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

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

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

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

Title	Author/s
Final CCA-DRR Hard Choices	La Vina, Antonio
Lessons from Recent Philippine Disasters	Lagmay, Alfredo Mahar Francisco
Reaching Out for Breath--Issues And Challenges for Disaster Risks Reduction	Luna, Emmanuel
Liberalization and Regulatory Challenges	Abrenica, Maria Joy
Confronting Trade And Development	Ofreneo, Rene
Overview: Trade and Environment	Leonen, Marvic
Philippine Foreign Relations	Baviera, Aileen S.P.
Philippine Foreign Policy and External Security	Kraft, Herman Joseph S.

Panel Abstract
Every one has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical, mental, reproductive and sexual health, and an enabling environment to guarantee its enjoyment. This frames the panel’s analysis of persisting and widening health inequities in the Philippines with adverse consequences on the poor, women and other marginalised sectors. The panel examines health care system with focus on the organisation and governance of health services, cost of medicine and other health supplies, the training and distribution of health professionals, and health financing. Moreover, it interrogates the contentious terrain of reproductive health using the gender justice lens. Working on the thesis that the health of the Filipino nation will not progress until meaningful improvements in the health of its most disadvantaged sectors are achieved, proposals to reform the current health care system NOW are discussed. Primary health care as key to democratizing health care and partnership development amongst stakeholders are underscored.

Day 5

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