(This is the content of a reaction paper I submitted today for my subject in graduate school, PA 201 - Theory & Practice of Public Administration)

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: I hope Professor Rico R. Mabalod would give me a good grade for this.

The rice shortage that the country is experiencing at present makes us the world’s largest importer of rice — at over 2 million metric tons each year. Now at least, we can say that we are keenest in the world at certain something aside from being the most corrupt.

After signing a deal with Vietnam, the government is still negotiating with Thailand for an additional horde in the coming days, proving altogether that indeed, the rice shortage we have right now is too real for comfort.

According to Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, the present rice supply that the government has, through the National Food Authority, would last 57 days. I don’t know if that figure is healthy or not, 57 days is just days, what if in the 58th day there’d be no rice, then that’ll mean mayhem and turbulence in our streets of the meanest kind, much worse than in Indonesia or in Egypt where the military there had to stop militarizing and make bread just to put up with low bread supply and high bread demand among the Egyptians.

If on the 58th day, there’d be no enough rice within our reach, then I think the rice shortage would be far more malevolent cause for pulling down the government than the ZTE Controversy and Hello Garci hullabaloo combined, as people would surely packed the streets and demand an ouster, heads would roll for certain.

The government should do something drastically. I couldn’t believe that someone who look so smart or speak so eloquently such as Mr. Arthur Yap heads our Agriculture Department and yet the present rice shortage becomes like a menace that just came out of nowhere, like a miracle, or a flash of lightning and Mr. Yap says, “What was that?” He couldn’t be that naïve I am pretty sure.

Aside from all the patent reasons, like palay lands being converted to malls in tens or hundreds of hectares each year, the youth in the rural areas becoming nurses or call center agents rather than being rice farmers, low selling prices for the rice farmers, even the ever increasing scarcity of rainfall (due to climate change)—the government should look inwardly towards its own turf. The National Food Authority should reinvigorate itself and clean up some of its mess and help straighten out the kinks in the rice supply chain, to not allow cheap smuggled rice to flood the market, or otherwise local rice traders would have less notion to put up stores for the golden grains and close shop instead. And of course, hoarding among our suppliers is a perennial problem.

And perhaps, Mr. Yap should seek some sort of regulations or legislation curtailing or minimizing the conversion of huge palay lands into malls or factories. In other countries, they prohibit excessive construction of golf locations as it consumes water in a very gargantuan manner, harming the environment in the process. I am sure we could do that here concerning our rice farms becoming malls.

Even without the prodding of a dear blog friend in Schumey, I would have notice it just the same. Last night, the issue on the plight of the Sumilao marchers were all over the news and with the involvement of important entities like Ateneo de Manila University, this protest march becomes not just another protest from farmer-beneficiaries supposedly qualified to be privileged under the government’s agrarian reform.

The Sumilao Marchers’ case contains a very painful circumstance where lands that have already been previously distributed were taken away by virtue of a reversal of judgment by none other than the Supreme Court of this nation, and involving such finality after the Department of Agriculture, the main agency who is supposed to protect and bolster the interest of farmer-beneficiaries under CARP, have failed and have been neglectful in motioning for a consideration, thus resulting to the cancellation of certificates of ownership that were already previously issued. It’s a painful situation we got here. Taking away what already have been given. Losing what was already gained.

The land involved here is the 144-hectare property owned by certain Norberto Quisumbing, which in 1994 was distributed to 165 Sumalio farmers in Bukidnon after then DAR Secretary Ernesteo Garilao denied the conversion application by Quisumbing.

This DAR distruibution order was then challenged before the Office of The President and thereon it was decided that conversion was allowed and when DAR lapsed in challenging this decision by Malañang, the Supreme Court ruled with finality that the certificates issued to the Sumilao farmers be revoked, making way for conversion.

11 years hence, no conversion had occurred and in fact, the land in question was sold to San Miguel Corporation in 2002—in clear violation of the conversion plan approved by the Office of The President. With this very clear and blatant violation of the conversion plan in question, hopes now arises for the Sumilao farmers, citing such failure of the condition for the exemption from CARP coverage of the Quisumbing property, and without the realization of the conversion plan, the farmers may bring this up with the appropriate legal venue, along with a new issue, separate from the one or ones decided with finality by the Supreme Court, this time bringing to issue such failure of condition precedent.

