MANILA – The Arroyo administration is seriously reconsidering its announced plan for the mass dismissal of government workers due to the deepening global economic and financial crisis, a senior Cabinet member disclosed.
Cerge Remonde, who just took over as press secretary on February 1, explained the change of heart on the part of Malacanang arose from the warning of Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto that the dismissals could worsen the country’s unemployment situation.
The mass layoffs are at the heart of the government’s rationalization program to reduce the number of civil servants, now estimated at 1.2 million, and transform them into a “lean but mean” bureaucracy to deliver basic services to the people.
Initially, the plan is to implement the program in 2009 by reducing the government workforce by 9,000 by offering them “tempting” retirement packages, including increased financial benefits.
However, Remonde said Recto warned the streamlining of the bureaucracy could lead to even higher unemployment rates as downsizing has become the trend for private companies seeking to keep their profits high or prevent losses amid the worsening global economic crunch.
The militant non-government organization, Ibon Foundation, estimated that in 2008, 10.7 million able-bodied Filipinos were unemployed and the figure is projected to bloat as the global crisis affects Philippines businesses in 2009.
Remonde admitted that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who issued an executive order for the rationalization program as early as 2003, is open to Recto’s proposal for a reconsideration of its implementation.
He added the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), which Recto also chairs, would meet to assess the situation and submit its recommendation to the Cabinet for approval.
Under the program, state workers whose positions are deemed “redundant” will be offered early retirement packages or will be transferred to other government offices where their skills are needed.
Officials explained that “redundant” in this sense means that the workers are performing jobs similar to what others are doing in the same office.
Many government labor unions are vehemently opposing the program, insisting that the first to go should be the top-level assistant secretaries, undersecretaries and consultants whose salaries constitute a big drain on the government finances and whose appointments are just accommodations from influential politicians.
One of the labor groups that came out openly against the program is from the state-owned National Food Agency (NFA) where more than 1,000 employees have already received their “severance” notices.
An NFA spokesman admitted that 1,242 workers, who represent 25 percent of the agency’s total workforce of more than 4,000 nationwide, are to be laid off this year under the program.
The NFA, which is under the Department of Agriculture, is mandated to import basic items, like corn and especially rice, the staple food of the 90 million Filipinos, and sell the cereal at subsidized prices particularly to the poorest of the poor.
But workers protested that most of those to be dismissed are leaders and members of the NFA labor union, leading to charges that management is engaged in “union busting.”
Besides, the NFA employees echoed the demand of the other state workers that the first to be dismissed should be the “political appointees” occupying top positions and getting high salaries for “doing nothing.”
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