Photo Release

On Filling Up Plantilla Positions: Sen. Joel Villanueva, chairman of the Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resources Development, notes the vacant plantilla positions in the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the 4,500 job orders and casuals. Villanueva, during the virtual hearing of Finance Subcommittee B Friday, October 16, 2020, on the proposed 2021 DA budget said that while other government agencies had improved in filling up their plantilla positions, the DA has yet to fill up 2,600 positions in the Office of the Secretary, 600 positions in Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and about 1,000 other positions in the department which remained vacant since 2019. “I raised this issue last year during the budget hearing (and) it’s still the same. How do you plan to fill up these positions within next year, Mr. Secretary,” the senator asked. Agriculture Sec. William Dar said the agency is looking at every possibility of recruiting all qualified staff to fill up the plantilla positions; but due of the pandemic, there is a need to review the plantilla positions because not all of them are necessary. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)