Civil Servants in a Political Office

Immediately after the national elections last May 2010, twelve seats for the senatorial positions were filled-in by newly elected officials both re-electionists given fresh mandates and first timers in the upper chamber of Congress to serve for six years. Applications for legislative staffers likewise poured in to vie for 50 or more plantilla positions in each office of the Senators before the 1st regular session of the 15th Congress opens.

After having served the Philippine Senate as a co-terminous employee for the past 21 years, I have personally experienced jumping from one office of the senator to another everytime the term of my principal expires or having lost an election.Working for four senators since the 9th Congress, provided me the opportunity to personally explore the dynamics in a political office -- the nature of personnel complements and its working environment, something that I never got to learn in my two and a half academic years in MBA.

In this paper brief, I will try to examine the current issues in the organization of a political office particularly in the Office of the Senators. To the best of my recollections, I will try to cover and discuss the nature and norms surrounding personnel in a political office based on my personal experience, observation and some research.

A.] Weakness in the Political Organization:

System in Hiring Staff

Every political office is commonly characterized by its lack of providing security of tenure. The terms of employment in these positions are co-terminous with the appointing authority. The life span of employment of congressional staffers expire at the end of term of their principals who were elected for a fixed term of six years unless re-elected for a fresh mandate for a total of 12 years of public service or shall serve at the pleasure of the senators. Due to such limitation, office of the senators oftenly become less attractive to the labor market and rely to circle of friends, campaign supporters including relatives of politicians, and fresh law graduates who wish to gain immediate employment. Categorized in civil service as confidential employees, this type of work force makes trust and confidence as the primal consideration over qualifications and competency. It is often seen by career civil servants that such type of work is not only as a substitute for better pay, but as less preferable higher paying job without security.


Issue of Competency

It has been a practice to use qualifying examinations as gauge for competency. The exemption of acquiring the basic requirement of passing the civil service examinations for government employment would make political offices often than not susceptible in hiring under qualified staff. Most employees which have been sourced out from campaign supporters or referrals from friends and relatives in rare occasions, were given technical position which might at some point requires educational and work experience if hiring will be done through a normal course in the civil service. A basic requirement for membership in the government service is the possession of educational and training qualifications and the appropriate civil service eligibility. The eligibility is valid and sufficient for purposes of promotion to higher positions in the same or related occupational groups within the same level.

Absurdity in the Staffing Pattern and Position

Ineptness would not be a hindrance for one to land to the chief of staff position in the Office of the Senator as long as he earns the trust and confidence of the principal much less being a close relative. Such position which is equivalent to an Undersecretary rank in the executive branch of government, is leveled with the position in government with highly scholarly qualifications. While legislation is the heart and soul of the existence of the senators’ office, staff assigned to perform technical work were given mid-management position as against the non-analytical routinary workers who, in most cases are given top level management ranks.

Demoralization among subordinates

Characterized by its nature, office of the senators are indeed highly politicized. The political atmosphere within the work force paves the way for illogical parity of pay, unreasonable promotion, unequal and unjustifiable extension of perks and benefits as well as favoritism. The consequences of these various forms of intimidation weaken morale; diversion of energies; erodes creativity and motivation; and disorientation in one’s assigned duties and responsiblities .

Poor training

From the point of view of many career and non-career civil servants, the essential substance with which they must work is people; and the reality which must be faced in the need to protect one's career and livelihood. Consequently, as we have noted above, inordinate emphasis is placed on trust and confidence over qualifications. Training is one consideration in these matters, but it is measured somewhat mechanically in hours (and usually takes the form of seminars, lectures, and workshops) and has a low priority. There are indeed certain technical matters and procedures that one must know. But these are only technical matters which can be learnt through experience.

Changes are underway in many offices, and all kinds of training regimes are being introduced: but these programs are often fragmented; and, more often than not, are treated as a relief from everyday routines and as a means of lengthening their curriculum vitae.

Corruption

Corruption is prevalent, most politicians and civil servants are involved, and that it is a normal part of the system, and is extremely destructive. Using public money by having a certain percentage of pork barrel fund and the exercise of improper influence on decision-making are most-likely.

Attention is focused on the search for corruption rather than on raising the general competency of governance and on identifying and propagating existing strengths. Trusts among constituents are further eroded and it becomes more difficult to improve competency.

