Country Programmes

13 September 2011

His Excellency
BENIGNO S. AQUINO III
President of the Philippines
Malacañan Palace
Manila

Subject: FOI and the draft Philippine Action Plan for OGP

Dear Mr. President:

We write on behalf of the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition, a network of about 150 organizations and individuals from various social sectors and civil-society groups, which have long been campaigning for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.

We are informed that on 20 September 2011, you will deliver the keynote address at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) conference in New York, sign an Open Government Declaration, and submit an Action Plan to scale-up your administration’s open government practices.

These are in line with our country’s membership in the eight-country steering committee of the OGP along with the United States, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Such membership in the steering committee required targeting governments that have a demonstrated commitment to open government evaluated through a point system in the four areas of budget documents transparency, disclosure of asset records of elected and senior public officials, enacting an access to information law, and fostering citizen engagement.

We welcome our country’s membership in the OGP steering committee. To us, it reflects your desire to assume an honored place in the international stage as one of the leading lights of transparency and accountability in the world.

Beyond such aspiration, however, your administration’s commitment to the OGP principles can be measured by the Action Plan that you will submit. It is in this context that we comment on the draft Philippine Government Action Plan prepared by Secretary Florencio B. Abad, in consultation with other Cabinet members. We are informed that today, this draft Philippine Action Plan will be presented to you for your approval.

It is in this context that we wish to provide you with our feedback, as part of our continuing effort to engage your administration on the issue of the people’s right to information.

First, we note that the draft plan focuses on four main areas for the scaling up of open government commitments: the national budget, local governance, procurement, and poverty reduction programs. On the whole, we support the scaling up of open government initiatives by the Philippines in these areas. Our member organizations are striving to be more directly engaged in these areas to this day.

Second, we had conveyed to Secretary Abad our hope that future consultations on the OGP will be substantially widened to surface areas where acute problems of transparency and accountability need scaled-up response. The areas so far concentrated on by the draft action plan are the ones led by members of your cabinet who have shown greater commitment to transparency, where civil society organizations and donor agencies have historically vigorously engaged the Philippine government on, where multi-stakeholder transparency mechanisms have gained traction in, and where certain disclosure practices have been introduced even years ahead of the birth of your administration.

Our core concern, however, is the draft action plan’s lack of firm, credible commitment for the prompt passage of the long-overdue Freedom of Information Act.

The draft action plan commits the following:

“Pushing for Freedom of Information. The government will strive for the passage of a Freedom of Information Act within the current presidency, in consultation with CSOs. Pending this, it will develop and issue an executive-wide policy to improve access to information – including requirements for accurate, timely and understandable summary disclosures by government departments through their websites – within 360 days.”

We do not find comfort in the draft plan’s statement that your government will “strive for the passage of a Freedom of Information Act within the current presidency”. With all due respect, in our view it has been the ambiguous and vague statements coming from your office regarding the passage of the Freedom of Information bill that has been the main reason why it is now languishing in the House of Representatives, and moving at a snail’s pace in the Senate. Despite repeated appeals for your endorsement, and months of work by a Malacañang study group on the FOI bill, we have not seen any appreciable advance in your position.

Neither do we find comfort in the draft’s promise of an executive-wide policy to improve access to information. For one, an executive order will not be able to settle the gaps in the limits of access coverage and exceptions, as this is a legislative matter. For another, its application will be limited to the executive, even as access issues are present as well in the other branches of government and in independent constitutional bodies. It also cannot prescribe sanctions that are penal in nature.

We did consider such executive order to be a good interim measure at the start of your term, under the premise that you would categorically and unambiguously support the immediate passage of the FOI law. But at this point where we seem to be endlessly running after your elusive concerns, we see the said executive-wide policy as only justifying the further delay in the passage of the FOI law.

We humbly submit that it is within your power, in fact, we believe it is your constitutional duty, to provide a true scale-up of open government commitment on access to information. A crucial starting point is for the Action Plan to express full, firm, and explicit commitment to the immediate passage of the FOI law in the present Congress, and within the remaining months of 2011, to present to Congress your proposed amendments that address your concerns on the FOI bill.

It is the presence or absence of such commitment that will determine for us whether we will view the action plan and your OGP activities in New York as facilitating a significant scaling up of transparency mechanisms and practices, or sadly, only legitimizing your transparency comfort zone and your ignoring of the long standing people’s clamor for an FOI law.

