Graduates with summa cum laude, magna cum laude, or cum laude honors or their equivalent may apply for Honor Graduate Eligibility (HGE), the Civil Service Commission (CSC) said.

The HGE is applicable to graduates of private higher education institutions in the Philippines from school year 1972-1973 and thereafter, with baccalaureate/bachelor’s degree recognized by the Commission on Higher Education, or state/local college or university with baccalaureate/bachelor’s degree included in its charter, or baccalaureate/bachelor’s degree duly approved by its Board of Trustees/Board of Regents.

Honor graduates from a reputable foreign school, as verified by the Department of Foreign Affairs through the Philippine Foreign Service Posts, may apply for the Foreign School Honor Graduate Eligibility (FSHGE), provided that they are Filipino citizens.

The CSC said that the HGE and FSHGE are both second level eligibilities considered appropriate for first and second level positions in government that do not involve the practice of profession and are not covered by bar/board/other laws.

The Commission grants the HGE to qualified individuals pursuant to Presidential Decree (PD) No. 907, issued on March 11, 1976, which mandates the grant of civil service eligibility to college honor graduates in the hope that “immediate absorption of these honor graduates in the public service will assure their participation in public affairs and bouy up the quality of the civil service.”

In line with PD 907, the Commission issued CSC Resolution No. 1302714 on December 17, 2013 to include honor graduates from foreign schools in the grant of eligibility.

Applications for HGE may be submitted to the CSC Regional Office (CSC RO) covering the area where the applicant finished his/her degree, or to any of the CSC RO’s field offices. Applications for FSHGE may be submitted to the nearest CSC Regional or Field Office where the applicant is currently based.

Applications submitted through a conduit CSC RO, in case the applicant is already based in another region, or via mail or courier are accepted.

Application fees are Php200 to be paid upon filing of application, and Php300 to be paid upon approval of the application.

The complete list of requirements and application procedures are available here.

In 2018, the CSC has conferred 12,557 HGEs. Only one FSHGE was conferred in the same year.