B.] Some adversarial effect:

The loss of staff

A predictable consequence of the accumulated effects of all these weaknesses is that it becomes difficult to attract and retain good staff. As a whole, the legislative service is losing more good people than it gains. The problems created are numerous. The outward movement of good people lowers morale and helps to deepen the sense that only the unwanted remain. Consequently it becomes easier to justify political appointees and the growth of contractual employees.

C.] Recommendations:

Reforms should be made to re-design organizations to contemplate on changes in systems, rules, processes, roles, and procedures.

Appointments and promotions

The initial selection, promotion and appointment of staff should be done with a set of occupational standards regardless of level of political connection. Significantly the effectiveness in selection should solidly be based on merits. Promotion to a higher level should be decided upon not solely by the appointing authority or chief of staff but with ranking staff officials who shall clearly explain and decision justified.

Initial recruitment into the service should rely on exams, and give emphasis on interviews. Every successful applicants, however, should be placed under probationary period. It is suggested that the probationary period be from 6 months to a year. This should make it possible to achieve more rounded and accurate judgments of the disposition and motivation of staff.

Postgraduate and professional qualifications as are needed for more technical roles. While postgraduate or other professional qualifications are essential, they should not be treated as prerequisites for appointment or promotion. It is recommended further that the appointing authority (Senator) should adopt a more hands-on, direct, approach in the implementation and monitoring of its policies, rules, and procedures in his office.

Treatment of Political appointees

More important measure that should be made in a political office is to limit the proportion of posts available to political appointees and to set political appointees and career civil servants into competition with each other for posts.

This recommendation should not be understood as an attack on kinship within the service. While kinship hiring may often reflect and sharpen personalism, families with a tradition of service, however, unless information on kinship is made open and used to inform practice; suspicion will remain.

Compensation and Career Civil Service

Increases in pay will not by themselves deal with the problems we have outlined, nor will they necessarily encourage existing strengths. However, increases in pay will help remove opportunistic corruption, particularly at the lower levels; make it a little more difficult for higher-level officials to persuade subordinates or colleagues to go along with organized and planned corruption; and attract and retain staff who are motivated, committed and competent.

The office staff of Senators should be provided by the career civil service. Confidential staff should be limited to COS and deputy-COS, a legal counsel, political adviser, communications officer, and personal assistant.

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PLDT-Digitel share-swap agreement: Needs Congressional Approval or Not?

The controversial PLDT-Digitel issue pertains to the recent share-swap deal between the two telecom giants that transpired without having to pass through Congressional approval. This is not at all a new issue. This has been happening time and again due to infirmities or lack of clear statements in the existing law.

The Committee on Public Services in the 11th Congress, passed three measures wherein Congress authorizes the transfer and assignment of the control from one Broadcast / Telecom company to the other:

1.) Concurrent Resolution No. 24 – Transfer and Assignment of the Controlling in RGMA to Television Int’l Corp., FLG Management and Development Corp. and Rachel G. Espiritu;

2.) RA 9046 – Assigning and Transferring the Franchise of Calbayog Telephone System under RA 8590 to West Samar Telecoms; and

3.) Concurrent Resolution No. 30 – Transfer and Assignment of the controlling interest of Leonardo S. Sarao and Ma. Lutgarda Sarao-Conchu in Quest Broadcasting Inc. to Jose Luis L. Vera.

In the 13th Congress however, the Committee on Public Services tried passing a similar Concurrent Resolution to authorize the transfer the controlling interest of Merridean Telecoms to SMART. Inspite of a lengthy and heated debate on the matter, the Concurrent Resoultion on the Merridean-SMART deal did not pass the halls of the Senate.

What is interesting to note here is that, inspite of the failure to pass the concurrent resolution in the Senate, the Buy-out of Merridean by SMART pushed through as if consent coming from Congress did not matter.

On the same level, while the acquisition of Islacom by Globe Telecoms did not pass through scrutiny of Congress , the transaction between the two TELCOS materialized.

