Marcos: Rightsizing not aimed at terminating employees but upskilling workforce

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. clarified on Tuesday that rightsizing was "not aimed at terminating employees but to serve as a tool to upskill and reskill the current government workforce to improve state services and programs."

Marcos had directed a further assessment of the positions in the executive branch as part of the government's rightsizing measures. He wanted to determine the redundant positions in the government branch as well as the functions that could be merged following a sectoral meeting on the National Government Rightsizing Program (NGRP).

During a meeting at Malacañang Palace, the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) updated Marcos on the status and salient features of the proposed National Government Rightsizing Bill.

The Presidential Communications Office said Section 6 of House Bill No. 7240, or the National Government Rightsizing Act, authorizes the President to right-size the operations of agencies in the executive branch.

These include pursuing functional shifts and modifications, implementing organizational actions based on the recommendation of the Committee on Rightsizing the Executive Branch (CREB), undertaking other functional or organizational actions, developing and providing safety nets, and formulating an organizational development program to strengthen agency institutional capacity and to improve employee productivity.

Among the salient provisions of the proposed measure is the mandatory coverage of all agencies of the executive branch, including departments, bureaus, offices, commissions, boards, councils, and all other entities attached to or under their administrative supervision, and government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) not covered under Republic Act No. 10149 or the GOCC Governance Act of 2011.

The bill stated that excluded from the NGRP are teaching and teaching-related positions in schools, medical and allied-medical items in hospitals and other medical facilities, military and uniformed personnel, and GOCCs and government financial institutions covered by the Governance Commission for GOCCs.

The legislature, judiciary, Office of the Ombudsman, constitutional commissions, and local government units (LGUs) may also right-size their respective offices consistent with the principles and guidelines contained in the NGRP, the bill added.

According to the PCO, Marcos believed that the NGRP would entail a comprehensive strategic review of the functions, operations, organization, systems, and processes of different government agencies.

It would also involve massive and transformational initiatives in the agencies concerned, such as mergers, consolidation, splitting, transfer, and even the abolition of some offices. — DVM, GMA Integrated News