Stability and Change :

The Civil Service in the

Philippines
Shieremell Diaz
Carlo Landicho
Maria Clarina Landicho
Kristel Maraanan
Vestiah Olave
Spanish Colonial
Period
• contemporary judgment on Spanish Civil
Service invariably points to this
extremely negative characteristics
Spanish Colonial Objectives

• converting the Indios and protecting their

welfare
• increasing royal estate through tributes,
monopolies, fees and fines

Plethora-huge body of laws were built up to

uphold economic aims of the colonial
enterprise
• Given the contradictory nature of the
colonial objectives, the bureaucrat had
much room for discretion.
1. "No se haga novedad"
-strictly commanded high officials not to
make any innovation on royal prescriptions
Two Legal formulas that could invoke and deal with contradiction

2. "obedezco pero no cumplo" or "I obey but do not

enforce"
- based on the theory that the king could not
will any wrong if he knew the local situation
Philosophy regarding public office

derived from the theory that

"The colonies were the king's personal
kingdoms, and therefore he could
dispose of anything in it through any
means that he desired."
Two conventional ways of
disposing public office
1. Appointment- positions that had judicial
functions: includes highest colonial positions
such as viceroy, governor-general, members
of the Audencia and provincial executives.

2.Purchase- criticisms against the system of

sale or purchase singled out two things: The
incompetence of the officeholders and their
rapacity.
Other factors peculiar to the colonial
situation which further aggravated the
weakness of the bureaucracy

1.Being a colonial bureaucracy, the Spanish regime in

the Philippines was a subordinate government.

2. Distance of the colony

• The temptation to yield corruption was
present no matter how an office was
acquired.
• It seems that the whole philosophy
underlying public office, as well as the
practices designed to implement such a
philosophy, made corruption not only a
natural consequence but also raised the
level of tolerance for it
Two specific devices
which were utilized to emphasize he
subordinate positions of the colonies and to
check on the behavior of colonial bureaucrats

1. Institution of visitador-general
-He was vested with investigatory, executory
and judicial powers
2. Residencia
• He required the bureaucrats to render, at
the end of their terms, an account of their
conduct while in the office
• He was mitigated by such factors as
powerful connections in Spain where
unfavorable verdicts could be reversed
 Another characteristic of Spanish Regime that
contributed to its weakness

1.Its Highly-centralized organization.

• Centralization was on a formal institutional
level, personalized in the powerful position of
the Governor-general.
• It was also in a physical sense.

2. Colonial Situation
 Cabeza de Barangay
- lowest level of participation in the colonial
bureaucracy
- headed by Cabeza
-was a member of native principalia, responsible
in looking after the peace and order of the barangay,
to see the enforcement of polo and collect taxes

As a compensation of his reponsibility, he is entitled to

one and onehalf percent of his tribute collection. He
was also addressed as Don and sit beside the
gobernadorcillos
 Gobernadorcillo
He was the head of pueblo or town, and
both an executive and judicial officer.

As a reward, he has a salary of two pesos a

month, a share of one half percent of the
tribute collection and the title of Don and
a place of importance during religious and
civil ceremonies.
 GOBERNDORCILLO
His monetary compensation was also
severely inadequate for the demands
which were official made on him.
The consequences of such imposition
on bureaucratic behavior of the
gobernadorcillo are predictable and
many of them are illegal.
• Finally it remains to note that given the
already neglible role that Filipinos
performed in the colonial goivernment, this
participation was further diminished and
rendered practically meaningless in the vast
powers of the parish priest
• Finally it remains to note that given the
already neglible role that Filipinos
performed in the colonial goivernment, this
participation was further diminished and
rendered practically meaningless in the vast
powers of the parish priest
Duties of the Parish Priest

Inspector of the primary schools

President of health board and board of charities
President of the Board urban taxation
President of the Board of statistics
He is certified to correctness of cedulas, to the
civil status of a person to the character of
individuals
He had to be present in the election for municipal
offices
• He censored municipal budgets before they were
sent to the provincial governors
• He was a counselor to the municipal council
• He was an examiner of scholars of the public
schools
• He was the censor of the plays, comedies and
dramas presented in various fiestas
• He was a member of the provincial board
AMERICAN REGIME
AMERICAN REGIME
• Significant phase in the evolution of modern
colonial policy and administration.

