A. Career Executive Service

The Career Executive Service is the ‘third level’ or the managerial class in the group of career positions in the Philippine civil service. The CES was created by Presidential Decree No. 1 to "form a continuing pool of well-selected and development-oriented career administrators who shall provide competent and faithful service."

The CES is also a public personnel system separate from that of the first two levels of positions in the Philippine civil service.

B. The CES Concept

The CES operates on the ‘rank concept’. Career Executive Service Officers (CESOs) are ‘appointed’ to ranks and ‘assigned’ to CES positions. As such, they can be re-assigned or transferred from one CES position to another and from one office to another but not oftener than once every two years. The CES is like the Armed Forces and the Foreign Service where the officers are also appointed to ranks and assigned to positions.