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Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said it is eyeing to rightsize 187 government agencies which could affect two million employees as it tries to generate savings to fund priority projects.

In an interview with dzBB Wednesday, Pangandaman said: “As of now, we have not yet identified which agencies will be removed or merged.”

“The total number of agencies that will be reviewed is 187 agencies here in the government. This includes GOCCs (Government-owned and controlled corporations) that are not under the GOCCs Governance Act,” she added.

Pangandaman said around two million employees will be affected by the rightsizing, but it will help the government save around P15 billion.

“For example, if five percent of civil servants will be affected by the program, this would be equivalent to P14.8 billion savings every year in our personal services,” she said.

“This is quite a big amount that could be used in our other priority areas like infrastructure, social services, health sector, and agriculture for the public,” she added.

She said among government employees, “those that are not included are the teaching and teaching-related positions, our medical and allied medical or those in the health sector, as well as our military and uniformed personnel.”

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. recently issued Executive Order No.1 which abolishes and reorganizes government agencies that have overlapping functions.

Affected employees could apply for new positions opened from ''rightsizing'' or could be placed under a retooling program.

“Those that will lose their jobs could apply to other positions that are created because of the rightsizing. For the others, we can make a program for their retooling, possibly together with the Civil Service Commission. For those who will retire, we will provide retirement benefits for them,” she said.

Pangandaman said they are urging Congress to draft a bill that would give the president the authority to rightsize the national government.

“We want to prepare a proposal to the Congress to give our President and Executive branch the power to rightsize and reorganize the national government,” she said.

The overall objective, she said, is to have a small bureaucracy that is quick and responsive.

“The overall, overarching objective of (downsizing) is to have a small bureaucracy which is agile and responsive in these modern times,” Pangandaman said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS