EDITORIAL
Marcos Sr. started the Career Executive Service or the “third level” or the managerial class in the group of career positions in the Philippine civil service. The CES was created by Presidential Decree No. 1 to "form a continuing pool of well-selected and development-oriented career administrators who shall provide competent and faithful service."The CES is also a public personnel system separate from that of the first two levels of positions in the Philippine civil service. It operates on the “rank concept.”
Career Executive Service Officers (CESOs) are “appointed” to ranks and “assigned” to CES positions. As such, they can be re-assigned or transferred from one CES position to another and from one office to another but not oftener than once every two years. The CES is like the Armed Forces and the Foreign Service where the officers are also appointed to ranks and assigned to positions.
There is also a Career Executive Service Board (CESB) the professionalizes and strengthens the Career Executive Service (CES) by creating a corps of development-oriented, service-focused, and reform-driven leaders in government.
Positions in the CES are the career positions above the Division Chief level that exercise executive and managerial functions. In the ranking structure, Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) I shall be the highest rank with an equivalent salary grade of 30, while Career Executive Service Officer (CESO) VI shall be the lowest rank with an equivalent salary grade of 25.
An appointee to at least a Division Chief level position (SG 24) or its equivalent in the government, regardless of whether he/she is in the career or non-career service with at least three years managerial experience at the time of the application.
Last week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued an executive order (EO) revoking the policy granting Career Executive Service (CES) rank to graduates of Master of National Security Administration (MNSA) program of the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP). The objective is to synchronize the standards and procedures for conferring the CES rank.
According to the EO, the Constitution provides that appointments in the civil service shall be made only according to merit and fitness to be determined by competitive examination. Prior to the EO’s issuance, graduates of the MNSA program of NDCP who are appointed to CES positions are granted CES rank.
In February this year, the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) recommended revoking the policy of granting CES rank to graduates of the MNSA program to synchronize the standards and procedures in conferring CES rank. This recommendation was favorably accepted by PBBM.
We see this move as a furtherance of Marcos’ initiative to “reinvent the bureaucracy” and push the 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda of the administration.
“Remember that we are here not for our own gain. We are here to bring forth a government that provides for the needs of the people,” the Chief Executive told the CESOs at their founding anniversary program a few months back.
The improvement of the Career Executive Service system should be in pursuance of this objective.
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