The Emergence of the "Marikina Way"

The “Marikina Way”, the Case of Marikina under the Fernando Administrations (1992 -2010)

2010-07-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

Marikina News
June 24, 2010

For: Dr. Jocelyn Cuaresma, Adviser
Dr. Remigio Ocenar, Critic

Re: Dissertation Proposal

Attached is my dissertation proposal for your perusal.

1.Below are the composition of my dissertation committee as finalized by the NCPAG:

Chair: Prof. Dan Saguil
Adviser: Dr. Jocelyn Cuaresma
Critic: Dr. Remigio Ocenar
Internal Member: Dr. Faina Diola
External Member: Dean Nestor Pilar

3.Prof. Dan Saguil suggested that I have to defend the proposal by the July, 2010.

Thank you very much.

Yours truly,

Sofronio Dulay
DPA Candidate
Cell # 0918-5865344]

Cc; Prof. Dan Saguil

Title: The “Marikina Way”, the Case of Marikina under the Fernando Administrations (1992 -2010)

Proposed Outline:

1.Abstract of the Paper
2.Conceptual Framework
3.Statement of the Problem
4.Table of Contents
5.Methodology
6.Review of Literature and References
7.Bibliography

Expanded Outline:]

1.0. Abstract of the Paper

1.1. Introduction:

Bayani Fernando and Maria Lourdes C. Fernando were mayors of Marikina City, Metro Manila, Philippines, for the last 18 years, from 1992 to 2001 for Bayani and from 2001 to 2010 for Maria Lourdes. To put this paper into the proper context, Marikina started as a town of the Province of Rizal and a series of Mayor, including the father of Bayani Fernando, with little progress. With the advent of the Local Government Code and with population growth, it qualified into a city and thereby increasing its IRA, and therefore, more funds for basic services. Bayani Fernando has been a successful business man in the field of construction before joining the public service. He lost once as a municipal councilor and lost again as a mayor. These personal circumstances armed him lessons and gave him drive that forms part of his leadership style.
Public administration, the way it is being done in “Marikina City” since the time of then City Mayor Bayani F. Fernando, who was also the MMDA Chairman, and up to the present city mayor, Marides C. Fernando, has caught a lot of attention from public administration practitioners. The city has been reaping several local and international awards. The cleanliness and orderliness of the surroundings around the city is phenomenal. The squatters, the flooding, the anarchy in the sidewalks were all acted upon. Its programs are trailblazing. Oftentimes, you will hear people saying that if things can be done in Marikina, why can’t we do it in other places in the Philippines? In fact, even the Asian Institute of Management’s International Movement of Development Managers is planning to come up with a training module for local leaders on how they can benchmark on Marikina. The proximity of Marikina to Manila and the IRA it gets from the national government as mandated by the Local Government Code are some reasons why Marikina achieved a lot of things. This is the intent of this dissertation; to document the way the Fernando’s ran Marikina.
What Bayani Fernando started, his wife, Mayor Marides Fernando continued with a certain touch. How do you run a city like Marikina – clean, organized, international acclaimed by World Bank and Konrad Adenuer Foundation, prosperous, peaceful and world class, with its former Mayor one of the leading presidential contenders of the country in the 2010 elections and its present Mayor one of the Top 7 finalists in the World Mayor Award? “Our City Hall is run like a private corporation. We treat our clients as our customers whom we want not only to satisfy but to delight.” – Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando. The Marikina local government is divided into seven clusters, namely, administrative support, public order and safety, finance management and project development, infrastructure development and transportation, citizens’ affairs, economic development; and, health and environmental management.
Apparently, the public administration theories and concepts that had been applied in Marikina is the right eclectic pick. “Proof positive of the city's standing in the league of metropolitan cities in the Philippines are the numerous awards and citations that have been bestowed. Marikina was first awarded as The Cleanest and Greenest City not only in Metro Manila but in the entire Philippines which Marikina was the first local government to set as Hall of Famer in that category awarded by the Philippine government. The most recent and most prestigious award received the city of Marikina was the Most Competitive Metro City in the Philippines from the prestigious Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Research Center, Asia Foundation, International Labour Organization (ILO), German Technical Foundation, and Konrad Adenauer Stiflung, and the Continuing Excellence Award in Local Governance given by the Galing Pook Foundation, DILG, Local Government Authority and the Ford Foundation. Marikina was the first local government in the Philippines that has been honored with the prestigious Global 500 Roll Of Honour of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Marikina also landed as one of the Most Healthiest and Livable City in Asia-Pacific region. It won over 150 awards and recognitions, both local and abroad, in a span of just 15 years. Marikina has become an ideal location for industry, business, and commerce; and for residences. Marikina was also one of the host cities of the recent 23rd Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines which held the women's football event at the Marikina Sports Park.
At the end of the paper, I should be able to unveil some of the best practices behind the success of Marikina City.

1.2. Anticipated Findings:

The Marikina Way, which described the case of Marikina under the Fernandos, is a convergence of good timing (LGC, IRA, national growth), character traits of the leaders (Bayani and Marides Fernando) and a series of judgment calls, decisions and innovations based on the proper appraisal of the situations. The Fernandos got their management styles from their business experiences in the corporate world which to some extent has overlap on public administration concepts. Using the array of public administration theory as a lens of their effectiveness is one way of validating the public administration theories on the ground. There are semblances of usage of public administration theories but they were not derived thru formal education; Bayani Fernando being a mechanical engineer and Marides Fernando being a BS Tourism graduate. One thing noticeable is the couple does not stick to one public administration discipline (e.g. new public administration, etc.). In the area of decision making, the Fernando's seem to follow common sense and satisficing concepts of Herbert Simon. For instance, during the early years of the term of Engr. Bayani Ferrnando as the Mayor of Marikina City (now the MMDA Chairman), he introduced the concept of “by administration”. In doing public works. “By administration”, is the antinomy of contracting - out. It means the government will be the one to do public works that are usually done by the private contractors. The result of Bayani Fernando’s ‘by administration” approach is tremendous. The Marikina government was able to build more roads and other infrastructures given a certain budget. One reason for this is that the profit margins that could have gone to the contractors are added to the budget. Also, the corruption side or the “tongpats” that usually goes to the corrupt government officials are also added to the budget. Ballpark estimates roughly peg a cool 30 to 40 percent is added to the budget by just implementing the “by administration” concept.
The cases presented showed us a declining shoe industry despite the many achievements of the city. The industry is affected by the entry of cheaper footwear from China and Vietnam as a result of WTO - GATT where the Philippines is one of the signatories. The case on Kabayani showed us that local party can be at times, more effective than the national parties when it comes to exacting result and discipline. The case of the Fernando family, which started from Mayor Gil Fernando, to Bayani and Marides - and maybe in the future, Tala Fernando, is a case when political dynasty can be tolerated in some instance. Despite of the success of the Fernando administration in running Marikina government, the survey showed pockets of resistance and dissatisfaction.

1.3. Anticipated Conclusion:

From the primary data (interviews, FGD, and surveys) to secondary data (review of literature), some conclusion had been deduced from Marikina Way: That a local government in the Philippines has a better chance of progressing under the decentralized Philippine government set up. Good leadership, management style and decision making based on reflective thinking is part of a strong foundation of LGU governance. Public administration theories are good basis in evaluating the public soundness of innovation, but its mastery is or non mastery by an LGU leader will not hamper a leader from doing good. A reflective and eclectic management style based on emerging circumstances can be a better tool rather than boxing oneself in a certain discipline in public administration. The paper documented the eclectic approach of getting judgmentally the applicable theories and concepts and applying it to the ground level, in that case, a local government unit Marikina City. The proposition is this, just like in a garbage can theory, if an organization was able to select and apply the most appropriate theory given the circumstances of the organization, then, the result will be good. The trick on this assumption is to be able to know when to apply the and where. This by itself requires talent and value judgment.

2.0. Conceptual/Study Framework

INPUT

Geographical Unit:
Marikina City

Era:
1992-2010

Personalities:
City Mayors Bayani Fernando and
Maria Lourdes Fernando

Challenges:
Local government Code
City hood
Shoe Industry
National Government

PROCESSS

“Marikina Way” – an eclectic process of administering LGU’s, in this case Marikina city, combining some selected features that were applied in the city, taken from the:

Public Administration Theories

Leadership Style

Electoral and Political Process

Management Approaches

Innovations

OUTPUT/OUTCOME

Awards and Recognition

Public Perceptions

Electoral Results

Acceptance

Future Prospects

Applicability in other LGU’s

Contribution to Public Administration Literatures

The Process Flow Framework

The input constitutes the givens of the study. These are facts that can stand by themselves. The process will show the activities, the play, and the interactions of the givens as they are subjected with a process we collectively tag as “Marikina Way”. The outcome will be the findings on what came after the inputs were subjected to the processes as per the parameter of the research. The framework wishes to pursue the so called “eclectic theory” in running an LGU in which given some inputs, a combination of ways coming from different intellectual disciplines can be applied to come out with a result. The result may be subjected to debates as to its effectiveness, but this framework will show that whatever are the circumstances of an LGU, there are processes that can be manipulated to approximate an outcome. This will provide a source of wisdom and intellectual liberty to the leaders and the people of any LGU by realizing that in governance and in public administration, there is no “one best way’ but a conscious use of different intellectual, public administration and governance tools, in an eclectic way as per the judgment of the actors based on the unfolding of events.

3.0. Statement of the Problem

Given a specific set of inputs: personalities of the leaders, a city in Metro Manila, a given era, a specific challenges; subjected to a certain leadership style, some public administration theories, political processes, management approaches and innovations; what peculiar outputs may result into these interplays ? Public acceptance ? Outside recognition ? Electoral defeats ?
This dissertation will show a case of an input – process – output during the administrations of Engr. Bayani Fernando and Maria Lourdes Carlos Fernando, in their incumbency as the mayors of Marikina City with a view of showing the dynamic and interactions into the process flow of different factors that led to a collective result which we will call as “MarikinaWay”
“Marikina Way” as a case, may show an eclectic way of running LGU’s, given some internal and external factors that could add into some form of literature to the discipline of public administration.

4.0. Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Overview of Local Government units in the Philippines
Chapter 3. Review of Related Literature
Chapter 4: Theoretical/Study Framework in the Study of the Case of Marikina during the Fernando Administration
Chapter 5: Methodology
Chapter 6: The Fernando Administration: the Personalities, the Territory and the Era.
Chapter 7. The Challenges of the Fernando Administration
Case 1: The Effect of the Local Government Code and the City hood of Marikina
Case 2: The Fernando Clan and the Kabayani Party
Case 3: The GATT/WTO and the Local Shoe Industry
Case 4: The Typhoon Ondoy
Chapter 8: The Process – the public administration concepts vis – a – vis Marikina Way
Chapter 9: The Process – the Leadership and Management Style of the Fernando’s
Chapter 10: The Process – the Political Culture of Marikina: Fernando Clan, Kabayani Party and Legends
Chapter 11: The Specific Innovations
Chapter 12: The Outcome: Awards and Recognition
Chapter 13: The Outcome: the Perception of the Citizenry of the Fernando Administration
Chapter 14: The Outcome: The Election Result and the Future Prospect of the Fernandos.
Chapter 15: Summary and Conclusions

5.0. Methodology

5.1. Note about the Writer and his probable bias:
The writer of this paper has experiential knowledge of both Marikina and the Fernandos – having grown in Marikina, been allied, then opposition then allied again of the Fernandos in the span of 18 years. The intention of this paper is to document the case of Marikina under the Fernando Administration with the view of the different sectors. The primary sources of this paper are the experiential knowledge of the author as an objective participant of Marikina Case, the interviews to the different sectors, the focused group discussions, purposeful sampling surveys. The paper was able to arrive at with a ground level data and patterns from which conclusions can be formed. The primer of public administration theory will provide a framework of evaluation. Part of the study is to find out if the Fernandos used reflective thinking on an emerging circumstances or if they were guided by a ready sets of public administration theories or consultants with preconceived packaged of theories.
5.2. The overall approach of the study:
This dissertation aims to validate the relationship of public administration theories and practices, with Marikina City as the case in point and the author as the experiential observer. Topic: The “Marikina Way”, the Case of the Fernando Administration in the Lens of the Public Administration Theories.

Factual Questions:
1. What are the innovations that happened during the 18 years of the Fernando Administration in Marikina?
Researchable Questions:
2. Is the case of Marikina a result of reflective reaction to emerging situation or a studied application of a discipline in public administration?
3. What are the concepts and lessons learned from the field studies in Marikina?
4. What are the perceptions of the different sectors on the Fernando administration?
5.3. Research Problems:
1. What are the innovations (tagged collectively as Marikina Way) initiated during the time of former Marikina Mayor Bayani Fernando and current Mayor Marides Fernando? This can be pursued through secondary data reviews and survey.
2. What are the key theories of public administration as per the writings of H. George Frederickson? This can be achieved by thorough reading and simplification of his theories in his book.
3. Among the Innovations in Marikina Way, which of them will fall in some specific theories discussed by Ferederickson? This can be achieved by coming out with a Matrix:

Innovations Selected vis a vis Public Administration Theories

Public Administration Theories
Innovations A B C D
1.
2.
3.
4.

4. What are the perceived leadership style of Bayani and Maria Lourdes that makes them good leaders?
5. What are the effects of the different innovations in Marikina to the different sectors of the community? This can be achieved through a survey tabulated into this Matrix:

Innovations Different Sectors in the Community
Public Administration Theories
Innovations A B C
1.
2.
3.
4.

6. Is the Fernando Administration a result of an “Eclectic approach” in public administration, like the Marikina Way, applying public administration theories selectively in governing a City that resulted in a positive way?
5.4. The Mini Cases
Case Study #1: The GATT/WTO and the Local Shoe Industry
The study hopes to show the main features of Marikina shoe industry, which is operating in a business concept of clustering. The industry encountered some problems lately, brought about by cheaper shoes from china and Vietnam. The entry is facilitated by the opening of the market resulting from the Philippine entry to the GATT. Because this study talks about policy options, one set of audience for this paper is the legislators. The study also wishes to address government agencies like the Department of Finance which has a jurisdiction of the imposition of tariff. The Office of the President is a good audience for this project since it can decide on the issues of tariff. The local government of Marikina and the local shoe industry are also the target audience of this study since they can initiate lobby to the government. One of the research questions is what is the proper policy options to save the shoe industry of Marikina. In the absence of a better option and given the present condition, what can the shoe manufacturers do to survive?
The Case Study #2: The Effect of the Local Government Code and the City hood of Marikina
The enactment of the Local Government Code has effect on the income of Marikina and its subsequent quest for city hood.
Case Study # 3: The Fernando Family and the Kabayani Party
The Fernando family came from the Angkan ng Fernando in Marikina with one of its great descendants was a governadorcillo. In the modern times, it was Mayor Gil Fernando who strengthens the family. His son Bayani Fernando further consolidated the clan and later his wife, Marides Fernando, who is the sitting Mayor further strengthen the family's grip on Marikina'a politics. Bayani Fernando has no son. He has one daughter, a 23 - year - old Tala Fernando who was educated in the US.
Kabayani Party was organized by the Fernando Family as a local party but is attached with the ruling Lakas Kampi CMD. It was meant to provide flexibility in political alignments. It was able to organize itself effectively winning major fights in Marikina politics.
Case Study #4: The Typhoon Ondoy
Few months before the end of the term of the Fernandos, a history - breaking typhoon put Marikina in an epicenter of a big flood that brought deaths and destruction to properties. The flood was unprecedented in terms of the height of flood water and its impact to the city.
5.5. Methods to be used:
5.5.1. The Option Selected for Method Decision
The paper is a dissertation which should demonstrate doctoral level scholarship. The primary audience for the findings is the doctoral committee. The researcher will be guided by his academic degree: Doctor of Public Administration.
5.5.2. The selected themes of qualitative inquiry. This paper is qualitative; as such it will be guided by the following:
5.5.2.1. We will use purposeful sampling – samples are selected because they are information rich and illuminative. Sampling, then, is aimed at insight about the phenomenon of interest, not empirical generalizations from a sample of population. The result of the survey will show the perceptions of the different clusters sampled.
5.5.2.2. Data collection and fieldwork strategies selected
Qualitative data are observations that yield details and thick description.
Personal experience and engagement – the research has a direct contact with and gets close to the people and situation and phenomenon under study.
Emphatic neutrality and mindfulness – the researcher should show and emphatic stance in interviews by seeking vicarious understanding without judgments.
Dynamic systems – attention to process is important. It assumed that changes are on going whether focused in an individual, an organization, a community or a culture.
5.5.2.3. The analysis strategies selected
Unique case orientation – the analysis is bring true to, respecting and capturing the details of the individual cases being studies to be followed by a cross – case analysis.
Inductive analysis and creative synthesis requires immersion in the details and specifics of the data to discover important patterns, themes, and interrelationships.
5.5.2.4. Qualitative inquiry theoretical traditions selected
Reality testing: positivist and realist approach – it answer the questions what is really going on in the real world? What can we established with some degree of certainty.
Grounded theory – what theory emerges from systematic comparative analysis and is grounded in field works so as to explain what has been and is observed.
5.5.2.5. Research purpose selected
Applied research – understand the nature and sources of human and societal problems. The focused are questions important to the society.
5.5.2.6. Units of analysis selected
Geography focused - the research is focused on Marikina City.
5.5.2.7. Purposeful sampling strategies selected
Criteria sampling – picking all cases that meet some criterion
Extreme or deviant case (outlier) sampling – learning from an unusual manifestation of phenomenon of interest, for example, outstanding success, notable failure, top of the class, drop outs, exotic events, crises
Homogeneous sampling – focused; reduced variations, facilitates group interview
Stratified purposeful sampling – illustrates characteristics of a particular subgroup of interest, facilitates interaction
5.5.2.8. Case study approach, the option for organizing and reporting qualitative data selected
People – individual or groups are the primary units of analysis
Critical events – critical or major events can constitute self contained descriptive units of analysis
5.6. Survey Form:
See attachment A

6.0. Review of Literature

The literature that I will be reviewing on my way of writing this dissertation will be classified into the following:
6.1. Official Marikina Data
We will look for the official city data released annually by the city hall and their different departments such as annual reports, state of the city address, audited financial statements, COA Reports, etc. This will provide the research with official statistics.
6.2. Non – Official Marikina Data
In order to search for the humane but factual side of the story, the research has to read publications and articles about Marikina during the Fernando Administration. These materials will include the internal publications of the city hall such as books, fact books, leaflets, community newspapers, speeches, and others. These will also include articles related to Marikina from local and international publications. Another source of data for this cluster are those we can find in the internet such as the Wikipedia and other websites.
6.3. Public Administration Data
In order to have a public administration data that had been thoroughly reviewed, we will use the book of H. George Frederickson and Kevin B. Smith entitled Public Administration Primer. This publication already made critical analysis on the different theories of public administration. If necessary, we may refer to other publications that specializes on specific theories in instances where there is a need to dig deeper on a specific theory.

7.0. References and Bibliography

1. Dennis Gonzales, Editor, “The Will to Change, Marikina and its Innovations”, 2009

2. John Toye, “60 Years of Development in Economics”

3. Dani Rodrick, “Institutions for High – Quality Growth: What They Are and how to Acquire Them”, Harvard Unversity, 1999

4. “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.: UPCPA,

5. Understanding Social Policy. NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”

6. Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.

7. “Different Perspective on Social Development. ”Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan: UNCRD,

8. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989

9. The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html

10. Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.

11. Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition, 2007
12. “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.: UPCPA,

13. Understanding Social Policy. NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”

14. Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.

15. “Different Perspective on Social Development. ”Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan: UNCRD,

16. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989

17. The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html

18. Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.

19. Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition, 2007

20. Han Fook Wang, et al, Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas. Singapore Press Holdings: Times Edition.

21. http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_data.. March 20, 2009

22. “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.:UPCPA,

23. Understanding Social Policy .NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”
24. Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.

25. “Different Perspectives on Social Development” Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan:UNCRD

26. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989

27. The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html

29. Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.

30. Raadschelders, Jos C.N. 2003. Government, a Public Administration Perspective, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Ch. 1, “Government: The Most Central Phenomenon of our Time

31. Wilson, Wooddrow, 1887. “The Study of Administration.” Political Science Quarterly, Vol.2 (June,1887), as reprinted in Jay M.Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde (eds.). 1997. Classics of Public Administration.(4th ed.). Forth worth, Texas:Harcourt Brace and Co.

32. The following articles and essays reprinted and abridged in Jay M. Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde (eds.). 1997. Classics of Public Administration. (4th ed.). Forth Worth, Texas: Hardcourt Brace and Co: Frank J. Goodnow.1900. “Politics and Administration”, Frederick Taylor, 1912. “Scientific Management.” :Max Weber, 1946. “Bureaucracy.” ; Leonard white.1926. “Introduction to the Study of Public Administration”; Luther Gulick.1937.”Notes on the Theory of Organization” pp.81-89; Herbert simon.1946.”The Proverbs of Administration” .

33. Reyes, Danilo R. 2001.”An Overview of Current Development in the Study and Practice of Public Administration.” Philippine Journal of Public Administration (July).

34. Frederickson, George.1971.”Toward a New Public Administration” in Marini (ed.) Toward a New Public Administration: The Minnowbrook Perspective, Scranton: chandler.

35. Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler, 1992. Reinventing Government, New York:Penguin. ”Introduction: an American Perestroika.” Pp.1-24 and Ch. 1, “Catalytic Government: Steering rather Than Rowing,”

36. Hammer, Michael and James Champy. 1993 Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers.

37. Osborne, Stephen and Kate McLaughlin. 2002.”The New Public Management in Context.” In K. McLaughlin,S.Osborne and E. Ferlie (eds). New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects. London and New York: Routledge,

38. Hunt, Diana, 1982. Economic Theories of Development: An Analysis of Competing Paradigms, Ch 1 & 2.

39. Marikina City: the Past 15 Years, Published by the Public information Office, City Government of Marikina

40. Konstitusyon ng Partido ng Kabayani, as provide by the Office of the City Mayor of Marikina.

41. Bagong Filipino Movement, as provided by the Office of the City Administrator of Marikina.

41. Articles of Incorporation of Kabayani Movement, Inc. as provided by Securites and Exchange Commission.

42. The Bagong Filipino Vision, a PowerPoint Presentation done by the Campaign Staff of MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando.
43. Marikina Citizens First Privilege Card Booklet, as provided by the Office of the City Mayor of Marikina.

44. Disiplina sa Bangketa at Iba Pang Program ng MMDA by Bayani Fernando as provide by the Metro Manila Development Authority.

45. Balitang Komunidad, Opisyal na Pahayagan ng Lungsod ng Marikina. Vol 2, No 2.

46. Website of the City Government of Marikina at http://city.marikina.gov.ph/

47. Marikina City- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
at http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marikina_City

Attachment A: A Sample of Proposed Survey Form

This form was initially pre tested in the class, thru mock interviews.
Basic Data about the Respondent
1. How old are you? _____
2. Male or Female? _____
3. How do you consider yourself? Rich _____ Middle Class ______ Poor _____
4. Politically, how do you consider yourself?
______ Administration ______ Opposition ________ Neutral
5. Based on ancestry, how do you consider yourself?
______Dayo ________ Lehitimo ________ Not Sure
6. Based on sector, how do you consider yourself?
____ Youth ____ Women ____ Elderly _____ Disabled _____Businessmen
7. Educational level
____Elementary _____ High School ______College ____ Post Graduate
Perceptions about the Fernando Administration
1. With 10 as the highest and 1 is the lowest: are you happy with the Fernando Administration? ______
2. Did your quality of life improved under the Fernando Administration?
______ Yes _____ No _____ Not Sure
3. Give two innovations that you like about the Fernando Administration?
a..______________________________________________________
b.______________________________________________________
4. Give two innovations in the Fernando Administration that you don’t like?
a..______________________________________________________
b.______________________________________________________
5. Would you like the Fernando Administration to continue? Why?
Yes _____
Why? __________________________________________________________
No _____
Why? _________________________________________________________
6. With 10 as the highest and 1 is the lowest: is the Fernando administration able to provide basic services? __________
7. With 10 as the highest and 1 is the lowest: is the Fernando Administration able to provide you with basic services? ______ Peace and order _______
Health _______ Employment _________
Cultural __________ Education ________
Good Values _______
8. Do you think Marikina will be better if the Fernando did not become Mayors? Yes ____ No _______ Why? _____________________________________________________
9. Who do you think is the better Mayor?
Bayani Fernando ________ Marides Fernando ________
Why?

Human Capital and Economics: A Challenge for Marikina City

2009-12-31T02:48:00.000-08:00

Marikina News
University of the Philippines
National College of Public Administration and Governance Public Administration 331 (Seminar on the Administration of Economic Development), First Semester SY 2009-2010 Prof. R. F. Miral, J r.

Human Capital and Economics: A Challenge for Marikina City
By Prof. Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA student

Introduction

Development of human capital thru education and early child care and development (ECCD) is linked with economics: labor being one of the factors of production. “For Rosenstein – Rodan, the “skilling” of labour was the first task of industrial is at ion, but one that has to be undertaken by the state, because it does not pay firms to train potential mobile workers. By contrast, T.S. Schultz raised the question of individuals’ and families’ own investments in what he called human capital – a stock of skills that could be used, be deployed to earn future income. This question led forward to a host of studies of the economics of investment in education and health in poor countries, and the effects of health and education status on participation in the labour market.” In Marikina City, there are signs of parallel progress in economics and human capital, especially n the area of education and ECCD. Theoretically, is it possible that a city as progressive as Marikina can be so dominant in economics development but lagged behind in the area of education or ECCD? What is progress and prosperity for? The progress can be driven by visible infra but ECCD remains a challenge? “All instances of successful development are ultimately the collective results of individual decisions by entrepreneurs to invest in risky new ventures and try out news things. The good news here is that we have found homo economicus to be alive and well in the tropics and other poor lands. The idea of elasticity pessimism – the notion that the private sector in the developing countries would fail to respond quickly to favorable price and other incentives – has been put to rest by the accumulating evidence. We find time and again that the investment decisions, agricultural production or exports turn out to be quite sensitive to price incentives, as long as these perceived to have some predictability.” This observation could be true in Marikina: the economic progress is basically drven by private entrepreneurs grounded on their trust on the government. But again , where is human capital – education and ECCD – coming into the picture. When labour is plenty – entrepreneurs has the luxury of choice. And when they do have the luxury of choice, the development of human capital thru ECCD and skilling may not be their priority.
Child welfare is within the context of social development. Vague and confused as a concept, social development can be defined as “the enhancement of well being and the progressive enrichment of the quality of people’s lives” Social development is a component of overall development concept. In the Philippine experience, social development has been a major concern – often times handled by the Office of the President or made into a full – blown department with names changing from administration to administration.
Social development or even child welfare has to contend with the other concerns of the state, like defense for instance. “Social policy making must be seen as a political process. It has already been stressed that social policy cannot be analyzed on its own, without referring to other activities of the state.” Also, it must be realized that social development is always a work in progress because it “involves a process of change which is fostered through a deliberate human action.” Social development is dynamic – which partially explain for instance why in the Philippines, the Council for the Welfare of Children has been passed on through times like ping pong balls from the Office of the President to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Vague as it is – couple with dynamism – social development must be defined using different perspectives. The United Nations Center for Regional Development defined social development as a “sectoral development and the provision of social services involving the improvement of the quality of life of the people through education, employment, health, housing, social welfare, agrarian reform, community development or disaster welfare.” Take note that this 1983 definition from UN does not carry children’s welfare in it. In the same UN article however, a slightly different perspective of social development is defined as “supportive of and providing services for those in special needs and involving the development of, and provision of services to women, children and disadvantaged group” This definition seems to put children’s welfare as an after thought concern – not in the mainstream.
There are also perspectives that say social development is nothing but providing welfare dole outs to the constituencies, which seems to be the prevailing thinking of most LGUs in the Philippines.
It is in these multi perspective concepts that this paper seeks to approach the early child care and development (ECCD) experiences in Marikina. The best way to handle a concept is to have a benchmark. In this case, the best benchmark for ECCD is the globally prevailing document – the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC).In the unofficial summary of the main provisions of the CRC, its “preamble recalls the basic principles of the United Nations and specific provisions of certain relevant human rights treaties and proclamations. It reaffirms the fact that children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection, and it places special emphasis on the primary caring and protective responsibility of the family. It also reaffirms the need for legal and other protection of the child before and after birth, the importance of respect for the cultural values of the child’s community, and the vital role of international cooperation in securing children’s right”
The CRC defined a child as a person under 18, unless the national laws recognize a country – specific age of majority. It encourages positive actions for non – discrimination on children and the government should always pursue the best interest of the child. It said that the state must implement the rights of the child. It must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents to provide guidance for the child. The child has the right to life, name and nationality; and identity. The child has the right to live with his or her parents. Parents and children have the right for reunification. The state shall safeguard the children’s right to have their own opinion, freedom of though, conscience, religion and association. The privacy of children must be provided and the state shall ensure the accessibility of children to information. It is the responsibility of parents to raise the child but the state shall provide assistance to the parents. The child must be protected from abuse and neglect and the states should protect children without families. The convention recognizes adoption. Special care should be given to refugee children, children of minorities and disabled children. The child has the right to the highest standard of health, medical care attendance and social security. They have the right to adequate standard of living and education. The child has the right to be protected from child labor, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, sale, trafficking, abduction and other forms of exploitation. The child has the right to be protected from torture and deprivation of liberty. The state shall take measures that children below 15 years of age has no direct part in hostilities. Rehabilitation and proper handling of victimized children as well as those in conflict with the law should be ensured. The state is obligated to inform the public of the CRC and they have to submit reports, which must also be available to the public.
With this backdrop and taking into account that the Philippines is a signatory to the CRC, it is now clear that children’s welfare is a big responsibility for the LGUs.
Another important document that articulated for the welfare of children is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “The Millennium Development Goals are the world’s time –bound and quantitative targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions – income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion – while promoting gender equality, equality, education, and environmental sustainability.” There are basically eight MDGs, namely, eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability; and, develop global partnership for development. The MDGs have 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators. I had the opportunity to report this topic in a doctoral class and we counted how many of these goals, targets and indicators pertains to children. The conclusion of the class is that out of 8 MDGs, only 1, the goal number seven (ensure environmental sustainability) has no direct provision about children’s welfare. But then, it is commonsensical that a good environment is beneficial to children – making the MDGs as another pro child welfare international document.

The Philippines Approach to Child Welfare

After passing through some basic social development concepts and international statures, it is now time to look into Philippine national documents and see what they have to offer for children’s welfare.
The CRC and MDGs, the international statures that articulate for children’s welfare, have a great influence on Philippine national programs and legislatures that concerns children. “The Philippines now stands in a critical point in time, faced with the challenged of realizing its commitments to the CRC, the MDGs, and the WFFC goals and the vision of Child 21.The current development and context in the country present complex and difficult issues.”
The report submitted by the Philippine government, third and fourth periodic reports of States parties due in 2007, to be exact, talked about the country’s continuing review and enactment of legislations in compliance with CRC. The report identified the following legislative gaps: minimum age of criminal responsibility, minimum age of sexual consent, prohibition of torture, lack of comprehensive juvenile system, discrimination against children born out of wedlock, use of children in pornography, and corporal punishment. To work on these gaps, the country enacted the following laws: RA 9344: Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act – raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 9 to 15; RA 9208:Anti – Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 – instituted policies to eliminate trafficking, specially women and children; RA 9231: Elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labour Act of 2003; RA 9255 : An Act Allowing Illegitimate Children to Use the Surnames of their Father; RA 9262 : Anti – Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004; and, RA 9288 : New Born Screening Act of 2004.
The report said that despite all these laws, the current efforts are still inadequate. It plans to work on the remaining gaps such as: minimum age of sexual consent, child pornography, corporal punishment and other form of violence, discrimination against children born out of wedlock.
The report also said that in 2000, we formulated the Philippine National Strategic Framework for Plan Development for Children for the period 2000-2025, or Child 21, to build sensitive and child friendly society in the 21st century.
It also mentioned the role of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), the main institutional mechanism in coordinating the implementation and monitoring of NPAC/Child 21 as well as in coordinating formulation of all policies for children and monitoring CRC implementation. Take note CWC, later on this paper will figure prominently on the ECCD concerns in Marikina City.
The committee report also noted that the mandate and resources of Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) in the promotion and monitoring of children’s right is limited, and it recommends strengthening them.
As regards to the budgetary allocation for children, the report mentioned that 30% of national budget goes to debt service – interest payment with insufficient allocation for social development and children’s program. To address this, the Philippines proposed in 2005: “Debt – to –MDG Financing”, a debt reduction scheme in exchange of MDG Financing.
The country also pursued international cooperation in its quest to provide wider service to children by working with GOP-UNICEF, ILO, JICA, USAID, BEAM, QTVET, ADB, WB, Save the Children-US, Save the Children-Sweden, WVF, Consuelo Foundation, CCF, ATD Fourth World, and IJM.
The report also said that the government also pursues Cooperation with civil society in pursuing children’s welfare thru the CWC sectoral committees, inter-agency bodies on child protection other than CWC, NGO Coalition for CRC Monitoring and Philippine Inter – Faith Network for Children.
The government initiated the CRC principles/provisions of advocacy thru the CWC and UNICEF IEC campaigns, Child Info – based Knowledge Network Centers in 24 LGUs, Bright Child Campaign of CWC, CWC and Task Force on the Popularization of the CRC in 24 municipalities in central Philippines.
We also disseminated the contents of the 2nd periodic report and concluding observations when the CWC printed the report itself for dissemination, convened committee and networks to brief them of the report, and thru TV and radio interviews as well as meetings and conferences.
Finally, as part of our compliance with CRC, the country initiated the preparations for the 3rd and 4th periodic report by CWC sending letters to agencies and NGO’s to submit their inputs; convened 3 consultations; and the Technical Management Committee of CWC Board reviewing the consultation’s write up, writing comments and integrating them with the second report. The report was submitted to CWC Board for Review, preparation of the final draft and submission.

Development of Human Capital: The Child Welfare Program of Marikina City

Having shown some basic concepts in social development, the international conventions related to child welfare and the Philippine national programs on children, it is now time to go to an specific LGUs like Marikina, hoping that what we will see in this city as regards to program on children’s welfare could give us insight on what is happening in other LGUs in the country.
For the interest of brevity, we will dispense with the discussion o the basic demographic data about Marikina because they are readily available by googling them in the internet.
How do you run a city like Marikina – clean, organized, international acclaimed, prosperous, peaceful and world class, with its former Mayor one of the leading presidential contenders of the country in the 2010 elections and its present Mayor one of the Top 7 finalists in the World Mayor Award? “Our City Hall is run like a private corporation. We treat our clients as our customers whom we want not only to satisfy but to delight.” – Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando.
The Marikina local government is divided into seven clusters, namely, administrative support, public order and safety, finance management and project development, infrastructure development and transportation, citizens’ affairs, economic development; and, health and environmental management.
The children’s welfare is found under the cluster of citizen’s affair, specifically, in the Social Welfare and Development Office. Aside from this office, the following are also found in the citizens’ affair cluster: Department of Education – Marikina, Public Information Office, Community Relations Office, Marikina Settlements Office, City Women Council, MCF Manpower House, Teens Health Quarter, Local Civil Registry, MCF Privilege Card and the Office of Senior Citizens Affair.
The city Social Welfare and Development Office is one - story structure called Social Action Center, detached from the main building where the Office of the Mayor is housed. In that Social Action Center, several officers are also found like: Volunteers Office, SOCO, PNP and Traffic Management.
The city Social Welfare Development Office has been devolved from DSWD to the city government of Marikina. The office was run by an OIC who is a licensed social worker. Together with the OIC, there was a Consultant directly reporting to the Mayor. The consultant is a TV producer of a child show and was a neighbor of the Mayor in her ancestral house in Pasig. The OIC eventually left the post for personal reasons and joined an entry level job at the Marikina Fiscal’s Office, the Consultant took over as the OIC then hired a 24 – year – old licensed social worker as his assistant.
The city Social Welfare Development Office is picture of a workplace that is changing often, desks are changing depending on the circumstances of the office politics, full of clients daily and perhaps, in an attempt to manage the flow of clients, a sign is posted in the door reminding the customers to whom to report regarding their needs. The post says “services offered”: referral; social case study report; medical, financial and funeral assistance; certificate of indigency, PWD, PYAP/TN; and solo parent. Then, names of concerned staff handling these services are listed .Take note that in the list, there is no specific concern for children’s welfare. The OIC and her assistant have their separate rooms, the rest of the 13 staff are together. On the adjacent room is the Children in Conflict with the Law Shelter with around 25 inmates. Based however on Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, the office has the following services: assistance in crisis situations, referrals, seminars and counseling and child – friendly intervention which handling of juvenile cases. Take note again the lack of mention of child welfare concerns and day care centers despite the fact that the city also manages around six day care centers all over the city of 16 barangays. Barangay councils for the protection of children are not active.

