WITH a seasoned public official now at the helm of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has proposed that this Office promoting the welfare of the country’s civil servants carries out the annual performance review of, and grant of incentives and rewards for exemplary work to, the officers and employees of all government agencies, as provided for in a 25-year-old law.

The majority leader of the Commission on Appointments (CA), Villafuerte pointed out to Marilyn Barua-Yap during the CA’s confirmation hearing on her ad interim appointment as CSC chairperson, that a law—Republic Act (RA) No. 6713—was enacted way back in 1989 to establish the yearly grant of incentives and rewards to public officials and employees in all branches and offices of the government agencies to motivate and inspire all of them in the bureaucracy to strive for exemplary service and conduct at work.

Villafuerte said he was not aware whether such an annual recognition as set in RA 6713 is being observed, and when he asked Barua-Yap whether this was being carried, the then-CSC appointee-chairperson replied that she was “not familiar” about whether all government offices have been doing it.

“In the barely three weeks that I have been at the CSC, I have only been familiarized with existing awards programs like the Lingkod Bayan Presidential Award, the Dangal ng Bayan, and the Pamana awards. But on all agencies’ incentives and rewards systems, I’m not familiar with how they do it. As far as I know, they should be devising their own incentives and rewards program,” Barua-Yap said.

Villafuerte then asked Barua-Yap how long she has been working in the government, and when the latter replied that she has been a civil servant for 39 years, the Bicolano congressman asked her whether she had been incentivized or rewarded in all those years for her hard work.

When Barua-Yap replied that she has “never received” any reward or incentive, Villafuerte said that was the problem because there are millions of civil servants nationwide and yet no system of recognition and incentives appears to be in place, contrary to law, to recognize the meritorious workers among them.

“So I think it’s under your leadership that this system of rewards and incentives should be institutionalized. It is supposed to have been institutionalized already in the form of a law and its implementing rules,” Villafuerte said.

“But you yourself, in your experience in the 39 years in Government … it doesn’t have to be monetary … even just a simple recognition will boost the morale of civil servants,” he added. “So, please institutionalize and implement that under your leadership.”

The CA en banc later on confirmed Barua-Yap’s appointment as CSC chairperson.

Of Barua-Yap’s over three decades in government service, 29 of these years were spent in the Legislature, and she broke the gender barrier when she got elected as the first woman to become Secretary-General of the House of Representatives in the 14th Congress and 15th Congress.

She was an undersecretary at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in-charge of external affairs and special concerns when President Marcos appointed her CSC chairperson last October, in place of Karlo Alexei Nograles who resigned to run for Davao City mayor in the 2025 polls.

Signed by then-President Aquino on Feb. 20, 1989, RA 6713 set up a State policy to “promote a high standard of ethics in public service,” and that “public officials and employees shall at all times be accountable to the people and shall discharge their duties with utmost responsibility, integrity, competence, and loyalty, act with patriotism and justice, lead modest lives, and uphold public interest over personal interest.”

Section 6 of RA 6713 established a “System of Incentives and Rewards” to “motivate and inspire public servants to uphold the highest standards of ethics.”

The incentives and rewards for the exemplary government officials and employees of the year, which shall be announced in public ceremonies honoring these officials and employees, shall be in the form of bonuses, citations, directorships in government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs), local and foreign scholarship grants and paid vacations, according to RA 6713.

Under this law, awardees shall likewise “be automatically promoted to the next higher position with the commensurate salary suitable to their qualifications. In case there is no next higher position or it is not vacant, said position shall be included in the budget of the office in the next General Appropriations Act (GAA).

For this purpose, this law sought the creation of a Committee on Awards to Outstanding Public Officials and Employees—comprising the Ombudsman and CSC Chairperson as Co-Chairperson; and the Commission on Audit (COA) chairperson along with two government employees to be appointed by the President, as members.

This law tasked the Committee on Awards to conduct “a periodic, continuing review of the performance of public officials and employees, in all the branches and agencies of Government and establish a system of annual incentives and rewards to the end that due recognition is given to public officials and employees of outstanding merit on the basis of the standards set forth in this Act.”

This recognition system shall take into account, among others, “the years of service and the quality and consistency of performance, the obscurity of the position, the level of salary, the unique and exemplary quality of a certain achievement, and the risks or temptations inherent in the work.”

The Committee on Awards shall, under this law, adopt its own rules to govern the conduct of its activities.

Under RA 6713’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR), which was issued on April 21, 1989, the Committee on Awards was mandated to formulate and adopt its own rules governing the conduct of its activities, including the guidelines for evaluating nominees, the mechanism for recognizing the awardees in public ceremonies and the creation of sub-committees.

In the evaluation of nominees, the Committee was authorized to get assistance from technical experts selected from the government and the private sector.

The CSC shall provide secretariat service to the Committee, and that the budget to cover its expenses shall be incorporated in the CSC appropriations.

The IRR does not inhibit any department, office or agency from instituting its own rewards program, in addition to those provided under this law.

Under this law’s IRR, all civil servants must “remain true to the people at all times. They must act with justness and sincerity and shall not discriminate against anyone, especially the poor and the underprivileged. They shall at all times respect the rights of others, and shall refrain from doing acts contrary to law, good morals, good customs, public policy, public order, public safety and public interest.”

It told government officials and employees that they “shall not dispense or extend undue favors on account of their office to their relatives, whether by consanguinity or affinity, except with respect to appointments of such relatives to positions considered strictly confidential or as members of their personal staff whose terms are coterminous with theirs.”

Moreover, it required everyone in the government service to practice simple living and lead modest lives appropriate to their positions and income, and not to indulge in extravagant or ostentatious display of wealth in any form.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco