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Here are five areas to watch in the new set-up to make the reformed pork less fatty

'I enjoin others to try to fill-up the blank below and send the letter to good and honest Congresspersons you know too'

A fight as big as bringing down the pork barrel SYSTEM will take a long time. We want to bring back the integrity of our political system. End the culture of "suhulan." Restore the effective checks-and-balance relationship between the executive and legislature. This will take a long time.

So as not to get lost in the fight and be of disservice to our cause, we need to start somewhere where there is opening. We have to understand the institutional context of the country and the power dynamics to identify that opening.

One of the reasons the Pork exists is because it filled-in the gap of our maldeveloped/ underdeveloped party system, which is supposed to be the mechanism that facilitates the relationship between the executive and the legislature. And party system, in simplest term, refers to how you organize political partisan affiliations. 

There is a fundamental problem if we are organizing a rally against a system that is perpetuated because of the underdevelopment or maldevelopment of the system for partisan politics if we are organizing it in a way that discredits or neutralizes the latter. We are contributing to a mindset in our political culture that is keeping us from developing our party system, key in making pork irrelevant or at least not the sole determing factor in the relationship between the executive and the legislature.

The pork barrel is a scam fueling a patronage-based political culture and perverting the political system

While generally peaceful and credible, there are setbacks in the conduct of the 2013 elections that require attention. 

• Voters turnout. Voters turnout is 70%, lower than in 2010 (76%) and even in 2007 mid-term elections (75%). There are 15.6M registered voters that did not vote. 12.3M in 2010 and 11.2M in 2007.
• Use of PCOS. 200 PCOS are defective. This is less than 1% of the total 78,000 PCOS machines.
• ERV: generally peaceful. 51 killed, 65 wounded (during election period). In 2010, 54 killed and 74 wounded. In 2007, 56 killed, 69 wounded. But the difference in figure is minimal. Still, violence was part of the elections. 
• Voters list. Not much of a problem. Unlike in the past elections, disenfranchisement was not a major challenge this elections.
• Canvassing - This is the major setback in the 2013 elections. 70% completed in 48 hours. Far below than in 2010 election: 78.55% in 11 hours. 

This assessment is part of the Ateneo FactCheck 2013, presented during the Ateneo Post 2013 Election Summit. 

The weakness of parties vis-à-vis personalities and families has a lot of ill-effects on democracy. One of the more serious problems it causes has something to do with making accountability in the exercise of power precarious and extremely difficult. Personalities and families operate in private spaces that are away from the public eye, hence are protected from public scrutiny or any accountability checks. Abuse of power and sheer bad, ill-informed decisions of politicians involving matters of national importance are at the heart of bad governance in the country, which makes accountability one of the biggest pre-requisites of governance and political reform.

Institutions matter and institutionalizing this reform process including the political dimension of it must be attended to so that it becomes a norm and its momentum cannot easily be subverted. Patronage politics supported and fed by political elites is an all-enduring institution in the country. For it to be subverted and replaced by modern and empowering institutions, the reform process and its constituency must also take the form of institutions--repeated pattern of behavior with predictable results that is accountable and efficient. Working towards party building and party system development that is democratizing must be taken up as a critcal challenge to the reform constituencies and champions.

In the Philippines, since the end of martial law, civil society has been hailed as “the savior of governance,” playing the roles underperformed by the government or filling the gaps in the services needed by the people. One of the most crucial elements of civil society engagement in the Philippines is its reform work that is varied and encompassing. These actors constitute a large portion of what is being referred to as reform movements in the Philippines, which consist also of the reformers in government, political parties, local government units and other arenas.

This guidebook gives the citizens’ monitoring team, which we will call the Integrity Watch, a framework on how to assess the processes undertaken by the LGU and the WSP in water service provision. This guidebook is based on actual experiences of other citizens monitoring groups. It has been crafted using Human Rights-Based Approach to organization and development within the water sector, consistent with the MDGF 1919’s mainstreaming of HRBA.

This is an easy-to-use guide on how to implement a community based monitoring of education service delivery of a local government unit (LGU) using the tools and methods developed in the implementation of Edukasyon sa Naga, Salmingan Ta! monitoring initiative.

Here is an easy-to-use guide on how to implement a community based monitoring of an ecotourism program of a local government unit (LGU) using the tools and methods developed in the implementation of Ambligan ang Kalibotan.

This simple manual will instruct you on how to implement a community-based monitoring initiative for the rice production programs of your Local Government Units (LGU). It will teach you how to use the tools and methods developed during the implementation of BULHON sa Panguma.

This is an easy-to-use guide on how to implement a community based monitoring of the revenue generation for the environment of a local government unit (LGU), through the Environmental User’s Fee (EUF) using the tools and methods developed in the implementation of IGaCoS Bantay Kinaiyahan in the Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS).

This is an easy-to-use guide on how to implement a community based monitoring of the health program of a local government unit (LGU) using the tools and methods developed in the implementation of Subay Kahimsog in Dumaguete City.

Here is an easy-to-use guide on how to implement a community based monitoring of Infrastructure Projects of a local government unit (LGU) using the tools and methods developed in the implementation of Tambayayong sa Infrastrakturang Paglambo sa Southern Leyte.

This is a simple and easy-to-use guide on how to implement a community-based monitoring of local service delivery using the tools and methods developed in the pilot implementation of the G-Watch Localization Project.

'We hope that local politicians will not only build constituencies for elections but also constituencies for good governance after elections'