• Separation of Church and State

• Political Institutions set up in accordance with the

democratic and republican character of political
institutions in the US.
 PHILIPPINE COMMISSION
• Highest governmental authority

• American Governor General

▫ Chief Executive
▫ Chairman of the Philippine Commission

• ALL-FILIPINO LOWER HOUSE was

elected.
• The administration of the colony was placed in the hands
of a non political civil service.

• By the time the civil service was introduced into the

Philippines, it was essentially a “finished product” where
efficiency, economy and merit were not only the
dominant values, but where the controversies surrounding
the passage of the Pendleton Act of 1883 had added the
concept of political neutrality.
CIVIL SERVICE ACT
• “An Act for the Establishment and
Maintenance of an Efficient and Honest
Civil Service in the Philippines”

• Enacted on September 19, 1900.

 Purpose (Section 4)
• ..the establishment and maintenance of an efficient and
honest civil service in all the executive branches of the
Government of the Philippine Islands, central,
departmental and provincial and of the City of Manila,
by appointments and promotions according to
merit and by competitive examinations where
the same are practicable…
• Legislative intentions reinforced by the
implementors of the legislations.

• Two Superior Respects:

1. Free from spoils system
2. Much broader coverage
 Major Characteristics:
1. Broad in coverage
▫ Placed under one system and the classified
employees of all divisions and organs of insular,
provincial and municipal governments.
2. Centralized in Organization
▫ CIVIL SERVICE BOARD
 An independent office under the immediate
supervision and control of the Governor General.

 Exercised supervision and control over

examinations.
CIVIL SERVICE ACT
1. Prohibited any inquiry into the political or
religious views.
2. No direct or indirect solicitations
3. Competent and qualified employees
4. Security of tenure
Undesirable Features
1. Americans were paid higher salaries
It cost very much more for Americans than for
Filipinos to live in the Philippines “even where
members of both races require practically the
same necessities of life.

2. More Americans were occupying higher

positions
“a government of Americans, assisted by
Filipinos”
3. Turn out to be a failure
▫ no corps of permanent American bureaucrats
could be maintained in the colonial civil service.

4. More attractive opportunities in the US

▫ Increasing prosperity and the demand of the US
government for employees.
• Filipinization of the Civil Service

• Governor General Francis Burton Harrison

▫ Implemented the Democratic Policy of rapid
Filipinization by resorting to the following specific
measures:
1. Forced resignation
2. Reduction in pay of the higher positions
3. Abolition of certain positions
4. Creation of conditions that were intolerable to
may senior Americans in the service.
• Filipinization had resulted in what has been
referred to as:
“a bureaucracy of Filipinos,
assisted by Americans”
• Leonard Wood
▫ instructed the permanent
undersecretaries to take over from the
departmental secretaries and the rank-
and-file to carry on the work of
administration.
• Commonwealth period gave the Filipinos
greater control over their own affairs.

• Guarantee the independence and

permanence
▫ By writing into the Constitution itself a
provision on the Civil Service.
▫ This was not even part of the mandatory
provisions of the Tydings -Mc Duffie Law.
Other pieces of Legislation:

▫ 1936
 The office of the Director of Civil Service was
changed to Commissioner of Civil Service, with
the rank of Undersecretary of Department.

 ACT No. 17
 Extended the Civil Service to all branches and
subdivisions of government.

