President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. should not be given full authority to rightsize government offices because it would be unconstitutional, a lawmaker said Sunday.

In a radio interview with dzBB, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said that Marcos should not be given blanket authority to rightsize because the existing departments created by law can only be abolished by law.

“I do not agree with (giving Marcos) blanket authority. There is an error in the system because only a law can repeal an existing law,” Pimentel said.

Last Wednesday, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said they are looking at 187 government owned and government controlled corporations with around two million personnel may be streamlined through merging, restructuring or abolition.

She said government will be able to save a significant amount of the budget which may be used to fund priority projects such as in building much-needed infrastructure, for social services, programs in the health sector, agriculture, among others.

The rightsizing proposal is being polished for submission to Congress before Marcos delivers his State of the Nation Address on July 25, said Pangandaman.

He also urged the Executive Branch to provide Congress with a list of departments that will be abolished.

“They should identify the agency, division, bureau, office, etc. which they think are redundant or have doubles, or have accomplished their mission,” Pimentel said.

“They should give this to Congress and we will separate these laws so that we can make corresponding bills to repeal the laws that created those agencies,” he added.

Pimentel said Congress and the local government units should also be included in the rightsizing program.

“President Marcos should also call on the Senate and the House of Representatives to have their own rightsizing. (Their) budgets should be checked,” he said.

He also said that affected government employees should be given a separation package.

“We restructure the government so we can address the needs of the public. If we need to lessen the employees, we should provide a separation package for those affected,” Pimentel said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS