The Brown Platform / By Michael Brown
First of three parts
“It is not enough to say ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to do what is necessary.”—Winston Churchill
AS an American living in the Philippines for the last 16 years, I’ve studied this country closely, to satisfy my personal desire to better understand my adopted homeland. As a retired military staffer, formerly assigned to the US Embassy in Manila, I was privy to a view from behind the scenes, allowing me to see in detail the nuts and bolts that make this country work. Now that it’s time once again to choose new leadership, I’d like to offer my candid observations and recommend a strategy for change. A political “platform for success” if you will.
The Philippines is dysfunctional in many ways. Routine police services are available to most people only for a fee. Much of the judicial system is, likewise, cash-driven. Not entirely, but enough to make truly blind justice impossible for many. Health care is out of reach to more than a third of the population. Not just expensive, but absolutely unobtainable. Labor practices keep millions locked into lifelong contractual employment, with no job security and no employment benefits. More than two-thirds of the population live at subsistence level, in a cycle of never-ending debt, with nowhere to turn for help; a kind of hopeless desperation that drives many to crime, and still others to rebellion. Corruption is routine practice in many, if not most, government offices, with “red tape” designed specifically and intentionally to create a need for under-the-table payment.
In addition, a massive amount of government money is wasted as a result of simple inefficiency and what Marcelo Guigale of the World Bank understatedly calls suboptimal management of public assets (i.e., loose money-management practices).
The Philippines is not as poor as people think, but between corruption and waste, the country barely has enough money left to function. Worst of all, the leaks are so incredibly easy to plug.
Although on the surface, a robust system of laws, regulations and procedures exists to ensure order and effective governance, in reality, that system is easily bypassed. The simple truth is, corruption and waste thrive primarily because the nation’s laws are not effectively enforced. Poverty, crime and rebellion are the direct, and inevitable, result.
The wrong approach
PREVIOUS administrations have tried to address corruption and, to a lesser extent, waste, but very little has really changed for the average Filipino. The Arroyo administration talked about building a “strong republic” and did achieve a certain degree of macroeconomic success, in spite of incredible corruption in that administration.
The current Aquino administration calls itself the “tuwid na daan,” or “straight path,” government and again, has been somewhat successful in that effort, but has also been reluctant to apply the straight path standard as aggressively as is really needed. Political accommodation cripples every administration.
But while both administrations can point to statistical indicators to show their gains, very little of that will “stick” over time, and, in reality, the life of the “bottom 50 percent” has not improved in any meaningful way over the last several decades. This is because the national leadership has always approached the country’s problems from the
wrong direction.
A strong republic requires a strong foundation, but it is in the Philippines’s foundation that the country is weakest.
This was the fundamental flaw in the Arroyo strategy. Macroeconomic gains will inevitably erode if the foundation on which they stand is dysfunctional. The same can be said for Aquino’s straight path approach. No matter how well-designed, or well-intended, any program is doomed to fail if built on a weak base.
The Philippines is not dysfunctional because it’s weak at the top. It is dysfunctional because it’s weak at the base.
Traffic in Metro Manila is chaotic and inefficient because laws, rules and procedures are not effectively enforced at the street level. The Kentex factory, and thousands like it, operate the way they do because those same laws, rules and procedures are not effectively enforced at the local government and agency level. Corruption in almost every government office is commonplace because the laws, rules and procedures designed to prevent it are not effectively enforced at all levels. And much of the money lost to simple waste and inefficiency throughout the country can be attributed to the simple fact that those charged with managing that money fail to follow, or intentionally bypass, those laws, rules and procedures.
What the Philippines needs is not “reform,” but “reformation”—radical, comprehensive change in the way the country thinks and operates legally, politically, administratively and socially, like the reforms brought by Ataturk in Turkey, Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore and, to a lesser extent, Deming in Japan. To truly and permanently raise the Philippines to the next level, the country must rebuild its foundation.
And to do that, it needs a president who is willing, as Churchill said, “to do what is necessary.”