 Applied the principle of competitive

examination to all positions.
 Two other important initiatives:
1. Government Services Insurance System
(GSIS)
▫ November 1936

2. Government Survey Board

▫ Assess the government’s administrative and
organizational resources
▫ Discovered serious faults in recruitment and
position classification system
• The Second World War interrupted any
further implementation of this and other
Commonwealth Programs.
Independent republic
1946-1972
The Independent Republic
• July 4, 1946 – Philippines gained independence from US
in accordance with the provisions of the Tydings-
McDuffie Law
Problems brought by the 2nd world war
• Economic prostration and sever physical destruction of the
country
• Political amorality manifested in the vastly incidence of graft and
corruption
1945 Manila
Legislative building
before after
Manila Cathedral
before after
Jones bridge
before after
1946 Election
• Sergio Osmeña (Nacionalista Conservative Wing) 45.71%
Manuel Roxas (Nacionalista Liberal Wing) 53.94%
Hilario Moncaado (Partido Modernista )
0.35%
• No. of Registered Voters =2,898,604
• Liberal Party won 9 out of 16 senatorial seats and
49 out of 98 seats from the house of representatives
The emergence of the 2-party system
• Made the bureaucracy vulnerable to partisan
politics
• Spoils system emerged
Late 1940’s
• Security of tenure by civil servants was respected by
politicians
• But the vacancies in the newly-created DFA and
temporary positions in Dept. of Public Works and
Communication became the outlet of the spoils system
1950’s
• The Philippine Gov’t requested the US Gov’t to send a
mission to survey Philippine conditions, and to
“recommend measures that will enable the Philippines to
become and remain self-supporting”
• The US Gov’t responded by sending the Bell Mission
The Bell Mission
• led by Daniel W. Bell, an American banker, and
composed of five members, with a staff of twenty
workers, beginning in July 1950,finally submitted its
report on October of the same year
• The mission recommended solutions to the economic
and financial problems of the country
The Bell Mission
It noted:
• Although the government inherited a “reasonably well-organized
administration and well-trained civil service”, the war and the
disorders that it caused had made it difficult to restore
administrative efficiency
• The civil service system, “although designed to be based on
merit, does not function in this way”.
The Bell Mission
It Recommended:
• Special effort must be made to improve the PA in order to
give the people confidence in the government
• An economic development program which depends more on
the efficiency and honesty of the public service than any
other single factor
Philippines’ response to the
recommendations

• First Public Administration School was established in 1952,

in the University of the Philippines, under a joint contract
with the University of Michigan
• The Institute for Public Ad carried on a fourfold program
which included 1) academic curriculum, 2) in-servicing
training, 3) research, and 4) consultation services
Philippines’ response to the
recommendations
• Government Survey and Reorganization Committee (GSRC)
was organized in 1954, which was mandated to:
1. Promote the better execution of the laws, and the more
effective management of the government and the expeditious
administration of public business
2. To increase the efficiency of the operations of the
government to the fullest extent possible
Philippines’ response to the
recommendations
• The GSRC made studies and proposed organizational reforms in
the following areas: agriculture and natural resources, commerce
and industry, economic planning, education and culture, health,
labor, public works and communications, revenue system and
statistics and allied research.
• The GSRC highly prioritized the reorganization of the National
Economic Council, thereby underscoring the interdependence
between planning organization and national development
Philippines’ response to the
recommendations

• GSRC implemented plans with far-reaching

impacts for the civil service:
1. Position classification
2. The standard pay plan
3. The creation of the Wage and Position Classification
Office (WAPCO)
Legal Bases of civil service by 1950’s

• Civil Service Act of 1900

• Civil Service Rules and Regulations of 1909
• Commonwealth Act No. 177 of 1936
• In 1954, President Ramon Magsaysay created a
Committee on the Civil Service to look into the civil
service independent of the GSRC
 Legal Bases of civil service by 1950’s
The Committee judged that:
• “Personnel management is deficient and the Bureau of Civil
Service has been unable to function with the effectiveness
and efficiency expected of a central personnel agency.
• There is delay in the recruitment, examination, placement
of employees.
• There is loose and inadequate discipline of civil service
employees, and there is no program for positive personnel
management.
Legal Bases of civil service by 1950’s

