Beyond 2010:Leadership for the Next Generation

Beyond 2010: Leadership for the Next Generation

A UP Academic’s Congress To Challenge our Next Leaders
February 1 to 5, 2010
Malcolm Hall, College of Law
University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City
(admission is free / open to the public)

This academic congress intends to identify the current issues, map the various approaches that have been tried in the past, provide some assessment of their gains and failures and draw out possible actions that must be done by the next administration. It is intended to empower the general public by making these issues transparent. It is not solely addressed to the candidates for the 2010 elections. At the end of the forum, the public should be able to draw their own measurable objectives and milestones that can be achieved within the next six years hence allowing them to craft questions which they can ask from their candidates and make wise choices. The forum should draw responses from the political candidates that will go beyond mere generalities or rhetoric.

Day 1

Title	Author/s
Opening Remarks	Leonen, Marvic M.V.F.
The Imperative for Philippine Society within the Next Generation	Roman, Emerlinda R.
What Should Truly Matter to Filipinos?	David, Randolf S.

Session 1: Jobs and the Cost of Doing Business in the Philippines

Title	Author/s
Jobs and the Cost of Doing Business in the Philippines	Paderanga Jr., Cayetano W.
Putting Filipinos to Work	Habito, Cielito F.

Session 2: Debt and Deficits

Title	Author/s
Deficits and Public Debts	De Dios, Emmanuel S.
Can the Economy Outgrow the National Debt?	Medalla, Felipe M., Diokno, Benjamin E., Briones, Leonor M.

Panel Abstract
The panel on debt and deficits will critically examine what is right and what is wrong with the state of public expenditures and revenues. It will assess what room, if any, exists for fiscal expansion beyond 2010. A concrete proposal will be put forward regarding the level and pattern of spending, with priority areas being delineated. The panel will identify urgent, high-impact, and readily implementable reforms to raise revenue effectively and equitably. Potential threats to continuing fiscal stability will be identified. Finally, the political economy of the budgetary process involving the executive, legislature, and local governments will be explained and directions for reform indicated.

Day 2

Session 3:Backrooms, Battlefields, and Backhoes: The Mindanao Conundrum

Title	Author/s
Backrooms, Battlefields, and Backhoes: The Mindanao Conundrum	Ferrer, Miriam Coronel
The Philippines and the Bangsa Moro Polity:Breaking the Sisyphean Ordeal	Wadi, Julkipli M.
Magpuyong Malinawon sa Yutang Kabilin:To live in Peace in Our Ancestral Domain	Rodil, Rudy B.
Development and Distress in Mindanao: A Political Economy Overview	Tadem, Eduardo C.
Empirical Evidences	Lara Jr., Francisco J.

Panel Abstract
In contrast to the belief that growth and development have bypassed Mindanao, its socio-economic development shows that the region has been a primary contributor to the country’s productive capacities. But the wealth generated has only resulted in a more distressed socio- economic condition for Mindanao than for the nation as a whole, an enigma exacerbated by internal colonialism—the transfer of wealth from the south to the nucleus of political-economic power in the north.

The relation of the Philippine State and the Bangsamoro polity has often been subjected to a “Sisyphean ordeal,”—each time a new development emerges, e.g., a vision of social order, political arrangement, or policy reform, it is always followed and often times countered by subsequent development, leaving the whole relation in tatters while the vision is left to cascade into dramatic irrelevance. Of equal concern is the plight of Mindanao’s 35 Lumad tribes—indigenous communities who live outside Moro areas.

Severely marginalized as a result of state resettlement programs, they now assert their own identity and right to self-determination by focusing on securing ancestral domain claims, a right that government and the other Mindanao sectors must recognize to allow the Lumads to create and develop their own social spaces.

Finally, the Maguindanao massacre can be understood by looking at the interface between two types of armed challenges—“vertical armed challenge against the state,” (i.e., MNLF and the MILF), and “horizontal armed challenges” symbolized by “inter- and intra-clan and group violence.” An “exclusionary political economy developed through contest and violence” has impoverished Muslims. Growth has been artificial while “the exploitation of lootable or non- lootable resources opens up new arenas of conflict, and a rise in violence.”

Session 4: Building Blocks to the Universal Enjoyment of the Right to Health

Title	Author/s
Health Inequities: The Urgent Need for Health System Reforms in the Philippines	Romualdez Jr., Alberto G.
Ensuring Access to Safe, Affordable and Quality Essential Medicines	Padilla - Dela Paz, Edelina
Primary Health Care	Paterno, Elizabeth R.
Women's Right to Health	Castillo, Fatima A.

