Press Release
September 3, 2020

Imee: Fill up 178k vacant gov't posts, end 'ENDO' now

Senator Imee Marcos has castigated the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for abetting high unemployment amid the Covid-19 pandemic by failing to certify applicants eligible for thousands of government jobs that have been left vacant for years.

Marcos, who will sponsor the CSC budget for 2021, said more than 269,000 permanent government positions were left unfilled in 2019, with almost 178,000 still vacant at the end of August this year.

"When government positions are left unfilled, the unused budget for hiring personnel are later declared as yearend savings. These suspicious savings become bonuses divvied up among agency officials," she explained.

Marcos cited that some Php7.6 billion from the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF) in the 2020 budget remains unused to hire new personnel in various government agencies.

Internal wrangling among CSC board members and a passive attitude in taking government agencies to task were complicating the delay in filling up vacant government posts, Marcos added.

"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Ceasefire and work, serbisyo muna (service first)," Marcos said.

"The CSC will have difficulty justifying its proposed budget for next year if no initiatives are made for better housekeeping," Marcos warned.

Marcos recommended that the CSC fast-track a policy that makes contractual employees eligible for government jobs that they have performed for years but from which they could not claim commission-certified salaries and benefits.

"The government must stop being the biggest promoter of end-of-contract employment. Let's stop treating contractuals as mere supplies whose salaries are taken from funds for miscellaneous and other operating expenses," Marcos said.

Marcos added that idle funds for government posts that continue to remain vacant should be removed from proposed agency budgets and instead be used to increase funding for the government's pandemic response measures.

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