More than 1 million job order (JO) and contract of service (COS) workers — one out of every three government workers — help keep the Philippine government running, performing essential administrative, technical, professional, and frontline work across the bureaucracy. Yet despite the scale of their contribution, many serve under perpetual insecurity: contract after contract, without the protections that normally come with long-term employment.

Data from the Civil Service Commission (CSC) shows how long "temporary" can last. As of June 2026, more than 216,000 JO and COS workers had served the government for over five years, over 65,000 for more than a decade, and some 10,000 for more than two decades. For those hired repeatedly on six-month contracts, a decade of service can mean signing 20 successive agreements. What is designed as temporary on paper may become a career in practice.

While JO and COS workers are no longer at the margins of government operations, many remain at the margins of the country's social protection systems. Unlike regular employees, they have no security of tenure, receive no paid sickness or vacation leave, get no 13th month pay — the equivalent of an extra month of wages toward year's end — and are not eligible for Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) coverage, the social insurance institution serving regular government employees. For many, "no work, no pay" means a typhoon or a work suspension can quickly turn into a significant income shock.

Consider what continuous social security coverage could mean across those years of service: protection when a worker falls ill, gives birth, becomes disabled, loses income, or reaches old age. In the private sector, a Social Security System (SSS) member with at least 120 monthly contributions can qualify for a monthly retirement pension upon meeting retirement conditions. A person who spends five, 10, or even 20 years serving the government, by contrast, may reach the end of that service without having built the social protection they may need during and after those years.

Government policy already recognizes that JO and COS workers need social protection. Since 2019, they may receive a premium of up to 20% of the salary or wage of a comparable position — intended in part to compensate for benefits they do not receive — and they may enroll in SSS, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and the Home Development Mutual Fund, better known as Pag-IBIG, as self-employed members. The challenge lies in what comes after: allocating funds for social protection is one thing, sustaining it month after month is another, and much of that burden still falls on the worker.

The problem with kanya-kanya

In Filipino, kanya-kanya refers to each person looking out for their own interest alone. For a regular government employee, social insurance happens largely in the background: contributions are deducted automatically through payroll. Many JO and COS workers, meanwhile, must register on their own, set aside part of their compensation, remember when to pay, make the payment, and do it all over again the next month.

Conversations with JO and COS workers suggest the problem is not simply willingness. For someone who reports to work, commutes home, manages a household, and stretches a limited income across food, rent, utilities, and transport, another deadline and payment can easily fall down the list. Small hurdles, repeated month after month, can be enough to push a worker out of coverage.

This is where the SSS deserves credit. More than a decade ago, it recognized that voluntary coverage works better when workers are not left to navigate the system alone. As early as 2012, the agency was already developing the approach that would eventually become the KaSSSangga Collect Program.

The idea is simple: if the agency is already paying the worker, why not make it easier for the worker to contribute at the same point? Under the program, agencies can facilitate registration, contribution collection, and direct remittance. KaSSSangga does not change who pays; it changes how much workers have to do on their own.

The model has scaled. As of June 2026, SSS reported 3,885 partner agencies, 561,573 registered members, and P12.5 billion in contributions. More tellingly, roughly 200,000 are regularly paying members — meaning about one in every five JO and COS workers is steadily building social security protection for sickness, maternity, disability, and eventually retirement.

The gains go beyond the workers. Agencies gain a practical way to strengthen protection while efforts toward more secure employment continue. The SSS gains a wider base of active contributors and more sustained contribution flows — the more contributions come in, the more secure coverage becomes for all members.

An opportunity to go further

An opportunity to take the idea further arrived in June 2026, when Administrative Order No. 43 (AO 43) gave what SSS pioneered more than a decade ago the backing of a government-wide policy. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.'s order directs National Government entities to facilitate, with workers' consent, voluntary deductions for SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG and to remit these directly to the institutions. Local government units are encouraged — though not directed — to follow; whether they do will be one visible sign of how far the policy extends beyond national government offices.

The principle is worth emphasizing: participation can remain voluntary without leaving workers to navigate social security alone.

The challenge now is for government agencies to make AO 43 work in practice, building on and strengthening what KaSSSangga has started. Agencies still outside the program should come on board; those already participating should deepen implementation. A Memorandum of Agreement between SSS and an agency should be the beginning, not the endpoint.

Agencies must actively promote social protection coverage. Workers need to know about the option from onboarding onward, and access should extend across offices and units. Payroll systems should make voluntary deduction and direct remittance workable. Government agencies should also track whether enrollment actually translates into sustained contributions and access to benefits.

None of this solves contractualization, nor should KaSSSangga become a substitute for regularization. Workers performing continuing government functions should still have pathways toward more secure employment. But while JO and COS arrangements persist, workers need protection now. SSS has built the mechanism, AO 43 provides the policy directive, and government agencies now have to make it work.

For too long, social security for many JO and COS workers has depended on kanya-kanya — each person left to fend for themselves. It is time to move from kanya-kanya to KaSSSangga.

Linartes Viloria, Madeiline Aloria, and Regina Pasion are members of the Protection4All Coalition, which advocates for stronger and more inclusive social protection in the Philippines. This article first appeared in the opinion section of BusinessWorld.