Thank you very much.

Very truly yours,
on behalf of Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition:

Atty. Nepomuceno A. Malaluan

Ms. Malou Mangahas

Mr. Vincent Lazatin
(Co-Convenors)

Cc:

Hon. Paquito Ochoa
Executive Secretary

Hon. Julia Abad
Presidential Chief of Staff

Hon. Edwin Lacierda
Presidential Spokesperson

Hon. Ramon A. Carandang
Secretary
Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning

Hon. Herminio Coloma
Secretary
Presidential Communications Operations Office

Hon. Florencio B. Abad
Secretary, Department of Budget and Management

from Businessword Online

CONCERNS WERE raised on Friday on the ability of the state to meet its 2014 target of distributing lands under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Extension Program with Reforms (CARPER).
In a forum held on Friday, Mary Ann B. Manahan, research associate of the NGO Focus on the Global South Philippines said that it may be difficult for the government to meet its target of distributing 1.1 million hectares of land by 2014 given the lack of motivation of the employees of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as well as its lack of funds.

Ms. Manahan said the employees are not motivated to work on because they are concerned about what would happen to the agency after the June 2014 deadline to distribute the lands.

Some she said, are also concerned about having to face landlords for the acquisition of lands to be distributed.

She said the lack of budget also prevents the DAR from meeting its targets.

She noted that under the CARPER, the program should receive at least P30 billion per year for land acquisition and distribution and provision of support services for five years.

"Anything less than the actual mandated budget could undermine the completion of land redistribution by 2014 and puts to question the seriousness of support for the program," she said. -- Louella D. Desiderio

The “biggest challenge” to finally accomplishing agrarian reform, more than 20 years after the Philippine Constitution articulated that it shall be the main means to realize social justice in the countryside, is “distributing 1.5 million hectares…to 1.1 million beneficiaries” with barely three years left to the current administration to implement CARPER.  This is the central message of the study recently released by the non-government, international think tank Focus on the Global South.  Through a roundtable discussion, the study was presented to key government officials and civil society advocates of agrarian reform, September 9, 2011.

Launch of Focus on the Global South-Philippines’ Policy Review issue on CARPER
September 9, 2011, 9:00-12:30pm
Seminar Room A&B, Balay Kalinaw, UP Diliman

5 or 3; 1.5; 1.1; 24; 54.2, 51.2 and 47.0; 4; 9.3

Why do these numbers and more related statistics matter?  Why should government keep in mind these numbers?  Why do farmers look at these numbers and see a future or the lack of it?

Here’s why:
35 is the number of months left to the government to accomplish the land acquisition and distribution component of CARPER

Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) of Focus on the Global South – Philippines Program co-sponsored on July 31, 2011 a roundtable discussion that tackled the importance, prospects and possibilities of Industrial Policy in the Philippines. The roundtable, which was part of the continuing efforts of DRTS-Focus to push for the crafting of an industrial policy in the Philippines, was jointly sponsored by Action for Economic Reforms (AER), EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Campaign Network and Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). The main speaker was Dr. Manuel “Butch” Montes, Chief of Policy Analysis and Development Branch at Financing for Development Office of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) and the Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) Thematic Working Group on Trade, Industrial Policy and Privatization also presented the results of his study on Philippine trade.

Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) of Focus on the Global South – Philippines Program co-sponsored on July 31, 2011 a roundtable discussion that tackled the importance, prospects and possibilities of Industrial Policy in the Philippines. The roundtable, which was part of the continuing efforts of DRTS-Focus to push for the crafting of an industrial policy in the Philippines, was jointly sponsored by Action for Economic Reforms (AER), EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Campaign Network and Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). The main speaker was Dr. Manuel “Butch” Montes, Chief of Policy Analysis and Development Branch at Financing for Development Office of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) and the Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) Thematic Working Group on Trade, Industrial Policy and Privatization also presented the results of his study on Philippine trade. Below are videos of the highlights of the RTD. Ms. Jenina Joy Chavez explains the rationale for the Industrial Policy (IP) Roundtable Discussion and introduces the groups that sponsored the activity. [video] Dr. Butch Montes defines industrial policy as purposive state intervention in key sectors, along long-term national objectives. Here in this part of the RTD, he discusses standards that an industrial policy can help set-up to measure proposals of private sector and identify where the state can choose which requests it will accede to or which it can reject. He also underscores how industrial policy does not make any sense unless it includes proper redeployment of private capital for other purposes. [video] Dr. Montes proposes a plan on how to undertake industrial policy for domestic development and clarifies that through industrial policy government is able to be selective on certain interventions based on specific indicators. [video] Dr. Montes explains why industrial policy is unpopular to the World Trade Organization; touches too on the restrains created by the global trade regime like the WTO and Free Trade Agreements—that IP is a choice between following, stretching or violating the WTO rules, but that domestic policy space is needed to have an industrial policy. [video] Dr. Montes underscores the need for an IP and elaborates on how IP draws up targets based on national development objectives and chooses the sectors which have the most backward and forward linkages to other sectors. [video] Dr. Montes clarifies that neither the private sector or the state has any advantage in choosing industries which it will invest in, shattering the common “economic notion” that the private sector is better at choosing industries to invest in. [video] Dr. Montes stresses the importance of industrial policy in development and how countries without industrial policy will never develop. [video] Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan provides a brief background on government’s trade reform program in the 1980s as part of the structural adjustment program. [video] Atty. Malaluan explains the new economic structure that resulted from the implementation of trade liberalization policy Philippine style. [video] Atty. Malaluan presents the comparative impact of trade liberalization on the Philippines and its Asian neighbors, emphasizing that the earlier adoption by the Philippines of an in- depth and more aggressive trade liberalization policy was disadvantageous to the country and important sectors. [video]

Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) of Focus on the Global South – Philippines Program co-sponsored on July 31, 2011 a roundtable discussion that tackled the importance, prospects and possibilities of Industrial Policy in the Philippines. The roundtable, which was part of the continuing efforts of DRTS-Focus to push for the crafting of an industrial policy in the Philippines, was jointly sponsored by Action for Economic Reforms (AER), EU-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) Campaign Network and Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). The main speaker was Dr. Manuel “Butch” Montes, Chief of Policy Analysis and Development Branch at Financing for Development Office of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).  Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) and the Development Roundtable Series (DRTS) Thematic Working Group on Trade, Industrial Policy and Privatization also presented the results of his study on Philippine trade.
Below are videos of the highlights of the RTD.

Ms. Jenina Joy Chavez explains the rationale for the Industrial Policy (IP) Roundtable Discussion and introduces the groups that sponsored the activity.
[video]

On the heels of P-Noy's failure to endorse the Freedom of Information bill during the second Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting on August 16, Malacañang made its first appearance in a Senate public hearing through its communications team’s top officials.

At a committee hearing on August 18 on the FOI bill spearheaded by Senator Gregorio Honasan, chair of the Senate Committee on Information, and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, officials Ramon Carandang and Manuel Quezon III explained the exclusion of the FOI Bill from priority legislations identified by the president during the LEDAC meeting, this administration’s second since Mr. Aquino assumed presidency in June 2010. The first meeting was held in January this year; the Executive did not consider FOI priority legislation at that time.

“At this point, we would rather have a bill that could get the most consensus from all the stakeholders, rather than a bill that comes before we are ready, and that would be objected to vehemently by some of the stakeholders,” claimed Carandang, a former  media person and now member of Malacañang’s communication team.

However, the foregoing discussions during the hearing revealed more agreements to expedite the process of passing the bill, as there seems to be no obstacles to it as far as the Senate and civil society advocates are concerned.

Lawyer NepomucenoMalaluan, co-convenor of the Right to Know Right Coalition who was also present during the Senate hearing, pointed out that the current administration is not starting on blank page with the FOI given the years of advocacy and public education work done by civil society organizations, and the near-passage of an FOI law in the 14th Congress. It is not, either, as if the bill has been lacking in “unanimous support” from across the social and political spectrum, including the government sector, Malaluan stressed.

“We’re put in a bind as to how to read these conflicting signals,” R2KRN convenor said, referring to previous assurances made by the president himself that he supports FOI but he just had questions or issues about it. The coalition had engaged Malacañang informally by responding to several issues it had raised on the provisions of the FOI bill supported by the advocates. (See statement of R2KRN)

Senator Cayetano echoed calls by the civil society advocates to expedite the sponsorship process of the bill. “Kailangan pabilisin na ito [This has to be speeded up],” he urged. It’s not enough that the P-noy government is working at being a clean and transparent administration, the solon even said.

