The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has only 477 active labor inspectors to cover tens of thousands of establishments across the Philippines, far short of the 1,210 positions in the plantilla, and Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino says even filling all 1,210 slots would still not be enough for the scale of the task.
Tolentino made the disclosure in an interview on DZRH News program The Situation Report on September 10, laying bare one of the most critical operational gaps he inherited when he took over as DOLE secretary less than three months ago.
He said the shortfall was partly caused by an entrance exam that included irrelevant questions, with one lawyer reportedly failing because the test asked for the name of a river in Siquijor rather than testing actual knowledge of labor standards.
“Mayroon isang lawyer daw bumagsak pa eh, kasi ang mga tanong halimbawa, ‘Anong pangalan ng isang ilog sa Siquijor?’ Hindi pala kayang sagutin ‘yun,” Tolentino said.
He said he revised the exam after discovering this, and the inspector force has since grown from 477 to 700, with more hiring underway to reach the 1,210 plantilla target.
The scale of the challenge was illustrated by the situation in Central Luzon alone, where Tolentino said there are approximately 7,000 construction and infrastructure projects requiring labor inspection, covered by only 38 inspectors in that region.
He said labor inspectors check a wide range of compliance requirements including safety gear, payroll accuracy, SSS and Pag-IBIG contributions, rest periods, meal hours, and working conditions, with recent inspections leading to a plant in Palawan being suspended for lacking harness belts and an 11.4 million peso penalty levied against a building in Angeles that collapsed during his first three days in office.
Tolentino said the shortage means inspectors are currently prioritized for large establishments and complaint-driven inspections rather than systematic coverage of all workplaces, a limitation he acknowledged but said he is working to address.
