Gatchalian on rightsizing: Train first before letting go

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said employees must first undergo “retraining and upskilling” to help them adapt to in demand skills amid talks of rightsizing the bureaucracy.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier said it is planning to ask Congress to give President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. authority to rightsize the bureaucracy in order to save funds.

Gatchalian said there is “good and bad” effect on the proposed rightsizing, noting that they should provide jobs for the employees amid high unemployment rate.

“May good and bad to be honest about it dahil dito sa atin tingin natin importante yung focus. To a bigger extent tama rin yun, pero aminado ako na maraming mga agencies na andaming GOCCs (government-owned and controlled corporation), bureau na wala naman ginagawa so pwede nang irightsize yan,” the senator said in The Mangahas Interviews.

(There is good and bad to be honest about it because we think focus is important. To a bigger extent that is also correct but I admit that there are many agencies, GOCCs and bureaus that are not doing anything so it is possible to rightsize that.)

“Pero ang importante gusto kong bigyang diin bago tayo magisip ng rightsize siguraduhin natin na may trabaho sila at nabibigyan natin ng upskilling at reskilling. Hindi ngayon yung panahon para magtanggal ng tao mataas ang unemployment rate natin ngayon,” he said.

(But the important thing is I want to emphasize that before we think about rightsizing, let's make sure that they have a job and that we can give them upskilling and reskilling. Now is not the time to fire people, our unemployment rate is high right.)

The senator underscored that these public servants must be retrained to make them fit to other types of jobs that some agencies might need.

"So importante na itong public servants natin o civil servants natin eh ma-retrain para maipasok sa ibang nangangailangang opisina kaya rightsizing eh kung saan ang kulang ilipat natin doon pero itrain natin sila,” Gatchalian added.

(So it is important that our public servants or our civil servants be retrained so that they can be absorbed by other offices that need them, that is why it is called rightsizing, we will put them where they are needed. Let's move them there but let's train them first.)

DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman earlier said they will be checking 187 agencies, departments, offices, and bureaus, including government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs)—which employ an estimated two million personnel—for redundant or overlapping functions.

The Budget chief said that should 5% of civil servants, for instance, be affected by the rightsizing plan, the government could save roughly P14.8 billion annually on personnel services.

She said the amount could be reallocated to other priority projects such as infrastructure, social services, health, and agriculture.—LDF, GMA News