Session 5: Fundamentalisms and Secularism

Title	Author/s
Decontextualized Principles and the Myth of the Secular State	Gutierrez, III, Ibarra M.
Religious Fundamentalism: A Threat to Philippine Democracy	Estrada-Claudio, Sylvia

Day 3

Session 6: The Diaspora of Filipino: Strategic Issues, Concerns, And Alternatives

Title	Author/s
Ensuring Occupational Health and Safety for Overseas Filipino Seafarers	Binghay, Binghay C.
Overseas Absentee Voting and the Philippine Elections	Tigno, Jorge V.
Migration---An Issue of Development	Villalba, Maria Angela C.
An Overview on the Global Presence of Filipinos	Alcid, Mary Lou L.

Panel Abstract At least ten percent of the 91 million Filipinos are overseas on a permanent or temporary basis in pursuit of a better quality of life for themselves and their families. While freedom of movement is a fundamental human right, the continuing reliance of the government on overseas employment as an economic strategy, if not a de facto policy, for more than three decades and its concomitant social costs are critical development issues. More so in the context of neoliberal globalization that virtually subsumes human rights to market considerations, and institutionalizes framing of labor migration within trade in services. The panel shall provide the terrain on current discourse on the diaspora of Filipinos, both land and sea-based, and give voice to strategic issues and concerns from the perspective of migrants. It will highlight engagement by migrant organisations in governance, particularly the exercise of the right to suffrage, and the building of socio-economic alternatives to overseas employment.

Session 7: Property Reform and Related Issues

Title	Author/s
Agrarian Reform in a Globalizing World	Bernabe, Maria Dolores
Making Agrarian Reform Work	Ordonez, Ernesto M.
Property Law Reform Needs in Philippine Coastal & Marine Law	Batongbacal, Jay L.

Panel Abstract
The persistence of structural inequities, market imperfections and weaknesses in governance in Philippine society calls for approaches to social development beyond conventional delivery of social services. It demands for approaches that address equitable opportunity and social justice. Property reform as a strategy to social development hopes to empower people to be more responsive, democratic and accountable for their own development. The panel presentations will examine the state of current property reform programs in the agricultural and coastal and marine sectors, identify current challenges, and propose institutional, policy and resource requirements that must be met in order to undertake an effective property reform program in the country.

Session 8: Rethinking Urban Policy: Spatial, Economic and Institutional Aspects

Title	Author/s
Social Justice in Housing and Urban Development
The Future and our Cities	Silvestre, Danilo A.
Philippine Urbanization in the Medium Term	Paderanga, Jr., Cayetano W.
Low Income Housing --- Achievement, Costs, Challenge	Monsod, Toby S.

Panel Abstract
Thirty years ago, less than 40% of the population was considered urban. Thirty years from now, more than 70% will be. An urban area may be a city or municipality in its entirety or a central district/poblacion or barangay alone, and is officially considered urban based on a minimum population density or the presence of establishments and structures of a specific type and predominant occupation (non-agriculture). Urban development is the creation of the built environment; urban land use planning, the regulation of location, intensity and direction of development of the built environment.

How is urban policy currently practiced? To what degree did it contribute to the scale of Typhoon Ondoy’s impact in Metro Manila and contiguous provinces? What lessons can be learned for emerging cities and metropolitan areas across the country? The panel examines the efficiency of urban policy, its formulation and implementation, and what local officials can but often fail to do as urban planners and managers.

Session 9: Science and Technology

Title	Author/s
Measures of Scientific Productivity and Current Philippine Performance	Saloma, Caesar A.
S & T Capabilities and Economic Catch-Up	Posadas, Roger D.
Engineering Challenges in the Philippines	Guevarra, Rowena Christina L.
Power Supply Options for Energy Security	Nerves, Allan C.
Renewable Energy for Energy Security	Rowaldo Del Mundo
Sustainable Transport for Energy Security	Regidor, Jose Regin F.
Planning Policy for Sustainable Energy	Viray, Francisco L.

Panel Abstract
It is widely recognized that science and technology are essential to economic progress. Thus dismal public investment in research and development in Science and Technology (S & T) is among the reasons cited why the Philippines, once considered the region’s second strongest economy, now lags behind many of its neighbors. Many Filipino scientists and engineers have joined the exodus of talent overseas, as our weak industry is not able to provide enough jobs and has no need for Research and Development (R & D).

What is the state of S & T in the country? What are the main problems and challenges faced by the S & T community and how can these be addressed? How should we measure scientific productivity and technological innovation and how can these be harnessed and integrated into national development strategies? The discussions in this panel will address these questions and suggest a way forward.

Day 4

Session 10: Confronting Trade, Markets, and Regulation

Title	Author/s
Liberalization and Regulatory Challenges	Abrenica, Maria Joy
Confronting Trade And Development	Ofreneo, Rene
Overview: Trade and Environment	Leonen, Marvic

Panel Abstract
Our economic reality is constantly shaped by rules-based systems. This is true at the global level through formal treaties such as those within the World Trade Organization or those that create new preferential trade agreements. This is also true at the local level through constitutional provisions, statutes and regulations. How the next administration will intervene at the global and the domestic level to facilitate or address the weaknesses of “market forces” will continue to shape the lives of all Philippine societies.

