STUDENTS GATHERED at the Rizal Library last August 15 to partake in the Ateneo Assembly’s breakthrough project of the year, Face The Nation 2014. In partnership with the Department of Political Science, the forum aimed to address the primary concerns that were discussed in this year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The interactive forum was an “opportunity for [students] to seek perspectives not limited to your discipline,” as stated by Ma. Elissa Jayme-Lao, Chair of the Department of Political Science, in her opening remarks.

According to a poll arranged by the Ateneo Statistics Circle, the top four issues that Ateneans wanted to discuss included natural disaster preparation, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, and agrarian reform. The DAP and PDAF, however, were not discussed as much during the forum in comparison to the other topics.

The panelists invited to dissect the chosen issues were Fr. Xavier Alpasa, SJ, Executive Director of Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, Ronald Holmes, President of Pulse Asia, Nicole Curato, PhD, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Canberra and Hon. Henedina Abad, Congresswoman of Batanes.

The program started off with a discussion of the top four issues, headed by Anne Candelaria, PhD, an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science. It followed the mechanics of a round table discussion—each panelist gave their insights on a specific issue or answered questions posed by Candelaria. After the discussion, students’ questions were addressed either through the hashtag “#FTN2014” on Twitter, anonymous entries from the fishbowl that was provided upon registration or questions from the audience.

Addressing natural disaster

The discussion began with the topic of disaster management and the gaps in policies that could be addressed. Alpasa noted that the government is not lacking in the allocation of funds or policy but rather in the implementation, political will and unity.

He also stressed a need for a community-based disaster risk-reduction management that included consultation. “The best preparation is the preparation done by the community,” he said.

Abad echoed Alpasa’s sentiments on a more integrated disaster preparation and the lack of policy implementation. She drew from Batanes’ experiences from typhoons, specifically Typhoon Odette last year, which destroyed many agricultural properties and crops. She explained that Batañes’ culture revolves around disaster preparedness: Houses are constructed to survive natural disaster and most municipalities can clear up areas even before relief work is issued. She had observed that there was a need to build better structures, especially in urbanized areas.

Abad and Alpasa both emphasized education on forecast systems so that citizens know what certain signals mean and the necessary responses to them, in order to devise efficient evacuation programs.

Abad also suggested making maps that show the vulnerability of certain areas in the Philippines. Alpasa said that we should consider the private sector in the logistics process of relief operations. He dded that if the National Land Use Act had been pursued, the government could have mitigated the number of Yolanda casualties, because the act entailed placing people in habitable areas with proper land classification.

Reform on agrarian reform

The second issue that was discussed was agrarian reform. Alpasa described the situation with the use of an analogy: “If you sell cell phones, and many people buy them, you would already be rich.” If this were the case, he proposed, what about the farmers? “Sila ang gumawa ng bigas, marami tayong kinakaing kanin, pero ‘di sila mayaman (They made the rice, we eat a lot of rice, but they’re not rich).”

He explained that the whole agricultural system is problematic, as it is a simple process that the government complicates. As a result, farmers are cast out from the discussion.

Abad and Curato addressed the policy defects and how the government can further improve on the implementation of land reform. Abad emphasized that instead of awaiting the extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (Carper) Law, “they need to complete the distribution of land” and focus on where the farmers are marginalized in the system.

Curato explained, on the other hand, that there is a “tempered victory” in Carper for it has undergone so many concessions and negotiations. However, she asserted, there is only so much that progressive politicians and participants can do, with the Congress that we have. “The premise is, it has to go through a Congress that’s not particularly worn to these ideas,” she added.

Access to information

The third issue that was examined was the FOI Bill and what it would demand from both the government and its citizens. Holmes said that access to primary data should be provided because you can’t devise an interpretation on a binary document. “You can twist the information that has been given to you, but you can’t when the primary data is the one that’s presented.” With regard to making information simpler to understand for the masses, he suggested putting it in a form that won’t be subject to misinterpretations.

Curato pointed out that the ideal FOI Bill is one that isn’t just discussed and conceived by congressmen, but has input from the people. As a counterpart framework, however, it should tackle clear guidelines against recipient abuse. Curato also added that a way to avoid misinterpretation of data is to allow more people to scrutinize the information, so that “we know when it is put out of context” and we can “properly debate on the content of the data”.

Adding to this line of thought, Abad observed that aside from the democratic benefits the law entails, the ethics and the meaning of freedom of information should also be prioritized.

“Totoo nga na importante [ang freedom of information] para sa isang demokratikong bansa at importante ang pagbibigay at madaling ‘accessibility’ of information upang ang mamamayan ay makapagpasya o makapagpili ng sinasabi naming ‘informed choice’ or ‘informed action’ (It’s true that freedom of information is important for a democratic country and the accessibility of information is important for citizens to make, what we call, an ‘informed choice’ or ‘informed action’),” she said. However, she explained that open data demands accountability from both the government and the citizens.

Country’s continued improvement

Considering that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s term is almost over, the bigger issue, as proposed by a student during the open forum, is who will continue the reforms he had started. Holmes noted that there is a common notion of the “personalization of leadership,” that “unless you change institutions, you can’t hope to sustain momentum for reform.”

Alpasa reminded the students that many have contributed to “the architecture of reforms and pushed for it in order to help the marginalized.” “Hindi lang si PNoy ay magaling, matalino at malinis. Marami pa diyan (PNoy is not the only who is good, smart and clean. There are many others),” he noted.

Curato added to this, explaining that governments who are able to make progressive change had presidents who were backed up by a movement. She said that we shouldn’t expect the president to fix everything, but as a civil society, we should support him in realizing these ideals. “We have to create that character,” she added.

Abad proposed that we should continue to strive for good governance reforms by evaluating how the government works and how it doesn’t. She observed that it’s “easy to generalize but it’s better to use rigor for analysis to formulate better proposals.” She noted that that is the Ignatian fashion, “Bababa ka, pag-aaralan mo (You go down and you learn it),” in order to create better solutions.