Senator Honasan, for his part, pressed for a concrete timeline for passing the bill as well as a clear commitment to an open, transparent deliberative procedure on the part of Malacañang.

At the closing of the hearing, Cayetano expressed hope that the hearing would be “beginning of the end of discussions,” so that that the eventual passage of the FOI law could take place. “I think the Palace gets the message that not only is it [the FOI Bill] important and essential, it’s also urgent.”

“There’s a saying in Filipino,” reminded Malaluan, “Kung gusto may paraan, pero kung ayaw maraming dahilan.”  In an earlier statement, the R2KRN had asked if it were indeed the president himself that is objecting to the bill and not “stakeholders.” Read the statement

On the heels of P-Noy's failure to endorse the Freedom of Information bill during the second Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting on August 16, Malacañang made its first appearance in a Senate public hearing through its communications team’s top officials.

At a committee hearing on August 18 on the FOI bill spearheaded by Senator Gregorio Honasan, chair of the Senate Committee on Information, and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, officials Ramon Carandang and Manuel Quezon III explained the exclusion of the FOI Bill from priority legislations identified by the president during the LEDAC meeting, this administration’s second since Mr. Aquino assumed presidency in June 2010. The first meeting was held in January this year; the Executive did not consider FOI priority legislation at that time.

“At this point, we would rather have a bill that could get the most consensus from all the stakeholders, rather than a bill that comes before we are ready, and that would be objected to vehemently by some of the stakeholders,” claimed Carandang, a former  media person and now member of Malacañang’s communication team.

However, the foregoing discussions during the hearing revealed more agreements to expedite the process of passing the bill, as there seems to be no obstacles to it as far as the Senate and civil society advocates are concerned.

Lawyer NepomucenoMalaluan, co-convenor of the Right to Know Right Coalition who was also present during the Senate hearing, pointed out that the current administration is not starting on blank page with the FOI given the years of advocacy and public education work done by civil society organizations, and the near-passage of an FOI law in the 14th Congress. It is not, either, as if the bill has been lacking in “unanimous support” from across the social and political spectrum, including the government sector, Malaluan stressed.

“We’re put in a bind as to how to read these conflicting signals,” R2KRN convenor said, referring to previous assurances made by the president himself that he supports FOI but he just had questions or issues about it. The coalition had engaged Malacañang informally by responding to several issues it had raised on the provisions of the FOI bill supported by the advocates. (See statement of R2KRN)

Senator Cayetano echoed calls by the civil society advocates to expedite the sponsorship process of the bill. “Kailangan pabilisin na ito [This has to be speeded up],” he urged. It’s not enough that the P-noy government is working at being a clean and transparent administration, the solon even said.

Senator Honasan, for his part, pressed for a concrete timeline for passing the bill as well as a clear commitment to an open, transparent deliberative procedure on the part of Malacañang.

At the closing of the hearing, Cayetano expressed hope that the hearing would be “beginning of the end of discussions,” so that that the eventual passage of the FOI law could take place. “I think the Palace gets the message that not only is it [the FOI Bill] important and essential, it’s also urgent.”

“There’s a saying in Filipino,” reminded Malaluan, “Kung gusto may paraan, pero kung ayaw maraming dahilan.”  In an earlier statement, the R2KRN had asked if it were indeed the president himself that is objecting to the bill and not “stakeholders.” Read the statement

On the heels of P-Noy's failure to endorse the Freedom of Information bill during the second Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting on August 16, Malacañang made its first appearance in a Senate public hearing through its communications team’s top officials.

At a committee hearing on August 18 on the FOI bill spearheaded by Senator Gregorio Honasan, chair of the Senate Committee on Information, and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, officials Ramon Carandang and Manuel Quezon III explained the exclusion of the FOI Bill from priority legislations identified by the president during the LEDAC meeting, this administration’s second since Mr. Aquino assumed presidency in June 2010. The first meeting was held in January this year; the Executive did not consider FOI priority legislation at that time.