With this, I hope the Sumilao farmers would get proper and sufficient legal representation in bringing up this issue. And may they succeed.

Read more of the Sumilao Farmers’ case at Gary Lazaro’s blog.

It has become such a full-blown issue. The first time I heard about the NBN-ZTE controversy, I felt like it was just merely yet another jar that the administration people had gotten their hands into—and being caught yet once again. For certain, the ZTE issue becomes now an unfastened Pandora’s box, and everything now is in wide disarray. In fact, this issue finally became the source of an impeachment proceeding to be filed against COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos, just when he is about to retire from public service. Imagine a cyclone approaching land-base and then the destruction it leaves behind when the faintest wind finally stopped.

It is worth noting at this point how the whole shenanigan had started and progressed into the huge mess that it is right now. GMA News offers this very concise timeline of the ZTE deal, from the time it was offered by the government of China towards the time it was brought to the public eye as a full-blown controversy.

Bingskee over there at Warmstone had presented how the deal was so flawed in its conception that it is actually in direct violation of eight important laws, including the BOT Law and the Anti-Graft and Corruption Law. Being such, it is most probably a contract null and void from the beginning.

The main question or questions that the Senate hearings seem to have aimed at is whether or not the contract was in violation of established government policies and laws, especially the procurement guidelines set in such mode of governmental undertaking. Senator Francis Escudero was at his sharpest this afternoon and was in fact so effective in digging up mud, slowly but surely establishing the defects of the whole NBN-ZTE deal, being so haphazard in its preparation and hugely flawed in its execution.

Considering the amount involved (approximately $329.5 Million), the contract signed by DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza with the government of China had not obtained proper documentations such as the DOJ and DBM advises as well as approval from the Government Procurement Policy Board.

(more…)

I have not minded yesterday’s SONA by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo although I was aware of it as early as Friday last week. This is somehow very unexpected of me since in years past, I have always been mindful of every SONA speech given, even as early as the Aquino administration. In fact, I had made it a point often in the past to be at home near the time when the speech is about to begin. But this year, I just woke up this morning and as I logged in to surf for the news, I was a bit surprised at myself upon realizing that in fact, yesterday afternoon, when President Arroyo had given her SONA, I wasn’t mindful about it. I could not easily explain why upon such realization, I felt some weight taken out of me, like a thorn snatched from my inside, just like perhaps how one alcoholic feels on the very day he or she had finally kicked out excessive drinking (a bad habit), or any drinking of any alcoholic beverage for that matter. That is, I felt lighter upon realizing that for this year, I haven’t got already the inclination to watch a speech that many says is merely full of promises, but empty in action.

So this year, I felt like I kicked a bad habit and did not watch the SONA live for the first time in more than a decade. It used to be that SONA watching had even became some kind of a ritual for me, like bird-watching or whale watching, making sure every time that I’d be home early in the afternoon and cancel whatever itineraries I have, those that weren’t ultimately urgent, and I would fix myself a sit in front of the television, and the boiling water always constantly heated and reheated for an afternoon tv watching marathon with mugs after mugs of hot black coffee, anticipating how the whole nation would be glued for an annual speech many says is merely full of words but empty in action, and seeing in my mind’s eye the costly gowns the ladies would be wearing, like it was Oscar awarding night, and how the men would be clapping at every pause or slow respite in the president’s oral masturbation, or how they would pretend to be clapping.

In every SONA event, I always have that feeling that if someone—perhaps, the sergeant-at-arm on duty for that day or the head security—would take a sack (or sacks) and carry it around the SONA audience—around senators and congressmen and congresswomen, governors, mayors, generals, heads of offices, colonels, tycoons, media bigwigs, pharmaceutical company executives, political advisers, political minions, exporters, importers, university professors, franchise holders, athletes, world boxing champs, actors and actresses, holymen…no…not holymen—and collect all Gucci bags, Rolex watches, Bangkok jewelries, diamonds, Italian leather shoes, Italian leather women’s shoes, Armanis and any other thing that glitters and worn for that day—I have a great feeling that we could pay up about 5% of our international debt right on, at that very moment, or perhaps build-up a huge housing project for ten thousand families, or feed all the hungry children living in the streets—right here, right now….RIGHT ON THE SPOT.

BUT RIGHT NOW—just allow me to enjoy this newfound feeling of being able to escape a bad habit; of listening to a speech many says merely full of words but empty in action.

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