Think Pieces

By Francis Isaac, Government Watch (G-Watch)

SO36 is a large music bar in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, known for hosting punk rock concerts and has been a fixture of Germany’s counter-cultural scene for the past four decades. But on the evening of 3 October 2018, this rebel hangout (that once featured Iggy Pop and David Bowie) was converted into a lecture hall that could accommodate close to three hundred people.

As I attend my 3rd Open Government Partnership (OGP) Global Summit in Tblisi, Georgia, I am hoping to see progress in this network in breaking what I refer to as "open government myths." 

Let me share ten of my most favorite:

By Joy Aceron*

It is reported that one of the members of the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution created by President Rodrigo Duterte thinks that the Committee does not owe the public a copy of their proposed Constitution. According to him, this is because the Committee only reports to the President and because he thinks the public is not capable of studying Constitutional Change proposal. Confidently, he argued that unlike him, the public did not study the Constitution and laws for years.

“What can we do amidst these concerted efforts to strike down accountability? The people in the roundtable ask. What can we do against the overwhelming arrogance of power? “The suggestion, coming from Government Watch — an action-research organization embedded in various civic groups all over the Philippines — is to revive the power of social movements. Or more specifically: revive the movement-building approach, especially in light of a society that feels more divided and fragmented than ever.”

By: Joy Aceron*

The removal of Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno from office is a serious blow to accountability. Sereno has been one of those calling out the abuses of the Duterte government. In doing so, the President has singled her out, like he did opposition Senator Leila de Lima, who is now in jail.

By: Joy Aceron

By Anna Bueno*

May ‘pananagutan’ ba tayo sa sarili nating gobyerno? Can Filipinos still take their government to account? Do Filipinos still know how to make their gov’t officials accountable? For Filipinos, what does accountability in government look like?

By Joy Aceron, G-Watch/ Accountability Research Center

The result of the latest Open Budget Survey (OBS) is certainly encouraging for the Philippines. Since the Report has come out, the report has been covered by media (‪https://www.rappler.com/nation/194902-philippines-rank-open-budget-transparency) and has been hailed by the government as an affirmation of its efforts on budget reform.

By Joy Aceron As we continue to confront the threats to press freedom, the danger of an exclusive and fast Constitutional Change process that attempts to remove certain human rights and accountability provisions in the Constitution and the prevailing impunity in the implementation of the government's Drug War, there is another challenge that democracy defenders concerned about the Philippines must also contend with: a possible threat to open, transparent and accountable public finance management, specifically procurement.

By Joy Aceron, Government Watch (G-Watch)

Corruption, sexual harassment, use of violence, unresponsive and flawed policies.

What is one bottomline of these core problems we face today?

IMPUNITY. Politicians steal money, powerful men harass and rape women, the poor get killed, decisions made that affect all our lives are wrong and detrimental because those in power, those who have money, those who are well-connected, occupying positions of unimaginable influence, think they can get away with it.

And they do. The powerful get away with anything.

By Francis Isaac, Government Watch (G-Watch) 

Growing up in a typical urban slum, I never thought that I would ever lay eyes on the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC. But there I was, standing before this massive infrastructure, dwarfed by its rectangular glass windows and passive concrete walls. Passing through a small revolving door, I soon found myself in a spacious square atrium, sheltered beneath a 46-meter high ceiling made up of numerous glass panels and interlocking metal bands.

I saw an appeal to push the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to investigate the violation of human rights by the terrorists in light of the Marawi crisis. There was also a push for Chito Gascon, Chair of the CHR, to resign because "the CHR is focusing more on the rights of the criminals, instead of the victims."

Have we come to a point when even those who were once reform elements in the "truncated procedural democracy" have become integrated (accustomed, immersed, assimilated) in the system over time that they behave predictably in harmony with the system even when the system is already showing its decay, malfunctioning and total ineptitude?

In the Philippines, party-switching means nothing. It is as normal for politicians as changing clothes. It is more regular than legislators attending congressional hearings.

There is an alternative to people power which is being proposed: “have Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the president for the remainder of her term,” for her staying there “presents our nation with a golden opportunity to change in a deeper, more meaningful and more lasting manner.”

Election violence is a paradox. Elections are designed to be peaceful means to resolve contestation for power and to uphold the democratic rights of citizens to participate directly in governance. Yet, in the Philippines, elections have increasingly become a reason for the use of violence and have often sowed fear and divisiveness and/or violation of human rights.

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

The Robredo case underscores one critical point for the Left: the new Left is out there. The current Left can either recognize this and do something about it, or once again be left out in the emerging politics of change.

Ferdinand Marcos and Lean Alejandro were two Martial Law figures who approached writing in markedly different ways

If you think that Marcos was the best president we ever had, think again