Again, all these are happening and it will continue to happen if the infirmities and the way the NTC interprets and enforces the law will not be overhauled. Particularly referring to the provisions of the respective legislative franchises of TELCOS. While it is clear in Sec. 16 of RA 9180 (Digitel Mobile Phils) which states that lease, transfer, grant the usufruct, sell nor assign to other persons or company canot be made without the approval of Congress; there is also Sec. 18 of the same law which speaks about Equality. Wherein it is worded in said section that any advantage, favor, privilege, exemption or immunity granted under existing franchises, or may hereafter be granted, shall ipso facto become part of previously granted telecommunications franchises and shall be accorded immediately and unconditionally to the grantees of such franchises.

The stated conflicting provisions should be redefined in order to make clear the real intention of the government whether or not the purpose is to get Congressional approval or not, this will make all stakeholders, specially NTC, to be guided properly.

Over rated Authority of NTC

Another important related issue that Congress should look into is the extent of the authority of the legislative franchise being granted by Congress. It has been observed by the previous Chairmen of the Senate Public Services Committee that even after Congress gives an applicant-TELCO a franchise to operate nationwide, the NTC after such granting of franchise does not automatically and/or immediately allow TELCOS to operate, sometimes it takes them one year to issue a CPCN or the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity.

Lets take the case of a franchise grantee “Cable Link” as an example. It has been revealed that inspite of a National Franchise was granted to them by Congress, the National Telecommunications Commission, until at this point in time, will not allow them to operate in Angeles, Pampanga. The point here is that once Congress already gave their approval for a TELCO to operate nationwide, no amount of NTC restrictions should stop TELCOS from operating within their authorized operating area as specified under their Congressional Franchise. It should be made clear that if the policy makers are to polish the Telecoms Act, a Franchise granted by Congress should be supreme over NTC regulations. Otherwise, what is the use of giving Legislative Franchise if the NTC will overturn it anyway.

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Carrying out a National Policy on Road Safety for Children

In a multi-sectoral study conducted on children’s welfare in the Philippines, it has been revealed that child death rates caused by accidental injuries have tripled in the last 30 years, and was recorded to be the third leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 14. From this data, road accidents were recorded to be the second leading cause of death among children at 5.85 per 100,000 according to the 2003 Philippine National Injury Survey.

In a similar study released by SAFE KIDS Philippines, a global non-governmental organization dedicated to the prevention of unintentional injuries to children, also shows that at least 20 million children are at risk of dying or being injured in road accidents every year. It says 35,000 Filipino children get injured or die in road accidents each year or about 263 a day. It was estimated that around 3,000 children who had suffered injuries showed that 56 percent of them were hurt in road accidents primarily involving bicycles, motor vehicles, and pedicabs. The worst part is, children mostly belonging to poor families were the biggest victims.

It is evident that road condition in the Philippines are too much hazardous specially for thousands of kid pedestrians roaming the metropolis everyday. Such accidents can possibly be attributed to numbers of factors like vehicle over-speeding, undisciplined drivers, road works obstructions, lack of pedestrian lanes, sidewalks given to garbage and vendors, laxity in the enforcement of road safety rules, and lack of proper public education on road safety measures.


The government should not wait for these unnecessary and preventable accidents happening in the roads to escalate further. Considering that road accident is one of the prevalent cause of serious injuries of children, the authorities should waste no time to put in place policy measures to address the safety issues of our young citizens.

Needless to say, additional road safety regulations should be strictly enforced to all motorists, pedestrians and all stakeholders to minimize if not totally eliminate accidents involving children by way of instituting a national policy for road accident prevention and safety awareness scheme for children. Aside from this, all local government units starting from the provincial level down to the barangay, should inculcate a mandatory awareness program on road and pedestrian traffic safety precautions to educate parents and children alike in every household.

A call should likewise be made to different sectors in the society to have concerted efforts to ensure the success of this advocacy for our children and to remind our legislators to work on the immediate passage of pending measures in Congress which include among others:

Requiring mandatory compliance by motorists of private and public vehicles to use hands-free devices while driving

- Imposition of Penalty for engaging in a call using cellphone while the motor vehicle is in motion without a hands-free device.

- Implementation of nationwide information campaign on the safety and health value of the use of cellular phone while driving.

Requiring the mandatory compliance by motorists of private and public vehicles to appropriately restraint all child occupants of motor vehicles

- Develop and implement a safety rating program for child restraint to provide practicable, readily understandable, and timely information to parents for use in making informed decisions in the purchase of child restraints.

