Senator Escudero's Suggestion On Mindanao Peace Process

Philippine Politics, Current Events, News & Info | Comments (4)

By MAJOR TOM | October 21, 2009

Senator Chiz Escudero - in his Facebook account - suggests the novel idea of involving all possible stakeholders in any talk concerning the peace process in Mindanao. In toto:

INVOLVEMENT OF ALL PARTIES IN TALKS, NOT ONLY U.S. HELP, KEY TO PEACE IN MINDANAO - CHIZ

Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero yesterday said while he welcomed any help the United States might provide in the ongoing peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), he reiterated that all-out consultations with stakeholders is still the key to a long-lasting settlement in Mindanao.

“The US, or any other foreign country for that matter, can only achieve so much by taking part as honest brokers. In the end, it is really the involvement of all local stakeholders in the process that will ultimately lead to peace in the region,” he said.

Officials from the US embassy in Manila met recently with representatives of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Maguindanao to discuss ways how Washington could play a bigger role in resolving the conflict on the island.

Although the US currently provides humanitarian and development aid to conflict areas in Mindanao where poverty is rife, it is also conducting training exercises with Philippine troops battling rebels and extremists on the island.

Figures from the National Statistical Coordination Board indicate that the poverty incidence rate in the country was highest in Mindanao at 38.8 percent compared to 33 percent for the Visayas and 20 percent for Luzon

The 40-year-old lawmaker also reiterated the need to include in the peace talks all clans and representatives of indigenous peoples from conflict areas as well as local government units.

He noted the vast amount wasted by government as after nearly 30 years of confrontation as well as the continued internal displacement of people.

Based on data from the Office of the Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process, annual economic losses from the Mindanao conflict from 1975-2002 has ranged from P5-10B, which would equate to a staggering P135-170B for 27 years. “These costs could have been used to alleviate poverty through the construction of infrastructure,” Escudero stressed.

The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center has estimated the number of refugees in Mindanao at 600,000, calling it the “biggest displacement in the world.”

“The stalemate in Mindanao has gone on for far too long and it is obvious deep feelings of suspicion and hostility remain between and among the various stakeholders,” he said.

U.S. involvement in the Mindanao peace process is not a secret anymore even for a long time already, ever since last year, when the MOA-AD cancellation by the Supreme Court hugged headlines in the news world.

If this is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. The United States has great leveraging power and this could be used to the hilt to finally solve the so-called 'Mindanao Problem' - of peace and lack of progress and economic development there, remaining until now to be the location of intances of massive poverty, despite the perniciousness of natural resources there.

Of course, there's always that query upon a superpower's aim and intentions of desiring to intervene in a mostly doemstic affair such as the peace process in Mindanao. Could America has hidden intentions, such as putting up a military base in Mindanao?

We could only surmise.

However - if for example - it is of great utility to the resolution of the peace issue there, then why not?

The Daunting Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas Tandem

Philippine Politics | Comments (12)

By MAJOR TOM | September 21, 2009

Even Malacañang seems especially daunted with the now official Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas tandem for next year’s presidential elections, now that Senator Roxas has officially accepted the vice-presidential candidacy slot for the Liberal Party, presumably through the personal invitation of Noynoy himself.

Actually the team not merely daunting, what with the recent survey results out, the duo could be quite formidable --- not merely a winning team but one that could be unbeatable.

In the days of old, we used to say about up and coming politicians to be “so young and yet so corrupt”, but these two young candidates are “so young and yet so capable”.

If the two can hold their cards well, not bungling their chances just for several months from now, then they’d surely find themselves sitting in the palace by the river next year.

Well of course, none of this election thing should be considered a done deal and deemed final not unless, as they say, the fat lady sings. We still have to have an election on May of next year for one.

Despite the roaring entrance of Noynoy Aquino into the election fray, other candidacies remain to be on the radar, waiting for the banana skin that could lay to naught the Aquino-Roxas team.

For one, the administration bet in Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro becomes now a wise selection as his qualifications and intellectual capacity comes now to the forefront, his exceptional academic achievements slowly seeping into the public consciousness.