“At this point, we would rather have a bill that could get the most consensus from all the stakeholders, rather than a bill that comes before we are ready, and that would be objected to vehemently by some of the stakeholders,” claimed Carandang, a former  media person and now member of Malacañang’s communication team.

However, the foregoing discussions during the hearing revealed more agreements to expedite the process of passing the bill, as there seems to be no obstacles to it as far as the Senate and civil society advocates are concerned.

Lawyer NepomucenoMalaluan, co-convenor of the Right to Know Right Coalition who was also present during the Senate hearing, pointed out that the current administration is not starting on blank page with the FOI given the years of advocacy and public education work done by civil society organizations, and the near-passage of an FOI law in the 14th Congress. It is not, either, as if the bill has been lacking in “unanimous support” from across the social and political spectrum, including the government sector, Malaluan stressed.

“We’re put in a bind as to how to read these conflicting signals,” R2KRN convenor said, referring to previous assurances made by the president himself that he supports FOI but he just had questions or issues about it. The coalition had engaged Malacañang informally by responding to several issues it had raised on the provisions of the FOI bill supported by the advocates. (See statement of R2KRN)

Senator Cayetano echoed calls by the civil society advocates to expedite the sponsorship process of the bill. “Kailangan pabilisin na ito [This has to be speeded up],” he urged. It’s not enough that the P-noy government is working at being a clean and transparent administration, the solon even said.

Senator Honasan, for his part, pressed for a concrete timeline for passing the bill as well as a clear commitment to an open, transparent deliberative procedure on the part of Malacañang.

At the closing of the hearing, Cayetano expressed hope that the hearing would be “beginning of the end of discussions,” so that that the eventual passage of the FOI law could take place. “I think the Palace gets the message that not only is it [the FOI Bill] important and essential, it’s also urgent.”

“There’s a saying in Filipino,” reminded Malaluan, “Kung gusto may paraan, pero kung ayaw maraming dahilan.”  In an earlier statement, the R2KRN had asked if it were indeed the president himself that is objecting to the bill and not “stakeholders.” Read the statement

Focus on the Global South-Philippines, an international, non-governmental organization, held contract signing with the grantees for its "EDSA Mo, EDSA Ko" video grant initiative on August 18 at Café Via Mare, Asian Studies Center in UP Diliman.Each grantee is entitled to a seed fund to produce the film proposal submitted to and chosen by Focus on the Global South. The winning applicants are :

• Eva Aurora Callueng (Women's category);
• Angela Garrido (Women's category);
• Andrea Regine Reyes and her team members Vianca Baliao, Mia Sinaguinan, Marge Calingo, Desiree Carillo, JJ Collins, Jam Tuazon, Therese Umali, Randy Valdez, Christa Balonkita from Miriam College (Youth category); and
• Eloisa Sanchez with Richard Legaspi, Seymour Sanchez and Hubert Tibi for the Open category.

Focus on the Global South-Philippines, an international, non-governmental organization, held contract signing with the grantees for its "EDSA Mo, EDSA Ko" video grant initiative on August 18 at Café Via Mare, Asian Studies Center in UP Diliman.Each grantee is entitled to a seed fund to produce the film proposal submitted to and chosen by Focus on the Global South. The winning applicants are :

• Eva Aurora Callueng (Women's category);
• Angela Garrido (Women's category);
• Andrea Regine Reyes and her team members Vianca Baliao, Mia Sinaguinan, Marge Calingo, Desiree Carillo, JJ Collins, Jam Tuazon, Therese Umali, Randy Valdez, Christa Balonkita from Miriam College (Youth category); and
• Eloisa Sanchez with Richard Legaspi, Seymour Sanchez and Hubert Tibi for the Open category.

Focus on the Global South-Philippines, an international, non-governmental organization, held contract signing with the grantees for its "EDSA Mo, EDSA Ko" video grant initiative on August 18 at Café Via Mare, Asian Studies Center in UP Diliman.Each grantee is entitled to a seed fund to produce the film proposal submitted to and chosen by Focus on the Global South. The winning applicants are :

• Eva Aurora Callueng (Women's category);
• Angela Garrido (Women's category);
• Andrea Regine Reyes and her team members Vianca Baliao, Mia Sinaguinan, Marge Calingo, Desiree Carillo, JJ Collins, Jam Tuazon, Therese Umali, Randy Valdez, Christa Balonkita from Miriam College (Youth category); and
• Eloisa Sanchez with Richard Legaspi, Seymour Sanchez and Hubert Tibi for the Open category.

