Villanueva points to unfilled gov't positions while millions jobless

There are thousands of unfilled plantilla positions in various government agencies while millions of Filipinos are jobless amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Senate Committee on Labor chairperson Joel Villanueva lamented on Monday.

During plenary deliberations on the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021, the senator said that out of the 1.8 million plantilla positions in government to be authorized for the next fiscal year, some 178,009 authorized positions were unfilled.

“Nakakalungkot pong isipin na napakarami pa ring bakanteng posisyon ng ating national government sa kabila ng napakataas na unemployment rate ng ating bansa," Villanueva said.

"Nais po nating malaman kung bakit patuloy na bakante ang mga ito, gayong napakarami sa ating mga kababayan ang naghahanap pa rin ng trabaho," he added.

He also stressed that while almost 180,000 regular positions in the government are vacant, some 670,000 workers continued to be employed under the job order system.

Villanueva cited for example the case of the Department of Agriculture which has 3,511 plantilla vacancies but continues to keep 4,588 workers under the job order status. He added that the agency also employs 1,206 workers through contracts of service.

He said the economic managers should seriously look into this issue. Otherwise, he suggested that the funds for the vacant positions should instead be diverted to COVID-19 response and other priorities.

"I think it's not a policy of the government to keep them vacant but I think several factors have conspired to prevent the filling up of these positions," Senate Committee on Finance chairperson Sonny Angara said.

Angara added that the Department of Budget and Management has taken measures to encourage departments to fill existing vacant positions.

Around 4.6 million adult Filipinos in the country are jobless, according to the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority's July 2020 Labor Force Survey.  — DVM, GMA News