Foreign service act philippines

Section 4. Objective. —

The main objective of this Act is to reorganize and strengthen the Philippine Foreign Service in order to:

1. Upgrade the qualifications of the Career Foreign Service Corps and thereby enable its officers and employees to serve effectively the interests of the Republic of the Philippines abroad;
2. Strengthen the capability of the Career Foreign Service Corps to conduct studies, analyses and evaluation of events, both domestic and international, that will serve as guidelines for achieving an independent foreign policy for the country;
3. Ensure broad representation of the Philippine society in the foreign service and, further, to ensure equal opportunities in the enlistment and recruitment of officers and employees taking into account the ethnic composition of the country;
4. Institute improvements in the selection and training of personnel so that only competent persons of good moral character are recruited in the Service;
5. Provide that promotions in the Service shall be on the basis of merit;
6. Guarantee permanence or security of tenure of the career personnel of the Service during good behavior and satisfactory performance of duty;
7. Provide suitable salaries, allowances and benefits that will attract personnel from all walks of Philippine life and to appoint persons to the highest positions in the Service solely on the basis of merit and demonstrated capability in the promotion of national interests;
8. Provide a comprehensive and flexible framework for the administration of the foreign service consistent with modern practices in this field; and
9. Consolidate into one act all provisions of the law relating to the administration of the foreign service.

In pursuance of the foregoing objective, the principle of nondiscrimination with respect to sex, creed, language, ethnic identity and religion shall be strictly enforced.