Development of Human Capital in Marikina City thru Education
In my report in the class of Prof. R. F. Miral, Jr., using an article about an inside story of the World Bank’s historical development on their education policy, I was able to uncover that education is a part of their lending conditionality before they consider a loan (they uses the term covenant, to be politically correct). But the education component, more than others, is intended to help the project, primarily. In short, it was not done out of the goodness of the heart. The World Bank has an array of in house technical people for every project. But, later it turned out that there are needs for local consultants and technical staff, so, they need to educate and train local guys- hence, the education component of every project was necessary.
When the World Bank is emphasizing loans on industries and factories, they encouraged technical and vocational education on barrowing countries – again not out of the goodness of their heart – but to provide necessary skills to the workforce of their borrowing industries, for them to be able to operate better, and ergo, pay the bank better.
Marikina’s approach to education is not only to produce sub literate but skilled factory workers. Their approach is holistic. ”DSWD has been devolved to address the specific needs of the communities, initiating such programs as family enrichment and education thru networking with foundations and non-government organizations. The Center for Excellence (CENTEX) headed by Julie Borje conducts training seminars with personnel of the city and barangay halls.”
In Barangay San Roque for instance, they piloted a non – formal education and several skills training projects, including free call center training and job placement assistance.
As a matter of policy, the Marikina government encourages continues education. In fact, just recently, old undergraduate employees of the city hall were given scholarships to finish a degree in public administration at the local Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina.
The City Hall also promotes productivity through the livelihood projects. “Marikina has invested in its children not only through DSWD and the Health Office’s family planning, parents training and nutrition program but also through upgrading of the basic education.”
The public schools in Marikina are well maintained and well landscaped. Students are plenty and happy because the city provides the workbooks and school supplies… with set of computers for every school. Residents of Marikina are given priorities for enrolment. The number of students per classroom is maintained to the ideal number of 45 with more classrooms being constructed from the CDF of the 2 congressmen and regular hiring of teachers to maintain the ratio. The city government is working for the preschool, elementary and high school for every barangay. Two identified campuses are offering technical – vocational education for skills development. The City also offers affordable tertiary education thru the City University (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina).

The Business Climate n Marikina City

According to Prof. Gonzalo M. Jurado in his article entitled Growth Models, Development Planning and Implementation in the Philippines , “to be more successful in plan implementation, the government at both staff and line levels must articulate the plans more carefully, and carry at infrastructural and other supportive programs with greater determination. These efforts must help invigorate the market.”
Marikina City complied with the required planning requirements. They have strategic and tactical plans in the area of business, education and ECCD mostly crafted by the department heads concerned.
Some small businesses in Marikina claimed that the business taxes in the city are high and lots of them moved their small business in nearby towns like San Mateo, Antipolo and Cainta were taxes are more lenient and negotiable. Some of those who do not want to move out simply close shop for several months only to reopen with a new name and therefore avail of incentives for new businesses. In the book The Will to Change edited by Ateneo de Manila University School of Government Dennis Gonzales, it quoted Larry Schroeder saying that these “exits” happening n Marikina is one of the ways by which a constituents can hold a local government accountable. The book has this interesting queston, “Could it be that Marikina is a great place to live in but not to set up a small business?”
Marikina uses a similar gross taxation scheme of China. The seemingly bone of contention among some businessmen is the fact that business taxes in Marikina are based on presumptive income levels, a system wherein the local government are extrapolating a store’s minimum income and from there derive the appropriate tax. This seems to be grounded on the belief that most small businessmen are refusing to pay the right amount of tax.
Historically, Marikina is the home of small businessmen as the Shoe Capital of the Philippines. Recently, it has been recognized internationally as one of the most competitive and the most business - friendly cities in the country. Marikina’s public market is recognized as the healthiest public market in the Philippines today. All of these accolades seem to erased the complaints of small businessmen on gross taxation.
Marikina today is the home of diverse industries. It offers simple business rules, quality infrastructure, industrial peace, efficient services and skillful workforce which make the city big investors – friendly.
There are 14, 541 business establishments in the city and this figure is forecasted to increase. The primary products of the city are shoes, cigarettes, food, candies, bags, porcelain, guns and ammunitions, cosmetics and beauty products. Underground economy exists also: jueteng, where the gambling lord of a Luzon – wide operation is a native Marikeno.
Several factors added to the growth of the local economy such as superior infrastructure, communication and transportation, proximity to Manila and Quezon City and the existence of service providers for banking, telephone, telegraph and internet. Roadways are free of traffic- no color coding system in fact. Public transport is available round the clock.

Findings and Recommendations

1. With the frequent changes in the Marikina City SWDO, the organizational capacity to respond to a new task like ECCD Accreditation is still weak. The OIC is new and her assistant is also new. Recommendation: team building sessions and thorough job orientation.
2. It was noted that out of 13 staff, some of them are not college graduates and joined the service as a political accommodations rather than based on qualifications. Only one of them is a license social worker, the assistant of the OIC. Recommendation: professionalize the staff, assign the less qualified somewhere else and hire more social workers into the unit.
3. Staff is overloaded; there are staff members who have to work after 5 pm and during weekends. Recommendation: realignment of duties and work loads.
4. In education, the proliferation of so many high schools with only 2 tertiary schools makes it harder for Marikenos to go to college. Recommendation: expand the present Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Marikina and Marikina Polytechnic College.
5. The strength of Marikina educational system is in the infrastructure but weak on networking. Recommendation: provide access to qualified Marikenos to take examinations at the PMA, PMMA, UP, and the National Police Academy.
6. In business, the fact is that a lot of small businessmen are exiting into nearby towns. Recommendation: provide special incentive package for small businessmen.
7. Some small businessmen are closing shops only to open several months later with new name to avail of incentive programs for new business. Recommendations: extend incentive programs to small businessmen.

Acknowledgement:

I wish to acknowledge social worker and assistant to the OIC Carolyn Sta. Maria for granting two interviews about the operations of the Marikina City SWD Office; OIC and fellow Consultant Nadeia Sarte for giving me access to her office and providing crucial data on ECCD; the City Mayor Marides Fernando for giving me a complimentary copy of the book, the Will to Change, and finally to Professor R F Miral, Jr. for his patience in teaching us important lessons which and I personally showed my appreciation on his efforts by never been absent in his class not even once, even when I was sick.

Bibliography:

1. Dennis Gonzales, Editor, “The Will to Change, Marikina and its Innovations”, 2009

2. John Toye, “60 Years of Development in Economics”

3. Dani Rodrick, “Institutions for High – Quality Growth: What They Are and how to Acquire Them”, Harvard Unversity, 1999

4. “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.: UPCPA,

5. Understanding Social Policy. NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”

6. Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.

7. “Different Perspective on Social Development. ”Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan: UNCRD,

8. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989

9. The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html

10. Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.

11. Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition, 2007

Bayani Fernando, why not?

2009-04-08T19:01:00.000-07:00

Elinando B. Cinco
December 17, 2008, 4:21am, Manila Bulletin

EVEN long before his bid for the country’s presidency was announced, the rumor mills were already grinding but at a timid speed. The question asked was, "Would he really be making a go for it, in earnest?"
But when Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando made it known to all and sundry that he was, indeed, available as a candidate for the top most position of the land, the same rumor mills abruptly went grinding at a fast clip!
And at a pace that seems to be pulled by a collective cross-section of the public that was, unmistakably, at work.
One of the early endorsers of those reality churning mills is a fellow Thomasian.
The reason for his enthusiasm, he says, are the chairman’s extreme traits of simplicity on one hand, and audacity on the other, such that my friend has vowed not just to vote for Bayani Fernando but to actively campaign for him.
These days there is an unmistakable momentum of those grinding mills. In fact, they are already producing a centrifugal force with such energy that it has been drawing crowds of diverse personalities. They are themselves people of various interests and persuasions who wield influence that attract other endorsers and supporters.
If his popularity is not that infectious, why would everyone be calling him "BF" in such short a time?
"He’s the political equivalent of SM malls – he’s got it all! My friend loves to wisecrack, in reference to the retailing giant’s advertising tagline, "We’ve got it all!"
According to my friend, BF is his pick to lead the country after PGMA because he fits the bill exactly, "He is clean, he is mean to wrongdoers, he has an impressive track record as a public servant, and most importantly, he’s got political will." (As Spaniards would bluntly say, "El tiene cojones gordos!") He implemented change in Marikina and he’s now doing it in Metro Manila. You can’t argue with success," my friend points out. He also firmly believes that there are multitudes of closet BF followers just waiting for the call to rally round Fernando’s flag.
Many are of the firm belief it would be foolhardy to underestimate Fernando. Let’s not forget that former Joseph Estrada’s bid for the presidency was also met with derision when the idea was floated. We learned from a friend close to Estrada that an Erap non-believer had suggested that the title of book "Eraptions" should have been changed to "Erap for President and Other Jokes." Similar to her mocking of Fernando, Sen. Miriam Santiago also belittled Erap when the Estrada for President trial balloon was floated. The rest, as they say, is history.
My friend also said that only Fernando has shown strong political will among all those who have served as MMDA chairman. The thing is the guy may just be right in his layman’s assessment. It is only during Fernando’s watch that things in Metro Manila appear to be getting better. The foul smelling piles of garbage that used to dot even our main thoroughfares have disappeared. Vehicles now travel faster on Edsa and other major thoroughfares, saving precious time and gasoline.
Discourteous public transportation drivers have been partly restrained. Sidewalks occupied for decades by illegal vendors have been returned to pedestrians, illegal structures and squatter shanties are being demolished and trees are being planted along major arteries.
Before Fernando took over, traveling through Baclaran to Airport Road, a two-kilometer stretch, was an ordeal that required hours on end to negotiate. After he took over as MMDA boss, Fernando solved the traffic mess. After four months, travel time was reduced to five minutes. Motorists now call the feat the Baclaran miracle.
This didn’t happen, my friend stressed, during the tenures at the MMDA of former Mayors Mel Mathay of Quezon City, Prospero Oreta of Malabon, Benjamin Abalos of Mandaluyong, Sonny Belmonte of Quezon City, and Jojo Binay of Makati.
Fernando is certainly the underdog, for now, anyway, in the coming 2010 presidential derby. And the surveys that show him occupying the last slot (together with Binay as of the last poll) have validated this. But I believe my friend who expects him to be high up there neck and neck with the current frontrunners since, unlike the other presidential wannabes, he does not carry the image of being a traditional politician.
As the Pilipino phrase goes, Fernando’s aspiration could be a suntok sa buwan, but from what we’re seeing right now, he’s no stranger at taking shots at the moon. He was a virtual unknown when he first threw his hat into the political ring in Marikina and won as mayor against a heretofore unbeatable political rival.
Initially, his term was met with disdain and his moves at instituting reforms were greeted by resistance. But his persistence paid off as soon after, Marikina began to be considered and publicly declared as one of the cleanest, safest and most progressive cities, not just in the country but even in the region. Its citizens have become one of the most disciplined in the metropolis. Today, it is an established fact that there is not a single squatter, there are no illegal vendors, there are no erring drivers in Marikina.
He reportedly also went through a baptism of fire from local executives. People close to Fernando said that life for the MMDA chair has never been easy since his first day on the job, with mayors like Jojo Binay and Pasay’s Peewee Trinidad breathing down his neck. Used to always having their way, they kept trying to put their finger on everything the agency was doing. But Fernando has always stood his ground, while patiently trying to have the mayors see things his way.
Fernando watchers say that people are sometimes uncomfortable with him because he does not respond to situations the usual way. Those close to him say he thinks out of the box, an unorthodox politician who does things without fanfare even at the risk of attracting enemies on many fronts.
His detractors supposedly dislike him because he is able to achieve things that they have wanted to do but never had the political will to do them. Political will, I think, are the operative words here and they apparently work for Fernando.
However, for a man who wants to be president, he seems to be drawing more enemies than supporters. Traditional politicians would normally hold vote-losing activities like demolition and sidewalk clearing operations till the elections are over but not Fernando who appears to be crafted from a different mold.
A top official of a nationwide organization of local government executives once said admiringly of BF: "He has put some sense and saneness to the landscape of Metro Manila."
In a recent TV interview, Fernando lamented the fact that he is being branded anti-poor. "Tinutupad ko lang ang aking tungkulin. Basta batas," he said, "aking ipatutupad." Being hardheaded is one of our cultural defects as a people. Who knows, maybe an iron hand in a velvet glove is what the country needs at this time.

