As the nation observes Civil Service Month in September, it is well to take stock of the country’s human resources in the public sector. The importance placed on the people who serve in both the national and local government offices is indicated by the fact that the Civil Service Commission (CSC) is one of three constitutional commissions — aside from the Commission on Audit and the Commission on Elections — that operate independently from the three main branches of government: executive, legislative and judiciary.
In the 1987 Constitution, Article IX emphasizes that the Constitutional Commissions enjoy fiscal autonomy and are empowered to “promulgate their own rules concerning pleadings and practice before it or before any of its offices.”
Focusing on the CSC, the Constitution provides further — “Section 3. The Civil Service Commission, as the central personnel agency of the Government, shall establish a career service and adopt measures to promote morale, efficiency, integrity, responsiveness, progressiveness, and courtesy in the civil service. It shall strengthen the merit and rewards system, integrate all human resources development programs for all levels and ranks, and institutionalize a management climate conducive to public accountability.”
Development of a highly competent career service is crucial to the competent discharge of government responsibilities and the quality of service that government offices and agencies provide to the general public.
As of June 30, 2022, the CSC reported that there were 1,820,457 career and non-career employees in the Philippine bureaucracy. About 90 percent are in the career service, which means that they have passed the civil service eligibility examinations that qualify them for promotion to higher responsibilities. Ninety eight percent are employed in the executive branch. In turn, these are distributed to national government agencies, 68 percent; local government units, 24 percent; and the remaining eight percent are employed in government owned and controlled corporations, state universities and colleges, and local water districts.
Another way of emphasizing the profile of our civil service is this: there were 836,193 teachers in 2019; about 90 percent teach in public schools; more than 220,000 are police officers and enlisted personnel in the Philippine National Police. All told, more than 60 percent of government employees are either teachers or police officers. About 21 percent are employed in the National Capital Region; the rest are distributed in 16 other regions.
“In 2021, CSC introduced a 10-year overarching theme, Transforming Public Service in the Next Decade: Honing Agile and Future-Ready Servant-Heroes. The theme reflects the collective experience of the government workforce in the new normal, and in pushing for digital transformation and innovations to uphold public service excellence and continuity.
“This year, the thematic focus is on resilience, which is part of building smart organizations and a future-ready civil service. Resilience has been shown by the civil service during the pandemic crisis in its readiness to accept challenges and ability to give continued assistance to the public.”
Indeed, the times call for Philippine civil servants to level up and intensify their level of competence and commitment to serve the citizenry and their communities.