“Events, dear boy, events” – British prime minister Harold MacMillan’s famous response to a question about the biggest challenge his government faced is probably well-understood and appreciated by President Noynoy Aquino now even if it wasn’t before as he looks back this week on his first 100 days in office.

Of course all leaders save Burmese Generals publicly deny they are led or influenced in any way by numerology or artificial deadlines. Privately however and given the fixed terms of most of them, it is very easy to see premiers and their closest advisers mapping out their achievements and remaining challenges upon wall charts in their inner sanctums. It is obvious and natural to measure public and private progress and has been since the days of President Kennedy and his first biographers. A generation after McMillan and Kennedy, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government committed every last initiative and statement to huge matrix boards reportedly more complex than train timetables.

Much good it did them.

Noynoy has already been criticized for being less hands-on than his predecessor – but that can be seen alternately as a bad or a good thing. As he himself has said, it depends upon whether you see the glass as half-full or half-empty. University students have invariably criticized him as students do their leaders the world over. Such criticism is to be expected and is no real judgement on achievements. The only students who ever have a good word to say about their leaders tend to be those who wear red kerchiefs and typically insert the word ‘Dear’ into their leader’s name.

Where the President might be criticized, it is in his policy or failure to articulate one in so far as improving human rights and redressing the climate of impunity is concerned: Families of those summarily killed and those of involuntary disappearances may struggle to find something in the new administration that speaks directly to them. Unless you have lost a loved one in such a way, it is impossible to imagine what such families are feeling right now. Disappointment, impatience, anger? Most probably all three.

But where it is extremely hard to find fault surely is in the administration’s record to date on trying to build transparency and accountability in public life. As a sea-fairing nation, many Filipinos will appreciate how long it takes for a giant container ship to change course: How much more time and effort does it take to change the course of a country of 90 million which is so set in so many ways?

How long will it take to rid society of grease money or political patronage? When will the Philippines be more of a meritocracy as opposed to a kleptocracy?

The first signs are good and the signs are that key people in the departments that count for most are 100 per cent sincere in their commitment to improving public accountability and transparency. We in the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project have been impressed with many clear initiatives, actions and appointments – as we have the eagerness of those in the Department of Budget Management to engage and build relationships with civil society and the public at large in the interests of greater accountability.

Issues such as zero budgeting; reviewing midnight appointments, contracts and appropriations and taking a close look at the activities and spending of Government-owned and Controlled Corporations are all overdue and extremely welcome. We wrote about many of these issues back in January, February and March of this year as we were preparing this project and the website for launch - so it is especially gratifying to see such announcements and commitment made. With every day almost, new horror stories about so-called government spending under the previous administration are uncovered.

The Commission on Audit is now regarded as a regular mine and gold seam of information for the media where it seldom was ever before.

Without doubt, there are more stories in the media about corruption and transparency issues than ever before and much of that must be put down to a new developing relationship between the administration and journalists. For that, the administration deserves clear credit. We are delighted that an issue we have campaigned so against – the personification of public funds – is now being developed into a law piloted by Senator Francis Escudero.

So has the climate changed already – is there only one way forward and no turning back?

As geography students know, you measure weather in days and climate in years: It is just way too early to know if a new climate on transparency and accountability is taking root in the Philippines.

Certainly initial signs look good – and yet the sight of one swallow – a bird- doesn’t make an entire summer: New heads of departments and a plethora of initiatives doesn’t guarantee a climate change in any way and things could so easily fall back.

As we have reported elsewhere, sustainable change in government is dependent on all three arms working in unison. Congress and the Judiciary can easily subvert the Executive’s plans. And as we report also in our latest story on the Bureau of Customs, forces within and outside the department can easily conspire to hinder structural and revolutionary changes ordered from the top.

That is if we the watching public let them.

The winds of change are blowing in the right direction – but it is for us all to be actively engaged in ensuring that people and forces do not conspire to halt or hamper change for the good.

Filipinos are the world’s best sailors – but the biggest and collective challenge for all is to chart and keep the ship named Hope in the right direction.

Alan Davis
Director, Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project
Head of Asia Programming, Institute for War and Peace Reporting