The Committee judged that:

• “There are thousands of temporary employees in the
competitive service, and the government has failed to
provide the necessary means to ensure a progressive
merit system offering career opportunities
sufficiently attractive to persons of high caliber
Civil service act of 1959 (RA 2260)
• RA 2260 sought to remedy the defects of the civil
service system by:
1. Amending, repealing, or improving existing
provisions in the Civil Service Law and in other
legislation which tended to defeat the merit system
2. Making new provisions for carrying out more
effectively and economically the needs and
requirements of the public service
 Civil service act of 1959 (RA 2260)
• More specific provisions of the act:
1. Changed the Bureau of Civil Service into a Civil Service
Commission
2. Created a full-time Civil Service Board to act as
appellate body in administrative cases decided by the
CS Commissioner
3. Provided for the creation of personnel offices and
personnel officer positions in various branches of the
government
Civil service act of 1959 (RA 2260)

• More specific provisions of the act:

4. Authorized agencies to appropriate training staff and
to establish their own in-service training programs in
accordance with the standards laid down by the CSC
5. Provided an improved performance rating system as
well as an improved promotion system
6. Considered immorality and improper solicitations as
grounds for disciplinary action
The graft in corruption in 1950’s and
1960’s
“50-50 Plan” in 1959
• It is the practice of Congress and the Office of
the President dividing equally the 1,800
positions created in the 1959 Appropriation Act
• It illustrated how political and cultural factors
vitiate the workings of a progressive civil
service system
The graft in corruption in 1950’s and
1960’s
• Can be described as permeating all levels of
society
• At the lower levels, there were the petty fixers
who hung around government offices offering
to “fix” an application of another for a fee, or
employees who collected reimbursements for
spurious per diem claims, or policemen who
practiced extortion on helpless citizens
The graft in corruption in 1950’s and
1960’s
• On the middle level were the officials who profited
from fake vouchers, padded payrolls, salary
kickbacks, overstocking of government supplies, or
protection of illegal Chinese immigrants
• On the high levels were candidates for positions who
filed dishonest declarations of election campaign
expenses, political bigshots who peddled influence,
party leaders who misused public funds for partisan
purposes
The graft in corruption in 1950’s and
1960’s
• There were elite groups of grafters and corrupt
officials whose profits from corrupt
transactions with the government ran into
million pesos, but whose powerful connections
rendered them virtually untouchable by the law
The response of congress to the
upsurge of graft and corruption

FORFEITURE LAW OF 1955

• Authorized the state to forfeit in its favor any
property found to have been unlawfully
acquired during the incumbency of the
employee “which was manifestly out of
proportion to his salary and other income”
Anti-graft agencies created by the
president
• There were 9 agencies created from 1950-1970,
created in the exercise of the President’s power
to probe into anomalous activities of public
officials
• These executive committees were not only
charged with the task of implementing the anti-
graft laws, but also responsible for related
functions such as promoting administrative
efficiency, introducing reforms in government
operations and attending to public complaints.
 Anti-graft agencies created by the
president
Agency Presiden Period Duratio
t n
1. Integrity Board Quirino May 1950- 6 mos.
Nov.1950
2. Presidential Complaints and Magsaysa Dec.1955- 4 yrs. &
Action Committee (PCAC) y July 1958 7 mos.
3. Presidential Committee on Garcia July 1958- 2 yrs. &
Administrative Dec. 1961 5 mos.
4. Presidential Anti-Graft Committee Garcia Feb. 1960- 1 yr. & 1
(PAGC) Dec.1961 mo.
5. Presidential Anti-Graft Committee Macapaga Jan.1962- 4 yrs.
(PAGC) l Jan.1966
 Anti-graft agencies created by the
president
Agency Presiden Period Duratio
t n
6. Presidential Agency on Reforms and Marcos Jan. 1962- 8 mos.
Government Office (PARGO) Sept.1966
7.Presidetial Complaints and Action Marcos Sept. 1966- 1 yr.
Office (PCAO) Oct. 1967
8.Presidential Agency on Reforms and Marcos Oct. 1967- 2 yrs. &
Government Operations (PARGO) Feb.1970 4 mos.
9.Complaints and Investigation Office Marcos Feb.1970 – 16 yrs.
Feb. 1986
Anti-graft agencies created by the
president
• All the agencies lasted for a short duration,
most of them not lasting even as long as the
administration that established them.
• In general, they were ineffective and their poor
record was die to the following factors:
1. Organizational instability
2. Frequent changes in leadership
Anti-graft agencies created by the
president
4. Political pressure in employee recruitment
5. Public apathy
6. Strained relationships among the judiciary,
the legislative branches, and other
government agencies
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

