall be
selected on the basis of fitness to perform the duties and assume the responsibilities of the
position. (The 1987 Administrative Code of the Philippines)
• Appointment in the Civil Service is based on the merit system determined by the
competitive career examination (sub- professional and professional examination).
• Technocrats- exempt from the requirement by the Civil Service Exam- they specialized in
their chosen field of expertise and those devoid of partisan politics to assume relatively
sensitive and technical offices (Art. IX-B, Sec. 1)
Prohibitions

• No officer or employee of the civil service shall be removed or suspended

except for cause provided by law;
• No officer or employee in the civil service shall engage, directly, in any
electioneering or partisan political campaign; and
• The right to self- organization shall not be denied to government employees
Appointment

• A certification to a position in the civil service shall be issued to a person

who has been selected from a list of qualified persons certified by the
Commission from an appropriate register of eligible candidates and who
meets all the requirements of the position. All such persons must serve a
probationary period of six months following their original appointment and
shall undergo a thorough character investigation in order to acquire
permanent civil service status.
 Policies in the Philippine Civil Service, UN
Report, 2004

• For every position in the government, minimum standards are set pertaining
to education, training, experience, and eligibility requirements. These
standards have been upgraded, e.g. higher minimum passing mark in the
eligibility examination from 70% to 80% and a master degree for division
chief position. Only those who meet the minimum requirements of the vacant
position shall be considered for permanent position.
Remuneration
• 1987 Constitution, Art IX-B, Sec 5, “The Congress shall provide for the standardization of
compensation of government officials and employees, including those in the GOCC with
original charters, taking into account the nature of the responsibilities pertaining to, and the
qualifications required for, their positions.”
• EO 292- … adjustments in salaries as a result of increase in pay levels of upgrading of
positions which do not involve a change in qualification requirements shall not require a
new appointment except that copies of the salary adjustment notices shall be submmitted to
the Commission for record purposes.
• Salary Standardization Law- upgrading of salary scales for public servants
Other monetary benefits

• Increase in overtime pay- from 100% of basic pay to 150% on holidays and
weekends
• Expansion of the coverage of the Personnel Economic Relief Assistance
(PERA) to all employees
• Productivity pay
• Hazard pay
• Anniversary bonus
Promotion and Performance Evaluation

• Promotion- a movement from one position to another with an increase in duties and responsibilities
as authorized by law and usually accompanied by an increase in pay. The movement may be from
one organizational unit to another in the same department or agency
• No civil service examination shall be required for promotion to a higher position in one or more
related occupational groups. A candidate for promotion should, however, have previously passed the
examination for that level.
• The employees in the department/ government service who shall occupy the next lower positions in
the occupational group under which the vacant position is classified, and in other functionally
related occupational groups and who are competent, qualified and with appropriate civil service
eligibility shall be considered for promotion.
• Performance evaluation system- gauge for the competence of employees in the civil
service which is done every six months. Outstanding rating is given to those who
perform well and exceed the target by more than 50%.
• Poor performance- could be a ground for separation from the service.
• Honor Awards Program- conferred by the President of the Philippines which
recognizes outstanding employees every year
• Lingkod Bayan and Dangal ng Bayan Awards- are annual awards given to employees
which make them savor their worth and competence in the public service
 Gender and Development Center

• 1975- The National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW)

was established to review, evaluate and recommend measures, including
priorities to ensure the full integration of women for economic, social and
cultural development at all levels, and to ensure further the equality between
men and women.
• (GAD point persons were established to all government agencies)
• NCRFW oversees the implementation of the Institutional Strengthening Project Phase II-
aims to strengthen the capabilities of oversight agencies in maintaining gender concerns in
planning, policy formulation, program development and implementation, and monitoring
and evaluation.
• Medium Term Philippine Development Plan(MTPDP) 2001-2004= further ensured that
programs and projects financed by the national budget and Official Development
Assistance(ODA) appropriately integrated women and gender concerns
• Philippine Civil Service Commission- has been working with mainstreaming gender and
development concerns in the recruitment, appointment, promotion, and retention purposes
 Philippine Laws related to women’s career
concerns
• RA 8551- Philippine National Police Act of 1998 otherwise known as Reform
and Reorganization of the Philippine National Police (PNP) which mandates
that 10% of the police force should be women.
• RA 8972- Solo Parent’s Welfare Act of 2000 which basically relieve solo
parents of the burden of raising a family alone by institutionalizing adequate
state assistance and relevant support services both for the solo parents and
their children.
 Personnel Training and Development

• Employees are to be provided with at least one human resource development

interventions every year for their personal growth and career advancement.
• Local and international scholarship program was launched to provide
education and other learning opportunities for various levels of personnel
 Some Issues and Concerns in the Philippine
Civil Service

• Civil servants belong to the world of unelected government personnel who in

contrast with the elected politicians cannot be accounted for their actions in
the same manner as the elected ones.
• The issue of accountability is simply one of the many concerns that the
central government needs to address in order to reform the bureaucracy.
Reforming the civil service is a continuing effort so that public service may
come and reach the people just the way they are expected to do.
The Question of Numbers vs. Performance- the
ratio of our civil servants per population size is
1:60 compare to 1:112 of US and 1:141 of India or
with Singapore with a ratio of 1:78 while
France(1:13) with a population of about 66M has
civil service force at around 5M, compared to a
larger population in the Philippines with only 1.5M

• Our bureaucracy is not bloated

More than the numbers is the work performance of the
bureaucracy. It is expected that civil servants are
professional, politically neutral and accountable at all time
to the public whom they serve.
Three Guiding Principles on the organization of
Civil Service(Abueva, 1998:107):

• Merit and fitness shall govern its recruitment procedures;

• Its political neutrality shall ensure that it is responsive to the people through
their elected representatives and that it does not take any active part in, or use
its institutional power for, any partisan political activity;
• Security of tenure shall protect civil servants from removal without cause.
 Civil Service and the Political Executives

• Civil Service- (historically) has been subordinate and accountable to the President
and the Congress. President- responsible at the frontlines for the delivery of the
government’s various services to the people and the performance of its regulatory
functions. Presidents come and go but the bureaucracy stays on. It is partly
responsive and responsible to the President and his cabinet members as political
administrators; however, much of the bureaucracy is also self- serving, disdainful of
ordinary citizens, and resistant to progressive change. This is how the bureaucracy
act as both an implementing arm of the President and a constraint on his presidential
power and leadership
 Civil Service and the Legislature
• Observations:
• Letters of recommendation and similar pressures from party leaders had become common
and then decisive in appointments to key career positions in the 1950s
• By 1970s, the assault by the parties had virtually destroyed the competitive examination
systems
• By the 1980s, politics had reduced the commission to an ineffectual personnel records office
• Politicalization of most positions was demoralizing
• Civil servants lost public regard and their once high status was weakened
 Laws concerning the Philippine Civil Service
(since the democratic regime of Pres. Aquino)
• To achieve more efficiency and enhance effectiveness in its operations
• For the promotion of the civil servants, including employees’ merit promotion, recognition,
welfare benefits and non- monetary assistance
• RA 3019- Anti- Graft and Corrupt Practices Act
• RA 6713- Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees
• Art XI, Sec. 1 of the 1987 Constitution- “Public office is a public trust. Public officers and
employees must at all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost
responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead
modest lives”
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC