Aquino legacy

I have always been consistent in wanting and rooting for the President to succeed. His administration has achieved notable successes in key areas, but has also been marked by abject failure in certain meaningful areas. Nearing the end of his term, I have not quite decided whether his administration is a glass that is half-full or is half-empty.

So rather than presenting a comprehensive ledger of credits and debits of his administration’s performance, I will highlight what I think is the administration’s greatest success, from the narrow perspective of my advocacy for better public health as key to our economic development. And also of its greatest failure, the Department of Transportation and Communication. At the end of the day, between these two opposite ends of the pole, what would be the more enduring perception of the Aquino presidency?

Reproductive Health and Sin Taxes

Although the jury is still out, I believe President Aquino’s successful support of the legislations on Reproductive Health (RH) and on the so-called Sin Taxes are historic milestones that has placed us on a path towards addressing two impediments to our economic development – unsustainable population growth and a healthy generation of drivers of our society. In both these landmark initiatives, the President had to take on powerful traditional stakeholders – the Church and the tobacco industry – something which his predecessors were reluctant to do.

The RH law addresses the issue of the lack of access to RH services – of which is less about giving contraceptives and more about responsible parenting – that have been cited as reasons why those who are least able to support their children proprotionately bear more and the slow decline of maternal mortality rate. The Sin Tax reform bill increased taxes on all tobacco and alcohol projects, providing a new injection of funding that enabled the administration to enroll more people in universal health care (82% from 74% of the population and with enhanced benefits), scale-up NCD prevention services in primary care, recruit healthcare workers and build additional health facilities in poor and remote areas.

The basic health reforms and funding sources have been established. What is needed is to refine the strategies to improve health outcomes of the poor like increasing the poor’s utilization of PhilHealth services, as well as reducing out of pocket costs.

DOTC: Department of Transport Chaos

But the public will also remember the DOTC managed by my poster boy for incompetence. Secretary Jose Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya, who seemingly is bent on proving my assessment (shared by many except by himself and his boss) without leaving any doubt by committing yet more gaffes.  This department more than any other branch of the executive department affects the daily life of the public.  

When going to work daily, which is already slow and tedious because of the horrendous traffic becomes a dangerous undertaking, someone has to take responsibility.  If its not too many cars (duh!), it’s the fault of the previous management (which instead of correcting he has piled on with more mismanagement) and now, its sabotage! What is galling is that while his boss says to the Filipino people “kayo ang boss ko”, his subaltern pouts ”I am not here to please everybody” as if to say “hindi kayong mga Pinoy ang boss ko, si Pnoy lang ang boss ko.”

And so while his boss has done a lot in upgrading public health, he does his best to undermine it by risking the life and limbs of commuters with shoddy MRT/LRT services. And now, the COA cited the DOTC for being derelict in not constructing the public toilet facilties despite the fact that a large budget had already been allocated for this project. Oh and by the way, the new 2016 models are out, but many hapless folks are still waiting for their registration and license plates of their 2014 model vehicles. I could not resist mentioning this because I was one of those hapless folks.

Department of Information and Communications Technology

Here’s a piece of unfinished business that may yet help define the Aquino presidency. It’s actually the “C” in the DOTC but you wouldn’t know it because of neglect. The Bill creating a DICT has passed both houses of Congress and has been submitted to Malacanang for the President to sign into law, thanks to the initiative of Senate President Frank Drilon. I hope the President will appreciate the urgency of creating a separate department for ICT for implementation before the end of his term. He has to appreciate that contrary to some people’s view, the need for a DICT should not mainly be for the development of the ICT/BPM industry, but rather its comprehensive adoption to enable broader access and interaction and spur efficiencies. And one of its more compelling justifications is the need for e-governance – the integration of government ICT systems for greater transparency and more efficient delivery of services to the public.

With Daang Matuwid as the legacy he wants to leave behind, a DICT becomes an imperative to realize this goal. This legacy can only become a reality if there is a single agency of government focused on ICT as a strategy for governance.

When I was co -chair of the IT and E-Commerce Council, our objective was to integrate the systems of multiple government agencies to be more responsive to the public needs. At that time, an OFW needed to interact with at least seven agencies and acquire more than 30 signatures to complete the process of overseas employment. We made great efforts to simplify the process, but the inability of the ICT systems of one agency to interact with the other hampered its implementation.

For a business to operate in the country, one needs to deal with at least five national agencies, not even including the various permits required by local government. This is why we are consistently ranked low globally in ease of doing business. One of the benefits of e-commerce is disintermediation, which allows the public to deal directly with government, without having to deal with middlemen who are the source of corruption, particularly in our revenue collection agencies.

With the public now able to do most transactions online like booking a flight and a hotel room or paying bills, when will government ever be able to allow its citizens to have this same convenience dealing with government?

This is the core of why a DICT is needed. Only an independent agency can develop and implement an ICT architecture, which all government agencies will adopt so that each of their systems can interact with each other. Without a DICT, this can never happen. I only hope our President will realize how important a DICT will be in preserving his legacy of daang matuwid.   

Final thoughts

As a manager of the economy, the Aquino administration has pushed all the right buttons, addressing major hindrances to our economic growth and promoting inclusiveness. The RH and Sin Tax law are certainly pro-poor and pro-women. Laws on competition, cabotage for shipping, near-open air for flights, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) reflect efforts at leveling the playing field, lowering costs and  providing equal opportunities. It should be noted that the Gini coefficient (the most commonly used measure of inequality) under the Aquino administration has markedly worsened compared to the improvement under GMA from Estrada’s term. On the macroeconomic side, it has managed to increase government revenue while at the same time lowering debts, maintaining reasonable interest rates and keeping inflation in check. Daang matuwid has certainly improved foreign investors perception of the Philippines as a place to do good business. But the impact of these actions take time and are not so immediately obvious.

What is more obvious are the daily hassles ordinary Filipinos have to put up with everyday – horrendous traffic, inadequate transportation infrastructure, fear for their safety, bribery and corruption, airport facilities notorious for being the worst in the world, and indifferent public service. Then they read about the cavalier response to the Mamasapano massacre, Typhoon Yolanda, NAIA laglag-bala scheme – and it completes the picture of a government lacking in empathy and is indifferent to their interest and aspirations. To be sure these are problems that have been there before. But the people are always looking for a savior in any incoming administration. What makes this administration stand out is that when they don’t deliver, nobody takes responsibility, thus reinforcing this perception of indifference. 

Dogged loyalty to friends has also been a hallmark of the President. Its an admirable trait, but unfortunately it may ultimately contribute to what amounts to less than a sterling legacy for the President.

Its little wonder then that unfortunately, Ituloy ang daang matuwid is not resonating well with voters as much as bombastic statements about exterminating criminals and stomping on corruptors. Why even someone, in which corruption is an issue, is still doing well shows how empathy is so important in the voter’s mindset.