“TO SAVE THE

REPUBLIC
AND TO
TRANSFORM
PHILIPPINE
SOCIETY”
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

Presidential Decree No. 1 (Reorganizing the Executive

Branch of the National Government)
- activated the Reorganization Plan

Some of the several features of the IRP (Commission on

Reorganization 1972):
1. Decentralized the national government to the extent
necessary for improved administration by:
a. reducing number of agencies directly under the
supervision of the Office of the President
b. establishing eleven uniform regional districts
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME
2. Standardized the organization and common
operational activities of departments.
a. Planning
b. Finance and management
c. Administrative
d. Technical services

3. It facilitated the preparation and execution of national

development programs by merging the National
Economic Council and the Presidential Economic Staff
into a single planning entity, which became the National
Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

4. It generated savings through such methods as the

abolition, transfer of functions and mergers of agencies
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

Succession of Presidential Decrees and Letter of

Instruction for Civil Service

PD No. 6
provided for summary discipline and removal of civil
servants, which led to “purges” of 1973 and 1975
PD No. 868
placed under civil service laws and rules GOCC’s and
repealed all provisions of charters, laws and decrees which
had exempted certain agencies
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

PD No. 807 - PROVIDING FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE

CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION IN ACCORDANCE WITH
PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, PRESCRIBING ITS POWERS
AND FUNCTIONS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
October 6, 1975

The Civil Service Decree of the Philippines

• provided new, more facilitation policies
• it redefined the role of the CSC as the central personnel
agency of the government
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

Structural changes and innovations to strengthen the

merit system
a. Conversion of the single-headed CSC to a three-men
Commission
b. The decentralization of personnel function to line
department, bureaus and regional offices
c. The provision of more effective policies on personnel
selection, promotion, discipline and training
d. Formation of a Career Executive Service (CES)
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

Three-year “Civil Service Development Plan”

Five Priority Areas:

a. career and personnel development
o Junior Executive Training (JET)
o Supervisory Training for Effective Administrative
Management (STREAM)
b. Performance evaluation
o Performance Evaluation Committees (PECs)
c. Administrative discipline
d. Recruitment and examination
e. Review of policies
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

Corruption remained a major problem!

1. Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)

a. Pervading administrative culture that tends to tolerate
corruption and create opportunities for corrupt activities
b. Weaknesses in the administrative machinery that give
ample opportunity for manipulation of financial
documents and records as well as for collusion between the
bureaucrat and the client
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

2. Board of Transportation 1979

Now: Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory
Board (LTFRB) 1987

a. Facilitation or delay in the processing of or taking of action

on the papers
b. Circumventing specified steps or processes
c. Approving the paper or equipment assessed even if it fails to
conform to the standard
d. Engaging in business with the client while in the
performance of his duties by the bureaucrat
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

Creation of Tanodbayan (Ombudsman) and

Sandiganbayan

 Both are independent of the President and are assured of

organizational stability by the Constitutional provisions
 They require that actions for suits be initiated by citizens
 In operation for more than five years
 Have established a fairly impressive record of the number of
cases they have handled as well as in the number of
convictions
THE MARTIAL LAW REGIME