Also, Senator Many Villar – the erstwhile topnotcher in polls and surveys before Noynoy came into the scene --- is still looming large out there, still looking for that lucky break (or lucky combination) and desperately aiming to escape the stranglehold of a recent real-state controversy that had suddenly stained what was once an impeccable motive and intention to run for the presidency.

Senator Chiz Escudero on the one hand is still out there flaunting the very wide and sizable networks that he had built from the grassroots in the past several years, through frequent countrywide visits and guesting sorties, and not to forget his very brisk Internet networking activities. That aside from his well-known reputation for boisterous outcries against anomalies in the present government.

And who else, uhmn, maybe former President Estrada still holds that celebrity charisma that had catapulted him to the topmost position of this land in 1998.

It could be a wide open race, despite the ferocious strength and railroading entrance of Liberal Party’s Noynoy Aquino-Mar Roxas presidential team.

The Darkhorse in Gilbert Teodoro

Philippine Politics, Current Events | Comments (7)

By MAJOR TOM | September 16, 2009

I remember how Lakas-NUCD was such a formidable political party several years ago. But that is just merely a memory today. One such manifestation is apparently the lack of talent within its midst that now it has to parade a thoroughly greenhorn nominee for next year’s presidential election.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro comes to me like a very unassuming name and one without a certain face that when the boisterous pronouncement of his nomination by Lakas came out on the morning news today, I wasn’t able to immediately put a face behind the name, despite that of course, his name had been in the current news every now and then, being defense secretary at present.

So I had to immediately surf the net and browse for his person and that was the only time I was entirely assured of his person, in name and face.

Now let me take a step backward, it seems to me that the party has some sense and wisdom after all in its selection of Mr. Teodoro for per my research, Gilbert Teodoro is actually someone who could not be faulted for wanting to aspire for the topmost position of this country. His scholarly record is impeccable, almost to a fault. He topped the bar examinations and went to Harvard for graduate studies. Definitely, we see lots of potential in this guy (to be so cliché about this) and if he becomes president, we might just as well possibly have the most intelligent president ever; although we had such a miserable experience with one. And besides, we are yet to hear anything controversial about him.

With the Noynoy bandwagon coming up so strong and so fast, Teodoro’s presidential run is at most a wild card affair.

In conclusion, Gilbert Teodoro might just be merely a face in the crowd today, but with enough effort in his campaigning, he could be the dark horse in next year’s presidential race and can give Sen. Noynoy Aquino and Sen. Manny Villar a worthy run for their money.

Shall We Celebrate Our Huge FOREX Reserve?

Philippine Politics, The Economy | Comments (4)

By MAJOR TOM | September 11, 2009

I was going to blog about this current item some days ago, but I was so busy then. It was a notable report about our economy about three days ago, where our foreign exchange reserve stood at record-high 41.3 Billion in U.S. dollars. Otherwise known as Gross International Reserve (GIR), forex exchange reserve is one good indicator on the health and vigor of the economy, simply stating how much dollars or foreign currency flows into the country at a certain point.

At this level, the Philippines maintain the 10th largest reserve in Asia according to the report and about 37th in the world.

It’s a bit of a downside however to learn that other countries in Asia like Thailand (US 125 B), Malaysia (US 91.4B) and Indonesia (US 57.4B) are so far ahead of us in this aspect. But knowing that we have gained great strides in this matter is already one reason to feel uplifted, somehow.

To clarify some point, the GIR does not ultimately reflect the real account or level of an economy of a nation and remains highly debated as to its significance is assessing a nation's actual economic strength. Too much of it could actually be harmful to the dynamics of currencies as central banks could easily masked flailing currencies resulting to the hazards of misrepresented values of items and commodities, a situation that could easily lead to explosive inflation and sharp contraction in economy.

Consider that other notable rich countries like Australia (US 40.9B) and Spain (US 27.6B) are far lower than us but for certain, these countries’ economy are so much bigger than ours.

