President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday declared vacant government positions appointed by the previous administration, including non-career and contractual workers effective July 1, 2022.
Memorandum Circular No. 1 signed by Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez said most of the officials appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte who held Cabinet, deputy Cabinet posts, and executive positions in government agencies and corporations are considered vacant.
“Vacancy in the heads of departments, offices, agencies, and bureaus where no replacement has been appointed or designated, shall be filled up by the next-in-rank and most senior officials as officer-in-charge,” the memorandum said.
However, it stated that all contractual or casual employees whose contracts expire on June 30, 2022, will continue in service until July 31, 2022, unless earlier terminated or renewed by the heads of the hiring agencies in accordance with their specific needs and requirements.
At least 4,000 government positions are vacant and need to be filled up to ensure continuous and effective delivery of public service.
Rodriguez also issued MC 2, mandating strict compliance with the strengthened standards of complete staff work (CSW).
“The CSW is to be undertaken for the processing and evaluation of requests for Presidential issuances, authorization, and other approvals to ensure compliance with such form and substance,” stated MC 2.
The order was issued to enable the Office of the President to adequately assess and indicate approval or disapproval of the proposal.
Any request that fails to comply with the strengthened CSW requirements and standards will be received “without action or returned to the proponent,” the memorandum circular said.
On MC 1, also deemed separated from service are non-Career Executive Service Officials (CESO) occupying Career Executive Service (CES) positions and contractual or casual employees.
“The OIC shall perform the duties and discharge the responsibilities of the office until 31 July 2022, or until a replacement has been appointed or designated, whichever comes first,” the circular read.
All non-CESO occupying CES positions in all the agencies of the Executive branch shall remain in office and continue to perform their duties and discharge their responsibilities in a holdover capacity until the end of the month or until their resignation has been accepted and their respective replacements have been designated, whichever comes first.
Under MC 1, services rendered by the officials and personnel shall be compensated in accordance with existing civil service, budgeting, accounting, and auditing laws and rules.
They are also directed to affect an “orderly and complete” turnover of records, documents, books, equipment, and other properties of their respective offices to their successors or the highest career official in their respective agencies.
MCs 1 and 2 were uploaded on the official website of the Presidential Communications Operations Office on Friday and take effect immediately.
