Long Blog Break

It's been 9 months since I last blogged. I got caught in the intensifying campaign for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act. I thought it was makeable, but I also had the sense to know it's not over until the ink of the President's pen dries on it.

We did not get it, and in classic Philippine scumbag politics fashion!

Greenwich, Greater London

I was in Greenwich, London from 14-20 June for a meeting.

Visited the Royal Observatory, home of the prime meridian, although there's nothing much there than imagination :)

Among the Greenwich fare we tried were steak & ale pie, and fish (haddock) and chips.

Right to Information: Bridging Divides in Implementation

UNDP India and the Government of India organized a two-day international consulation on access to ifnormation in Bangalore. It was part of a capacity building effort on the implementation of their right to information act. It was attended by India government officials and CSO reps, and a number of international delegates. I made a presentation at the panel on bridging divides in right to information implementation. See the presentation at http://www.aer.ph/images/stories/projects/id/right%20to%20info%20-%20bridging%20divide.pdf

Can't help but notice: most of the participants were men, That's one visible divide.

Bangalore

Unfortunately my four days in Bangalore did not qualify me to write about the place. I spent three days cooped in the hotel, which for some reason did not even give a view of Bangalore sun. I ventured out on my fourth day, taking an auto rickshaw to Garruda Mall, a recommendation at the hotel reception. I would have gone to Mysore, but wasn't able to plan properly. Garruda turns out to be a modern mall, small by Philippine standards.

I decided to just visit a bookstore. It did not have an impressive collection though, unlike some bookstores in Delhi. Still I found myself Amartya Sen's latest book - The Idea of Justice.

I walked around the nearby streets. The weather was cool. However I did not find any place of particular interest. By 2 pm I decided to head back to the hotel getting another rickshaw.

This driver coming back happened to be one of the sort that gives a place a bad reputation. He asked for 200 rupees after I boarded. He reduced it to 120 after I asked to go down, although I know it was still overpriced (but I was not about to engage in extended haggling). It turns out he wasn't even familiar with the place I was coming back to, and I ended up having to call the hotel for directions. When I went down at the hotel, he was insisting to increase the fare again to 200 for the extended time spent looking for the hotel. I wouldn't haved minded, knowing the high cost of gas, but he was trying to sound threatening: "That's the last for you, sir!" Just the thing to set a batangueno off: "Are you threatening me?"

Coming back to the hotel I was prepared to just use up my remaining time doing internet and work at the lobby (I already checked out earlier, any my flight is midnight.) But the hotel offered to give me a room! That sure more than made up for the rickshaw incident.

The lesson as always: plan ahead on outside travel. Pity I was on such rush coming to Bangalore I didn't have time for that. Hope I can come back here some other time.

To Alecks, a gentle warrior.

Disaster

In Manila, either we were directly affected by the floods brought on by typhoon Ondoy, or it hit too close. For those of us who were fortunate to be on higher ground, there were friends or family that were not as fortunate.

Force majeure, or superior or irresistible force.

But there may have been part of it that would have been avoidable, or mitigated. And responses that would have been more prompt, or appropriate, or effective. Looking forward it cannot be business as usual. Similar events are bound to affect us all.

The analyses coming out in the aftermath are all instructive. Climate change is one context. The other is how urban development proceeded. Quoting from a news item with architect Felino Palafox Jr. as source:

"The Metro Manila Transport, Land Use and Development Planning Project (Metroplan), which was finalized by Hong Kong-based consulting firm Freeman Fox and Associates, has been used as a blueprint by urban planning developers and various government agencies and urban planners. Unfortunately, he said corruption and lack of planning has led to the shelving of some of the plan's recommendations.

"You see the irony here. National government agencies are aware that there is a flooding level of so many meters, then another national government agency would approve subdivision plans for only nine-meter high houses. There are about 32 signatures to obtain just to do a development project. It's like an obstacle course," he said in an ANC interview last Tuesday."

We can expect the private sector to avoid internalizing the costs of its negative externalities, to maximize profits. Private developers will narrow or block waterways, cut down trees, flatten hills, and fill valleys. And we will buy what they construct. As the incentive of private interests push to overbuild and destroy nature, we look to government to look after the public interest.

Unfortunately, in government private interests also rule. Every government project is a personal opportunity; the public good is secondary. To this misfortune, the response of our economists for the last two decades has been to demonize and tear down government; to let the market rule. Alas, this strategy has only suppressed the drive for institutional reform and made many of us passive citizens.

We need to reclaim government.

The Tough Tasks of 2010-2016: We Will Rise to the Challenge

Action for Economic Reforms

Michael Alba, Krupskaya Añonuevo, Manuel Buencamino, Jenina Joy Chavez, Lisandro Claudio, Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, Ramon Fernan III, Mario Galang, Yusuf Ledesma, Corinna Lopa, Nepomuceno Malaluan, Hazel Malapit, Cristina Morales, Rene Ofreneo, Rafael Paredes, Rene Raya, Jessica Reyes-Cantos, Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III

September 2009

Senator Noynoy Aquino has emerged as the people’s candidate. That he has made the accountability of Gloria Arroyo and her regime a central plank of his program boosts his position as the most suitable to preside over the next administration. We have identified Arroyo’s illegitimacy, plunder, and destruction of institutions as the main obstacle to our country’s progress.

