PNoy’s roadmap for open government

First of three parts

THE Philippine Government aims to transform People Power from a nonviolent form of street protest to a means for citizens and workers in government to collaborate in the halls of government to ensure that the benefits of governance reaches the poor in a direct, immediate and substantial way.

— Philippine Government Action Plan 2012 for the Open Government Partnership

All but overshadowed by the Wednesday meeting between Presidents Benigno Aquino 3rd and Barack Obama was the submission of what could be one of the most important documents framed by the Aquino Administration. At the Open Government Partnership (OGP) launching in New York on Sept. 21, PNoy submitted the draft Philippine Government Action Plan (PGAP) intended to institute broad and deep participation by the people in governance.

If substantially implemented, PGAP would provide key sectors and the public at large not only massive information on state policies, programs and activities. The plan would also give the governed a far more significant and direct role in the running of government than just electing officials and petitioning instrumentalities of the public sector. PGAP can be accessed and downloaded at: www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/philippines.

Among the ground-breaking initiatives included in PGAP are: online publication of budget information and procurement decisions not only by national government agencies, but also by local government units; participation by civil society organizations in budgeting of NGAs and LGUs at the national, regional and local levels; and the mobilization of 600 CSOs across the archipelago to formulate poverty reduction measures at the community level. There is even a proposed Empowerment Fund to assist CSOs in organizing citizens and communities for greater participation in governance.

Due to be finalized in December for rollout next year, PGAP has dozens of welcome, even wonderful initiatives—at least on paper. This article dissects the plan and lists questions, issues and action points which CSOs and the citizenry should raise for the effective, timely and beneficial implementation of PGAP. Thus, it will hopefully not suffer the fate of so many brilliantly conceived but badly executed programs in our country.

As the above-quoted over-arching goal of PGAP states, the plan aims to bring the people and their grassroots organizations directly into government planning, operations, and finances. As Civil Service Commission (CSC) chairman in 2008-09, this writer also pushed for consultative governance, including the Bayan Talk scheme funded by the U.N. Development Programme to institutionalize regular consultations by NGAs and LGUs with their constituents, plus the latter’s input in performance and integrity reports on civil servants and state entities. Giving their clientele a say in their ratings is a sure-fire way to make bureaus and bureaucrats pay heed to the vox populi.

The CSC continued some of those initiatives even after this writer was removed as chairman for resisting political pressures from powerful congressmen. Before detailing and commenting on the open government action plan, it is good to highlight the Bayan Talk initiative as a program that could accelerate and subsume in one simple measure many of the PGAP commitments, from access to official information and input into policies, plans, budgets and decisions; to fighting abuse, corruption and poverty.

The eventual objective of Bayan Talk was to establish and empower at national, regional and local levels the Gobyerno Alagad ng Bayan or GABay Councils made up of clientele, media and other stakeholders of the agencies and local bodies they advice, monitor and evaluate. This reform is best instituted by an act of Congress, so that every organ of state, from the Office of the President to the farthest barangay, is covered.

Through the GABay Councils, the people would gain access to government information, input into state plans and budgets, and monitor official activities and performance. Even better: the citizenry can tell heads of NGAs, LGUs and other state bodies if and where there is corruption under their watch. If the graft continues even after GABay warnings, officials can be charged with neglect of duty, if not abetting corruption. And the crooked would be deterred knowing they could be reported to their bosses.

But as the Freedom of Information Bill has sadly demonstrated, Congress is slow to enact real, sweeping reform without Palace prodding. So while the GABay Council and similar initiatives await some miracle of legislative or executive fiat, the brightest hope for open governance may well be the Philippine Government Action Plan. In the next two articles, we review PGAP’s initiatives and what the people should ask and act on to truly bring People Power into the corridors of state power. –Ricardo Saludo, Manila Times

[The next two parts will be published on Monday and Wednesday.]

Ricardo Saludo heads the Center for Strategy, Enterprise & Intelligence, which publishes The CenSEI Report on global, national and business issues every week. For copies, please email report@censeisolutions.com.