- Will require child passenger between the age 6 months to 6 years to provide restraint to a child while in transit using lap and shoulder assembly.

Prescribing school bus safety standards

- To prescribe proficiency standards for school bus drivers and demonstrate such proficiency to the employer, licensing agency and agency regulating proficiency standards.

-To prescribe regulations requiring seatbelts for each seating position in any newly manufactured school bus.

- To implement a rulemaking process to require a decrease in the flammability of the materials used in the construction of the interiors of school buses.

Penalizing the act of leaving children unattended in motor vehicles under certain circumstances

- Making it unlawful for a parent or guardian to leave a child aged 8 years and younger to be left inside a vehicle without supervision of an adult who is over 14 years of age.

- Imposition of Penalty for non-compliance:

Protecting the public by requiring the registration, annual inspection and marking of common carriers used on land, and the wearing of uniforms of their drivers and conductors for purpose of identification and accountability

- Imposition of markings on every common carriers used on land to be displayed inside, outside and at the back of the vehicle the following information:

1) The city or municipality and province of its place of business
2) Plate number of the vehicle
3) A route zone number, alphanumeric body code

- The marking shall be made as requirement for grant of franchise and license.

- Every driver or conductor of the covered common carrier is required to wear a uniform which shall legibly show his and the owner’ name.

Imposing higher penalties for vehicular accident

- Person committing any act resulting in physical injuries or death or damage to property on account of a vehicular accident, shall suffer the penalty of prision mayor in its maximum to death.

- If the accident resulted in damage to the property, the penalty shall be a fine equal to the value of the damages to three times of such value, but in no case be less than P10,000.

Requiring the use of safety devices for children riding in motor vehicles

- Making it unlawful for any driver of a motor vehicle to travel which children on board without providing a safety device as approved by the LTO for such children. Non-compliance of this act shall be penalized by a fine of P1,000 or imprisonment of not more than 30 days. The license of such driver shall also be revoked upon final conviction for two (2) violations.

Increasing the penalty for non-compliance of the Mandatory use of Seat Belt Devices, and Requiring Vehicle Manufacturers to Install Seat Belt Devices in All Their Manufactured Vehicles

For failure to wear the prescribed seatbelts:

- First Violation : an increase from P100 - P1,000 fine to P300 – P1,500

- Second Violation: an increase from P200 – P2,000 fine to P500 – P2,000

- Third and succeeding: an increase from P500 – P5,000 fine to P1,000 – P5,000

For Failure to post signage instructing passenger to wear seatbelts:

- an increase from P300 – P3,000 fine to P500 – P5,000

For manufacturer and assembler who Fail to install seatbelts devices

- 1st Violation : an increase from P5,000 - P10,000 fine to P6,000 – P10,000 and suspension of license for a period of one year

- 2nd Violation : an increase from P10,000 – P20,000 fine to P12,000 – P20,000 and suspension of license for a period of three years

- 3rd and succeeding: an increase from P20,000 – P50,000 fine to P25,000
-P50,000 and suspension of license for a period of five years

Amendments to the Seatbelts law

Prohibition of children under 8 years of age to sit in the front seat unless the child is taller than four feet an nine inches. Use of childseat or restrainsts shall be made mandatory for children riding on the backseat without the company of an adult. Vehicle without a backrow seats may allow children under 8 years of age to sit in the front seat, provided that the seat is equipped with an internationally accepted industry standards restrain system.

Improving the safety of non-motorized transportation, including pedestrian and bicycle safety, in the vicinity of schools

Establishment of Safe Routes to school program by the DOTC

Appropriate amount for Infrastructure related projects relevant to improve the ability of students to walk and bicycle to school. The amount shall likewise be appropriated for public awareness campaign, traffic education, and other activities to promote walking and cycling to school.

Providing for a highway safety program in the Philippines

- Implementation of a program by the DOTC which corrects or improves hazardous road location or feature or address a highway safety problem in the country through identification and analyzing if highway safety problems and opportunities.

Prohibiting the riding or transporting of children 7 yeas old and below on motorcycles along highways

- First Violation : fine of P3,000.00
- Second Violation: fine of P5,000.00
- Third and succeeding: fine of P10,000.00

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Honoring Differently Abled National Athletes

The Athletes' Incentives Law has the primal intention of providing incentives to the national pool of athletes winning medals in international sporting events from the Southeast Asia, Asian to World Olympics level.

