The urgency of filling up thousands of unoccupied positions in the Philippine civil service has come to the fore anew in the current Senate deliberations on the proposed government budget.

Last year, President Marcos, upon the Department of Budget and Management’s recommendation, allowed the renewal and extension of contract of service (COS) and job order (JO) workers until Dec. 31, 2025, to give them the opportunity to enhance their credentials to be able to apply and fill thousands of backlogged vacant positions.

In the ongoing Senate budget hearings for fiscal year 2026, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) revealed that over 83,000 first-level positions across government remain unfilled and that the qualification standards for many positions are already outdated, having been reviewed 15 years ago.

Through the years, the DBM and the CSC have shared the responsibility for human resource management (HRM) in the government. The CSC is the central personnel agency responsible for promoting excellence in HRM. The DBM is the architect and custodian of the national budget that rationalizes the deployment of people across all government functions. While the CSC develops rules and regulations governing recruitment, selection, learning and development, performance management, and employee relations, the DBM issues and implements policies regarding position classification, compensation, and other budgetary matters.

To address long-standing gaps in human resource management, Senator Camille Villar has filed the Regularization of Work Engagement in Government Service Act, which seeks to grant permanent appointment and civil service eligibility to “individuals who have rendered at least five years of continuous service in national government agencies, government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs), and state universities and colleges (SUCs), or 10 years in local government units (LGUs).” She has proposed that covered employees will be appointed to permanent plantilla positions within their respective agencies. The bill also directs agencies to request staffing modifications from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to accommodate the regularization process.

The proposed bill also addresses the imperative need to modernize qualification standards and update outdated pay scales, which Civil Service Commissioner Chairperson Marilyn Yap said must be reformed to reflect current skills and responsibilities. Indeed, this will enhance overall efficiency and strengthen accountability which are key priorities in addressing recurring problems of underspending and slow project execution.

From the DBM’s perspective, as articulated by Budget and Management Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, there is urgency in reducing the huge backlog in filling up government vacancies. Out of the total 2,017,380 plantilla positions in the national government, 92 percent are filled, while the remaining eight percent or some 168,000 positions remain unfilled. She supports the proposal to prioritize incumbent JO and COS workers in closing the significant gap.

While government leaders exert strenuous efforts to fill up the huge gap in manpower deployment, there must be continuing efforts to heighten and level up collaboration between the CSC and the DBM. The overlap is most apparent in areas requiring both agencies' expertise, such as compensation and benefits. The CSC sets the standards, and the DBM ensures these are affordable within the national budget.

The nation commends both agencies’ determination to overcome challenges in closing the existing gaps in people deployment as well as the deficit in capacity and aptitude that must be bridged to ensure that the citizenry obtains the highest level of satisfactory public services.