What A Rightsizing Bill Means for the Philippine Workforce

Philippine senators have approved on final reading a bill that seeks to “rightsize” the government bureaucracy, a measure labor advocates and groups have criticized citing concerns over the employment of state workers.

The Senate resumed its session Monday (June 2) and unanimously approved Senate Bill No. 890 or the Government Optimization Act. The bill aims to get rid of obsolete government positions and to eliminate duplications.

It also seeks to give the President the power to scale down agencies under the Executive branch of government and to simplify rules, regulations, and processes of state bureaucracy.

Senate President Chiz Escudero, who authored the measure, has tried to quell criticisms on the measure as he said it would also create new positions and new offices, as well as upskilling programs to optimize government services.

“The objective of rightsizing is not about saving money but being able to deliver services to the people more efficiently,” he said after the bill’s approval.

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The measure will exempt Congress, the Judiciary, commissions, the ombudsman’s office, local government units, and teaching-related positions in the education sector from the rightsizing process. However they would still be able to optimize their offices.

Military and uniformed personnel at the Departments of National Defense, Interior and Local Government, Transportation, Environment, and Justice are also exempted from rightsizing.

What Would Rightsizing Agencies Do To The Philippine Workforce?

“Here’s the truth: all past efforts to ‘rightsize,’ ‘streamline,’ and “rationalize’ the bureaucracy have done one thing — shrink the regular workforce without actually reducing the bureaucracy,” Joshua Mata, Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa secretary-general, told Esquire Philippines in an interview.

Under the rightsizing bill, affected state workers with five to 11 years of service would be entitled to half their monthly salary for every year of service.

Escudero, the Senate president, earlier said it would not necessarily downsize the government and remove employees, but would focus on the goal of raising the quality of state services.

At the House of Representatives, a similar measure was given the green light in March 2023, with its version mandating the formation of a committee on rightsizing that would oversee and review the roles and functions and manpower levels of Executive agencies.

“Rightsizing entails a process of consultation with employees and conducting audit and evaluation of jobs or functions of an agency or department, not a one-way decision from the heads or management of the agency or department,” said Renato Magtubo, chairman of Partidong Manggagawa and a former congressman.

“As such, state workers can only be protected by this bill if they—along with their unions if there any—are part of the process.”

Joblessness in the Philippines inched up in March to 3.9 percent from a month earlier, according to latest data from the Philippine Statistics Agency as of May. This was despite the country posting a slight dip to 1.93 million unemployed Filipinos in March from 1.94 million in February.

Job quality also worsened in March as the number of underemployed Filipinos, or those who seek longer working hours or additional work, increased to 6.44 million from 4.96 million in February.

“We have every reason to be skeptical of this new round of so-called rightsizing,” Mata said. “You can’t talk about reform while denying workers their rights."