PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has signed Executive Order (EO) 67, reorganizing the Office of the Cabinet Secretary (OCS) and removing its supervision of eight government agencies.
EO 67, which was signed Wednesday, October 31, also reverted the name of the office to Cabinet Secretariat.
Under EO 67, Duterte transferred to other departments the supervision of at least eight agencies that had been under the OCS during the stint of former Cabinet secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr.
Evasco quit his post two weeks ago to file his candidacy for governor in Bohol province in the 2019 midterm elections.
The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Cooperative Development Authority will now be under the Department of Trade and Industry.
The National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, Philippine Commission on Women, and the National Youth will be under the supervision of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
Duterte's EO 67 also tasked the Department of Social Welfare and Development to oversee the National Anti-Poverty Commission, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor.
The EO stressed that the transferred government agencies would have to harmonize their policies and coordinate their programs and activities with their supervising department.
They were also instructed to simplify their systems and processes to ensure responsiveness and efficiency in the delivery of essential public services, and the attainment of the administration's 10-point socio-economic agenda and development goals as specified in the Philippine Development Plan.
The executive office would also now have control and supervision over the Strategic Action and Response (STAR) Office and all its constituent offices.
The STAR, established through EO 9 signed in 2016, is composed of the Presidential Complaint Center, Public Concerns Office, Quick Response Center, and the 8888 Citizens' Complaint Center.
"The transfer of agency supervision over offices under or attached to the OP (Office of the President) to executive departments and agencies with relevant core mandates strengthens the democratic and institutional framework of the executive department," EO 67 read.
EO 67 further abolished the Office of Participatory Governance (OPG) and the Performance and Projects Management Office (PPMO), both created through EO 9.
The functions of the OPG and the PPMO would be overtaken by the DILG and the Presidential Management Staff (PMS).
Duterte also renamed the OCS to Cabinet Secretariat, which would have the function of "assisting the President in the establishment of agenda topics for Cabinet deliberation, or facilitate the discussion of Cabinet meetings."
The Cabinet Secretariat would also serve as the head secretariat of the different Cabinet cluster secretaries.
"In such capacity and in aid of its functions as defined herein, it shall continue to participate in Cabinet cluster meetings as well as in the National Economic and Development Authority Board and committee meetings," Duterte said in his EO.
Under the EO, the PMS was instructed to monitor the implementation of presidential directives, Cabinet decisions, and Cabinet cluster directives, instructions, and commitments.
The PMS should also provide the executive office with policy inputs on the management of government affairs. (SunStar Philippines)