The highest level in GIR is held by China at $ 2.1 Trillion while America is merely 20th at $ 78 Billion. Now, at least we see the gigantic irony about foreign reserves.

But all in all, GIR level is greatly indicative of our nation’s health or any form of upswing on it, in the most basic sense. America and other rich countries could well afford to maintain reasonably lower amount of reserves since their liquidity issues are not as much a problem, and besides America’s dollar remains to be the currency of choice for almost all countries, meaning all those held in reserves in many central banks across the globe emanates or is directly connected to the U.S. economy, signifying its enormous strength as a financial hegemony (giant) in the global trade.

Other forms of reserves are in gold, that’s why central banks all over the world store bullion of gold somewhere underneath their premises.

What is most significant about our GIR level is the sharp increase it had gained from last year, almost $ 10 Billion all in all, from a mere $ 32 B in 2008.

Apparently, this strong inflow of forex exchange should be credited primarily to improving remittances from OFW’s abroad (showing how they are truly heroes of this country) and some from foreign direct investment and capital.

Some sectors says and ask, “What shall we do with these dollar reserves? Shall we just store it or make use of it?”

Some even suggested that we use half of it to pay our fast accumulating foreign debts. Some say we use some of it to build houses and roads.

Maybe we can we use some of it to "keynesially"upstart our economy, increasing government spending through salary increases to the government sector, embark on huge infrastructure projects like public housing, farm-to-market roads and bridges, allowing more access to farms and other potential areas.

But doing that might just harm our economy instead, decreasing credit confidence and would make our economy more likely to be fragile against currency crisis, like the Asian Financial Crisis of 1998.

That’s one of the most important purposes of stable and wide FOREX reserves, in order to shield us from currency fragility that often hounds the global economic system, attacks that are so debilitating that it could tear down an entire economy into bits in just a matter of days.

Growing Cult in Noynoy Aquino

Philippine Politics | Comments (17)

By MAJOR TOM | September 2, 2009

I have once read that in order to be a true great leader, one must be able to transgress the boundaries of ordinariness, to be iconic and then to be cultic for one.
In other words, one has to be extraordinary.

And so with the case of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, he has extraordinary things going on for him. For certain, it is not extraordinary measure of personality, but that of extraordinary circumstances.

At a glance, Noynoy has proffered no astonishing credential, except that the situation he is right now makes him so politically palatable and very, very viable. The recent death of her mother, Former President Corazon C. Aquino, has showed yet once again that in local shores, the political environment is often inclined to embrace the extraordinary. Well, perhaps there is no blame for even in America right now, they are still so embroiled in the extraordinary phenomenon of President Barack Hussein Obama.

Eventually, Noynoy Aquino is riding on these circumstances, the overflowing support of the people to her mother and the legacy she had left, and of course, being the son of the most patent icon of Philippine politics in the modern era. And perhaps we can add the fact that she is the sister of the most recognizable personality in Philippine television nowadays.

Columnist William Esposo in The Philippine Star wrote:

"All the present presidential candidates can only offer how much better they can govern over their rivals...Noynoy brings an ideological factor into the equation -- the same ideological factor that enabled a housewife to beat the dictator in 1986."

And besides, Noynoy Aquino had exemplified great ardor and stability in his political career so far, not disposed to enter into frays, or to meddle into issues and then be heard for it, and what is so noticeable is the lack of controversy in his midst. That by itself is extraordinary ultimately.

If he decides to run, he would surely have that privilege of riding upon extraordinary circumstances, those that could enable him to venture into cultic adulation, to be inspirational and exceptional, and win one presidential election.

Re-invigoration of the Public Sector

Philippine Politics, Government Matters | Comments (1)

By MAJOR TOM | September 1, 2009

I do not mean re-engineering or even re-structuring. Maybe all we need is merely to invigorate the government system in order for it to achieve the maximum efficiency that is expected of it.

We have tried such modes of re-invention as re-engineering and re-structuring, at great cost in time and money, and yet improvements have not been substantial or palpable. The public continues to languish in long queues every time a license or a passport is needed. Bribes are ever pernicious, and even more open today, like it is not anymore a secret that should be tucked inside the pocket or a key thrown into the deepest ocean.