State of civil service system

The situation reveals a basic conflict between the

standards that we hold in theory and our ability to
maintain them in practice

Our capacity to obey the laws and to punish the

offenders does not seem to have undergone any palpable
improvement over more than three decades of the
independent republic.
CIVIL SERVICE TODAY
Scope:
• It embraces all branches, subdivisions,
instrumentalities, and agencies of the Philippine
government, including government-owed or
controlled corporations with original charters.
• Local government units such as the provinces,
municipalities and barangays, being the political
subdivisions of the state, also form part of the
system
Today,
Categories of Civil Service
1. Career Service

2. Non-career Service
1. Career Service
▫ Features
 Competitive examination
 Opportunity for advancement
 Security of tenure
Classifications of positions in Career Service

First level
- clerical
- trades
- crafts
- custodial service positions
- which involve non-professional or sub-
professional work in a non-supervisory or
supervisory capacity requiring less than four
years of collegiate studies
Second level
- Professional
- Technical and Scientific positions involving
professional, technical or scientific work in a
non-supervisory or supervisory capacity
requiring at least four years of college work up to
Division Chief level

Third level
- Positions in the Career Executive Service
Non-career service
• pertains to the part of the civil service characterized by entrance
not based on the usual tests of merit and fitness, and tenure is
otherwise limited.

covers:
- elective officials;
- officials holding their positions at the pleasure of the
President;
- chairmen and members of commissions and boards with fixed
term of office and their personal and confidential staff;
- contractual personnel;
- emergency and seasonal personnel.
Role of the Civil Service Commission
1. to promulgate policies, standards, and guidelines
for the civil service and adopt plans and programs
to promote economical, efficient, and effective
personnel administration in the government;

2. to formulate policies and regulations for the

administration, maintenance and implementation
of position classification and compensation and set
standards for the establishment, allocation and
reallocation of pay scales, classes and positions;
3. to control, supervise and coordinate civil service
examinations and prescribe all forms for civil
service examinations, appointments, reports and
such other forms required by law;

4. to formulate, administer and evaluate

programs relative to the development and
retention of qualified and competent workforce
in the public service;
5. to hear and decide administrative cases
instituted or brought before it;

6. to take appropriate action on all appointments

and other personnel matters;

7. to inspect and audit the personnel actions and

programs of the departments, agencies, bureaus,
offices, local government units and other
government instrumentalities.
 Members of the Civil Service Commission
Chairman :
FRANCISCO T. DUQUE

Appointed as Civil Service Commission Chairman

in 2010
 Commissioner :
Nieves L. Osorio

Appointed as commissioner of the Civil

Service Commission by President Benigno
Simeon C. Aquino replacing Ms. Mary Ann
Fernandez-Mendoza.
 Commissioner
Robert S. Martinez

appointed by President Benigno S. Aquino III

as Commissioner in July 2012. Having both the
legal qualifications and competence on human
resource, and a solid foundation from his 23-
year track in government service, 
Assistant Commissioner: Rogelio C. Limare

Assistant Commissioner of Office of Legal Affairs:

Ariel G. Ronquillo

Assistant Commissioner: David E. Cabanag Jr.

Executive Director of Civil Service Institute:

Agnes D. Padilla

Head Executive Assistant: Mae Nina R. Gallos

Director IV, Region IV: Judith Dongallo-Chicano
References
• http://malacanang.gov.ph/74681-elections-of-1946/
• http://www.senate.gov.ph/about/history.asp
• Antoinette R. Raquiza, State Structure, Policy Formation, and
Economic Development in Southeast Asia (New York, 2012)
• Jenny Balboa and Erlinda M. Medalla, Anti-Corruption
and Governance: The Philippine Experience (Ho Chi Minh
City, 2006)