Last three years: How PNoy can end his term with a bang

 

The 2013 national and local elections are over and our newly elected officials can now move forward towards the harder part of governing and solving poverty. In less than a month, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III (PNoy) would’ve already finished the first half of his six-year term and by 2016, he is expected to step down and go back to being a private citizen.

 

In his last three years, what should he prioritize? Here are my thoughts.

 

1.) Inclusive growth towards poverty alleviation

 

If there is one major reason why our country has received several investment level upgrades from international credit rating agencies such as Fitch and Standard and Poor’s, it's because of the present administration’s campaign for good governance. Although there is still much more to be done to stamp out graft and corruption in our local government units and other national agencies such as the Bureau of Customs, the general belief is that we have a President that is not corrupt and whom a big majority of Filipinos continue to trust.

 

However, despite these ratings upgrades, poverty levels in our country have remained the same. It seems that while PNoy is making the first part of his campaign slogan happen (Kung Walang Corrupt) there is still much left to be desired in fulfilling the other half (Walang Mahirap). Hopefully, in the next three years, PNoy and his leaders can prioritize providing solutions to the growing power crisis in Mindanao as well as find alternative ways to lower the costs of electricity in our country. These are important issues that have to be addressed since these are two of the major deterrents why our country isn’t able to attract much foreign and domestic investments in the field of manufacturing. Looking at the experiences of Thailand and Malaysia, their economic growth has been more stable because it is not dependent on consumer behavior but rather because of their strong manufacturing sector. A strong manufacturing sector will be able to help provide thousands of stable jobs that will help more Filipinos move out of poverty.

 

2.) Solidify Anti-Corruption Gains: Pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill

 

 A year ago, our nation rejoiced as the House of Representatives and the Senate impeached and ousted then Chief Justice Renato Corona. Corona was removed from office after being proven as not having properly declared several properties and bank accounts in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN). In several news articles, it also came out that while Corona was in the Supreme Court, his wealth actually tripled which has made people to conclude that he may have abused his power and influence to secure ill-gotten wealth. Sadly as long as our country does not have clear-cut laws that promote transparency and public accountability, many of our government officials will continue to get away with making government service their own money-making private business venture.

 

This is the reason why PNoy needs to immediately make the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill a priority. If PNoy is really serious about making the Filipino people his Boss then we have the right to know how our government officials are conducting their affairs and how they are spending our hard-earned taxpayers money.  If the FOI Bill is passed, any of us can now go to our government leaders and ask for important information such as how much they spent to construct our health centers, who are the suppliers for city hall’s office supplies and how our municipal councilors voted to exempt private business from zoning regulations. With an FOI law in place, the shroud of secrecy that many of our corrupt government officials are hiding in will now be lifted and all their shenanigans exposed.

 

3.) Ensure fair and honest elections by stopping Vote-buying

 

One of the main pillars of a strong democratic society is its ability to conduct fair and honest elections to choose the right set of leaders that will govern us. Sadly, despite the automation of our electoral process, our elections have been far from being clean due to the rampant vote-buying that was recently seen last May.

 

Vote-buying is also one of the main reasons why we continue to have graft and corruption since our political leaders who ran in the last elections would need to recoup their “investment” once they are in power. This is also the main reason why illegal gambling operations such as jueteng have continued to thrive since many of our local government leaders protect these operators in exchange for a percentage of the profits gained from these illegal activities. Simply put, by stopping vote-buying, we will be able to make a major dent in our campaign against graft and corruption and illegal gambling.

 

While this issue isn’t directly under PNoy’s jurisdiction since the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is an independent judicial body, his influence over the COMELEC and its Commissioners majority of which are now his appointees cannot be discounted. Hopefully, he can use his political capital to prod COMELEC to strictly enforce the law and ensure that those who conduct vote-buying operations are punished and banned from participating in future elections.  As Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan has always said, unless COMELEC will show its teeth and disqualify several vote-buying candidates, this illegal and immoral practice will just continue and will render the anti-vote buying law useless.

 

Comments are welcome at harveykeh@gmail.com

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Harvey S. Keh is Director for Youth Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship at the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government. He is also the Lead Convenor of the Kaya Natin! Movement for Good Governance and Ethical Leadership.