- Democracy Watch

Wishing Away Woes
(Written by People’s Journal)

Published: August 2, 2014, Editorial Desk

Tuwid na Daan. Inclusive Growth. Health for All.

These are quite decidedly big visions, grand plans, great dreams.

But as the old saying goes,” the wish bone can never replace the back bone”.

Granted President Aquino personally still stands on a moral high ground, he has to “follow through” his noble socio-economic agenda for the people whom he calls his bosses.

But first he must acknowledge what ground control does not want to hear: ”Houston, we have a problem.”

And so while many still hold out the hope that President Aquino is in the best position to push reforms, many local political reform advocates think he does not even recognize the country’s real problems.

Chief among these problems is the need to establish real political parties as today’s political dealings are with individual legislators, and no longer with political parties.

A rare gathering of respected professionals from academe and civil society was held recently. The forum’s objective was to jumpstart a series of round table discussions on various political reform advocacies in light of the recent scandals in government, and the approaching national elections in 2016.

The forum was organized by CITIZENWATCH, an independent network of professionals which advocates for the interests of not just the less privileged sector, but also of society as a whole.

CITIZENWATCH aims to create change by shaping political debate and advocating institutional change through strategic research, systemic analysis.

The discussion was also organized with the participation of Democracy Watch Philippines (DemWatch),a social initiative of Stratbase Research Institute.

The organizers realized that politics in the country is always about divisions, so it works for collaboration across sectors. The group is planning to host a post-State-of-the-Nation round table discussion to continue the exchange of ideas that would hopefully lead to “some doable action”.

What alarmed the forum participants was the depth of pessimism regarding the possibility political reforms in the next two years, the last portion of Aquino’s presidency.

The organizers led by Prof. Dindo Manhit, convenor of CITIZENWATCH, said they saw a pressing need for a different or higher level of debate in terms of what legal reforms and changes in governance were needed.

“We can get ideas together. This time, we challenge the government in the two years remaining in the administration, and we challenge it towards transparency and their promises made in 2010. We felt that ordinary citizens should demand from the government because nobody speaks for the ordinary citizens,” Manhit said.

Lawyer Aris Batuhan, co-convenor of CITIZENWATCH, presented the question, “Where should change come from? Should it be from the electorate or the leaders?”.

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