On March 23, 2020, the House of Representatives and Senate deliberated and passed a bill that grants immense powers to the president to address the COVID-19 threat. The proposed legislation was quickly signed into law on March 25, 2020 with the title Bayanihan We Heal as One Act or Republic Act 11469.
Among the powers granted to the president by RA 11469 are exemptions to the government procurement law in order to undertake procurements in the most “expeditious manners” (Section 4.k). Some of the items listed that can be procured with exemptions include:
Naninindigan kami na hindi na kailangang palawigin pa ang kapangyarihan ng Pangulo upang magkaroon ng epektibong tugon sa COVID-19. Sapat na ito upang bigyang direksyon at liderato ang gobyerno at buong bansa sa pagsugpo ng COVID-19.
Ang kelangang palakasin ay ang kakayanan ng mga frontliners sa health sector at local governments sa pamamagitan ng pagbigay sa kanila ng mga tulong at suporta na kanilang kagyat na kailangan.
This report shares the highlights of the pilot implementation of the Strengthening the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) as an Accountability Mechanism in Local Governance or the #SKasGWatch Project and the documentation of its final activity, the learning exchange in January 2020, that brought together the project team and lead volunteer-monitors in the three pilot sites for an assessment and reflection. Implemented from November 2018 to January 2020, #SKasGWatch is an initiative of Government Watch (G-Watch) in collaboration of Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) and Accountability Research Center (ARC) that aims to enable the SKs in engaging key poverty reduction programs of the government to advance the accountability and responsiveness of poverty reduction programs.
Last February 14, Valentine’s Day, G-Watch had its 3rd Ako, Ikaw, Tayo May Pananagutan (AIM-P) Awareness-Raising Campaign Day with the theme “Kabataan, Pusuan ang Pananagutan.” This year’s campaign focused on engaging young people in accountability conversations, especially officials of Sangguniang Kabataan (Youth Councils).
All over the world, today's youth are leading collective actions to address pressing issues such as social injustice, corruption, abuse and climate change. In the Philippines, participation of the youth is given so much recognition and importance that it has now been institutionalized in every barangay through the SKs. However, SK as an institution needs strengthening and support. G-Watch aims to contribute to this by engaging SKs in accountability work
Inclusive politics and governance, inclusive development and growth, inclusivity, inclusiveness –these are the most recent buzzwords within development community and among political elites these past few years. In the Philippines, even the military and police are arguing for their greater involvement on the premise of inclusivity.
Three years after the passage of the SK Reform Law in 2016, the law has not been fully implemented. The Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) lacks implementation details and SKs and stakeholders have yet to be oriented on it. Most SKs have yet to comply with the requirements for them to receive and utilize their budget. There is confusion among SKs, local government officials and national government agencies on mandates vis-à-vis the SK Reform Law implementation. The status of the SK budget is unclear and the trainings conducted have been lacking in substance and form.
The government needs to reclaim being the government of this country that protects and cares for its people by asserting and advancing Philippine sovereignty on the West Philippine Sea. Filipinos need to remind the Duterte government of what their being the government for and who ultimately owns the power that those in government temporarily hold.
Overall, huge reasons to be worried and disappointed about, with little positive to hold on to.
This paper explains why and how a reform program that opened up spaces for participatory budgeting was ultimately unable to result in pro-citizen power shifts that transformed governance. The study reviews the design and implementation of Bottom-Up Budgeting (BuB), the nationwide participatory budgeting (PB) program in the Philippines, which ran from 2012 to 2016 under the Benigno Aquino government. The findings underscore the importance of institutional design to participatory governance reforms. BuB’s goal was to transform local government by providing more space for civil society organizations (CSOs) to co-identify projects with the government and to take part in the budgeting process, but it did not strengthen CSO or grassroots capacity to hold their Local Government Units (LGUs) accountable.
G-Watch is exploring to set up a multi-sectoral and multi-level citizen monitoring of key government programs and services in the new Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) learning from the three-decade old experience and knowledge of G-Watch adapted and customized in the unique context of BARMM.
On April 20-22, G-Watch conducted a soft launch of the initiative ‘Enabling G-Watch Monitoring in BARMM’ and briefing-orientation of volunteer-monitors from Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.
G-Watch is taking part in a new undertaking that holds government to account in protecting public’s right to health that is endangered by interference by powerful private corporate actors in health-related policies and in public conscientization. The specific private corporate interest we look into are the powerful tobacco industry players whose strong and innovative lobbying work compromise public health.
Last January 21, parts of Muslim Mindanao held a plebiscite to determine what will form the new Bangsamoro entity created through the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), a landmark piece of legislation that is a product of decades of struggle of Moros for their right to self-determination.
There is a critical misconception that is quite common even to those who would opt to give peace in Mindanao a chance. Some people who are mostly doubtful of the peace process are under the impression that the ratification of BOL is a victory for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that comes with a reward, including (to some, at least) the power over the to-be Bangsamoro entity itself. This is wrong. It is a big misconception and a misunderstanding.
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.