THE SIMBAHANG Lingkod ng Bayan’s (SLB) semi-annual forum “Kwentuhang Bayan” discussed the structural and legislative changes in Philippine politics that are needed in order to address the pressing issues that the country faced this year.

Entitled “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” the forum was held on November 25 at the Ricardo and Dr. Rosita Leong Hall auditorium.

Among the issues discussed were the Full Disclosure bill, the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill and the abolition of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

The forum speakers were Camarines Sur Third District Representative Leni Robredo and Dinagat Islands Representative Kaka Bag-ao. The forum reactors were Development Studies Program Director Leland Dela Cruz, PhD and Political Science Instructor Carmel Abao.

SLB is a non-partisan, Church-based, Jesuit-led organization committed to the service of the Filipino Church and the Filipino people.

Transparency and accountability

Citing the PDAF scam, the speakers expressed the need for pro-transparency bills to be passed into law.

Robredo discussed House Bill Number 19, also known as the Full Disclosure bill. It is the first reform she has filed in Congress.

The bill states that “all government owned and controlled corporations would be required to make public all their financial transactions.”

“Hindi na kailangan magrequest [ng financial documents, dahil] dapat lahat [ng] patungkol sa perahan ng bawat opisina, dapat available kaagad siya sa publiko (There is no need to request financial documents, because it is a must that all financial transactions of every public office are readily available to the public),” she said.

Robredo also stressed that if the bill is be implemented, the contents of public financial documents should be simplified so that the general public can understand it.

“Maiintindihan [ng mga tao] kung tama ba ‘yung paggastos ng pera ng gobyerno, maiintindihan na ‘yung pera ng gobyerno napupunta talaga sa kung ano ang dapat (The public will be able to understand whether the government is spending the money correctly, and they will be able to understand if the money of the government is allocated to the rightful places),” said Robredo.

Meanwhile, Bag-ao said that the Full Disclosure bill is just one of the many versions of a pro-transparency bill that ought to be passed in the Philippines. According to her, another version is the access-to-information demand of the FOI bill.

Bag-ao said this version mandates that all official government records and documents be made available to the public.

However, she said that aside from the two mentioned versions, most of the proposed pro-transparency bills lack a right-of-reply (ROR) provision. This causes a slow and contentious enactment process in Congress.

An ROR provision enables government officials, through the media, to answer allegations made against them based on the publicly accessed information.

Patronage to empowerment

Now that the PDAF has been scrapped, Bag-ao said that local government units (LGUs) should be empowered so that the government can still respond to the needs of its constituents.

Bag-ao added that the locals in remote provinces should seek the necessary aid from their LGUs and district representatives.

Before it was abolished, Bag-ao’s PDAF was used for projects requested by LGUs as well as the locals of Dinagat Islands, including multi-cabs, infrastructure, scholarships and burial services.

She said that in order to continue providing such services, the government must find alternative funding.

“Perhaps it’s better if our active participation for the abolition of PDAF is also the same activism we have to talk about options to answer to the needs of the people,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.

However, The Ateneo Assembly President Harvey Chua said that to think former PDAF beneficiaries will now be left hanging is a misconception.

The Ateneo Assembly helped found Youth Against Pork (YAP), a coalition that raises youth awareness of and involvement in the national budget processing and allocation.

Fixing a first impression

Furthermore, Robredo showed displeasure at Filipinos’ generalized, negative opinion regarding public officials.

Robredo, an avid user of public transportation, was surprised that people made a fuss over her riding a public bus when going back and forth from Naga to Manila.

“When people started to make a big deal out of it, I told myself that there is really a problem within our government,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.

She pointed that people seem to associate high ranking government officials with big houses and nice cars.

“This is a scary thought, since when we see government officials [living luxuriously], we excuse them immediately [because it seems to be the norm],” she said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Moreover, Chua said that based on polls, Filipinos seem to have lost trust in the government despite the latter having lots of initiatives to counter this perception.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives suffered a decline in their overall trust ratings based on the September 2013 Pulse Asia Performance and Trust Ratings survey. Their ratings dropped by 15 and 19 percentage points, respectively.

“To win the public relations war, the Aquino government needs to introduce a bigger measure or initiative to show the public that it intends to act strongly and resolutely against corruption,” Chua said.

Challenge to all

Different sectors see this year’s national issues as a challenge not just for the government but also for the general public.

Despite different pro-transparency bills being proposed, Dela Cruz said that it is important for the citizenry to support these measures, or else the bills will not move in Congress. He added that the bills’ passage into law also needs support from the executive branch.

For Abao, the abolition of the pork barrel has the potential to bring about a positive change within the government.

“[We] will think about congressional cooperation, we will think about executive and legislative cooperation,” she said.

As for the youth, Chua said that both The Ateneo Assembly and YAP recognize the need for the youth to be aware of and engaged in issues confronting the nation.

“Being properly and well-informed, as well as participating in discourse, is always the best first step,” he said.