Agenda Under President Elect Noynoy

This is the season for firming up of executive and legislative agendas both at the national and local levels. I will start with the national level which has been our clarion call in our Change Politics Movement ( CPM). This set of criteria came out in our movement’s national video conference exactly one year before this year’s May 10 elections.

The first strategic issue that President Noynoy should immediately address is to immediately stop the plunder of the public coffers. One of the major causes of our poverty is “drainage” of our public funds to corruption. The yellow movement ran on the slogan “Kung Walang Corrupt, walang mahirap” so the nation is expecting that policies, laws and institutions will be reviewed and reformed towards stopping the well entrenched ways of plunder of the public coffers.

Second is to rebuild and strengthen democratic institutions. After almost a quarter of a century of what I consider as the Camelot years during the Cory era, rebuilding and strengthening of damaged institutions are indicated again. An auspicious start should be in the three branches of government by making sure that checks and balances are in place. In the legislature, laws are passed based on the so called numbers and based on our experience the tyranny of the majority has been proven true many times. Which is why, in the coming Congress, the women’s movement, for instance will have to pursue with more vigor the passage of the Reproductive health bill. Why should our men in Congress be afraid to promote the health and well being of our women?

Third is to raise sufficient resources & ensure proper allocation & spending of public resources for priority programs. Implementing our tax code is a big first step.. Basic infrastructure for the rural areas will foster investments by the private sector which will, in turn, generate employment.

Fourth is to raise productivity ( especially in rural areas) & ensure fair distribution of assets of production, benefits and public funds. Faithful implementation of a comprehensive land reform law is a very big step and the allocation of funds for the modernization of our agriculture and fisheries sectors should be part of this.

Fifth is to ensure social protection for the poorest and disadvantaged communities. The NGO sector has worked on this for several decades now and so government must coordinate with the basic sectors through NGOs. The mechanism for this is well written in the National Anti Poverty Commission ( NAPC) Law.

Sixth is to set the foundation for restoring the peace track with armed parties. The Philippines has one of the longest running insurgency problems in the world and we have had many lessons learned which can guide us to new untried pathways.

To summarize, the main points of these agendas are about transparency and good governance, empowerment of basic sectors, reformed system of civil service bureaucracy, a review whether a constitutional reform through elected constitutional convention delegates is indicated at this point in time, asset reform, social safety nets for the poor, health, a feminist population policy, education, building peace by pursuing and sustaining the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF), and the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Mindanao (RPMM), promoting sustainable economic development through reforms in the management of our natural resources and agricultural sector, strengthening the local economy by supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), promoting fiscal and tax reforms by directing the lump sum allocations and “discretionary funds,” i.e. Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF, President's Social Fund, etc. ( pork barrel) to local governments, supporting measures that propose the inclusion of magnitude and incidence of poverty in the determination of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), increasing government revenues and conducting a debt audit by forming a Congressional Debt Audit Commission that will scrutinize all public debt and contingent liabilities.