Carlos P. Garcia and the civil service

THE Philippines has three independent constitutional commissions: the Commission on Audit, the Commission on Elections, and the Civil Service Commission or the CSC. The CSC was formally established on Sept.19, 1900 through Public Law 5, "An Act for the Establishment and Maintenance of an Efficient and Honest Civil Service in the Philippine Islands." The 1935 Constitution "firmly established the merit system as the basis for employment in government," and on June 19, 1959, a new era for the civil service was ushered in with the approval of the amendments and revision of the laws relative to the Philippine Civil Service which converted the Bureau of Civil Service into the Civil Service Commission with department status by President Carlos P. Garcia.