 

STATEMENT of the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition/
Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI! Campaign
On President Aquino’s Failure to Endorse the FOI Bill to LEDAC
17 August 2011

Kung talagang gusto, hahanap ng paraan.
Kung talagang ayaw, hahanap ng dahilan.

This is exactly where President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III stands on the proposed Freedom of Information bill, which seeks only to enforce a constitutionally guaranteed right of the people to know and secure documents in the custody of government agencies.

The President says he supports the bill in principle, but that he has “specific questions and concerns” that he wants to be settled, before he endorses it as his priority legislation. His concerns, the President says, include his fears that FOI could unlock documents that might expose people to kidnappers, cause government losses in right-of-way cases because of property price speculations, and many other unwanted results.

 

STATEMENT of the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition/
Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI! Campaign
On President Aquino’s Failure to Endorse the FOI Bill to LEDAC
17 August 2011

Kung talagang gusto, hahanap ng paraan.
Kung talagang ayaw, hahanap ng dahilan.

This is exactly where President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III stands on the proposed Freedom of Information bill, which seeks only to enforce a constitutionally guaranteed right of the people to know and secure documents in the custody of government agencies.

The President says he supports the bill in principle, but that he has “specific questions and concerns” that he wants to be settled, before he endorses it as his priority legislation. His concerns, the President says, include his fears that FOI could unlock documents that might expose people to kidnappers, cause government losses in right-of-way cases because of property price speculations, and many other unwanted results.

 

STATEMENT of the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition/
Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI! Campaign
On President Aquino’s Failure to Endorse the FOI Bill to LEDAC
17 August 2011

Kung talagang gusto, hahanap ng paraan.
Kung talagang ayaw, hahanap ng dahilan.

This is exactly where President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III stands on the proposed Freedom of Information bill, which seeks only to enforce a constitutionally guaranteed right of the people to know and secure documents in the custody of government agencies.

The President says he supports the bill in principle, but that he has “specific questions and concerns” that he wants to be settled, before he endorses it as his priority legislation. His concerns, the President says, include his fears that FOI could unlock documents that might expose people to kidnappers, cause government losses in right-of-way cases because of property price speculations, and many other unwanted results.

Focus on the Global South-Philippines held contract signing with the grantees for its EDSA Mo, EDSA Ko video grant initiative August 18 at Café Via Mare, Asian Studies Center in UP Diliman. Each grantee is entitled to a seed fund to produce the film proposal submitted to and chosen by Focus on the Global South.  The winning applicants are : Eva Aurora Callueng (Women's category); Angela Garrido (Women's category); Andrea Regine Reyes and her team members Vianca Baliao, Mia Sinaguinan, Marge Calingo, Desiree Carillo, JJ Collins, Jam Tuazon, Therese Umali, Randy Valdez, Christa Balonkita from Miriam College (Youth category); and Eloisa Sanchez with Richard Legaspi, Seymour Sanchez and Hubert Tibi for the Open category. Jenina Joy Chavez, head of Focus on the Global South-Philippines, signed on the agreements on behalf of the organization.

Focus on the Global South-Philippines held contract signing with the grantees for its EDSA Mo, EDSA Ko video grant initiative August 18 at Café Via Mare, Asian Studies Center in UP Diliman. Each grantee is entitled to a seed fund to produce the film proposal submitted to and chosen by Focus on the Global South.  The winning applicants are : Eva Aurora Callueng (Women's category); Angela Garrido (Women's category); Andrea Regine Reyes and her team members Vianca Baliao, Mia Sinaguinan, Marge Calingo, Desiree Carillo, JJ Collins, Jam Tuazon, Therese Umali, Randy Valdez, Christa Balonkita from Miriam College (Youth category); and Eloisa Sanchez with Richard Legaspi, Seymour Sanchez and Hubert Tibi for the Open category. Jenina Joy Chavez, head of Focus on the Global South-Philippines, signed on the agreements on behalf of the organization.

