Working Paper in Economics and Business Volume II No.2/2012 Civil Service Reform in The Philippines: Building Strong Governance Prijono Tjiptoherijanto March 2012 Department of Economics Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia 1 Working Paper in Economics and Business Chief Editor: Suahasil Nazara Editor:Djoni Hartono Setting:Rus'an Nasrudin Copyright c 2011, Department of Economics ISSN 2089-2039 Department of Economics Building 2nd Floor Depok West Java, Indonesia 16424 Telp. 021-78886252 Email:[email protected] Web:http://econ.fe.ui.ac.id/workingpage 2 Contents Contents 3 List of Tables 4 1 Introduction 1 2 History of Reforms1 3 Toward Administrative Reform3 4 Concluding Remarks6 List of Tables 1 Attributes of the Philippine Civil Service, February 1992...............4 2 Required Shift in Paradigm...............................5 Civil Service Reform in The Philippines: Building Strong GovernanceI Prijono Tjiptoherijantoa aDepartment of Economics, Universitas Indonesia Abstract The connection between administrative reform and civil society, was an issue on the agenda of the New Public Management (NPM) in the 1960's and 1970's. While reinventing government movement has stimulated both interest in and criticism of the impact on civil society of public sector entrepreneurship. Modernizing the civil service starts by \bringing the citizens in". Therefore, a strong and sincere leadership in government's bureaucracy is needed. In the other words, building a strong and democratic government is a must. Keywords: Reinventing government, citizen involvement, strong leadership 1. Introduction 19, 1990 of the Second Philippine Commission entitled \An Act for the Establishment and The Civil Service System in the Philippines Maintenance of an Efficient and Honest Civil is a product of its colonial history under Spain Service in the Philippines Island." It estab- and the United States of America. The First lished the framework for a merit-based civil ser- Philippines Commission, otherwise known as vice system, mandating the appointment and the Schurman Commission, adopted and orga- promotion to government positions according nized by America President William McKinley, to merit and through competitive examinations laid down the foundation of the Philippines's as far as possible. Civil Service. This was established on January, The Bureau of Civil Service was established, 20, 1899. The objective was to formulate the then, on November 31, 1900, with the mandate criteria for employment of Filipinos in the gov- that the \greatest care should be taken in the ernment . Therefore, as early as April 1899, selection of official for civil administration." To the Schurman Commission guaranteed to the head the various executive and line agencies, Filipino people \an honest and effective civil the Philippine Commission preferred American service in which, to the fullest extent applica- civilians or military men who had been honor- ble, natives shall be employed". ably discharged. All recruits, both American and Filipino, were to be \men of the highest 2. History of Reforms character and fitness” who could conduct their 1 The Civil Service System in the Philippines duties unaffected by \partisan politics" . was established by Act No. 5 on September In 1916 the Civil Service Law was embodied in the new Administrative Code. The Bureau IBased on the field research conducted under the of Civil Service was, however, to continue un- financial support from API-The Nippon Foundation (TNF), Tokyo, Japan, 2007-2008. Email address: [email protected] (Prijono 1Report of the Philippine Commission, January 31, Tjiptoherijanto) 1900 (Washington, DC, : GPO, 1902-1916),p.121. 1 P. Tjiptoherijanto/Civil Service Reform in the Philippines 2 der the control of an American director until As far as the civil service itself were con- Jose Gil was appointed in 1920 as the first Fil- cerned, the IRP also provided the conversion ipino Director of Civil Service. American lead- of the single headed Civil Service Commission ership, coupled with Filipino cooperation made (CSC) into a three-man body and the forma- possible good government service throughout tion of the Career Executive Service (CES). the period of 1899-1920. The period 1913-1921 Two dramatic purges undertaken in 1973 and marked the rapid Filipinozation of Civil Ser- 1975 through which thousands of government vice. In 1913, there were 2,623 Americans and employees, including cabinet members, were 6,365 Filipinos in the government services. By fired, delivered the message that the regime 1921, there were only 614 Americans as against was not going to tolerate bad behavior. The 13,240 Filipinos at the services. bureaucracy under President Marcos become On June 19, 1959, the new era for the civil more