Comparative Development Administration:Marikina

2009-04-04T03:38:00.000-07:00

By Prof. Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA student, UP NCPAG

As a student who was never late nor absent in the class of Dean Alex Brillantes, I have the privilege of listening to all group reports. Out of several reports, I decided to write on topics that the class finds interesting, even tried to documents the reactions of the class.

The report of Student Regent Candidate Dr. Joey Montemayor and company talks about the “Study of Development Administration: Origins and Rationale, Key Concepts and Approaches”. The group defined public administration as the body of skills needed by those implementing decisions for proper governance of the modern state organizations. Public administration involves processes, hierarchies and products on the system of governance. The group defines government as an organizational machinery, or agency through which a political unit exercises authority and perform functions. The group picked up Tadaro’s definition of development which is a multi dimensional process involving the reorganization and reorientation of the entire economic and social system for the improvement of human lives. Then it picked up the definition of G. F. Gant for development administration which is the focus of administration on the support and management of development. The reaction of the class on their report, by me particularly and later expounded by Mayor Dindo Garciano, is: among the different and varied definitions the group presented, which definition is the “official” or the one they are recommending. These questions triggered the celebrated heated argument between Dr. Joey Montemayor and Mayor Dindo Garciano, both defeated congressional candidates in the last elections. I tried to define development administration in a very generic and simplistic way that an ordinary guy can use it in a normal conversation. Grammatically, development administration should mean; administration of development, but doctoral students, especially of UP, will look you down if you define it this way, as lacking of intellectual rigor. (Yeah right, but full of common sense.) Well, using the terms of the reporters and well, common sense, it says that development is a holistic improvement of a system or subject. And administration is a body of skills needed by those who implement decisions. Combining the two, development administration, in a generic sense, is an application of a body of skills needed to improve a system or a subject, or to be exact, Tadaro’ human lives.

The report of the group leaves a lot of us wanting for more…basically because it was peppered by a heated debate, but otherwise, some of us need clarity. It forces some of us to read more, for clarity. What is the point having a lot of confused concepts in mind that you can not even tell in one sentence and in simple English to your son. One good thing about this is that the next group, the group of Awele and company, whose topic “The Concept of Development Administration: Political, Economic and Cultural” - attempted to be precise. Their operational definition of development is the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) by 2015 plus the improvement on the quantitative index as a measure of development. The index they are referring is the Human Development Index (HDI). Well, that is a lot common sense. If MDG’s are wrong after a lot of things they has gone through to arrive at, then, what else is correct? The second group seems to have learned a lesson or two from the experience of the previous group by skirting confusion and be as direct and specific as possible. The group enumerated the 8 MDG’s and assessed which among them are about to be successfully addressed globally. (It was noted that if you as the Philippine government if it can attain its MDG’s, it will answer yes.) One thing nice about the group report is that from specific, they were able to venture into the realm of a wide array of development theories like the classical economics of Adam Smith, the Malthusian theory, Keynesian theory, Rostow, structuralisms and world system theory, institutionalization, neo-classical economy, and human development theory.

The next group is the group of Rey Chang and company which talk about “Enhancing Effectiveness through Targeted Interventions: Alternative Approaches to Development.” I was privy to the preparations of the group including the internal power struggles of the members by virtue of my availability to listen to the woes of my classmates. The group talks about global development trends: economic development, sustainable development, and good governance, and now, local economic development. It also talks about the building blocks of development: growth and structural change, distributive equity, modernization, political transformation, demographic characteristics, education and health, employment, etc. Then the group talks about a topic that interest me a lot, Hernando de Soto’s Mysteries of Capital. I contributed my piece in support of the topic, that after Bayani Fernando gave titled homes to 11,000 Marikenos, these former squatters gained economic weapon – they can now go to a pawnshop and collateral their title for a sum to be used for education. The Dean asked me if the Fernando’s are aware of the concepts of Hernando de Soto. I said that maybe yes, but it is also probable that Bayani Fernando just used common sense. A student Mike de Jesus said that De Soto actually visited the Philippines and was once an adviser of President Fidel V. Ramos. Then came the presentation of ex-Mayor Dindo Garciano of Baras town of Rizal Province about his approach in governance. What is pointedly revealing is the question of Dean Brillantes on why does this Garciano lost in the election and what now is the prospect of the sustainability of his programs. Garciano said that he lost because his opponent, his former vice mayor, has a bigger clan and he thinks that his program will never be sustained by the new mayor. So, it is not about programs after all in politics. Also, one thing that will not be continued is his vision mission statement because it has the acronym of D.I.N.D.O.

Another group that I like is the one that reported about “The Elements of Development Administration: Structural Dimension” by Ines Basaen and company. The group talks about centralization, decentralization, federalism and unitary form of government. The topic becomes hot because of Cha Cha and the move for federalism being pushed by some quarters.

My group which talked about “Behavioral Dimension: Alternative and Roles of Development Administrators”, was the first group to bring a resource speaker in the class: Mayor Marides Fernando of Marikina City. The Dean later summarized her talked by saying that she is practicing politics by cosmetics: you have to show people something for them to change behavior in return.

The last group of Bengson and company talked about “Leadership and Development: Context, Theories, Dimensions and Dilemmas.” They talked about the quadrant of thinkers: the technocrats, the administrators, the people person, the visionary and the holistic guy. The group brought Tony Meloto as the resource speaker which I found to be very paradoxical and credible. The Dean noticed one of the paradoxes: to be powerful is not to seek for power.

As a whole, I learned a lot from this class..one of the best class I ever had in DPA in terms of rigor.

Marikina and Tabaco Albay: an Experience

2009-04-04T03:23:00.000-07:00

by Toti Dulay

Tabaco City is the City of Love. The name Tabaco came from the word tabak, meaning jungle bolo. I thought it came from tobacco. There are so many things that we Marikenos can learn from the city.

Their Community Based Monitoring System is well in place. It can serve lots of purpose – economic mapping and even practical politics. The data gathering process can also provide livelihood to data gatherers. The system, according to Mayor Kristel Lagman – Luistro, was designed by DILG and it can provide technical assistance to LGU’s who want to use the system. The system is quite costly and massive, and if not handled properly, maybe wasteful. Wasteful in the sense that since computer operations are basically garbage in, garbage out, a late or incomplete data maybe garbage and therefore may produce useless output.. Applying this system to a big city like Marikina maybe cumbersome. If only computers are ready and are dedicated to the project and the field interviews will have deadlines, then, a proper timeline can be made and therefore, this project, despite being costly, might have so many good use.

The 2009 Tabaco City Proposed IRA and the process of budgeting is commendable. Being open and well deliberated, it can be a sign that nobody is making money from the infrastructure or purchases coming from IRA. A self bested proposal could have been shot down in the session by the other members in that august body. The approach was a novelty and maybe worth trying in Marikina, if only to show to the whole world that Marikina is an honest city. In the session, an NGO’s can push for their project and deliberate on other project proposals. It is a good governance in action – accountable and participatory. To some upcoming political leaders, it could also be a chance to be known…with their bright ideas and commitment. It would also be a way to cement alliances. Again, by mere size, calling an assembly like that in Marikina, although intentionally good, maybe cumbersome to handle. Besides, there so many articulate leaders in Marikina that makes time management a challenging task. Of course, the whole proceedings will depend on the facilitative ability of the presiding officer. In the case of Tabaco, somebody, the budget officer, has already consolidated the budget proposal, divided them into sectors, namely; social development, economic development, infrastructure, administrative and advocacy. Specific projects are listed and deliberated openly.

The Eco- Adventure Tour is fantastic. For P3,000 only, a 2 days 2 night s tour which include retrospective trips, sightseeing, swimming, wall climbing, zip slide and film shows. The package includes service vehicle, entrance fee, twin – sharing accommodation (hotel/resort), meals, harness and head gear for climbing and token. Marikina should also come up with lots of package tour and sell them to tourists.

The packaging of Tabaco is also a state of the art, understandably because the mayor is a former congresswoman and a UP Public Administration student. Their brochure is chic, complete and informative. They are trying to find some distinctions, something that will make them different from the rest, e.g. padyak capital of the Philippines, the city of love, the tabak making capital, the only town with road access to Mayon volcano etc.

As a tourism destination, it is promoting the Tabak Festival, the Tabaco City Fiesta and Semana Santa. Tabaco is also promoting Mayon volcano, Mayon Planetarium and Science Park, the City Hall which has a unique architecture, the St. John the Baptist Parish Churh, the Tabaco Cimburrio, Isla Punta Beach Resort, Mountain Biking, Tabaco International Port, Swimming/Snorkeling/Diving, Borcel’s Farm and Nature Spring, ibos – latik delicacy, marcasotes cake, Ice Blinkers halo – halo, and abaca bags.

The warmth and hospitality of the Mayor is really fascinating. With beauty and intellect, she is a good public relations practitioner oozing with sincerity. The briefing in her office is good and informative. Her staff are cooperative. The merienda of ibos – latik is the best. The lunch in a Chinese restaurant, and the most of all, the souvenir – an authentic Tabaco tabak for everyone – is surely a collector’s item, specially the fact that it was personally handed by the Mayor herself. I displayed mine prominently in my private office at home, which is always a talking point among my visitors. Bayani Fernando and Mayor Kristel Lagman – Luistro, in a way, share one common philosophy – make do of what you have. The ideas of MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando put forward in a party building workshop held recently in Astoria Plaza in Pasig City, for his own Kabayani Party. He said that bureaucratic structures all over the world may not have major differences because they are based on the needs of men. Since the needs of men are somewhat predictable and similar, ergo, structures addressing these needs are almost similar. What makes the difference among good organizations and bad organizations is the management. This is somewhat similar to the idea of Herbert Simon on his reaction to POSDCORB saying that decision making is more important that prescriptive proverbs. Fernando emphasizes the virtue of good leadership, political will and action - even quoting an author from his personal readings saying that “men of pure intellect do not rule the world but those who have the will and action.” To Fernando, a leadership that inspire followers and staff is capable of coming out with good management because it will have a cascading effect of good management and judgment from up to bottom. To him, it is useless to keep on blaming the structure, because structure will always be essentially the same. Rather, it is better to concentrate on good management to mitigate the imperfections of the structure. One way of putting good management into action is to stop old programs that does not address effectively the priority needs of the constituents and initiate programs that address them on its root. In Marikina, flooding was solved by not just occasional cleaning of drainage that may be used for political visibility but on engineering solution of directing the flow of water into the river by building drainage system that are not circuitous and leads to the river in the shortest route possible. This is a combination of good management, good decision making and an engineering expertise, he being an engineer. Fernando fights the corruption in the bureaucracy and he will even dramatize them “para wag pamarisan” (to serve as example). At one time, he fired his long term political strategist who is making money demolishing informal settlers using governmental resources and authority in behalf of private individuals. In a way, Mayor Kristel Lagman – Luistro has not played around too much with theories but tried to implement what is incrementally doable that could add up to the betterment of the public

Lastly, Vice - Mayor Salazar and Prof. Ocenar are the best. That is why; I suggested to the class that we express our appreciation to the two by way of a dinner – videokee session. Surely, the field trip is one of memorable adventures and study tour we all have, especially me. I am really wondering up to now why I became dizzy going up to the Mayon Volcano? I have driven my own car in much longer routes and nothing of that sort happened. That is why, I can not forget this doctoral class.

