ForwardBrowse Think Pieces and other opinion articles published on G-Watch as well as other websites.
One Palawan Lang: The National Significance of the Palawan Plebiscite
By Mickel Ollave and Joy Aceron*
Analyzing the national significance of the recent Palawan plebiscite from an insider-outsider perspective, Mike Ollave and Joy Aceron, in this piece, contends that the Palawan plebiscite post positive implications on the country and its citizen movements. The Palawan plebiscite shows that top-down agenda initiated by the powerful can still be defeated by mostly citizen resistance below. The Palawan election proves a clean peaceful democratic electoral exercise remains feasible even amidst the pandemic. An electoral exercise can still be issue-based and an opportunity for the powerful to be held to account.
Are Sectoral Bodies Truly Empowering to Marginalized Sectors?
By: Joy Aceron
Sectoral bodies are participatory institutions that are unique in the Philippines. The creation of sectoral bodies through laws demonstrates how Philippine institutional-legal framework values people’s participation and sectoral representation. Sectoral bodies institutionalize representation of marginalized sectors in governance, providing sectors formal access to decision-making to ensure sectoral concerns and issues are addressed. It is a mechanism for inclusion that directly addresses political disenfranchisement and inequality.
Some of the key sectoral bodies created through law are the National Youth Commission (NYC), National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women (NCRFW), National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) sectoral assemblies and councils, and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK).
Sustaining Reforms Amid the Pandemic?
By: Joy Aceron*
With 4.4 million households as beneficiaries, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is the biggest social protection program of the government. Sustained across three (3) administrations (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Noynoy Aquino and Rodrigo Duterte), with its ambitious poverty reduction and participatory reform agenda withstanding three transitions, the program’s resilience is worth looking into and learning from.
Does the PNP View Ordinary Filipinos as the Enemy?
At around 11 in the morning of July 27, two officers from the Manila Police District (MPD) entered the nave of the Quiapo Church, walked towards a small group of activists sitting on the back pew, and without any warning, seized a blue-and-white paper bag containing several placards from party-list group Akbayan. The officers did not immediately offer any explanation for their action, but as Rappler’s Camille Elemia wrote later in her article, the posters “were not being used” when the incident occurred.
Is the government sabotaging its own COVID-19 response by undermining trust and neglecting social assistance?
By Joy Aceron*
In the past weeks after the expiration of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, the Duterte administration took several actions that indicate its overreliance on policing or enforcement of quarantine laws as its main approach in fighting COVID-19.
Citizen Health Entitlements in COVID-19 Pandemic
By Joy Aceron and Victoria Maglanque*
In a health emergency, entitlements of citizens that ensure their health, safety and security are most crucial. Not only that it ascertains individual welfare and rights, it also avoids over-burdening the health system with patients that require intensive care.
Facing the Pandemic: Citizen Entitlements During COVID-19
This duty of the government to deliver entitlements becomes even more necessary during periods of crisis, which worsens the condition of the poor and the vulnerable. We can see this in the current health crisis caused by COVID-19.
Releasing the Names of Social Amelioration Beneficiaries can be an Effective Accountability Measure
A crisis situation can worsen government’s inefficiency and abuse of power. This, in turn, makes it harder for societies to respond and recover from disaster in a way that takes care of the victims and the most vulnerable who suffer most. This makes transparency, participation and accountability (TPA) measures extremely critical during crisis situations.
However, not all TPA measures are equally effective. And for TPA measures to be effective, they need to employ integrated approaches that enable both the demand side of accountability (citizen voice) and supply side (government’s capacity to respond)
Citizen Accountability Efforts as an Integral Part of the Philippines' COVID-19 Response
By: Joy Aceron
In my April 2 Rappler article entitled ‘Challenges facing social amelioration for the coronavirus, I underscored the importance of citizen accountability efforts given the immense powers and resources that the Executive now wields:
A Question Amidst the COVID 19 crisis: Where has all the health budget from sin tax gone?
As it seems, the Philippine health sector is ill-prepared for the COVID19 outbreak. This is not surprising after budget cuts, corruption allegations, politicization of health governance and political leadership’s focus on security and order going after opposition, activists and poor drug offenders.