P-Noy’s social contract

Today, I wanted to write about what happened in the first one-and-a-half years of the new Aquino government, good or not. But just as I started writing, a question came to mind: Good or not, what would be my basis for saying so? I believe that if one were to judge the performance of a leader it should be based largely on what he or she promised to do and the results that matter by the time he or she closes his or her administration.

Where can we find what P-Noy intends to do and accomplish by the end of his term? We can partly find them in the State of the Nation Address or in the newly prepared Philippine Development Plan. But both are really just expressions or translations of P-Noy’s social contract with the Filipino people. However, I doubt if many of us have really seen or read the contract in full. So before we start praising or criticizing P-Noy’s accomplishments so far, why don’t we read first his social contract? Without the preliminaries let me present it here.

The Vision for the Philippines: A country with (1) A reawakened sense of right and wrong, through the living examples of our highest leaders; (2) An organized and widely shared rapid expansion of our economy through a government dedicated to honing and mobilizing our people’s skills and energies as well as the responsible harnessing of our natural resources; (3) A collective belief that doing the right thing does not only make sense morally, but translates into economic value as well; (4) Public institutions rebuilt on the strong solidarity of our society and its communities.

Our Mission: We will start to make these changes first in ourselves—by doing the right things, by giving value to excellence and integrity and rejecting mediocrity and dishonesty, and by giving priority to others over ourselves. We will make these changes across many aspects of our national life.

A Commitment to Transformational Leadership: (1) From a President who tolerates corruption to a President who is the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption. (2) From a government that merely conjures economic growth statistics that our people know to be unreal to a government that prioritizes jobs that empower the people and provide them with opportunities to rise above poverty. (3) From relegating education to just one of many concerns to making education the central strategy for investing in our people, reducing poverty and building national competitiveness. (4) From treating health as just another area for political patronage to recognizing the advancement and protection of public health, which includes responsible parenthood, as key measures of good governance. (5) From justice that money and connections can buy to a truly impartial system of institutions that deliver equal justice to rich or poor.

Economy. (6) From government policies influenced by well-connected private interests to a leadership that executes all the laws of the land with impartiality and decisiveness. (7) From treating the rural economy as just a source of problems to recognizing farms and rural enterprises as vital to achieving food security and more equitable economic growth, worthy of re-investment for sustained productivity. (8) From government anti-poverty programs that instill a dole-out mentality to well-considered programs that build capacity and create opportunity among the poor and the marginalized in the country. (9) From a government that dampens private initiative and enterprise to a government that creates conditions conducive to the growth and competitiveness of private businesses, big, medium and small. (10) From a government that treats its people as an export commodity and a means to earn foreign exchange, disregarding the social cost to Filipino families to a government that creates jobs at home, so that working abroad will be a choice rather than a necessity; and when its citizens do choose to become OFWs, their welfare and protection will still be the government’s priority.

Government Service. (11) From Presidential appointees chosen mainly out of political accommodation to discerning selection based on integrity, competence and performance in serving the public good. (12) From demoralized but dedicated civil servants, military and police personnel destined for failure and frustration due to inadequate operational support to professional, motivated and energized bureaucracies with adequate means to perform their public service missions.

Gender Equality. (13) From a lack of concern for gender disparities and shortfalls, to the promotion of equal gender opportunity in all spheres of public policies and programs.

Peace and Order. (14) From a disjointed, short-sighted Mindanao policy that merely reacts to events and incidents to one that seeks a broadly supported just peace and will redress decades of neglect of the Moro and other peoples of Mindanao.

Environment. (15) From allowing environmental blight to spoil our cities, where both the rich and the poor bear with congestion and urban decay to planning alternative, inclusive urban development’s where people of varying income levels are integrated in productive, healthy and safe communities. (16) From a government obsessed with exploiting the country for immediate gains to the detriment of its environment to a government that will encourage sustainable use of resources to benefit the present and future generations.

“This platform is a commitment to change that Filipinos can depend on,” The President says. “With trust in their leaders, everyone can work and build a greater future together