The main thrust of the law is to recognize not only the degree of achievements of our athletes but more so the hard work and dedications they have exerted for the country’s prestigious landing in the international sporting map.

The noble purpose of such law however, missed to recognize the equally relevant feat of differently-abled Filipino national athletes who have also been reaping glory for the country in international sporting tours. Unknown to many, our differently-abled athletes have been contributing their share of delivering honors to the Philippines through their competitive participation in the ASEAN Para Games which is the equivalent of the SEA Games, FESPIC Games which is the parallel of the Asian Games, and the elite Paralympic Games which is the highest international sporting event for athletes with disabilities being held simultaneously with the World Olympics.

By including in the coverage of the law our paralympians who have likewise represented our nation with pride, will depict no distinction in awarding the honors delivered to the country by the regular members of the national athletes and national athletes with disabilities thus, they will feel exalted as part of the country's sports heroes.

Moreover, the law should likewise be expanded to add in the incentives already enjoyed by the athletic achievers other non-monetary benefits like health insurance and lifetime pension to retiring gold medal achievers.

The amendments as proposed, will make our athletes feel, regardless of their physical traits, the importance of the pride and glory they earned for the country everytime they successfully carry with them the colors of our nation.

We all know that inspite of the pride and glory our sports heroes are providing every Filipino, they remain to be amongst the deprived sector of our society in view of the fact that only a meager amount has been allotted by the government annually to support the trainings, development and conditions of the athletes tasked to represent our nation in various international sporting events.

The 25th edition of the Southeast Asian Games in Laos is fast approaching and augmenting the incentives program for the athletes is very timely to inspire our delegation to win the elusive over-all championship medal for the country.

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Tax on Text and the Scheme Disallowing Pass-on Tax Levy to Consumers

What could have been one of the most unpopular legislations crafted by the House of Representatives, the proposed measure to impose tax on text messaging almost passed the chamber few months before the official filing of candidacy for the 2010 national elections. If not for the strong oppositions from the vote-rich consumer groups, the imposition of a five centavo excise tax on text will be on its way for ratification.

While there is a safeguard clause on the House bill that prevents telecommunication companies (TELCOS) from passing the tax to the consumers, several groups representing almost 70 million cellular phone subscribers strongly appealed to junk the impending policy. They believe that the no pass-on tax provision under the bill does not at all guarantee TELCOS’ compliance with their supposed mandated obligation to shoulder the proposed five centavos tax on text, contending that under the law, only taxes on income are not allowed to be passed to consumers.

While the proposed measure to impose levy on text messages, for all intent and purposes, is intended to finance basic social services of the government like education, health care and shelter program for the poor, we cannot blame the consumers for rejecting such scheme. It can be recalled that during the recent past, the citizenry was burdened with the sudden surge on prices of commodities due to the law passed by Congress to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) collections from 10% to 12%.

More popularly known as the Reformed Value Added Tax (RVAT), the move was triggered by the need to solve the country’s ballooning public sector deficit that reached almost P200 billion, not to mention the accumulated $600 billion NAPOCOR debt which the national government is obligated to shoulder during the time.

In order to alleviate, if not, totally eliminate the looming economic crisis out of proportion, Congress passed three revenue measures hoping to put the country’s financial position to a balanced budget in a span of ten years as follows:

• Indexation of Sin Taxes Law;
• Lateral Attrition Law; and
• Reformed Value Added Tax(RVAT)Law

RA 9337 or the RVAT law was perceived to be the highest income generating scheme for the government from amongst the three said measures passed into law during the last Congress. It is said that RVAT can easily propel an additional estimated amount between P55 to 60 billion every year.

After 2 years of implementation, the Department of Finance has reported that the effect of the law placed our country back into a positive outlook. In fact, MOODY’S CREDIT RATING AGENCY” and “STANDARDS & POOR” have upgraded its credit ratings to the Philippines from a point that almost reached a critical level.

The RVAT law actually plays a pivotal role in salvaging the country from falling into a deeper crisis. However, its repercussions to surge inflation, including prices of basic goods in the market brought ordinary citizens particularly the poor and the working class into outrage.

