BIG NUMBERS STILL
Other official sources offer slightly different, but similarly big, numbers of excess hires.

The 2008 Government Directory published by the Department of Budget and Management lists the names of 14 undersecretaries, nine assistant secretaries, 42 presidential assistants, two advisers, and one special envoy under the Office of the President.

An online directory of personnel posted on Malacañang's official web site lists 34 presidential advisers, 34 presidential assistants, three special envoys and three consultants, all in the Office of the President Proper.

In addition, the Office of the President's Staff Directory enrolls the personnel of the Executive Secretary, Presidential Management Staff, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, and the Private Offices of the President (Protocol, Appointments, Correspondence, Internal House Affairs).

This supplemental list names 30 other Arroyo appointees with the rank of undersecretary (11 persons), deputy executive secretary (7), assistant secretary (4) regional development officer (3), presidential liaison officer (3), special assistant to the President (2), and dozens more of directors and executive assistants.

To be sure, David affirms that Arroyo's predecessors Joseph Estrada and Corazon Aquino have had their fair share of political appointees.

Aquino came to power in “an unusual situation” and had to rebuild government from scratch, hence so many of her managers were political appointees without civil-service eligibility, David reckoned.

But in his first administrative order, Estrada directed members of his Cabinet to respect the positions of career service executive officers in their respective departments, David said.

By 1999, two reports said Estrada had hired 20 presidential consultants, 22 presidential advisers, and 28 presidential assistants, or a total of 70.

Fidel V. Ramos, political tutor and patron to Arroyo, only had a handful of advisers.

Yet unlike Ramos, and despite her issuance of EO 366 supposedly to trim the bureaucracy, Arroyo turned the bureaucracy fatter at the top.

OVERLAPPING FUNCTIONS
Arroyo gets more than full assist on sundry policy issues and programs from 27 Cabinet-rank secretaries, and the executive directors or heads of 38 other executive agencies, commissions and committees under the Office of the President.

Table 3: Top Ten Most Bloated Agencies Source: Civil Service Commission A. POSITIONS BY VIRTUE OF REPUBLIC ACT AGENCY NO. OF POSITIONS TOTAL ACTUAL OCCUPANCY EXCESS RANK USEC ASEC Office of the President 4 2 6 37 31 1 Department of National Defense 1 0 1 9 8 2 Department of Agrarian Reform 1 1 2 9 7 3 Department of Foreign Affairs 3 11 14 19 5 4 Department of Health 1 2 3 8 5 4 Department of Interior and Local Government 2 3 5 10 5 4 Department of Justice 3 0 3 8 5 4 Department of Social Welfare and Development 2 3 5 9 4 5 Department of Tourism 4 0 4 7 3 6 Department of Education 4 4 8 9 1 7 B. POSITIONS BY VIRTUE OF EXECUTIVE ORDER OR ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER Presidential Management Staff 1 2 3 6 3 6 Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council 1 0 1 4 3 6 Office of the Press Secretary 2 1 3 4 1 7

Still, she has chosen to procure a coterie of advisers and assistants for various specific, and often similar or overlapping roles.

For instance, she has a presidential adviser each for Constituency Affairs, Jobs Generation, Strategic Projects, New Government Centers, Cooperatives, Muslim Communities, Culture, Military Affairs, Police Affairs, Eastern Visayas, Northern Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Regional Development, Agricultural Modernization, Appointment, Muslim Royalty Concerns, Cagayan Valley, Infrastructure, Foreign Affairs, Rural Electrification, Revenue Enhancement, Subic-Clark Alliance for Development, Energy Affairs, External Affairs, and Region VI.

In addition to the presidential advisers, Arroyo has hired presidential assistants for Media Affairs and Religious Affairs, CARAGA, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Foreign Affairs, Education Affairs, Youth Affairs, Religious Affairs, Mining, Anti-Smuggling, New Government Centers, Culture, State and Foreign Visits, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Muslim Affairs, Central Luzon, Bicol, MIMAROPA, Eastern Visayas, North Luzon Growth Quadrangle Area, Central Visayas, Region IX, Region X, Region XII, Panay.

Arroyo has also employed special envoys and consultants on “DILG Matters,” Transnational Crimes, Entertainment Industry, and a secretary-general for the “Ad Hoc Council on Values Formation.”

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita acknowledges that the list of Arroyo advisers, assistants and consultants may be interminable, but asserts that their maintenance cost does not add up to much.

In a news report, Ermita had maintained that only one or two presidential advisers were receiving salaries.