Author Bios

Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)

Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)

Articles by this author:

  • Party-list System: Marginalizing Further People’s Representation (Analysis)

    If the country’s elite and traditional politicians had their way, the Party-list system is an easier route to take to increase their dominance in the House of Representatives. In the present 15th Congress, 51 of the Party-list congressmen are millionaires or multi-millionaires while more than 10 percent come from political clans. Since the first 1998 elections for Party-list, this “social justice tool” which was envisioned to ensure the representation in Congress of marginalized sectors has been increasingly taken over by the elite. The elite’s bogus party-list groups claim to represent labor, farmers, indigenous peoples, vendors or drivers when in fact they come from big business, are operators of exclusive universities, landlords, emerging religious empires, and other business enterprises. Many of them are backed by incumbent administrations, have blood relatives among the powers that be in government, or were themselves former members of Congress or local officials.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
  • Clan politics vs new politics (Analysis)

    The undemocratic and anti-progress hegemony of political dynasties can be effectively challenged by a strong “new politics” movement with a critical mass advocating for an end to dynastic politics.

    As the country gears for the mid-term elections in May 2013, drawing more public attention is the barefaced display of power by political dynasties. Unlike in previous elections, the outcry against political dynasties has been more pronounced today to the extent that groups of anti-dynasty advocates led by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr. and anti-crime/corruption figure Dante L. Jimenez have asked the Supreme Court (SC) in a petition to compel Congress to enact an anti-dynasty law as the Constitution requires. Similar moves and sounds of fury are coming from other sectors including the media.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
  • Freedom of Information Issues and Concerns (Analysis)

    Mr. Aquino and his allies in Congress led the campaign to remove former Chief Justice Renato Corona on, among others, charges of betrayal of public trust, with Aquino being openly and loudly critical of Corona’s bias for the past administration, against the former officials of which corruption and other charges would likely have been dismissed once they reach the Corona Court.

    The Aquino thesis was that Corona was a barrier to the successful prosecution of government wrong-doers as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s decisions on a number of cases. While Corona’s impeachment trial did not establish the validity of that argument, it did create, thanks to Corona himself, serious doubts not only about his capacity to lead the Court, but also about the entire judicial system.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
  • Development models debunked: A lesson for PNoy (Analysis)

    A major reason for President Benigno S. Aquino III's drop in public trust rating is poor economic performance. This public perception is fueled by inflation, unemployment, as well as surveys showing a rise in the state of hunger among majority of Filipinos.

    Aquino III may find comfort in the fact that such decline in the public trust rating is true with all presidents: They begin their term with relatively high ratings which then slide midway and collapse at the end when most Filipinos begin to see the disparity between election promises and harsh realities on the ground.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
  • Philippine-China territorial row through a different eye (Analysis)

    There are far bigger forces that are at play in South China Sea (or West Philippine Sea). There are bigger yet unseen interests at work. Either President Benigno S. Aquino III is incognizant of these or is not receiving the full range of political intelligence. Whatever it is, there are striking contradictions in the Aquino administration's handling of the Philippine-China territorial feud in South China Sea and underneath such differences are unseen vested interests.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
  • Gearing for 2013: Legal issues, political realignments (Analysis)

    As the Senate impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona took a back seat during Congress break this summer, much of the political news dealt with the coming congressional and local elections in 2013. As in every poll, the next elections – 13 months away -are as critical but more so given that the polls for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) – considered as a “cheating capital” -will also be synchronized under the country's fragile election system.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
  • Nowhere to Go: Will Aquino’s Anti-Corruption Reform Work? (Analysis)

    President Benigno S. Aquino III’s much-vaunted anti-corruption program barely scratches the surface of the problem and gives no hint on how he will grapple with its systemic roots. Failing to address or worse abetting the fundamental roots that sustain corruption makes his administration’s anti-corruption drive superficial if not a complete sham.

    President Benigno S. Aquino III’s much-vaunted anti-corruption program barely scratches the surface of the problem and gives no hint on how he will grapple with its systemic roots. Failing to address or worse abetting the fundamental roots that sustain corruption makes his administration’s anti-corruption drive superficial if not a complete sham.

    By: Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)