The mission for the next six years is gargantuan. The next President carries the responsibility of resuscitating our institutions of democracy, transparency, and accountability from the vicious blows inflicted by Arroyo. But to get there, Arroyo’s forces must first be overcome. This will not be easy, given the state machinery that Arroyo commands.

This is where the candidacy of Noynoy Aquino finds relevance. By far, he appears most capable of generating the broadest coalition that stands the best chance of defeating the vilest, most dangerous enemy.

Noynoy’s democratic credentials have deep roots. He is personally closest to the legacy of Ninoy and Cory Aquino, two Filipinos to whom people and country mattered most. Noynoy, as he proclaims to continue the fight of his parents, resonates as well the people’s unfinished fight for democracy and decent governance. He also lays claim to a moral uprightness that the likes of former president Joseph Estrada cannot hope to match.

Moral uprightness and the fortitude to fight for people and country – nothing less is needed to be up to the daunting tasks of 2010-2016.

To be sure, most aspirants to the presidency will put forward their respective platforms to address the most critical development challenges for the next administration. We offer below a focused program.

First, we need to launch an economic recovery that is broad-based, and powered by the resurgence of the domestic economy that is not confined to the service sector. The growth strategy must target chronic unemployment, food insecurity, ecological degradation, and persistent poverty.

An immediate binding constraint on growth is the very low tax effort, which can lead to another fiscal crisis. Resolving the fiscal problem requires implementing serious reforms in tax administration, fighting smuggling and other forms of tax evasion, reformulating the excise taxes on sin products to become robust, rationalizing fiscal incentives, stopping the indiscriminate creation of special economic zones and free ports, and rectifying spending anomalies.

On infrastructure, we must address not only the backlogs but also the geographical imbalance. We give special attention to boosting agriculture and uplifting the rural poor. Among other things, we must rethink the agrarian reform program, which has failed both on equity and efficiency grounds.

And once the global recovery sets in, we must not allow our currency to overvalue and thus lose competitiveness. Strategically, we have to undo the failed trade, industrial and agriculture policy of the last four decades.

Second, towards diminishing the politics of patronage and avoiding a repeat of elections being stolen, we need to make elections clean, honest and fair as well as to even the playing field in political contestation.

Third, we have to resolve the crisis in Philippine education. At all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary), education is beset with serious problems of quality, attendance and mindless commercialization. Complex problems in human resources in agriculture and the vast informal economy are hardly being tackled. Already we are suffering from the consequences of poor education outcomes. This will hobble the country in the long term if not effectively addressed soon.

Fourth, the next administration must move the process of achieving peace, especially in Mindanao. The long-standing conflict has continued to cause peoples and communities untold suffering. Learning from Barack Obama, the next leadership should junk the ideological and bellicose stance of previous administrations and be open to principled concessions to secure a just and long-lasting peace.

The most decisive issue that the next president must confront is to make Mrs. Arroyo and her accomplices account for the crimes they have committed in public office. These include rigging the elections, plundering the public coffers through various scams, flouting the rules of accountability, and committing human rights violations including extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances.

The next president should vigorously resist the idea of forgetting the past and moving on. Forgiveness, reconciliation, and mercy should not be used as a shield against accountability. The issue is not just about personal guilt or redeeming souls, but principally about rebuilding institutions that have been decimated.

As support for Aquino’s candidacy snowballs, care should be taken that the emerging movement is not hijacked by opportunistic forces and self-interested operators as well as by exclusivists.

We also share the hope that Aquino can unite the broad spectrum of the anti-Arroyo opposition, from the revolutionaries and reformers to decent conservatives as well as the other mainstream political parties. The broadest coalition not only ensures the defeat of Arroyo’s party. Such unity is likewise critical as we embark on a tough reform program and as we shape the nation’s collective identity towards a bright and prosperous future.

The change we seek cannot be the sole responsibility of the political leaders. A responsible citizenship—informed, vigilant and active—will deter cheating in the 2010 elections, push back the forces of darkness, and sustain the reform struggle. Responsible citizenship means helping out the new government. We cannot leave to government alone the fulfillment of so many tasks. The post-Arroyo period will be an opportunity to recover our sense of community.

At the same time, responsible citizenship will call on the new President and his coalition to account for his and their action or inaction on crucial matters. We must guard against giving false hopes to the people.

To reiterate, the fight is against Arroyo and those like her who use their position for personal aggrandizement. Arroyo is the symbol of what’s despicable with the system. This is a struggle between change and more of the same.