ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interactions of the executive and the civil service in this light. It focuses on the Philippine civil service, which has been subordinate to the executive throughout its existence. The chapter analyzes the executive-bureaucracy relations from the start of redemocratization in 1986. It discusses what means the government of Corazon C. Aquino had used to remold the bureaucracy and how they had been strengthened or weakened by the civil service and other political forces. In 1992, any campaigning undertaken by civil servants was an accommodation to specific political patrons or direct superiors, not obedience to a directive from the president or the Civil Service Commission. Corazon Aquino became president after a four-day “people’s power” revolution in February 1986. The bureaucracy continued not to distinguish itself as a source of policy ideas. The popularity of Aquino, her hold on Congress, and the continued scarcity of alternative jobs have contributed to the continued dominance of the executive.
