The next president should keep “a small but smart Cabinet” and ditch the current administration practice of stuffing Malacanang with a horde of presidential advisers, assistants and consultants . Former senator Ralph Recto said the government that will come to power in June should also trim the number of undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and other top echelon officials. Noting that the number of high officials in the bureaucracy has been growing for the past 15 years, Recto said “the practice of handing out presidential advisorships as if it were knighthoods bestowed by a monarch should also be stopped." At present, there are about 40 presidential adviser positions and about 54 presidential assistant positions, Recto said, explaining that he used the word “position” because not all items are filled. “While some of the positions are vital, many of these, however, are not needed or duplicative of the functions and the mandate of regular Cabinet members. These are basically vanity positions whose purpose is to inflate the stature of the holder," Recto said. Recto conceded that any president would need advisers “but not to the point of making their creation a cottage industry.” Recto also disclosed the surge in the number of officials holding assistant secretary-level positions, or those possessing Salary Grade (SG) 29 items in the government pay scale, “from about 400 during the term of the late president Corazon Aquino to a staggering 3,208 today.” The number of positions holding undersecretary or equivalent positions , which carries an SG-30 rank, has likewise ballooned to 499, he said. “We have a battalion of Usecs and brigade-size complement of Asecs,” Recto said. Recto said the annual cost of the salary, allowances, staff, office upkeep, of the holders of two positions could reach P3.7 billion a year, or P22 billion if the appointing authority will serve a full six years. The former senator also cited a 2008 study of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) showing that the Arroyo government has hired an excess of 81 undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, apart from 53 presidential advisers and presidential assistants, and an unknown number of consultants. Recto, however, said Administrative Code of 1987 and various laws, executive orders and administrative orders mandate that there should be at the most 163 undersecretaries and assistant secretaries in the 24 executive departments. He said the “excess baggage” phenomenon in the upper ranks of departments can be stopped if the new administration will revert to the old “three Usec, three Asec” rule per department . “In big departments , we can even adjust the ceiling to four, “ Recto, however, said.