SIXTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
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Senate Bill No. 870 
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SENATE 
INTRODUCED BY SEN. JINGGOY EJERCITO ESTRADA 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Orientation courses for entrants to government service are a standard 
feature of bureaucracies everywhere. In Singapore, for instance, entrants to the 
civil service undergo orientation programs akin to initiation rites, to instill in the 
minds of its workers their responsibilities to the country and the people they 
serve. 
In our country, however, most of the orientation courses offered by 
government agencies, if there be any, are usually limited to informing the new 
employee of the higher officials of the agency and briefing him on his job in terms 
of the tasks he is expected to do. Rarely is the agency's mission, specifically its 
role in the national scheme fully defined. 
These deficiencies make for an 
employee with a very vague notion of his own role and rarely imbued with a 
sense of commitment as a public servant. 
This bill seeks to remedy this problem by requiring all newly-appointed 
government officials and employees to undergo orientation courses prior into 
assumption into office. These courses shall be designed to make them aware of 
their new functions and responsibilities of the need and demands of their client-
public as well as the role of their agency in national development. By making 
civil servants aware of all these, it is expected that a deeper sense of 
commitment to duty would be fostered among our men in government. 
In view of the foregoing considerations early passage of this bill is 
earnestly sought. 
Senator 


SIXTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
First Regular Session 
SENATE 
Senate Bill No. 87 0 
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INTRODUCED BY SEN. JINGGOY EJERCITO ESTRADA 
AN ACT 
REQUIRING 
NEWLY 
APPOINTED 
GOVERNMENT 
OFFICIALS 
AND 
EMPLOYEES TO UNDERGO ORIENTATION COURSES UPON ASSUMPTION 
TO OFFICE AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS THEREOF 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
SECTION 1. It shall be the policy of the government to instill a high sense 
of commitment to duty in the civil service. To this end, government agencies 
shall initiate programs to develop in every government employee a keen 
awareness of his function in the agency and of the agency's role in national 
development as well as the needs and expectations of the public. 
SEC. 2. The provisions of existing laws to the contrary withstanding, any 
person who has accepted an appointment in the government service shall upon 
assumption into office, undergo a three (3) day orientation course that shall focus 
not only on their specific duties and responsibilities in the office but also on the 
functions and objectives of the office as well as its commitment to the public. 
Upon completion of the orientation course, the new appointee shall, in simple 
ceremonies, take an oath of office before any official authorized to administer 
oaths. 
SEC. 3. Each department, bureau or agency of the government, in 
coordination with the Civil Service Commission, shall within one hundred eight 
(180) days from the effectivity of this Act, prepare an orientation module for their 
respective offices which shall include an actual session with a representative 
group of persons being served by the office. 
SEC. 4. Any head of office, or chief of the personnel or human resource 
division who shall allow without cause, any performance of his duties without 
undergoing the necessary three (3) day orientation course and oath-atking as 
provided under this Act, shall be punished by a fine in an amount equivalent to 
one (1) salary or suspension for a period of one (1) month, if found guilty in an 
appropriate administrative investigation. 


A newly appointed official and employee who shall without cause, enter 
into the performance of his duties without completing the required orientation 
course and oath taking shall be automatically dismissed from the service. 
SEC. 5 All laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations or parts thereof 
which are inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed or 
amended accordingly. 
SEC. 6. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in a 
newspaper of general circulation. 
Approved,