Aquino harps on same theme: People power

President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER photo

WASHINGTON—President Benigno Aquino III is bent on not only ensuring an open and transparent administration but also in “institutionalizing people power” as his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, had envisioned it.

Before he flew home on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Manila), Mr. Aquino continued to pitch for good governance and accountability in his last two speaking engagements here and in New York, coupled with the need to empower the people to make their voices heard by the government.

He carried the same message and theme in various speaking engagements in the past three days, including Tuesday’s launch of the Open Government Partnership initiative that saw the Philippines joining 40 other countries in pledging to be transparent and accountable and to fight corruption, among other commitments.

The Philippines had been invited to join the initiative cochaired this year by the United States and Brazil because of Mr. Aquino’s “commitment to good governance and determination to fight corruption in order to create more jobs for Filipinos and eventually reduce poverty” in his country.

He concluded his four-day visit to the United States by speaking at the IBM Centennial Celebration in New York and at the 2011 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (WB-IMF) at their headquarters in Washington.

For voices to flourish

At the IBM forum, the President said his administration was after “an openness that informs our people of the workings of the government and breeds an informed citizenry that vigorously participates in and elevates public discourse.”

“This is what my mother meant when she said we must institutionalize People Power: to make it not a last resort to topple tyranny and oppression but instead embed it within our institutions so that the people may freely and constantly make their voices heard, to make the policies of government reflect the people’s collective will,” he said.

Mr. Aquino said this was why the path of leadership today and in the future was “not to stifle voices” but to “allow them to flourish,” and for the government to focus on forging a consensus from varying opinions.

“From electoral reforms to pouring funds into social services, from liberalizing aviation to supporting legislation meant to inform my people [about] responsible parenthood, I feel that I have had, in little more than a year as President, more than my share of battles in the court of opinion,” he said.

But he added that “a society that respects all voices avoids having any individual voice trying to drown out the others,” and stressed that the people were his “only compass” when issuing policies.

Good economics

At the WB-IMF annual meeting, Mr. Aquino said that after winning the presidency in a People Power revolution “done through the ballot,” the question now was how his administration would “sustain the momentum.”

“Governing with integrity, with transparency and with accountability not only heals a national psyche that has long been characterized by its cynicism and mistrust of government. It also provides for equitable progress. Good governance, therefore, means good economics,” he said.

He cited the initiatives and reforms aimed at achieving this goal, including allotting nearly a third of the 2012 budget to social services and providing more funds for the conditional cash transfer program. (The program provides cash allowances to the poor to allow them to send their children to school and for mothers to take care of their health.)

According to the President, good governance is at the center of his socioeconomic strategy, and “the people are at the center of good governance.”

“And as we now speak of efforts to institutionalize people power, so do we speak of opening up the government to the people, making the government a truly democratic space, allowing citizens access to its processes, to take a stand, to contribute to a consensus, and to accept this consensus as a product of their own collective will,” he said.

Common desire

Noting the recent political and economic turbulence in the Middle East and North Africa as well as in the United States and Europe, Mr. Aquino also said people around the world shared the desire “to speak, to be heard and to be part of the molding of their respective futures.”

He said their demands were similar—to have “a more equitable society and a government that strives toward it.”