The public continues to encounter ugly faces of public servants seemingly tired of their day job and daydreaming of life in beaches almost all day long. At the slightest error, the public who is merely seeking public service get squirmed at by those who are especially employed by the government in order to serve the public, and in order that the common person have the convenience that the government owes them.

What is the aim of the public sector now? This is one vital question that should be addressed before everything can be settled. Is the public servant merely holding position just in order to make a living? He or she should rather be selling vegetables or meat in the market, at least thereat, there would be wider potentiality for the improvement of wealth. Nobody could really get rich in the government service, even serving for a long time.

Is the public servant merely holding position for social status and pride? He or she would rather be joining pageants and spectacles on television, for he or she would be known better there.

The public office is a public trust. This dogma had even been institutionalized in our most fundamental set of laws – our Constitution – and this is most encompassing of all, where no one should be allowed to forget the essence of public service, which is in order to serve the people, and not merely for self aggrandizement.

In view of the foregoing issues, therefore it is but time to realigned our views about the public sector, starting from the people within it. That for every employee of the government, whether national or local, every time he or she sees an individual, riding a Mercedes Benz or wearing no shoes and in tattered clothes, it should not matter, because that person, whether rich or poor, famous or unknown, is the very public sector he or she is aimed to serve.

In this manner, improvement of government service and the government system could be initiated, entering its nascent stages.

Despite the improvements in work environment, like air-conditioned areas, new buildings, expensive vehicles and increase in pay and bonuses, government service remains the same old horse, who is lackluster in movement, lacks dynamism and most of all, deficient towards its main aim of serving the public dutifully and with vigor. The government remains a system that is prone to stagnation and inefficiency, misappropriation, abuse of authority and lack of direction.

We have tried re-engineering the government system in the past and yet even the best re-engineers couldn’t tame the wild river that is the Philippine government system. Maybe we need a rocket scientist for this. We have tried re-structuring but even if our re-structurers could build a pyramid or an Eiffel Tower out of a molehill, the government system remains an ancient nipa hut.

Maybe it’s time that we should try re-invigorization.

It’s not as complicated to do as re-structuring does or as expensive as a re-engineering would demand. It only takes will, political will and cooperation from the people in the system. There are a number of factors that would be put in focus in this aim of putting the government service in the right track, one is leadership, two is awareness, three is competition, four incentive, and five public choice.

In LEADERSHIP, I mean to say political leadership. When we all almost agree that politics and the bureaucracy could not really be separated and is intertwined almost all the time, leadership becomes a most important factor in putting vigor and integrity back into the government service. In choosing our political leaders, especially in the next election activities in the coming years, the people should now aim for leaders who have proven capacity to lead and carry an entire workforce towards the improvement of service. It starts with the people then. If the electorate fails in the first place to change our leadership from the highest level, towards the root level, then re-invigorization of the government system would remain an illusion.

AWARENESS is two-pronged, first there should be awareness or a high level of consciousness among our public servants that their holding of their respective positions is not meant for self-aggrandizement alone, as a form of livelihood above all, but in order to serve the public well, and this should become a passionate and patriotic mission in every individual that would be integrated into the government service. Secondly, there should be similar level of awareness as to the PUBLIC being the CLIENT that the government is aimed to served, (the private sector prefer to call them CUSTOMERS) and the government system is aimed at primarily serving the needs of the CLIENT, that when the client is dissatisfied, public service becomes irrelevant and inefficient in every sensible sense possible. The CLIENT becomes the reason for existence, without it, there is no public service in the first place. This way, every client that enters the halls of a government office should be served well, for the moment that no one would anymore enter the halls of government offices, is just about the time that public service should eradicated.