The Singapore and Marikina Experiences in ECCD

2009-04-04T03:15:00.000-07:00

By Prof. Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA student, UP NCPAG

Conceptual Base

Child welfare is within the context of social development. Vague and confused as a concept, social development can be defined as “the enhancement of well being and the progressive enrichment of the quality of people’s lives”[1] Social development is a component of overall development concept. In the Philippine experience, social development has been a major concern – often times handled by the Office of the President or made into a full – blown department with names changing from administration to administration.
Women and child health care are intertwined – what is good for the mother is also good for her child. Civilizations took care of their children, yet, the concern for women has been a late development even among the presumed civilized countries in the world. “The British traced their democracy to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215, which led to the development of their parliament. Indeed, up to 1911, the hereditary noblemen in the House of Lords had as much power as the people’s representatives in the House of Commons. Women got the vote only in 1928. And extra votes for Oxbridge University graduates and businessmen were abolished only in 1948. The United States declared independence in 1776. In 1788, the constitution gave the vote only to those who paid property tax or poll tax, which meant, the well – to-do. There were barriers of age, color and sex. In 1860, income and property qualifications were abolished, but other barriers like literacy tests and poll taxes discriminated against blacks and other disadvantage groups. In 1920, women got their vote.”[2] In Singapore for instance, “women enjoy the same legal rights as men in most areas, and many are well – educated professionals. Yet relatively few women hold top positions in government and in the private sector.”[3]
Good governments are concern about child health care. Lee Kuan Yew, for instance may not have his sole focus on child health care but by focusing on good governance, he was setting the necessary environment for women and children concerns. He said that “as an Asian of Chinese cultural background, my values are for government which is honest, effective and efficient in protecting its people, and allowing opportunities for all to advance themselves in a stable and orderly society, where they can live a good life and raise their children to do better than themselves. In other words: people are well cared for, their food, housing, employment, health; good and ever improving education,”[4] among others. Yet, in Singapore, there are events that could hinder children’s welfare in general in some sectors. One of them is racial discrimination. “Despite government efforts, ethnic Malays have not on average reached the schooling and income levels of ethnic Chinese or ethnic Indians and they reportedly face discriminations in private – sector employment.”[5] Another concern is on the area of workers condition. “Singapore’s 160,000 domestic workers are excluded from the Employment Act and regularly exploited. A 2006 standard contract for migrant domestic workers addresses food deprivation and entitles replaced workers to seek other employment in Singapore, but it fails to provide other basic protections, such as rest days.”[6]

Social development or even child welfare has to contend with the other concerns of the state, like defense for instance. “Social policy making must be seen as a political process. It has already been stressed that social policy cannot be analyzed on its own, without referring to other activities of the state.”[7] Also, it must be realized that social development is always a work in progress because it “involves a process of change which is fostered through a deliberate human action.”[8] Social development is dynamic – which partially explain for instance why in the Philippines, the Council for the Welfare of Children has been passed on through times like ping pong balls from the Office of the President to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Vague as it is – couple with dynamism – social development must be defined using different perspectives. The United Nations Center for Regional Development defined social development as a “sectoral development and the provision of social services involving the improvement of the quality of life of the people through education, employment, health, housing, social welfare, agrarian reform, community development or disaster welfare.”[9] Take note that this 1983 definition from UN does not carry children’s welfare in it. In the same UN article however, a slightly different perspective of social development is defined as “supportive of and providing services for those in special needs and involving the development of, and provision of services to women, children and disadvantaged group”[10] This definition seems to put children’s welfare as an after thought concern – not in the mainstream.
There are also perspectives that say social development is nothing but providing welfare dole outs to the constituencies, which seems to be the prevailing thinking of most LGUs in the Philippines.

Benchmarking the Concept on International Conventions

It is in these multi perspective concepts that this paper seeks to approach the early child care and development (ECCD) experiences in Singapore and Marikina. The best way to handle a concept is to have a benchmark. In this case, the best benchmark for ECCD is the globally prevailing document – the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC).In the unofficial summary of the main provisions of the CRC, its “preamble recalls the basic principles of the United Nations and specific provisions of certain relevant human rights treaties and proclamations. It reaffirms the fact that children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection, and it places special emphasis on the primary caring and protective responsibility of the family. It also reaffirms the need for legal and other protection of the child before and after birth, the importance of respect for the cultural values of the child’s community, and the vital role of international cooperation in securing children’s right”[11]
The CRC defined a child as a person under 18, unless the national laws recognize a country – specific age of majority. It encourages positive actions for non – discrimination on children and the government should always pursue the best interest of the child. It said that the state must implement the rights of the child. It must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents to provide guidance for the child. The child has the right to life, name and nationality; and identity. The child has the right to live with his or her parents. Parents and children have the right for reunification. The state shall safeguard the children’s right to have their own opinion, freedom of though, conscience, religion and association. The privacy of children must be provided and the state shall ensure the accessibility of children to information. It is the responsibility of parents to raise the child but the state shall provide assistance to the parents. The child must be protected from abuse and neglect and the states should protect children without families. The convention recognizes adoption. Special care should be given to refugee children, children of minorities and disabled children. The child has the right to the highest standard of health, medical care attendance and social security. They have the right to adequate standard of living and education. The child has the right to be protected from child labor, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, sale, trafficking, abduction and other forms of exploitation. The child has the right to be protected from torture and deprivation of liberty. The state shall take measures that children below 15 years of age has no direct part in hostilities. Rehabilitation and proper handling of victimized children as well as those in conflict with the law should be ensured. The state is obligated to inform the public of the CRC and they have to submit reports, which must also be available to the public.
With this backdrop and taking into account that the Philippines is a signatory to the CRC, it is now clear that children’s welfare is a big responsibility for the LGUs.
Another important document that articulated for the welfare of children is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “The Millennium Development Goals are the world’s time – bound and quantitative targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions – income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion – while promoting gender equality, equality, education, and environmental sustainability.”[12] There are basically eight MDGs, namely, eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability; and, develop global partnership for development. The MDGs have 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators. I had the opportunity to report this topic in a doctoral class and we counted how many of these goals, targets and indicators pertains to children. The conclusion of the class is that out of 8 MDGs, only 1, the goal number seven (ensure environmental sustainability) has no direct provision about children’s welfare. But then, it is commonsensical that a good environment is beneficial to children – making the MDGs as another pro child welfare international document.

How Different is Singapore and the Philippines?

Taken from FreedomHouse, freedom in the world circa 2008 for the Philippines and Singapore, found at http://www.freedomhouse.org. , the difference of the two countries is enormous. Philippines have a population of 88,700,000 while Singapore has 4,600,000 only. Both countries are partly free but the Philippines scores better in the area of civil liberties and political rights. The Philippines was under the Spain for around 300 years, went under American control in 1998 and got its independence in 1946. The country was once one of the wealthiest in Southeast Asia but since 1960’s; it has been plagued by economic mismanagement, insurgencies and widespread corruption. Singapore started as a British trading center in 1819 and eventually become a British colony. It become independent in 1959, joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 and gained full independence in 1965. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) transformed the poor city into a regional financial center and exporter of high – technology goods, but restricted individual freedoms and hindered political development in the process. The Philippines has a presidential system, almost similar to America. Singapore has a parliamentary system similar to Great Britain. In the Philippines, corruption, cronyism and influence peddling are rife in business and government. Despite the recent economic reforms, a few dozen powerful families continue to play an overarching role in politics and are very wealthy. Singapore is known for lack of corruption. Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index ranked the country fourth out of 180 countries surveyed

To sum it all Singapore is richer, less corrupt but less free; Philippines is freer, more corrupt and not that rich.