The objective of Congress to protect the consumers by shielding them with a non-pass-on tax provision for text messages is definitely on the right track and is in harmony with the sentiments of the people. The new set of legislators to get elected in 2010 should then come-up with a new tax paradigm not only on text messages but on all goods and services traded in the market. Incoming policy makers should seriously consider placing remedy on the predicaments of our citizens particularly on the inflationary effects of pass-on taxes by revisiting the country's Internal Revenue Code.

A devise technically known to economists as “absorption method”, should be considered in order to derail the impact of pass-on tax impositions directly to the end consumers. The scheme will simply divide the burden of the levied pass-on taxes between the sellers and the buyers in equal proportions to prevent end consumers from paying the entire tax charges on both commodities and services.

The suggested 50-50 sharing method will not in any way decrease the present tax being collected. As compared to the traditional method in applying tax charges, the following are the implications of the proposal:

 Business/traders will start sharing burden of vat payment with buyers;
 Increase or decrease of business/traders’ share in output tax as price mark-up of goods for sale increases or decreases;
 retained tax collections on the part of the government; and
 Lower price of goods on the part of the consumers.

This proposal to share by half the duty of paying taxes on goods and services is actually nothing as compared to the way other countries pamper their ordinary citizens from tax impositions. As testified during the hearings on RVAT law during the last Congress, in China, the VAT slapped on Capital Equipment of corporations were not allowed to be passed to the market and yet it did not bring the business activity into a slow down.

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Mandating Nuntrional Food in School Canteens

Often times it has become a regular practice for school children to take their daily meals in school canteens. It is a common knowledge that for young food consumers, what appear most saleable are the common junks like hotdogs, burgers, pizza, tacos, fries, soda drinks and the like which are easy find in canteen counters.

It is alarming to note that these type of foods consumed daily by the children during the entire school year as regular meals or snacks, does not only fail to provide them with proper nutrients needed by growing children. Worst, it has been the primal source of diet related diseases like obesity, cancer, coronary heart disease and diabetes to name a few. It has also been a universal norm across the globe that children coming from either the fist world or third world countries do not get enough of certain important nutrients like iron, calcium, zinc, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Folate needed to compensate the needed energy for active mind and body.

Our law makers should come up with a legislation to address this setback. The idea is to have a policy to mandate food caterers in every school to limit the range of meal products they serve for breakfast, lunch and snack times, to food and drinks which will make a positive contribution to the nutritional needs of children by basing them on the so-called “nutrient-based meal standards” to be recommended by government accredited experts in the field of nutrition.

I believe that it’s high time for the government to undertake the much needed radical reform to advance this unfortunate situation by way of ascertaining that food supplied in school meals would be strictly limited exclusively to those fortified with the necessary vitamins and proteins for all school children while banning the ones that may be considered to be hazardous to health. Government’s vision in achieving its goal for a healthy citizenry could only be attained through proper nutrition and balance diet starting from the young age.

(This post is dedicated to my daughter who turned 9 yrs. old today)

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Creating a Specialized Government Security Body to Guard the Transport Sector

The passage of the “Human Security Act” or the law penalizing the act of terrorism is the country’s response to society’s call to radically suppress and deter the emerging global threat to terrorist attacks. Over the years it has become apparent that the commonalities among heinous crimes were perpetrated oftenly on crowded places like the transport system. That is why the international community has made urgent recommendations for the adoption of global security standards in the different modes of transport systems in all nations so as to protect and preserve safety of the passengers.

One way of complying to the set standards is to adopt the International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Ship and Port Security Code (ISPS Code) and Annex 17 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which set the mandated global security framework.

If we are to craft a separate law and have a focused program to deter criminal activities in the transportation sector, the same should complement and be consistent with the Human Security Act by way of providing a comprehensive transportation security safeguard mechanism covering air, land, rail and water transport system. The program should be spearheaded by an independent body which may be called Philippine Transportation Security Administration (PTSA), a body that can be installed under the auspices of the Department of Transportation and Communications.

An ideal structure is to have separate bureaus to administer the various transport security services that will micromanage each transport sector including divisions to perform functions from intelligence gathering, training to skills development of transportation security personnel.

