Consolidated Assessment 3rd Version

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July 22 , 2011

A NEEDS ASSESSMENT STUDY OF THE COUNTRY UNDER THE AQUINO ADMINISTRATION

Movement for Good Governance

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It is relatively easy to elect a President. The difficulty lies in supporting him sothat he succeeds in governance.Supporting him entails affirming his performance in areas that he has done very well. But it also involves reminding him what policies and practices are notcoherent with his platform and promises. What would an “objective” or “fair” approach in evaluating performance of theadministration? The assessment must be based on a metric or what thePresident himself set out to do. In other words, the standards against which thePresident will be judged are those set by himself, and no one else.In President Aquino’s case, these standards can be found in his campaignplatform, which can be broken down into either 102 or 150 actionprograms/promises, depending on the websites one visits.

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The President’scampaign platform was reiterated in his inaugural address, where he promised tokeep his promises: “No more turning back on pledges made during the campaign, whether today or in the coming challenges that will confront us over the next six years”. It metamorphosed into the program of government formally known ashis “Social Contract with the Filipino People”

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which in turn, serves as the basisof the recently released 2011-2016 Philippine Development Plan (PDP), with“Inclusive Growth” as the mantra.The Movement for Good Governance uses a scorecard system to assess the needsof the country based on the extent to which the administration has implementedthe platform of the President.

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The Movement for Good Governance (MGG) started in 2008 as a coalition of individuals andorganizations who believe that the Philippines deserve better governance. MGG supported advocacies andprograms on voter and empowerment, leadership development, and election reforms. It launched a TVprogram entitled “Timbangan” in partnership with Channel 5 that benchmarked presidential candidatesusing a scorecard system. MGG’s Chair is Prof. Solita C. Monsod.

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These include the ProPinoy Project (Campaign Promises Checklist), AntiPinoy (Noynoy-Truth-O-meter),abs-cbnNews.com (Aquino Promises Tracker), and politicaarena.com The PNOY campaign website is nolonger found in the web.

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A 16-point program that can be accessed from The Official Gazette

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Score Assessment

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The President has broken his promise.2.5 There has been very slow or little progress on his promise.5 Something has been accomplished but is lower thanexpected.7.5 The administration is on track and is expected to achieve thetarget as scheduled.10 The target has been achieved as scheduled.The rating system is qualified by indicators. The assessment also makesreference to the qualities of a transformational leader: effective, empowering,and ethical, which MGG used in benchmarking the candidates in the 2010elections.In specific issues, such as corruption and education, different weights are given.Lighter weights were assigned to those that required simple actions such asrequiring public officials to fill up their Statement of Assets and Liabilities(SALN) and making them public. In cases where promises were equally important and difficult, they were given equal weights.

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Ang Tuwid na Daan

1.1 The President promised to “appoint public officials based on their integrity,qualifications and performance record and will hold them accountable to thehighest ethical standards of public office.” Unfortunately, being a shooting ordrinking buddy and/or classmate of the President seems to have been added as arequirement to some posts after his election – which makes for a very mixedrecord. On the plus side are the appointments of cabinet secretaries like deLima, Robredo, Abad, de Jesus, Singson, and Domingo, and two of the mostrecent appointments to the Court of Appeals, Gabriel T. Ingles and Pamela Ann A. Maxino.

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On the minus side are those appointees on whose integrity, and worse, evencompetence, doubts have been cast. The most glaring example of the latter is theappointment of Vice President Jojo Binay as Chairman of HUDCC. In his actionplan on housing, the President vowed: “We will appoint a person with a track record and demonstrated capacity in delivering social housing as HUDCCChairperson”. Binay has no such record; and his reputation for corruption inMakati is widespread, not to mention the anomalies unearthed by State Auditor(now COA Commissioner) Heidi Mendoza in the building of the Makati City Halland the Makati Hospital.

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These names are mentioned because they apparently had no backers, and were surprised thatthey were appointed – such surprise being a strong indictment on how nominees are selected.

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The second part of the action plan, where the President “will hold themaccountable to the highest ethical standards of public office” did not seem toapply to DILG Undersecretary Puno (a shooting buddy), Virginia Torres, anothershooting buddy.1.2. The President promised to require all Department Secretaries, Heads of Agencies, and senior officials from Director to Undersecretaries to have theirStatement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) available and accessible tothe public as required by law. Since this is already a legal requirement, why doesthe President pledge to obey the law? And yet, the Philippine Center forInvestigative Journalism has recently documented the difficulties it had inaccessing these SALNs, reporting a 57% “approval rate” (20 out of 35 requests forSALN having been approved), with several taking place “well beyond the 10 working days deadline in law” and with the Office of the President and the Officeof the Ombudsman “sticking out” as “the most barren fields for harvestinginformation.”1.3. The President committed to “ensure transparency and citizen’s participationin crafting and implementing laws, rules and regulations and in monitoring theprograms, projects and transactions of government.” However, except with theconstructive engagement of the Department of Budget and Management, themeans through which citizens can participate in crafting laws, rules andregulations, other than the usual hearings, have not yet been developed. Butthere is definitely greater transparency, particularly with respect to project costsand implementation both at the national and local levels, led by the DILG and theDBM, that have required these to be posted in the relevant websites. The 2011General Appropriation Act requires full disclosure from the Local GovernmentUnits.1.4. The President pledged to “uphold the people’s right to information onmatters of public concern and support the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI) in Congress.” But the President broke this promise whenMalacanang did not submit the FOI as a priority bill to Congress, justifying itsflip flop by alternately saying that “transparency doesn’t even require an FOI bill”(Candidate Aquino had said that having a “force of law” was necessary fortransparency in government to really take place), and claiming that an FOI law would imperil the privacy of government officials and perhaps even put nationalsecurity at risk

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1.5. “To enable citizens to help stop corruption”, the President stood on aplatform of “organizing, packaging and distributing information about thegovernment’s budget to the media regularly and posting them in the internet sothe public may know, understand and monitor how their money is spent.” Thisis one of the bright points of the administration, with again DBM and DILG in thelead. The former has drafted, with civil society organizations, principles of “constructive engagement”, and early this year formally called citizen groups toparticipate in the 2012 budget preparations – an unprecedented process. As