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 Learning curve: Congress and the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance train new legislators on transparency and accountability. Photo courtesy of World News While government members and their staff are relatively well-catered for in terms of training programs for better transparency and accountability, lawmakers – who have the power of the purse – and the judiciary – which rule upon issues of governance are typically less-well served.
Given good governance is fully dependent on the smooth working and interaction of all three arms of the government, this is somewhat surprising.
And yet for years, Congress has been training its new members, their chiefs of staff and legislative officers before sessions start in July. The University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP NCPAG) has been complementing these by running workshops for newly-elected members of the House of Representatives (HOR) and Senate since 2001.
Why?
Professor J. Prospero de Vera III, Ph.D. who initiated the workshops, said that members of the House “need specific skills and competencies to successfully undertake their constitutional responsibilities of constituency representation, policy making, advocacy, oversight, and communication.”
De Vera said legislatures and academic institutions are using training programs to jump-start the learning process and counteract high turnover and loss of experienced members. With this context, the Center for Policy and Executive Development (CPED) of UP NCPAG held three four-day sessions for neophyte solons of the 15th Congress.
The CPED is the policy think tank as well as research and consultancy arm of UP NCPAG. It has been extensively involved in capacity development initiatives and institution building programs in the Philippines and across the region.
This year, the CPED partnered with PUBLICUS Asia on a training workshop for lawmakers. PUBLICUS is the only registered lobbying company in the Philippines under Republic Act No. 1827 (Act to Regulate Lobbying in Congress and Commission on Appointments). PUBLICUS has core competencies in lobbying/government relations; political management; strategic communications; and competitive intelligence.
De Vera asked committee secretaries of the five policy areas discussed in the training workshop for the legislative agenda of their committees - which bills are moving and which are not. When the committee secretaries gave out their contact numbers, he saw a practical value to their presentations.
He also sees value when PUBLICUS spoke out on the power of new social networking forms like Facebook and Twitter which link and provide a space for real time feedback between representatives and constituents. These are especially useful for party list groups which have a national constituency but lack district offices.
Governance
Rep. Cesar Sarmiento (lone district, Catanduanes) learned of the workshop via leaflets from NCPAG, and told himself: “Past and incumbent congressmen will be sharing experiences. While I can read up or do self-study on the tasks of congressmen, I can learn many things from their direct experiences.”
Rep. Reena Concepcion Obillo of Ang Pamilya party list, a member of the 20-strong minority, also attended.
“I was supposed to attend the first workshop but I was disillusioned when it excluded party list groups. I forgot about the second because of a heavy schedule but made it to the third, which I found very absorbing because I know less about Congress than about local politics, where my family is involved.”
What did the workshop do? Sarmiento says that he got a bird’s eye view of what lawmakers should do and what they should pay particular attention to.
He explains: “Veteran lawmakers told us of our dual role – the national, where we actively participate in the proceedings and where we have to pass socially relevant legislation; and the local, where we represent a province and make sure that we have tangible projects to give constituents.
“The training redirected my focus on the needs of my constituents and on my obligation to think of legislation relevant to and affecting the lives of people. And I continue to learn.”
From her point of view, Congresswoman Obillo appreciated most the training session on filing of bills. New legislators were taught about formulation; how to contact the staff of Bills and Index - who also attended the training - checking back with them to see which bills reached Third Reading and thus had any kinks ironed out; and putting in new explanatory notes and then re-filing them –whenever necessary.
“If you’re in Congress,” she says,”your work is really the preparation of the legislative agenda which will be executed at ground level. It’s a mix of being a national and a local politician.”
Transparency, accountability
“Ah, that’s the Freedom of Information Bill,” Congressman Sarmiento readily said upon hearing `transparency in the public sector’. “It should become a law.”
“If people are at a loss or in the dark about what the government is doing, they cannot help in coming up with good government – although of course, freedom of information is not absolute and is subject to conditions.”
And the chances of the FOI law passing under the new Congress?
“Right now, we newcomers, the first-termers, account for almost 50 per cent of the House, and I believe that all of us are for FOI,” Sarmiento says, “and probably even the congressmen re-elected from the 14th Congress might change their position, even if they’re identified with the previous administration.”
On the power of the purse, Sarmiento reported that the Appropriations Committee, of which he is a member, has imposed guidelines on where to allow the use of pork barrel.
“It’s not what a congressman wants but what a district needs,” he says. “In Catanduanes I saw a lot of problems, like non-accessibility to water. I sought help from friends with an advocacy for water and two days after my oath, I started distributing Jetmatic pumps.
“Water is basic for needs like health, which could cover potable water, and like education, which could cover empowering students who want a college diploma but whose parents are unemployed. I’ve set aside PhP 10 million (USD 227,272) of PDAF per year for them,” Sarmiento says, referring to the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel.
In the case of Congresswoman Obillo, her pet bills are education and reproductive health, and her priority is a legislative agenda for constituents of Ang Pamilya to develop their families and to be empowered through livelihood opportunities.
She aims to help bridge the perceived distance between Congress and its constituents, as she did at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Obillo notes: “We need participation to frame a legislative agenda. To be transparent is to explain this to the people and to invite them in governance I will make the new media my tool for participation - not only physical but also through the net.”
As for good governance, Sarmiento saw cracks in a roll-on roll off port being constructed, and made clear to engineers that under his watch, a contractor would be liable for cracks seen within six months to one year.
“Things depend on the leader,” he avers about sub-standard infrastructure. “Anti-corruption is making headway under the new President who, I hope, will be true to his word so that people will follow. Anti-corruption initiatives will go out (die) if he gives only lip service.”
On the Truth Commission, Sarmiento believes on building on the sentiment for it, especially among first termers and the younger members of the House. The President announced in his inauguration that he would create the Truth Commission that would look into corruption issues hounding the previous administration.
“Per Executive Order, we can put closure and see the trend of abuses,” he explains. “We could then put some measures in effect so that abuses will no longer be perpetrated. If we do not, every administration will go scot free.”
Congresswoman Obillo insists on proper procedures – Congress establishing and funding the Truth Commission – to prevent a witch hunt.
“The Commission will take its time even if the President is giving it only until 2012,” she warns. “Impeachment moves also delay the work of Congress and generate so much anger. It is difficult to manage and really move forward when there is so much energy that can hurt.” Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project
(The author is a freelance journalist writing on development issues, including those on governance.)
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What's wrong with these photos (apart from the blocked out bits)? 
