What is change? It means something different and new that comes about from the old. It is the end of the old and the beginning of something new. Change as an objective, an end, is achieved through a variety of means and ways.
ChaCha need not be divisive. There will be differences in the position on the specific changes to be introduced. But the process, if we stay true to it and focus on the common good concerns, will make us think of the same thing: what is good for the country, what system and institutions would best serve the Filipinos?
'While the President himself emphasizes the importance of building people's trust in government, he doesn't seem to fully appreciate the role played by free access to information in building public trust'
There are 4 gaps that leave critical questions hanging and issues unresolved on the DAP controversy. This is how the decision could be wanting for non-lawyers
Yes, there is something positive too about what we are going through – and how we can harvest these gains and use them to move forward will spell the difference for reforms in the country
Governance has to be reformed and made transparent, accountable and participatory because power corrupts. And in our current system, there are many ways and mechanisms that facilitate the corruption of power. The pork system was one of them. It is easy to abuse public office. The system, in fact, has been molded so that those on top can easily use and abuse it to stay in power.
We should change our Constitution to correct the flaws and weaknesses in our political system
There is still much room for improvement in citizen participation in local education governance
The study conducted by the Philippine research team aims to baseline the organizational performance and stability of selected political parties in the Philippines. From the parties’ profiles, we extracted some comparative points that will allow elucidation on the overall picture of party performance and stability in the Philippines.
An administration’s reform-mindedness or reform-orientation will be determined by its demonstrated commitment to reforming the ways by which power in government is constituted, with the elections being the most basic formal mechanism to give and enable such power.
The DAP is a sensible fiscal discipline mechanism provided that possible abuses of discretion in its use will be avoided. In identifying which projects and programs to cancel, the executive must have a clear performance standards to use which can be checked. In re-allocating savings (as defined by law), the projects and programs to be funded must be items in the GAA or items that will pass through legislative enactment.
The decision on the PDAF should be appreciated as the start of even bigger fights ahead
The politics of reforms has a rich history that traces its roots from those who fought for this country’s independence, speaks of great sacrifices for the love of country and involves engagements and bonds of individuals, groups and networks that have been here continuously posing a challenge to the status quo—the alternative stride of this country’s nation-building. The politics of reforms is now by itself a tradition that rests on the values of solidarity, participation, inclusivity, empowerment, discourse and dialogue. Arguably, the politics of reform has given birth to the government we have now.
It is time for the relevant accountability institutions, namely the Commission on Audit (COA), the Department of Justice, the Ombudsman, the Sandiganbayan and the courts, to step up and prove worthy of the powers vested upon them. These institutions are the ones with the strongest mandate to get to the bottom of the Napoles and the Malampaya scams and start the process of investigating other abuses of pork allocations.Collapse of Checks-and-Balance
In the meantime, there is a need to abolish the pork system--the real pork system.
Checks-and-balance relationship between the executive and the legislature collapses because the legislators partake a responsibility of the executive. As such, they become subsumed under the President being the head of the executive branch in the execution of the budget--a violation of the separation of powers.
That checks-and-balance relationship exist for a reason: it is precisely to prevent actions of the executive that could already be beyond and abusive of its powers. Because this could happen intentionally or unintentionally.
It is possible that because of the intention to serve (to provide resources for priority programs and meet the needs of the people), the executive overlooked (intentionally or unintentionally) a legal provision.
Ferdinand Marcos and Lean Alejandro were two Martial Law figures who approached writing in markedly different ways
This paper presents the result of the exploratory research conducted by a research team of Ateneo School of Government that studied the impact of civil society participation on the responsiveness of local spending for education.
Those in government might want to challenge themselves more as to how the use of information technolgy (IT) as a means for transparency can serve as a DETERRENT to abuse and malpractice, especially by the most powerful officials, which is a faster way to advance accountability.
This Complaint should be our opportunity to show we can hold power to account. It should also be an opportunity for us to bring the integrity of our political system. This Complaint should strengthen our call to ABOLISH PORK!
Our anti-pork calls go beyond just the scraping of that item in the budget called Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). It is about bringing back the integrity of our political system. It is about nurturing a culture of transparency and accountability. It is about making public office a public trust once more. It is about ending patronage politics, which perpetuates disempowerment and dependency of the masses and the rule of the few.