COMPETITION could be injected into the public sector so that improvement of service could pertain. If the public could be given a choice as to the locus of a better service that they are necessitating, then every public servant would aim to proffer the better form or kind of service. This would entail privatization or semi-privatization of some government agencies or giving the public more stake in the government system, where there is increased community involvement in public service. Competition would entail the heightened accountability and responsibility factor, where the government service would become directly accountable towards the community, that there is really not one that is indispensable, that the public would always have a better place to go when someone in the public sector doesn’t want to serve the people anymore, but only wants to receive salaries and bonuses. This is where PUBLIC CHOICE comes. This element of re-invigorization is the most complicated of all, but it could be done through medium term action plan, like say five years in the process, incrementally achieved by phases. And of course, this would entail a more detailed document and methodology. Competition also would bring forth to the adjustment of tenures in public service where at present, there is that seemingly extreme bias in favor of security of tenure, so extreme that even if a public servant would go to his or her work in drag and sleep all day, the government system could not take him or her away, resulting to mass demoralization and low-level performances. Public service should straightened out its merit system that only a good performance could lead to promotions and increase in compensation, that not one indispensable that for whenever a public servant does not want to serve the public anymore, as expected of him or her, then other more competent or more able individuals from the workforce should be recruited in his or her stead.

INCENTIVES of course remains a very important element, just like in re-structuring or re-engineering, that for every PUBLIC CHOICE of a government service, the better service would gain performance incentives, such as quota bonuses for a certain level unit of work, like for example if this government cashier had served 100 clients in a day, then performance credits and bonuses would inure or if this inspector had visited more areas or locations in a month than all the rest, he or she receives a hefty amount. It could be done in a larger scale that for example if this government agency branch had performed well in a particular year, more than the others in the same field, the whole workforce of that branch would get bonuses and be lauded with public acclaim. They do that in private sector, that’s why the private sector had been able to build the grand Makati skyline over the years, and is establishing another in Fort Bonifacio and in Ortigas, aside from the busting urban scene in Cebu and Davao, and they do not receive any subsidy from taxpayers, unlike the government service system.

The private sector had not been fraught with issues of grand corruption because employees in the private sector do not attain such level of indispensability like that in the public service, where those who performed well are credited well and remain in the service for long, while those who are lackluster and lack integrity in work is taken out of the system. And besides, if one reaches a managerial or administrative level in the private sector, one is assured of hefty compensation that is why, in recent years, managers and executives of private companies have been able to increased sales in dramatic proportions. There are a lot of things that the government service could learn from the private sector in terms of methodologies, form of work structure, incentive system, recruitment and promotion system, tenures of employees, work ethics and level of competency and most of all in their treatment of the CLIENT, which they often call as the CUSTOMER.

In public service, the CLIENT may not always be right, but for certain they are the reason for being. A population that is served better by the government, in terms of public service --- like education, licenses, security of food, public order and safety, health and welfare, livelihood opportunities, housing, job placements, communication and technology, etc.--- is a population that can make a better government and thereon, a more vibrant State.

(Note: This a re-post from last year.)

Taiwan In Peril

Philippine Politics, Current Events, News & Info | Comments (8)

By MAJOR TOM | August 16, 2009

International news headlines Taiwan’s debacle with very deadly Typhoon Morakot. For this, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou is currently being demonized by his own people for perceived inaction and calls for his resignation is mounting steadily that he have to make clear on a TV appearance that he is ‘still’ the president of Taiwan and that he is still in control.

Typhoon Morakot was terribly vicious not because of its wind speed but of the heavy amount of rain it carries. It is a fact that a storm lashes so much harsher when it is packed with rain and water.

In a seaside area in Taiwan, on the aftermath of the deadly storm, where over 500 people died and thousands left homeless, hundreds of skinned-white logs filled the beach that one could not already see the sand. That tells the extent of damage and of ferociousness of the storm.

Women cry for their lost ones, buildings stumbling on the force of flood water, and horrendous mud burying homes and entire villages --- Typhoon Morakot becomes the harshest storm to ever hit Taiwan in 50 years.

And this somehow makes me realize that not even the most resourceful of country like Taiwan, one of the most developed economies in the world, could ever prepare for a tragedy like this, its government seemingly caught unprepared and ill-equipped for this sort of happenstance.

Could the wrath of nature be tamed? This remains a question.