The Philippines According To Presidential Bets

The Philippines is the sum of all its local government units. Four presidentiables ( Secretary Gibo Teodoro, Senator Chiz Escudero, Senator Manny Villar and Senator NoyNoy Aquino) faced a job interview with one hundred ( 100) local government champions at the Asian Institute of Management and aired live this week by ABS-CBN in its Face to Face program. This forum-interview with the four presidentiables was under the auspices of the The Galing Pook Foundation, IPD, Synergia, LGSP ARMM, ASOG and FES. For the responsible voter, it will be crucial for us to know where the future president will be leading us on the three themes tackled (resources, accountability and autonomy) when applied to issues close to the hearts of local government officials such as local budget, accountability of national officials to local officials, fiscal autonomy, the pork barrel or countrywide development funds, reward system for good performance, political parties, extraction of natural resources, reproductive health bill, the visiting forces agreement, charter change and political dynasties.

I will highlight here the items that for me stand out.

Sen Chiz Escudero who is turning 40 years old this week said that all he said should be heeded whoever is the next president. On the Mindanao peace process, Secretary Teodoro, the presidentiable who hails from the defense establishment is quick to admit that he does not espouse the military solution per se. He said that there are many variables but one common issue is that there are many arms on the side of rebels and so he thinks that one solution is to disarm the rebel groups as a prelude to democratic dialogue between various stakeholders. Sen. Chiz Escudero said that indigenous political institutions should be part of the Mindanao peace process. This could be also useful for other autonomous regions like the Cordilleras.

Senator NoyNoy Aquino who is current chair of the Senate Committee on Local Governance said that the essence of devolution is sharing democratic governance to the local government units and which is akin to the principle of people power.

All presidential bets said capacity building for local government officials is important. Senator Noynoy said that national officials have a lot to learn from local government officials, too, who know best the local color. Dr Alex Brillantes, an analyst from the University of the Philippines said local government officials can benefit to learn from peers such as the prominent LGU leaders as Mayor Hagedorn or Mayor Sonia Lorenzo or Mayor Robredo.

Secretary Teodoro is in favor of reproductive health as a population management measure. But, the women’s movements have moved away from the paradigm of population control & management towards the paradigm of reproductive rights which is a shift from demographics and numbers towards the individual rights of each human being.

Senator Villar, the housing entrepreneur and who rose to serve as House Speaker and Senate President has a very national and macro perspective. He also believes in increasing the so called pie of internal revenue allocation rather than changing the percentage of local and national allocation or division. He does not say though how to increase the entire pie.

All presidential bets are open to charter change. Sen Escudero says the issue of charter change should be settled through voting by asking if people say yes or no to charter change, when and how. Senator NoyNoy says charter change should not be open ended but a social contract should be drafted to determine the metes and bounds of what to change in order to limit to certain changes.

Senator Escudero is for the abolition of the pork barrel which he defines as a lump sum allocation and which should be replaced with line item budgeting while Sec. Teodoro says that the pork barrel can be a local tool for developing local infrastructure like transport and communication, markets, roads, schools, evacuation centers, and agricultural production.

For those who are seeking for a platform of change and transparency, you would like Senator Noynoy's answers to how to go about increasing the local internal revenue collection. NoyNoy said he can guarantee to increase the internal revenue allocation by stopping the “leakage.” He says there is no need to change the percentage of allocation as all national funds will ultimately go to a local government unit anyway; an audit of local government performance will be based on agreed goals and agreed parameters of measurement up front. Ultimately, Sen NoyNoy Aquino says, the reward of good performance of local officials is, anyway, through the ballot during election.