#TheCabinetIWant

Since Presidential candidates are beginning to reveal their preferences for some Cabinet members, citizens might as well reveal their own wish lists. Here is my list (in no particular order):

ES/PMS/OCS: Gov. Joey Salceda [why]

DILG: Former Sen. Richard "Dick" Gordon [why]

DND: Clarita Carlos [why]

DBM: Former Rep. Edcel Lagman [why]

DoF: BSP Gov. Amado Tetangco [why]

DFA: Former DND Sec. Gilbert Teodoro [why]

DSWD: Rep. Leni Robredo [why]

DPWH: Sec. Rogelio Singson [why]

NEDA: Manuel F. Montes [why]

DTI: Manuel V. Pangilinan [why]

DOLE: Former Rep. Walden Bello [why]
DOT (Transportation): USec. Teodoro Encarnacion [why]
DICT: Diosdado Banatao [why]

DoE: Rowaldo Del Mundo [why]

DA: Former Sec. Cielito Habito [why]
DAR: Rep. Neri Colmenares [why]

DENR: Antonio Oposa, Jr. [why]
DOH: Former USec. Madeleine Valera [why]

PCOO: Glenda Gloria [why]

PCDSPO: USec. Manuel "Manolo" Quezon III [why]

Deputy Presidential Spokesperson: Karen Jimeno [why]

DoJ: Solicitor-General Florin Hilbay [why]

DOST: Alfredo Mahar Lagmay [why]

DepEd: Randy David [why]

CHED: Former UPSE Dean Emmanuel De Dios [why]

DoT (Tourism): Yolanda Ong [why]

I have also in mind other individuals for major government posts which are not necessarily Cabinet rank, but deeply impacts the delivery of government services.

HUDCC: Felino A. Palafox, Jr. [why]

BSP: BSP Dep. Gov. Diwa Guinigundo [why]

NAPC: Former NAPC VC Ana Maria Nemenzo [why]
PhilHealth: UPSE Dean Orville Solon [why]

MMDA: Benjamin Dela Peña [why]

SSS: HDMF President and CEO Darlene Berberabe [why]

Note that I have not consulted these people when I made this list, though I sure hope they would agree to accept the Cabinet post if they are offered. I also have many people in mind as Undersecretaries or Deputy Director Generals or Vice Presidents, etc. of these institutions. Unfortunately, one blog post won't be enough.

Profiles:

Joey Salceda
Executive Secretary
Presidential Management Staff
Office of the Cabinet Secretary



Duterte offered Joey Salceda the post of NEDA Chief should he win, but it would be a disservice to the Filipino people if the vast array of competencies the Governor has - from economic, technical, political, local, etc. - will only be deployed in one specific aspect of government. Gov. Salceda can deliver more for the people as concurrent Executive Secretary, Chief of the Presidential Management Staff (the clearing house for all policy decisions of the President), and the Cabinet Secretary. These three positions are better lodged under one office, the OES, with undersecretaries manning the two major functions (PMS, OCS) and assistant secretaries manning the sub-functions.

Prior to his stint as Government of Albay, he was a three-term Representative, serving as Chair of the Committee on Trade and Industry and Vice Chair of the Committees on Ways and Means and Economic Affairs. In 2007, he became President Arroyo' Presidential Chief of Staff, and was often name-dropped as a member of President Arroyo's unofficial braintrust. Before he became a politician, the management engineering graduate from Ateneo was Research Director of UBS Warburg - a division of Swiss Bank Corporation, and was voted as one of the top five analysts in a 1996 survey of Philippine fund managers. [go back to top]

Aquino’s Legacy: Exclusive Growth, Ineffectual Bureaucracy

An Assessment of the Aquino III government (2010-2016)

James Matthew Miraflor

Vice President, Freedom from Debt Coalition

The verdict is in.

If there is one catch-phrase that can summarize the legacy of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III in his half-a-decade rule, it is this: “exclusive growth via an ineffectual bureaucracy”. A growth dictated by the moods of global market amid worsening poverty and stagnating inequality levels, and the failure of the bureaucracy to even spend the money it was able to collect to arrest poverty – these cap the legacy of who was once touted as a savior of Philippine democracy and commonweal from the dark years of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Did Aquino III measure up?

We argue that this is not just an accident of history that Aquino III failed to fulfill his mantra of “kung walang korap, walang mahirap”. Granting that we have made strides in the fight against corruption – a statement that is made with some reservation given the proliferation of patrimonialism in Congress and the national government agencies – it would have been simply illogical to assume that those strides alone will translate to better welfare for the rest of the Filipino people. Rather, we insist that the failures of Aquino III are deeply rooted to its philosophy of government – the vision it constructed when it translated its “social contract” into the 2010-2016 Philippine Development Plan (PDP).

Progressive groups such as the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) already criticized the 2010-2016 PDP from its inception, saying that it is weak on asset reform and fails to construct the economic underpinnings of a true “straight path” and “inclusive growth”. NEDA, under the neoliberal Director-General Cayetano Paderanga, basically ripped-off the agenda of Arangkada Philippines, a document prepared by the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (see letter from JFC to Paderanga here). This meant that the resulting PDP basically champions the interest of big capital over the interest of the Filipino masses. That the Aquino administration would end its term with increasing number of poor citizens in a growing economy demonstrates the bias it has set for itself when it began.

Long lines, pre-shaded ballots hound 2010 polls, observers say

05/12/2010 | 05:02 PM
JACQUES I. JIMENO, GMANews.TV
http://bit.ly/9gNwOj 

Foreign observers in the May 10 elections flash their Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections vests at a QC news briefing last week. GMANews.TV

Foreign observers in the May 10 elections flash their Compact for Peaceful and Democratic Elections vests at a QC news briefing last week. GMANews.TV

Long queues, pre-shaded ballots, malfunctioning voting machines, and bypassed electoral procedures were some of the problems noted by international observers who observed the Philippines’ first nationwide automated polls.

"A few machines were not working," Tiina Hiltunen of Finland said in a Balitanghali interview on Wednesday.

Transform Pasig

Great dreams are built piece by piece. The great dream of changing the Philippines and the world is now being done barangay by barangay, city by city, region by region. It is with this dream that Ric Reyes, and his team in Pasig, aims to inspire and unite Pasigueños in a project to transform Pasig City.

A Change in Perspective

Your browser may not support display of this image.But the capacity to inspire is getting more and more difficult, for if there is something the people of Pasig actually learned in its decade of collective struggle against elitist, corrupt, and undemocratic rule of the Eusebios – it is that collective struggle fails. Many have lost faith in trying to change things, as the opposition, repressed by the maneuverings of the entrenched dynasty, was defeated and demoralized.

Now more than ever is the opportunity to make the people remember the feeling of believing in change, and doing it together. This is Ric’s mission in Pasig. This is Ric’s challenge to the Eusebios.

RicReyesEqualsChange