“The Board is required to keep a record of all unclassified as well as classified employees in the Philippine civil service, showing among other things date of appointment, original position and salary, place of employment, all changes in status and grade, and all accrued and sick leave granted.

“From its service records the Board is required to compile annually, for publication on January 1, a roster of the officers and employees under the Philippine Government.

“Applications from employees, classified and unclassified, for accrued and sick leave for more than two days must be made on a form prescribed by the Board and forwarded to it for verification of service record and previous leave granted and for recommendation before final action is taken by the Civil Governor or Secretary of Department.”

These extracts from official reports clearly show that the act was indeed of a very advanced type, and if honestly enforced would of necessity lead to the establishment and maintenance of “an efficient and honest civil service,” for which purpose it was enacted.

In 1905 the insular government dispensed with boards as administrative agencies, and in accordance with this general policy, a bureau of civil service with a director at its head was substituted for the Civil Service Board, thus securing greater administrative efficiency and increased economy.

At first the Civil Service Act applied to comparatively few positions, as only a few bureaus and offices had been created, but as the government was organized and grew, the different bureaus and offices were placed in the classified service, the acts organizing them leaving in the unclassified service positions to which in the judgment of the commission the examination requirements of the act should not apply.  Ultimately these requirements were made applicable to the treasurers of all municipalities and to all positions, including teachers, in the executive and judicial branches of the central government, the provincial governments, and the governments of the cities of Manila and Baguio, except a few specifically excepted by law, which for the most part are unclassified or exempt in almost all governments, national, state and municipal, having civil service laws.  None of the states of the Union has such a widely extended classification of its civil service.

With the exception of the positions specifically placed in the unclassified service by law and of appointments made by the Philippine Commission, all positions in the Philippine civil service are classified and must be filled by appointees who have passed civil service examinations.  Neither the governor-general nor the Bureau of Civil Service can, by the promulgation of civil service rules, or in any other manner whatever, transfer any position from the classified to the unclassified service or except from examination any position in the classified service.  Under most of the civil service laws of the United States the President or the governor of the state has authority to transfer positions from the non-classified or exempted class to the competitive classified civil service or vice versa, these powers sometimes leading to manipulation of the civil service rules for political purposes.