Old bureaucratic system: A major obstacle

I must admit that I was one of those a bit skeptical about the “daang matuwid” and “walang wang-wang” that President Noynoy Aquino first talked about during his 2010 State of the Nation Address. But it’s starting to become clear the president’s resolve to imbue a new way of thinking and change the ways of old has taken traction and getting noticed by the international community. The Fitch rating upgrade of our economy and the Philippines taking the spotlight when Time magazine included President Aquino in the list of 100 most influential people in the world tells you that story.

Obviously, Time noted the economy’s impressive performance under President Aquino’s stewardship, citing that it “stabilized and became hot” when it was sputtering before. The magazine also cited P-Noy’s adamancy in pushing through a reproductive health bill that many thought was “impossible in the fervently Catholic nation.” But the most impressive was the president’s valiant stance against China over the Spratlys issue, reminiscent of a David standing up against a military, political and economic Goliath. Aquino, Time declared, “became the face of the regional confrontation with Beijing over its claim to virtually all of the South China Sea.”

Just how supportive Filipinos are to the president’s reform agenda will most probably be validated by the result of the 2013 May senatorial elections. Going by the last Pulse Asia poll and recently, a private survey conducted by a special intelligence network, it would seem that Team PNoy will have a major edge over the United Nationalist Alliance bets with the administration candidates taking at least nine out of the 12 Senate seats being contested.

There are a lot of indications that Filipinos are sick and tired of the old trapo kind of politics and want to see young leaders whose idealism is tempered by pragmatism. Sonny Angara is a good example. His legislative work pertinent to the education sector makes him credible especially among the youth when he shares his vision of wanting at least one college graduate in every family. For many Filipinos, “education is the only way out of poverty,” which is why Sonny is proposing amendments to the government’s conditional cash transfer program to include a college scholarship per family.

No doubt the road towards “daang matuwid” has not been all that smooth and easy. We have a long way to go because of the deeply entrenched culture of bureaucratic corruption in many government offices, something that embattled Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon knows very well. Institutional and policy changes are necessary to strengthen and reinforce what this administration has set out to do, think-tank Stratbase president Dindo Manhit said, and rightly so considering that these “institutionalized systems” within the bureaucracy are proving to be a major obstacle in pushing reforms, causing costly delays in crucial infrastructure projects and making it difficult to attract more foreign investors.

This is precisely what seems to be happening at the DOTC and its projects like the LRT-1 Cavite Extension project with the public bidding getting repeatedly postponed — putting President Aquino in great danger of committing “hara kiri” if the line is not operational by 2015 as pointed out by our colleague Boo Chanco. In fact, I spoke to Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya and told him that many motorists are angry about the shortage in license plates and the inefficiencies in the old LTO system.

Improvements in LTO’s system for drivers’ licensing and other services as well as the expansion of the MRT and LRT lines are major projects that impact the masses, and clearly, government cannot afford to be unresponsive to the growing frustration of Filipinos over these unbelievable delays. People are blaming Secretary Abaya, saying he’s not doing his job — but I honestly believe it’s the “old” bureaucracy that is at fault here. Jun himself admitted his frustration with the flawed system that is bogging down key infrastructure projects.

Last week, I received a letter from a frustrated reader, JP Fenix who says things may not be as “matuwid” as they seem with regard to the P8.2 billion LTO IT infrastructure project that is supposed to replace the system by Stradcom (which continues to get a lot of flak due to inefficiencies and glitches). The DOTC disqualified the lowest bidder for serious deficiencies while another bidder faced a conflict of interest issue and was also rejected.

However, the rejection of the bid of a German firm (currently the lowest calculated bidder) is making the company feel like this LTO project could be another Fraport-Piatco fiasco in the making. The Fraport deal was a major booboo that chilled relations between Germany and the Philippines but despite that, this particular German firm joined the bid, playing it clean — a firm believer in President Noy’s “daang matuwid.”

The bid rejection was reportedly based on “very flimsy” grounds like the lack of brochures and other non-essentials according to our reader who is familiar with the company. The Germans submitted a motion for reconsideration and an affirmative decision would enable it to show its capability through a proof of concept, but a denial would result in a bidding failure which could mean more delays — with potentially serious and irreparable repercussions for many years to come. This travesty with the P8.2 billion IT infrastructure project must be exposed, according to Mr. Fenix.

Expectations are extremely high among the majority of Filipinos with the good governance and reform agenda that President Aquino started. Everybody, and I mean everybody — whether yellow, red, green or blue — wants him to succeed. Nobody wants to see the country go back to the old, trapo politics of yesterday.

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