While the transportation security body with its comprehensive security program will be designed to explicitly combat high profile terrorist perpetrators; the daily bus, jeepney and taxi passengers should likewise be covered by the scheme to assure regular commuters of protection from common street criminals like snatchers, pickpockets and hold uppers, as these simple yet gruesome felonies should also be eradicated.

Through the creation of PTSA, we will definitely deliver a positive signal to the international community that our country will not only be amongst the safest travel destination in Asia but in the world.

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Modernization in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Where are We Now?

In February 23, 1995, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Act or Republic Act 7898, was passed into law. The statute is intended to professionalize Philippine military organization through a 15-year modernization program in the AFP.

It is through RA 7898 that both Houses of Congress in 1996 passed the AFP Modernization Program with the promulgation of Joint Resolution 28 which main component is the Capability, Material and Technology Development (CMTD) that involves the acquisition of appropriate weapons system and technology as well as the upgrade of their weapons and equipment. It is meant to primarily develop AFP’s capability in addressing external defense concerns. Acquisition planning is key to the success of an acquisition approach to satisfy the need of the warfighter, optimize resources, and fulfill the policy requirements of the proposed acquisitions.

Considering that the AFP Modernization Program shall be implemented for a time bound period of 15 years from its inception, they barely have two (2) more years to go to complete the program. Given the scenario, by now the AFP should already be in its finishing touches in running the program. The key components of the modernization act include A.)Force restructuring and organizational development, b.) Capability, material, and technology development, c.) Bases/support system development d.) Human resource development., and e) Doctrines Development.

Some significant findings by the Felciano Commission:

The Feliciano Commission, the body created to probe into why the Oakwood mutiny broke out, discovered that among the major complaints of the rebellious officers and soldiers was the perceived alleged involvement to corrupt practices by some of their superiors in connivance with national government officials.

Before the enactment of the AFP Modernization Program, funding insufficiency was seen as the reason why the military does not have enough weaponry and equipment. The Feliciano Commission found that ordinary soldiers have noticed that the AFP modernization program had made the process of acquiring new equipment more cumbersome. Because money does not reach the field in some occassions, commanders are forced to use money they have in hand allocated for other purposes to pay for their men’s salaries and procure other urgent needs. This is called “conversion.” While the process is allowed under the rules, it leads to some corrupt practices and abuse that demoralized ordinary soldiers. In fact, auditors have discovered anomalies involving large amounts due to the “conversion” practice applied to the AFP’s so-called Modernization Fund. There is supposed to be a “Philippine Defense Reform Program.” One of the program’s objectives is to optimize the “defense budget and improve management controls.” Another is to “create a professional acquisition workforce and establish a centrally managed defense acquisition system.”

Personal Accounts by Field Soldiers:

Up to now the Philippine Air Force has no decent plane. Its helicopters often crash land similar to the incident in Basilan. The Philippine Navy has no ship and the Philippine Army and Marines have dud mortar rounds. Had the modernization act been in force, the Marines could have a better intelligence capability to intercept the beheading attack on our marine soldiers in Tipo-tipo.

Oakwood mutineers expressed their disappointment over the miserable conditions of the Filipino soldiers. Relatives of ordinary soldiers relayed that their salaries and hazard pay don’t reach them on time.

Reported Air Mishap Incidents in the AFP:

Aside from the tragic Philippine Air Force (PAF) owned Bell 412 Helicopter that recently crashed in the mountains of lfugao during the Holy Week, which killed ranking officials in the Arroyo administration, there were also other recorded incidents of Philippine Air Force (PAF) aircraft accidents in the past.

To mention some of these, out of the eighteen (18) S-211 training jets acquired by the PAF in 1990, eight (8) have already crashed. According to gathered reports, aside from S-211, there were other PAF plane crash incidents that happened involving another aircraft known as the SF-260 which based on reports already involves five (5) crashes.

Where are we now?

What measures have we taken so far after 12 years of implementing the AFP modernization in conjunction with the its program objective to ensure a highly combat capability in the Armed Forces? Just few weeks ago, the Armed Forces lost two officers and 21 men in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, the largest number of fatalities so far in the battle against the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, a tragedy which could have been prevented if large scale intelligence operations and sophisticated radar-monitoring system have been put into place as part of the long overdue AFP modernization program.

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