The Child Welfare Program of Singapore

The age of majority applicable in Singapore is 21 years old. The Women’s Charter spells out the responsibilities of parents towards the care of their children who are minors (below the age of 21 years and who is not married, or a widower or a widow). The Children and Young Persons Act provides for the care and protection of children and young persons who are below 16 years of age. The Women’s Charter accords protection to women and girls who are in moral danger or protects them against sexual exploitation regardless of age. The Employment Act adopts the same definitions as the Children and Young Persons Act for a “child” and a “young person”. Singapore prohibits the employment of children below the age of 12 years. Practically all children who are below the age of 16 years are either pursuing an education in schools or learning a skill in vocational institutions. So far, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has not received reports or complaints of children who have been exploited or forced to work in industrial undertakings (including factories). Penal Code provides that an offence of statutory rape is made out if (among other things) a man has sexual intercourse with a girl even with her consent if she is below 14 years of age. This means that a “child” below 14 years old cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse. Under the Women’s Charter, any person who has carnal connection with a girl below the age of 16 years, except by way of marriage, is guilty of an offence. The Women’s Charter governs civil marriages in Singapore. The minimum legal age of marriage in Singapore is 18 years with parental consent. A person below 18 years of age wishing to get married has to apply for a Special Marriage License from the Minister of Community Development and Sports before he/she can marry. The Smoking (Control of Advertisement and Sale of Tobacco) Act prohibits the sale or giving of tobacco products to persons under 18 years. The Poisons Act prohibits the sale of poison to persons below the age of 18.The age of criminal responsibility therefore starts at 7 years of age.
Though the age of criminal liability is 7 years, there are safeguards for children up to 12 years. A child below 14 years cannot be sentenced or ordered to be imprisoned for any offence or be committed to prison in default of payment of a fine or costs. A child offender can be committed to an Approved School or a Young Offenders Section administered by the Prisons Department if his/her behavior and character are so unruly or depraved that treatment in a juvenile facility is deemed unsuitable. In Singapore, the general age of consent for medical treatment has not been definitively stated in the legislation and case law at the moment. Parental consent may not necessarily be required if: it is a case of emergency; or the child is a case of abandonment, or when the parents cannot be located if a child is not capable of consenting; or a pregnant girl below the age of 18 years who is unmarried wishes to terminate her pregnancy. However, unmarried girls below 16 years of age seeking treatment to terminate
pregnancies have to undergo compulsory pre-abortion counseling at the Institute of Health to ensure that they are aware of the consequences of their decisions. In Singapore, the child is precious to both his or her family and the nation. The
Government places a very high premium on the education, health and protection of children so that they can realize their full potential, regardless of race, religion or socio-economic background. Constitution of Singapore guarantees all Singapore citizens including children, the right to equality and non-discrimination.
Females, who make up almost half of Singapore’s population (50 per cent of the population in 2000), are not regarded as a minority or disadvantaged group. They are given equal access to education, training, employment opportunities and health-care. Police procedure accords special consideration in the handling of children. For example, police officers avoid using force at the point of affecting an arrest. Children are separated from other offenders when detained. Investigations for cases involving children as accused persons
are expedited. Singapore considers that a child’s rights as defined in the CRC. It recognizes the family as the fundamental building block of society. In legal disputes involving families and children, it is the court’s primary responsibility to protect the interests of children. The physical set up of the Court takes into account the needs of children A Children’s Resource Centre for older children at the Family Justice Centre provides information on family cases and counseling to children. The Children and Young Persons Act has provisions which allow the removal of a child or young person to a place of safety or an approved home, or the placement of the child under the care of a fit person or the supervision of a Welfare Officer, if the parents are unable to provide adequate care for the child. Guardianship of Infants Act (GIA) states that the welfare of the child shall be the first and paramount consideration in any court proceedings involving the custody or upbringing of a person below 21 years or the administration of any property belonging to or held in trust for that child. Since 1980, the Government, through the Ministry of Community Development and Sports, has promoted and regulated the development and operation of childcare centers for children below 7 years of age, to help working parents who need alternative childcare arrangements for their pre-school children while they work. On 1 November 1989, the Government set up the National Youth Council (NYC) to coordinate youth affairs at the national level. Singapore has a good track record in child health and development and has met the targets on child health and development of the World Summit Goals for Children. This is attributed to effective and rigorous implementation of laws, services and programs which have been put in place to promote the development of children. Persons who at the time of commission of an offence are below 18 years are prohibited from being sentenced to death under the Criminal Procedure Code. Singapore has a comprehensive health-care system for children, the elements of which are as follows: there is a network of primary health clinics and hospitals (both private and public); government polyclinics provide maternal and child health care which includes child surveillance program comprising development screening and immunizations for pre-school children, health promotion activities and curative care. The Infectious Disease Act (cap. 137) provides for the quarantine and prevention of infectious diseases. The Act and its regulations require compulsory immunization of children against diphtheria and measles. Immunization is provided against tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis and hepatitis B. Child immunization programs are made available to all children in Singapore through government polyclinics, the School Health Service (SHS) and private hospitals/public hospitals and private practitioners. The public sector administers 60 per cent of immunizations while the rest are carried out by the private health sector. All immunizations in polyclinics and SHS are free except for hepatitis. The public housing authority of Singapore, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), aims to provide affordable high-quality housing to residents. An HDB neighborhood park, which ranges from 0.4 to 1.5 hectares, is provided for every 5,000-6,000 dwelling units Children’s playgrounds are usually located at the precinct centre and near a childcare centre to facilitate supervision. Constitution of Singapore states (among other things) that every citizen of Singapore has the right to freedom of speech and expression. A child’s right to express views freely in matters pertaining to the child per se is also extended to the act of abortion. Unmarried girls who are below the age of 18 years are entitled to the right of terminating a pregnancy without seeking parental consent The Government encourages feedback on policies and issues from students through various activities and programs organized by the Ministry of Education and other bodies. There are locally produced children’s programs which elicit comments from children and youth on national issues or matters directly affecting them. Singapore places great importance on the well-being of the family unit. Singapore supports the principle that both parents have shared responsibility for the upbringing and development of their children. The Government actively promotes the development of Family Service Centers (FSCs), which are one-stop neighborhood-based social service centers, to support individuals and families in the community. These FSCs provide a range of services such as counseling, advice, information, referral and group work. FLE is one of their core programs. To foster a family-friendly work environment. alternative working arrangements, such as part-time work, contract work, flexible work arrangements, home-based tele-commuting and understanding the occasional need to attend to family emergencies are encouraged among employers. The Government also encourages the development of childcare centres12 as well as student care centers (or before-and-after school
care centres13) to cater to the childcare needs of working parents. Through the provision of such facilities and emphasis on family life, the Government hopes to alleviate the burden of working parents, help couples balance work and family life, and support parents in their parenting roles. The Children and Young Persons Act provides for the removal of abused children to a place of safety even before they can be brought before a court for the making of an order for
their care and custody. The Children and Young Persons Act provides for the care of children in need of care and protection and who are destitute. A destitute child can be placed for adoption to willing parties after the assessment of the latter’s suitability through social investigation and contact. The Ministry of Community Development and Sports has had a Fostering Scheme since 1956 for children (including intellectually disabled children) aged 18 years and below. The
Scheme allows children deprived of parental care to be cared for in a normal home environment and within the community. The MCDS also supervises 15 children’s residential homes run by VWOs. Six are gazettes as Places of Safety, Approved Homes and/or Approved Schools under the Children and the Government provides a per capita grant for each child and free medical treatment for the children at all government hospitals and polyclinics.
The children in these homes continue to attend schools and are entitled to recreational outings and visits by parents and relatives. The Adoption of Children Act (cap. 4) governs adoption procedures in Singapore. Before the court makes an order for adoption, the court must be satisfied that the adoption order
is for the welfare of the child, with due consideration given to the wishes of the child, his age and understanding. Singapore takes a serious view of violence in any form. The Government and the community believe that no one deserves to be abused and protection will be accorded to those who are vulnerable. Child abuse is defined as any act of omission or commission by a parent or guardian which would endanger or impair the child’s physical or emotional well-being, or that is judged by a mixture of community values and professionals to be inappropriate. Sexual abuse is the exploitation of a child or young person for
sexual gratification or any sexual activities between an adult and a child.
The MCDS is the lead agency for child protection and welfare. Victims of abuse are sent for psychological intervention by a psychologist or child
psychiatrist where necessary. School authorities are mindful that the school is first and foremost a place to nurture the child to develop his/her fullest potential. Hence, in the administration of discipline, great care is given to the enforcement measures so that the pupils’ dignity and self-esteem are not eroded. Corporal punishment is meted out judiciously to errant male pupils, and even then as a
last resort, by the principal or a teacher authorized by him/her. Under no circumstances are female pupils subjected to corporal punishment. Great emphasis is placed on skills and training of personnel involved in the management of child abuse cases. The Government recognizes that public education is important to deal with child abuse and neglect and family violence and works closely with the courts, Family Service Centers, crisis shelters, and organizations like the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), the Singapore Council of Women’s Organizations (SCWO, which is the umbrella body for women organizations), the Society Against Family Violence and the Singapore’s Children’s Society, to promote awareness of child abuse and family violence. Singapore implemented the Parent Education Program in June 1985 as a preventive and developmental program to support parents in the demanding task of parenting. The cases of children placed in children’s homes, foster care or institutions are reviewed periodically by Case Review Committees in each institution. Singapore children enjoy quality, up-to-date health care that is readily accessible and affordable. The Ministry of Health (MOH) provides preventive, curative and rehabilitative health services and coordinates the planning and development of the public and private health sectors. . Government subsidy on the public health-care services was S$ 1,089 million (US$ 672). Child mortality rates have declined greatly since the 1940s. The following factors have also
contributed to the improved rates, which helped to rank Singapore as one of the best in the world in health care for children: immunization and environmental health programs which controlled infectious diseases; introduction of neonatal intensive care units at all major hospitals with obstetric practice; improved care of neonates and advances in managing premature babies; good obstetric practice and quality antenatal care (more than 99 per cent of births attended by trained personnel); provision of prenatal and post-natal care provided at primary health clinics and hospitals and special precautions taken for high-risk pregnancies, in particular near term and at the time of labor; mass screening (thyroid function and G6PD deficiency) for newborns; availability of cardiac surgery; and renal dialysis/renal and liver transplants for children with chronic renal/liver failure. The most common causes of death among children under 5 years of age are congenital anomalies, prenatal complications, complications of premature, pneumonia, heart diseases, cancer and accidental falls. The most common cancer in childhood is acute leukemia followed by brain tumors and
solid tumors. NBDR was set up by MOH in January 1993 to monitor birth defects, the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the prenatal period and early childhood in Singapore. People with disabilities have different degrees of mobility. Most can and do take public transport such as buses and the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) daily. Steps have been taken by public transport operators in recent years to make their systems user-friendlier and more accessible to people with disabilities. Singapore regards the development of a barrier-free physical environment as necessary for integrating the disabled into community life. Primary, secondary, and even tertiary health-care is easily accessible. Government polyclinics and private practitioners are located all over the island and usually concentrated in new towns where the population density is high.
Preventive health care comprises health education, immunization against infectious diseases and selective health screening. Private practitioners and government polyclinics, outpatient dispensaries and childcare clinics provide primary health care in Singapore. In 1998, there were 2,489 doctors in the
private sector providing 80 per cent of primary health care. The Ministry’s Family Health Service provides the remaining 20 per cent. School Health Service (SHS) provides health surveillance, immunization and health education through its school and clinic (Student Health Centre) programs. Preventive, promotional and curative dental health services are provided through the School Dental Service, the Hospital Dental Service and the Community Dental Service. They are freely and easily accessible via the hospital dental clinics, community dental clinics, school dental clinics and multiple private dental clinics located all over the country. The Pharmaceutical Department of the Ministry of Health is responsible for ensuring the quality, safety and efficiency of pharmaceutical products sold in the market. There are 12 public sector hospitals (3 government and 9 government restructured) and 13 private hospitals which provide curative and rehabilitative care to the population. Of the 12 public sector hospitals, 6 provide acute general inpatient and specialist outpatient services and 24-hour accident and emergency services. The nutritional status of Singapore children is closely monitored from birth up to the time they leave school. During the neonatal period, breastfeeding is strongly advised and measures are taken to prevent distribution of milk samples to newborns in hospitals and government
clinics. Male circumcision is carried out for medical and religious reasons and involves the removal of the foreskin of the penis by surgical means. It is usually done in a sterile environment and in private by either a trained doctor or male nurse. Female circumcision is usually done in infancy. The procedure involves the removal of a small piece of skin from the clitoris by doctors, with sterile scissors or scalpel in a sterile environment, and in private. The first local case of HIV was diagnosed in 1985. In the first three months of 1998, another 44 Singaporeans were detected to be infected with HIV. This brought the total number of HIV-infected Singaporeans to 775 at 31 March 1998. The use of traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) is widely practiced in Singapore. There are local training schools in TCM. MOH places emphasis on training for all health-care professionals to upgrade the quality of health care. Singapore’s standard in health care for its population is similar to those of advanced industrialized countries. There has been increasing budgetary allocation for the preventive aspects of reproductive health and strong preventive health and education programs with special emphasis on the well-being of mothers and children. Plans for the future include improving the quality of clinical services and professional manpower, and control of costs to patients and the Government. The Ministry of Health hopes to promote the health of Singaporeans by encouraging healthy lifestyles and preventing disease while ensuring access to good and affordable basic health care in the event of illness. Singapore places importance on the well-being of the family unit. It believes that strong, cohesive families are better able to provide a nurturing environment for the physical, emotional, mental and social development security of children and family members. The Baby Bonus and paid maternity leave for the third child are measures introduced by the Government to help address part of the financial costs of raising children. In addition, the Government has decided to implement the following work practices that
would allow its employees to support its efforts in creating a pro-family focus via a balanced work-life environment: to allow three days of paid marriage leave for the first marriage with effect from 1 October 2000; to allow three days of paternity leave for male civil servants for their first three children with effect from 1 October 2000; to allow teleporting, where practical, as an alternative working arrangement, particularly for parents with young children; and
(d) To allow individual ministries and departments to implement flexible work
arrangements, as long as there is no loss of productivity and lapse in service standards to the public. In 1984, the Government implemented a national childcare centre program to promote the development of childcare centre facilities for children up to age 7 years as part of its support. A 1997 Population Planning Section (Ministry of Health) survey on newly married couples showed that childcare availability was the second most commonly cited factor influencing the decision on family size, after finance. Hence, the Ministry of Community Development and Sports (MCDS) will increase the number of childcare places by 25 per cent over the next three years that is by about 12,000 to 58,000 places.
To support parents who use these childcare centers, the Government provides childcare subsidy to all working parents who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents, to help them defray the cost of payment of childcare fees.
The Government actively promotes the development of Family Service Centers (FSCs) to provide support service to help families and individuals in the community. FSCs are developed at major housing estates to make social services accessible and available at the neighborhood level. Singapore adopts a multi-pronged approach towards educating its people in family life. These programs are aimed mainly at promoting the well-being of the family and enhancing
family life. It is the right of the child to an adequate standard of living. The primary responsibility to secure, within their abilities and financial capabilities, the necessary living conditions for the child’s development lies with the parents or the guardians of the child. Singapore has a wide range of schemes, programs and services to help those in genuine need of assistance. The Government, voluntary welfare organizations, community groups and self-help groups run a range of financial and other support services, schemes and programs to help individuals and families. No one who is genuinely in need will be denied assistance. Special focus is placed on the welfare and well-being of children, especially children of families where parents are unable to provide adequate care for them.

