II.

BUREAUCRACY
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.

Concept of Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy and Transition: Public Administration Dichotomy
Evolution of Bureaucracy in the Philippines
Growth of Philippine Bureaucracy
Characteristics of Philippine Bureaucracy
Problems in Philippine Bureaucracy

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE

FOUNDATIONS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
GROUP NO. 1
ABRENICA, Joy
BAGOROYO, Nancy
BULURAN, Rendel

SIMBAHAN, Kiel Charl P.

SIMBAHAN, Kim Carell P.
TINIO, Allyana M.

A. CONCEPT OF BUREAUCRACY

According to Felix Nigro and Lloyd Nigro, bureaucracy is a specific form of social organization for
administrative purposes.

As Marshall E. Dimock says:

Bureaucracy is reflected in certain specific forms of organizational behavior: hierarchy, subdivision,
specialization, fixed ways of doing things, and personalization.

Bureaucracy is that type of hierarchical organization which is designed rationally to coordinate the
work of many individuals in pursuit of large-scale administrative tasks. Paul Horton and Chester
Hunt.

B. BUREAUCRACY AND TRANSITION: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY

C. EVOLUTION OF BUREAUCRACY IN THE PHILIPPINES
1. The Pre-Spanish period a period of cultural inadequacy during which the social
and economic
foundations for bureaucratic organization and bureaucratic action had not been developed.
2. The Spanish Regime centralized the political life of the numerous native communities in the
archipelago.
3. The Philippine Revolution of 1896 an attempt by the leaders of the Filipinos to
practice the
principles of government which the Spanish regime consistently professed but could not execute.
4. The American Regime continued what the Philippine Revolution started. Thorough reorganization of
the bureaucracy was in fact easily accomplished.

5. Japanese Wartime Occupation conditions during this time disrupted the bureaucracy.
6. The Philippine Republic, 1946-1972

A strong president, a bicameral legislature and an independent judiciary comprised the tripartite
democratic structure ordained by the Philippine Constitution of 1935, and carried over into the
new Philippine Republic of 1946.

The US continued to intervene in Philippine affairs. The bureaucracy assumed the major
responsibility for these programs; the civil service continued to regard itself as an arsenal of
means and not the articulator of values.

The Philippine civil service could be characterized as highly trained and professionalized even
though it continued to be inefficient and ineffective.

Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/ruthbnimo/bureaucracy-handouts
D. GROWTH OF PHILIPPINE BUREAUCRACY
The table below shows that as of 2004, a total of 1,475,699 personnel were employed in national
government agencies (NGAs), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), and local government
units (LGUs). About 67.86% of 1,475,699 total number of government employees are assigned to NGAs and
only 25.09% to the LGUs. The GOCCs registered the lowest complement at 7.04 % of the total number of
government workforce. As to the distribution of personnel by regions, National Capital Region (NCR)
comprises the biggest pie with 29.63% of the total number of workforce from all subdivisions followed by
regions 4 and 6 with 10.64% and 7.48% respectively. Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) has the lowest
complement with only 2.18 percent of the total number of employees.
As to the distribution of employees from NGAs, 32% of 1,001,495 employees are concentrated in NCR.
Very few personnel are recorded in CAR with only 2.03% and CARAGA (2.47%). As to the distribution of
GOCCs, the biggest slice is in NCR with 67.61% and the lowest number of personnel comes from the
Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) with only 0.18% of the total of 103,977 employees from
GOCCs.
As to the distribution of employees in LGUs, Region 4 registered the highest complement at about 14.95
% of 370,227 total number of employees in LGUs. NCR only has 12.56%; thus showing that Region 4
exceeded NCR with 2.39 % employees. Again, ARMM listed the lowest number of local government personnel
with only 2.24% of the total number of LGU personnel in the country.
Perhaps, it must be pointed out that figures will show that the bureaucracy is now really bloated as it is
maldistributed. Most numbers of employees come from the national government agencies and are concentrated
in NCR. Areas which need the services more have only a few number of public servants.

Source:
http://www.up-ncpag.org/pdf/ABB_isthereaPhilippinePA.pdf
E. CHARACTERISTICS OF PHILIPPINE BUREAUCRACY
In 1955, Onefre D. Corpuz made a study of the actual operations of Philippine bureaucracy. Its
important characteristics can be summarized as follows:
1. Vulnerability to nepotism
Underlying Philippine bureaucracy are substructures of small kinship groups. Members of family
groups by consanguinity, by affinity, and by ritual kinship (or compadrazgo) give top priority to
family loyalty. Within such groupings, all of them feel that they are under obligation to help each
other in a variety of ways.
2. Perpetuation of the spoils system
The passage of the Civil Service Law (C.A. No. 177, as amended by R.A. No. 114) has set up,
besides classified service, unclassified and temporary positions which have become convenient
instruments for the practice of nepotism, of patronage, and of influence peddling.
3. Apathetic public reaction to bureaucratic misconduct.
The almost daily publication of official misconduct become a part of normalcy in the mid-1950s.
The people looked upon the phenomenon as a concomitant result of the increasing complexity of the
government, a method pof political promises to the unemployed and underemployed segments of the
population.
4. Availability of external peaceful means of correcting bureaucratic weaknesses.
Devices, such as constitutional rights and privileges-freedom of speech, freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly, civic action-have been used for rectifying the defects and misdeeds of
bureaucracy.
5. Survival of historical experience

Centralized in organization, the Philippine political bureaucracy was administered according to a

civil law system which the Spanish bureaucracy prescribed. Filipinos have used the Spanish political
bureaucracy as the scapegoat for all the weaknesses of the Philippine political bureaucracy. There are
indications, however, that the weaknesses are not to be totally and directly attributed to the Spanish
government bureaucracy.
The Filipinos, later on, used the American techniques of administering the bureaucracy. They also
patterned its organizational structures and operational procedures on American models.
6. Non-special typing of bureaucrats
Filipino bureaucrats do not comprise a clear cut social class. Other occupational groups do not
look upon civil service as a special calling reserved to a special class or groups of persons with
specific habits, skills, motives, interests, prerogatives, values, and symbols to be consciously
pursued, promoted, and protected, . . . respected or assailed. Thus, Filipino bureaucratic
organization consists of persons with varied family backgrounds, aspirations, educational training,
and work experiences.
7. Lack of independence from politics
Because of the absence of class consciousness and of a feeling of unity on the part of the Filipino
bureaucrats and the stigma of post-World War II ill-repute, the Philippine bureaucracys merit
system was easily subject to attack and tampering by politicians. They worked through the
legislative and executive branches of the national government.
8. Essential instruments of social change
In spite of its weaknesses, the Philippine bureaucracys function in nation-building will be as big, as
complicated, and as demanding as the function of the whole society itself. Primarily, it will have to
be a tool for innovations.
Source:
Jose Leveriza, (Public Administration: The Business of Government Second Edition), pp.34- 35
F. PROBLEMS IN PHILIPPINE BUREAUCRACY
1. Bureaucratic resistance to change
2. Socio-economic, political, cultural, and ecological constraints to administrative change
3. Problems in the transfer of technology and adaptation -- Jose Leveriza, Public Administration: The
Business of Government Second Edition, p. 35
4. *** It is too bloated
5. *** Inefficiency
6. *** Corruption--- https://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006012511793
7. Bloated
8. Opportunism
9. Casualties-- - http://bulatlat.com/main/2008/02/05/philippine-bureaucracy-bloated-and-corrupted/