New York—“If we have a Manny Pacquiao, an Alex Eala [and all these great homegrown talents] who rose to the top [of the world] against all odds, then [that means] all Filipinos can do it too,” Atty. Loida Nicolas Lewis said during a one-on-one interview on the heels of an hours-long conversation with colleagues in the gorgeous Harvard Club in New York.
The location clearly helped: the refined, red-brick neo-Georgian style and overall Beaux-Arts architecture; the majestic ceremonial hall, with portraits of some of the world’s greatest leaders and minds; and the soaring ceiling paired with leather upholstery. “[Filipinos] have to have a sense of urgency [though] and [embrace the] ‘kaya natin’ spirit,” she added, echoing the legendary “can do” ethos of the late President Fidel Ramos, arguably our greatest president to date.
The conversation, which I will upload soon on my “Deep Dive” podcast platforms, covered a full range of issues, including the role of the Filipino-American community. “Be concerned about the Philippines and vote,” she said, when asked about how overseas Filipinos can help democratic deepening in their motherland. My ultimate takeaway from our discussions that evening, however, was the desperate need to develop a nonpartisan, analytically sound, and practicable comprehensive package of reforms for whoever becomes our next administration. Call it our own version of “Project 2028.” After all, I was accompanying my great colleagues from our newly formed Team Pinas Foundation, which includes the likes of Atty. Dino de Leon, professors Ranjit Rye and Cleve Arguelles, Dr. Sherwin Ona, and Deans Gary Dionisio and Ederson Tapia. Not to mention tireless youth organizers such as Carlo Flores, the chief architect of our new “GenZillennials” initiative.
After a decade of “hyper-impunity” and the “trillion-peso” flood control scandal, it stands to reason that good governance should be a key priority of any project of national transformation. Following a recent stint in Oxford, I finalized a comprehensive research project, which focuses on ways to mitigate corruption in the Philippines. For the purpose of this crisp article, let me give an overview of its multidimensional, multi-phased, and multisectoral thrust.
To begin with, we need to adopt strict fiscal rules, including a “no technical study, no project funding” requirement to ensure no politician can inject de facto pork barrel funds prior to or during the enactment of the annual budget. What we need is a “full budget cycle integrity,” which institutionalizes transparency during the entire deliberation process, including bicameral budget deliberations. We need to identify and eliminate all kinds of “soft” and “shadow” pork barrel funds, from so-called “allocables” to new local government support funds, which lack sufficient transparency and technical justification. As top experts such as professor Ador Torneo of De La Salle University recently told me, we have made some improvements through the years, including recent initiatives to enhance public access to information regarding public projects. Think of the newly launched Department of Public Works and Highways Transparency Portal. The Management Association of the Philippines’ proposal for a Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act is also a good suggestion. Finalizing a robust Freedom of Information Act, however, is indispensable to operationalizing the “good governance” project, which took off with the Aquino-era elimination of the most brazen forms of pork barrel funds, which only returned in different guises after the election of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Fiscal reforms alone, however, won’t cut it. We also need judicial reform, including greater funding and fiscal autonomy for watchdogs such as the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit. Moreover, dear reader, we need to address the root causes! The Commission on Elections should be empowered to crack down on patronage networks sustaining mass vote-buying during election cycles. Election finance reforms, a strict cap on political dynasty proliferation, and building a true party-system are vital to modernizing our neo-feudal election economics.
Ultimately, however, we need to transform our economic foundations, hence the importance of the counsel of world-class economists such as professors Jesus Felipe and Dean Raul Fabella, who have rightly emphasized the indispensability of a manufacturing-focused state policy. Two centuries ago, the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel argued in favor of a political system that ensures both freedom and collective strength and prosperity. My next column will address Hegel’s doctrine by providing the contours of a “Project 2028” for the Philippines.
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richard.heydarian@inquirer.net