Focus on the Global South-Philippines held contract signing with the grantees for its EDSA Mo, EDSA Ko video grant initiative August 18 at Café Via Mare, Asian Studies Center in UP Diliman. Each grantee is entitled to a seed fund to produce the film proposal submitted to and chosen by Focus on the Global South.  The winning applicants are : Eva Aurora Callueng (Women's category); Angela Garrido (Women's category); Andrea Regine Reyes and her team members Vianca Baliao, Mia Sinaguinan, Marge Calingo, Desiree Carillo, JJ Collins, Jam Tuazon, Therese Umali, Randy Valdez, Christa Balonkita from Miriam College (Youth category); and Eloisa Sanchez with Richard Legaspi, Seymour Sanchez and Hubert Tibi for the Open category. Jenina Joy Chavez, head of Focus on the Global South-Philippines, signed on the agreements on behalf of the organization.

There is a strong case to make on behalf of industrial policy in developing countries like the Philippines. This is the central message of a roundtable discussion on Industrial Policy held July 31, 2011, with respected Filipino economist Dr. Manuel “Butch” Montes as main speaker.

Philippine government has ditched industrial policy supposedly because of its susceptibility to corruption and rent seeking, but according to Dr. Montes, even governments that have adopted trade liberalization measures are now implementing “non-purposive industrial policy interventions because of private sector pressures and market imperfections.”  Put simply, Montes said that rent seeking happens even in the most liberalized economies and governments’ investment decisions are a result of industrial lobbies and the balancing of many interests.

Montes was formerly with the UP School of Economics and is the current Chief of Policy Analysis and Development Branch of the Financing for Development Office of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The RTD was organized by various Philippine advocacy organizations and progressive think tanks to initiate a process of discussion, consensus building and advocacy around a Philippine industrial policy. This is to counterbalance the P-Noy government’s economic policies of private-public partnerships, patterned after previous build-operate-transfer schemes, and of continuing trade liberalization.

“Industrial policy is all about new technology that can be scaled up and where a country can be competitive,” said Dr. Montes. He said that industrial policy can capitalize on technological innovations to promote the development of specific industries with competitive advantage within their boundaries. He debunked old economist thinking that government interventions ward off foreign investors and cited the cases of China and Korea which adopted an industrial policy that focused on promoting green industries and used trade interventions and export orientation to develop their target industries.

One area for industrial policy Montes discussed is green technologies, which is the subject of the 2011 World Economic and Social Survey UNDESA recently launched.

The industrial policy Dr. Montes espouses also banks on broad participation, stressing strong linkages among different sectors. He said that “government would be investing anyway, so why not carefully choose the sectors it would invest in?” Montes further emphasized that good policies in health and education, while they cannot strictly be considered industrial policy, could be relevant ingredients of industrial policy. For instance, government can put more support to science and technology research in the universities, and harness the country’s substantial healthcare workforce towards the adoption of higher technology. Doing this effectively prepares the country for higher industries, he explained.

Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan of the policy group Action for Economic Reforms (AER) and Co-Convenor of the Development Roundtable Series who also spoke in the RTD, pointed out that the too-aggressive implementation of the Philippine government of its trade liberalization policy has marginalized the weak sectors (e.g. agriculture). Contrary to all predictions that trade liberalization would prop up industry and agriculture, data show that it has weakened these basic sectors, Malaluan said.

He added that the trade policies did not usher in industrialization and development but shifted domestic capital away from industry and agriculture. “Unfortunately, in the 30 years of trade liberalization Philippine-style, the economy has settled into its new structure. Big capital has adjusted. If we look at the country’s 40 richest, they have all diversified away from agriculture and manufacturing into services and non-tradeables, particularly utilities, property, retail trade and infrastructure.”

As an immediate relief, Malaluan proposed a modest across-the-board adjustment of tariff rates comparable to the country’s immediate Asian neighbors. This will recover some protection for domestic production, lift income and employment, and improve the prospects of Philippine agriculture. Beyond this, he said that it is time to talk seriously about industrial policy.

The roundtable discussion was jointly sponsored by Action for Economic Reforms (AER), Focus on the Global South – Philippines Program, EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) and the Development Roundtable Series (DRTS).

*For inquiries please get in touch with Clarissa V. Militante (cmilitante@gmail.com) or Carmina Obanil (menchie@focusweb.org) at 433-08-99.