Overall, huge reasons to be worried and disappointed about, with little positive to hold on to.
The agenda ‘closing civic space’ has been taken up extensively of late in transparency, participation, accountability, open government and anti-corruption spaces. I have been asked to give talks on this topic in three separate international events, namely the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tbilisi, Georgia in July; the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Copenhagen in October; and this week in UNODC’s workshop in Bangkok, Thailand. This is recognized as a key issue in the Philippines. In the event of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the Philippines that G-Watch attended in Tagaytay several weeks ago, the challenge of ‘closing,’ ‘shrinking,’ ‘constraining’ civic space has been pointed out in all workshop groups when asked what are the main challenges confronting Philippine civil society today.
As I attend my 3rd Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tblisi, Georgia, I am hoping to see progress in this network in breaking what I refer to as "open government myths."
Let me share ten of my most favorite:
The government's over-emphasis on the right of the person with the gun over the right to life and due process of presumed innocent civilians can easily be abused and misused
This conference-workshop is meant to start putting the citizens and civil society at the center, not mere expectators and recipients of policies and services - but as active actors pivotal in direction-/ agenda-setting and in leading this country to a better future.
The Philippines as a nation-state will be strengthened with the proposed Bangsamoro solution. A nation-state is weakened whenever its monopoly over the use of legitimate violence is threatened by an armed rebellion; it is strengthened when it ends the rebellion through peace.
Accountability is achieved and sustained by creating and strengthening institutions. Institutions are strengthened through accountability efforts and practices.
In a democracy where public office is a public trust and where power emanates from the people, getting feedback on how government exercises its power from everywhere, anytime is a given. In fact, it is encouraged. Government is expected to respond and its response is expected to make it more efficient and effective.
If you think that Marcos was the best president we ever had, think again
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.
There is still much room for improvement in citizen participation in local education governance
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.
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.