The panel will explore issues relating to how the Philippines may, internationally or domestically, relate to the market. It discusses various frameworks and questions which the next administration may have to deal with.

Session 11: Philippine Foreign Relations

Title	Author/s
Philippine Foreign Relations	Baviera, Aileen S.P.
Philippine Foreign Policy and External Security	Kraft, Herman Joseph S.

Panel Abstract
In the past, Philippine foreign policy has, at times, been criticized as reactive and lacking a strategic framework to guide the definition of the nation’s interests and goals. The current fluidity of the international environment makes it imperative that a policy assessment be conducted with the end in view of helping re-define many of our key interests in relation to this environment, and examining critical interventions for policy makers to undertake. This panel hopes to make an important contribution in identifying challenges as well as opportunities, especially in key issues arising from US primacy, human security, regional integration trends, and the emergence of new Asian powers China and India.

Session 12: Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction

Title	Author/s
Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction: The Hard Choice	Dean Antonio G. M. La Vina
Lessons from Recent Philippine Disasters	Dr. Alfredo Mahar A. Lagmay
Reaching Out for Breath	Dr. Emmanuel M. Luna

Panel Abstract Over the last decade, the Philippines ranked 10thin the Global Climate Risk Index. Without doubt, climate change is one of the most important challenges to social development and human security of our time. One of the impacts of climate change is the increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related disasters such as tropical cyclones, floods and droughts. Evidence suggests that the impact of climate change will be felt first and hardest by the poor. Disasters bring about loss of lives, damage to properties and other assets, and costly reversals of development gains. This makes climate change and disaster risk reduction a strategic economic and moral imperative for the Philippines. The panel presentations will argue that addressing this imperative requires multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, multi-scale and multi-stakeholder responses at the policy, program and practice levels.

Day 5

Session 13: Addressing Impunity

Title	Author/s
Addressing Impunity	Gutierez III, Ibarra
Culture of Impunity	Nemenzo, Francisco
Marcos-Arroyo Deja Vu on Human Rights	Pangalangan, Raul

Session 14: Elections and How to Choose Leaders

Title	Author/s
The Crucial Importance of Election	Abueva, Jose
What has Congress Done with Regard to Impunity	Tanada III, Lorenzo
Alternative Parties, Alternative Program	Briones, Leonor
Green Vote, Green Growth	Florano, Ebinizer
A Quest for Leaders 2010 and Beyond: Electoral Choice as Public Philosophy	Co, Edna

Panel Abstract
Reforms in governance have always been considered primordial if we are to address the pervasive problem of poverty and improve the lives of our people. The discussion and debates on what reforms to undertake have become more relevant and heated with the coming election of leaders of the country at the national and local levels. More specifically, from a public administration and governance perspective, reforms must be targeted and implemented at three levels: institutions, behavior and leadership.

Indeed, it is imperative to reform institutions. Institutional reforms include reforming structures, processes, procedures, including the electoral process. Governance reforms must also include a long term and comprehensive agenda to change the paradigm mindsets, behavior and even value system of the actors in governance, be they in government, the private sector or even civil society. Finally, governance reforms also must include reforms in leadership.

Conventionally, the traditional manner by which leaders are chosen is through elections. The whole question here is how have elections worked – or not worked – in the Philippine context. And what kinds of leaders have emerged from the conventional electoral processes. Consistent with the abovementioned framework, and proceeding from leadership as a handle, the discussions emphasize reforms in institutions and processes and paradigms. More specifically, the panel will also address proposed reforms in the electoral process, which operationalizes a major principle of governance, that of participation. It will also address proposed reforms in the demand side of the electoral process, specifically in terms of educating the citizenry and changing their paradigms that serve as the basis for the selection of leaders, at the national and local levels.

Session 15: Labor–Revisiting Constitutional Guarantees

Title	Author/s
	Prof. Patricia R.P. Salvador Daway
	Faculty Regent Judy M. Taguiwalo
The Condition of Overseas Filipino Workers in Global Migration: Problems And Approaches	Magallona, Merlin
Labor Law Reforms for the 21st Century: Transcending Classical Labor Relations	Dep. Administrator Hans Leo J. Cacdac

Panel Abstract
The constitutional provisions on Social Justice and Human Rights guarantee seven cardinal rights to workers. In theory, these rights afford full protection to workers but the question of enforcement remains. Are these rights a reality or a mere illusion? The panel thus proposes to examine these rights vis-à-vis their actual application in the workplace. Highlighting issues and concerns raised by workers in selected industries, the employer sector’s level of compliance with national legislation concerning workers’ rights will be reexamined.

The panel will then look into labor policy reforms for the 21st century, in the light of labor market realities and reshaping of the world of work, focusing on labor relations and contractualization. Finally, the panel will explore some problems arising from the context of the global migration processes. These problems are viewed in their interrelation with the country’s foreign policy as a whole.