CESO Eligibility for Doctorate Degree Holders, Anyone?

Have you heard of Senate Bill 261?  This proposed law was filed in the Philippine Senate recently by Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson.  His reason?  To bring in more competent people in the government service.  Sen. Lacson is proposing that there should be a law granting CESO eligibility to doctorate degree holders.  In Lacson's bill, the doctorate degree would be equivalent to the entry level of CESO eligibility in the civil service.

To be sure, there are countless PhD degree holders who do not have civil service eligibility but RA 1080 granted these people civil service eligibility.  For executive positions, however,, civil service appointments and promotions require CESO eligibility.

I am not against this bill, but I would like to see some sort of procedure to measure the nature, level, and quality of decision making a doctorate degree holder might have prior to being awarded CESO eligibility.  Why?  I do have friends who say that having earned a doctorate degree doesn't make one a good decision maker.  As they say, there are doctorates and there are doctorates, "May mga mamiso, may mga mamera."  In various schools in the Philippines, doctorate degrees are awarded even to those not really qualified

The fact that Sen. Lacson filed said bill in the senate, to me is an indication that there are people in government who have looked at this particular situation and see that there is a problem in the availability of good people in higher levels of government service.  Why this situation?  Well, I also have friends saying that some of those in higher levels of government service are there because they were elected by idiots, or they have another eligibility: "connection."

I hope that when the bill is up for debate in the committees and floor of the senate, the senators would consider issues beyond mere numbers.  For example, must we start now to legislate requirements that ought to be determined through intellectual capacities and capabilities such as decision-making?

I will not, however, fight a proposal that I see can enhance the recognition of individuals who have proven themselves to be smart and highly intelligent by being able to hurdle the rigors of earning a doctorate degree.  By the way, would the doctorate degree be in the field of management, social science, or technical fields.  What are the rubrics that must be understood first?

Anyway, would highly qualified PhDs bite this?  Highly qualified PhDs can demand salaries as high as four times the salary of a CESO IV.  The issue is "patriotism," though.