The root problem
THE most seemingly urgent problem facing the Philippines is poverty: Tens of millions of citizens living at the subsistence level, with insufficient food, inadequate housing and little hope of ever rising above that situation.
But poverty is a symptom, not the disease itself. It is the result of an environment created by inefficient governance, corruption and waste. A national system that seems almost intentionally designed to keep a large segment of the population poor. The system is the disease.
A disease cannot be cured by treating symptoms, and in the same way, we will never be able to overcome the problems this country faces without first addressing the fundamental reasons those problems exist in the first place.
The highest priority issue, because it is the root cause of every other problem in the country, is the simple fact that we don’t enforce, or follow, the core rules and procedures that are designed to ensure order and effective governance. The Philippines isn’t weak because it’s poor. The Philippines is weak because it’s poorly managed.
A robust framework of laws and procedures is already in place, but as Filipinos themselves routinely point out, the weakness is in the implementation. In every public discussion, every newspaper article, and every forum about problems in the country, Filipinos express a frustrated desire for effective enforcement; a demand which is often met with simple silence. I believe it’s time to stop talking about enforcement, and to start actually doing it. The best way to achieve a strong foundation is with a national strategy of aggressive enforcement and accountability.
Even a poor government can dramatically improve the quality of its service, and provide that improved service to more people, by applying the rule of law across the board. The “rule of law” simply means “law rules.” If the law requires that a certain act be done, it simply must be done, without delay or excuse. Poverty, peace and order, corruption, poor tax compliance, government waste, transportation, pollution, the communist insurgency, and even the issue of Muslim Mindanao, can be radically improved by the simple act of enforcing the laws and administrative procedures that already exist. Most of all, this means applying those laws with equal vigor to everyone, whether ally or enemy.
Filipinos often find this difficult. Loyalty to friends is valued in Filipino culture, and many elected officials appear to apply a double standard in dealing with allies accused of wrongdoing. This has no place in the government. Any person, who feels uncomfortable applying the same standard to friends and foes alike, has no place in the government.
Accountability
In the business world, when a mid-level manager performs inadequately, the company leadership acts decisively. This may mean taking punitive action or it may mean replacing the individual, but in any case, the officer is held accountable. From a management perspective, this serves two purposes. First, a poor performer is replaced with someone more capable. This corrects a weakness and keeps the company running at peak efficiency. And second, it sends a clear signal to other managers that there is a consequence for substandard performance. The company may be sympathetic to the officer’s sense of dignity, but it cannot afford to let that sympathy override the interest of the company.
Individuals, departments and agencies of the Philippine government often operate with a high degree of independence and autonomy. Regardless of the reason, this approach results in a lack of supervision and a lack of accountability. This leaves officials, even at senior levels, free to complete tasks poorly or not at all, with little or no consequence. In addition, it opens a variety of opportunities for corruption.
The idea that government agencies are autonomous contradicts the principle that each is accountable. They cannot be both. This applies at all levels of the government, from Cabinet-level departments down to the smallest barangay. Every government employee, from the top to the bottom, must be held to the highest standard of performance, effectiveness, and accountability, and immediate corrective action must be taken when that standard is not met. Not in theory, but in actual practice. “I’m doing my best” and “explain why you shouldn’t be held accountable” must become a thing of the past. The concept of “due process” cannot be allowed to delay or obstruct the reassignment of a poorly performing government official, at any level.
Government offices should operate as part of a chain of command, which runs through a series of supervisors, all the way up to the president. Mediation between links in that chain implies an equality that simply doesn’t exist. A strong leader cannot allow disputes or internal discord to disrupt government operations and must require lower level managers to assert themselves. Any government department that doesn’t have a clear line of authority should be restructured. Anyone, whether elected, appointed or hired, who cannot function within that structure, has no place in the government.
To be continued
Michael Brown has lived over 16 years in the Philippines. He writes on English, traffic management, law enforcement, and more recently, government. Follow him on Twitter at @M_i_c_h_a_e_l