subservient than at any other time in the service was ushered in with the approval by Philippine history (Endriga, 2001,p.216). President Carlos P. Garcia of the Republic Under President Corazon Aquino, who was Act No. 2260 which set down the new Civil sworn in after the four day \people power \re- Service Law. It was one of the most pro- volt of February 22-25, 1986, another wave of gressive merit systems in the world at that administrative reforms was introduced. Aside time. Among many benefits, it provided ca- from restoring democratic institution and rat- reer and employee development, employee sug- ifying the new 1987's, Constitution of the Re- gestions and incentive awards, progressive per- public of the Philippines, guidelines for pro- formance rating and promotion plans, and op- moting public participation and private initia- portunity for the establishment of complaints tive in state affairs were established. Account- and grievances procedures. ability institutions, such as CSC, Commission Despite such efforts, many defects was still On Audit (COA), and Tanodbayan (an inde- found in the civil service system. Delays in re- pendent office of the ombudsman), which were cruitment examination and placement of em- established during the Marcos era, were given ployees, inadequate discipline of civil service expanded powers under the new Constitution. employee, the inability to attract persons of Civil society organization became more visible high caliber into the civil service, widespread in government decision making and program use of the spoil system, and rampart graft and implementation. According to one observer : corruption were characteristics of the civil ser- \this was the most comprehensive articulation vice until the decade of the 1970s. of bureaucracy for democracy" (Carino, 1989, p.12). By virtue of Presidential Decree No. 1, which was made part of the law of the land Taking advantage of its revolutionary char- on September 24, 1972, President Ferdinand acter, the Aquino Government resorted to a E. Marcos had implemented the Integrated Re- purge of thousands of civil servants through the organization Plan (IRP) which promised the expedient of reorganization aiming to down- most extensive and wrenching effort at ad- size the bloated government bureaucracy. Al- ministrative reform in the countrys history. though the said step was justified, paradoxi- The IRP provided for decentralizing and re- cally, the number of civil servants and political ducing the bureaucracy, and standardizing de- appointees, who did not enter through the tra- partmental organization. The IRP also sought ditional career system and many of them from to introduce structural changes and reforms to the private sector, in the government, increased strengthen the merit system as well as profes- considerably. The proliferation of political ap- sionalize the civil service system. pointees blurred the merit and career system P. Tjiptoherijanto/Civil Service Reform in the Philippines 3 of the civil service. istration. The PCEG was likewise reactivated Civil service reform efforts were minimal as the ad-hoc body that shall be the focal point during the presidential tenures of Fidel Ramos of administrative reforms in the civil service. (1992-1998) and Joseph Estrada (1998-2001). In October 4, 2004, the Department of Budget President Ramos simply focused on giving life and Management (DBM) and the CSC pursued to the concept of new public management the Rationalization Program as mandated in (NPM) with the end goal of reengineering the the executive order from the Presidents. civil service. His flagship program was the The Philippine bureaucracy is generally \Philippines 2000" which was envisioned to weak and not fully designed to cope with the make the country globally competitive by pur- needs of development or successfully undertake suing the thrusts of deregulation, market lib- reform efforts. For nearly half a century, the eralization and privatization. The reengineer- Philippines was caught in an endless cycles of ing plan, however, remain just that with the reform exercises that hardly produced tangible Congress not lying down the legal framework and lasting results. In fact, its lack of admin- for streamlining the bureaucracy. istrative capacity made institutionalizing such- needed reforms extremely difficult. As a sur- Under the Estrada Administration, Exec- vey conducted in February 1992 by the Social utive Order No.165 or \Directing the For- Weather Stations (SWS), a reputable poling mulation of an Institutional Strengthening organization in the Philippines, showed that and Streamlining Program for the Executive high government officials were perceived as not Branch" laid down the \Re-Engineering the suited to their positions2. The same survey