THE Presidential Communications Office (PCO) downsized its workforce in 2022 by a whopping 60 percent, according to the agency’s latest financial statements.
From 648 personnel in 2021 under then Secretary Martin Andanar, the PCO under Secretary Cheloy Garafil has reduced its manpower to only 260.
In 2021, the media arm of the Executive Branch had one secretary, six undersecretaries, seven assistant Secretaries, and five directors occupying key management positions.
In addition, it had 74 plantilla positions filled up and 86 co-terminus positions as of December 31, 2021.
Augmenting this number were 469 hires, including two casual personnel, one contractual, and 466 under contract of service (COS).
In comparison, the PCO under Garafil has seven undersecretaries, 10 assistant secretaries, and 11 directors.
In addition, there are 31 presidential appointees, 95 filled plantilla positions, and 53 co-terminus staff as of December 31, 2022.
The biggest reduction was among the ranks of non-organic personnel with only 81 hired, including one casual, one contractual, and 79 on contract-of-service.
With a bigger number of personnel in regular or co-terminus status, the PCO posted a higher Personnel Services (PS) Expense totaling P225.856 million compared to P172.04 million the year before.
The PS expenses cover salaries, allowances, bonuses, and other benefits of agency officials and employees.
On the other hand, it managed to bring down “professional services” expenses from P29.65 million in 2021 to P19.72 million. This expense item includes payments for consultancy services.
Also seeing a sharp drop was Other Maintenance and Operating Expenses (OMOOE) year on year from P88.62 million to jut P49.54 million. The OMOOE represents salaries of contract-of-service personnel.