The Philippines Approach to Child Welfare

After passing through some basic social development concepts and international statures, it is now time to look into Philippine national documents and see what they have to offer for children’s welfare.
The CRC and MDGs, the international statures that articulate for children’s welfare, have a great influence on Philippine national programs and legislatures that concerns children. “The Philippines now stands in a critical point in time, faced with the challenged of realizing its commitments to the CRC, the MDGs, and the WFFC goals and the vision of Child 21.The current development and context in the country present complex and difficult issues.”[13]
The report submitted by the Philippine government, third and fourth periodic reports of States parties due in 2007, to be exact, talked about the country’s continuing review and enactment of legislations in compliance with CRC. The report identified the following legislative gaps: minimum age of criminal responsibility, minimum age of sexual consent, prohibition of torture, lack of comprehensive juvenile system, discrimination against children born out of wedlock, use of children in pornography, and corporal punishment. To work on these gaps, the country enacted the following laws: RA 9344: Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act – raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 9 to 15; RA 9208:Anti – Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 – instituted policies to eliminate trafficking, specially women and children; RA 9231: Elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labor Act of 2003; RA 9255 : An Act Allowing Illegitimate Children to Use the Surnames of their Father; RA 9262 : Anti – Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004; and, RA 9288 : New Born Screening Act of 2004.
The report said that despite all these laws, the current efforts are still inadequate. It plans to work on the remaining gaps such as: minimum age of sexual consent, child pornography, corporal punishment and other form of violence, discrimination against children born out of wedlock.
The report also said that in 2000, we formulated the Philippine National Strategic Framework for Plan Development for Children for the period 2000-2025, or Child 21, to build sensitive and child friendly society in the 21st century.
It also mentioned the role of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), the main institutional mechanism in coordinating the implementation and monitoring of NPAC/Child 21 as well as in coordinating formulation of all policies for children and monitoring CRC implementation. Take note CWC, later on this paper will figure prominently on the ECCD concerns in Marikina City.
The committee report also noted that the mandate and resources of Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) in the promotion and monitoring of children’s right is limited, and it recommends strengthening them.
As regards to the budgetary allocation for children, the report mentioned that 30% of national budget goes to debt service – interest payment with insufficient allocation for social development and children’s program. To address this, the Philippines proposed in 2005: “Debt – to –MDG Financing”, a debt reduction scheme in exchange of MDG Financing.
The country also pursued international cooperation in its quest to provide wider service to children by working with GOP-UNICEF, ILO, JICA, USAID, BEAM, QTVET, ADB, WB, Save the Children-US, Save the Children-Sweden, WVF, Consuelo Foundation, CCF, ATD Fourth World, and IJM.
The report also said that the government also pursues Cooperation with civil society in pursuing children’s welfare thru the CWC sectoral committees, inter-agency bodies on child protection other than CWC, NGO Coalition for CRC Monitoring and Philippine Inter – Faith Network for Children.
The government initiated the CRC principles/provisions of advocacy thru the CWC and UNICEF IEC campaigns, Child Info – based Knowledge Network Centers in 24 LGUs, Bright Child Campaign of CWC, CWC and Task Force on the Popularization of the CRC in 24 municipalities in central Philippines.
We also disseminated the contents of the 2nd periodic report and concluding observations when the CWC printed the report itself for dissemination, convened committee and networks to brief them of the report, and thru TV and radio interviews as well as meetings and conferences.
Finally, as part of our compliance with CRC, the country initiated the preparations for the 3rd and 4th periodic report by CWC sending letters to agencies and NGO’s to submit their inputs; convened 3 consultations; and the Technical Management Committee of CWC Board reviewing the consultation’s write up, writing comments and integrating them with the second report. The report was submitted to CWC Board for Review, preparation of the final draft and submission.

The Child Welfare Program of Marikina City

Having shown some basic concepts in social development, the international conventions related to child welfare and the Philippine national programs on children, it is now time to go to an specific LGUs like Marikina, hoping that what we will see in this city as regards to program on children’s welfare could give us insight on what is happening in other LGUs in the country.
For the interest of brevity, we will dispense with the discussion o the basic demographic data about Marikina because they are readily available by googling them in the internet.
How do you run a city like Marikina – clean, organized, international acclaimed, prosperous, peaceful and world class, with its former Mayor one of the leading presidential contenders of the country in the 2010 elections and its present Mayor one of the Top 7 finalists in the World Mayor Award? “Our City Hall is run like a private corporation. We treat our clients as our customers whom we want not only to satisfy but to delight.”[14] – Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando.
The Marikina local government is divided into seven clusters, namely, administrative support, public order and safety, finance management and project development, infrastructure development and transportation, citizens’ affairs, economic development; and, health and environmental management.
The children’s welfare is found under the cluster of citizen’s affair, specifically, in the Social Welfare and Development Office. Aside from this office, the following are also found in the citizens’ affair cluster: Department of Education – Marikina, Public Information Office, Community Relations Office, Marikina Settlements Office, City Women Council, MCF Manpower House, Teens Health Quarter, Local Civil Registry, MCF Privilege Card and the Office of Senior Citizens Affair.
The city Social Welfare and Development Office is one - story structure called Social Action Center, detached from the main building where the Office of the Mayor is housed. In that Social Action Center, several officers are also found like: Volunteers Office, SOCO, PNP and Traffic Management.
The city Social Welfare Development Office has been devolved from DSWD to the city government of Marikina. The office was run by an OIC who is a licensed social worker. Together with the OIC, there was a Consultant directly reporting to the Mayor. The consultant is a TV producer of a child show and was a neighbor of the Mayor in her ancestral house in Pasig. The OIC eventually left the post for personal reasons and joined an entry level job at the Marikina Fiscal’s Office, the Consultant took over as the OIC then hired a 24 – year – old licensed social worker as his assistant.
The city Social Welfare Development Office is picture of a workplace that is changing often, desks are changing depending on the circumstances of the office politics, full of clients daily and perhaps, in an attempt to manage the flow of clients, a sign is posted in the door reminding the customers to whom to report regarding their needs. The post says “services offered”: referral; social case study report; medical, financial and funeral assistance; certificate of indigency, PWD, PYAP/TN; and solo parent. Then, names of concerned staff handling these services are listed .Take note that in the list, there is no specific concern for children’s welfare. The OIC and her assistant have their separate rooms, the rest of the 13 staff are together. On the adjacent room is the Children in Conflict with the Law Shelter with around 25 inmates. Based however on Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, the office has the following services: assistance in crisis situations, referrals, seminars and counseling and child – friendly intervention which handling of juvenile cases. Take note again the lack of mention of child welfare concerns and day care centers despite the fact that the city also manages around six day care centers all over the city of 16 barangays. Barangay councils for the protection of children are not active.

One Fateful Meeting at the CWC Office
In a meeting with Maria Elena S. Caraballo, Deputy Executive Director, CWC Concerns, she discussed about different LGUs who are ECCD accredited, which are only very few. She mentioned, among others that Marikina is not accredited, and being the Consultant of the Mayor of Marikina City. I was assigned by our Professor to look into it and make it as my paper; hence, this paper was written specifically due to that fateful meeting.
I arranged a meeting between Mrs. Caraballo, Mayor Fernando, City Social Welfare Development Office OIC, Tess Valentino of DSWD NCR and other members of ECCD Network in Metro Manila.
The Mayor and CWC Executive Director agreed that Marikina City government will work for the ECCD Accreditation and CWC will provide around 5 Million pesos counterpart funding for a city ECCD program. The Marikina City SWDO OIC was appointed ECCD Officer. Deadline was set, series of activities were planned.
Separate technical meetings were done to plan for data gathering, planning sessions and submission of needed requirements.
After the meeting, I intentionally did not join them anymore in their succeeding meetings because I don’t want to appear that I am interfering with the job of the Marikina City SWDO OIC, as a matter of professional courtesy, both of us being Consultants of the Mayor. Besides, since the data needed are already set, deadlines are set, forms to fill up are available; I feel that it is just a matter of doing it and I am not needed anymore.
One evening, I received a text message from Mrs. Caraballo informing me that one of the members of the multi sectoral ECCD Committee of NCR told her that the scheduled planning session for ECCD Accreditation in Marikina will not push thru and she is afraid that Marikina will never be able to catch the deadline anymore. She informed me that she is preparing a letter to the City Mayor informing her of the development.

Findings and Recommendations

1. There are some practices in Singapore that may not be applicable in the Philippines, like, abortion and female circumcision. In the meantime, Marikina’s social welfare office is not yet on the level of studying these cultural differences since it is still saddled with organizational concerns. With the frequent changes in the Marikina City SWDO, the organizational capacity to respond to a new task like ECCD Accreditation is still weak. The OIC is new and her assistant is also new. Recommendation: team building sessions and thorough job orientation.
2. It was noted that out of 13 staff, some of them are not college graduates and joined the service as a political accommodations rather than based on qualifications. Only one of them is a license social worker, the assistant of the OIC. Recommendation: professionalize the staff, assign the less qualified somewhere else and hire more social workers into the unit.
3. Staff is overloaded; there are staff members who have to work after 5 pm and during weekends. Recommendation: realignment of duties and work loads.
4. It was noted that CRC, MDGs and children’s welfare is not well advocated in the city hall and even among the Marikina City SWDO staff. Being a devolved function, SWDO is being viewed as an office that dispenses funeral and medical assistance basically. Recommendation: advocacy and information campaign about CRC, CWC, MDG and other children’s concern that the office are suppose to handle.
5. The Marikina City SWDO lacks a staff that is well - versed in planning, data gathering, and doing reports. It was learned that there are several attempts as early as 2004 to work on the ECCD Accreditation but the office simply can not do it up to now. One challenge also is the volume and nature of data being asked (See Exhibit A). Recommendation: hire another assistant, probably another social worker, whose job is to handle planning, reporting, rules compliance, accreditations, project proposal writing, data gathering and safekeeping.
6. There is a perception that a job in the Marikina City SWDO is dirty and unfashionable and the staff members of the office are not that presentable. This perception can easily lead to being unable to get data and simple favors from other offices that look at themselves as more superior. Recommendation: professionalism; a high profile children’s welfare champion from the Marikina City Hall must be groomed. The present OIC, being a Consultant and a personal friend of the Mayor is a good material for this task. She just has to get familiar with theoretical base, other issues and concerns on children’s welfare and must be passionate enough in advocating them.
7. Barangay Councils for the Protection of Children (BCPC) are not well organized. Recommendation: assign two councilors, one per district, to help the Marikina Marikina City SWDO to organize and sustain the BCPC.
8. The Marikina City SWDO had been very busy. Some staff does overtime without pay. Some work on weekends…and yet; they seem to be not so focused on children’s welfare activities. At present, only the OIC is handling the ECCD concerns, and to think that she has other activities, being a close confidante of the Mayor and therefore could be doing other activities on the side, she might end up neglecting her duties on ECCD. Recommendation: assign the ECCD work to the new assistant that will be hired.
9. Singapore, being a richer country than the Philippines, can initiate health and personnel benefit programs for its people better than the Philippines. But a further study of these programs can be done to find which of them can be done without much funding needed and therefore can be a doable benchmark for nationwide or even Marikina – wide application.

END

Acknowledgement:

I wish to acknowledge social worker and assistant to the OIC Carolyn Sta. Maria for granting two interviews about the operations of the Marikina City SWD Office; OIC and fellow Consultant Nadeia Sarte for giving me access to her office and providing crucial data on ECCD; the members of the ECCD Network Tess Valentino, Elsie Romualdez and Lucia Bronio for their assistance in the several meetings we conducted; CWC Deputy Executive Director Ma. Elena S. Caraballo for graciously granting our invitation to meet with the Marikina City Mayor; the Marikina City Mayor Marides Fernando for her decisiveness and accommodation to meet the ECCD Network Members; and finally, to my professor Dr. Remigio D. Ocenar for giving me the opportunity to have this concern of my hometown as my paper on his subject.

Bibliography:

1. “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.: UPCPA,

2. Understanding Social Policy. NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”

3. Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.

4. “Different Perspective on Social Development. ”Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan: UNCRD,

5. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989

6. The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html

7. Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.

8. Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition, 2007

9. Han Fook Wang, et al, Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas. Singapore Press Holdings: Times Edition.

10. http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_data.. March 20, 2009
[1] “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.:UPCPA, p.3
[2] Han Fook Wang, et al, Lee Kuan Yew, The Man and His Ideas. Singapore Press Holdings: Times Edition. P.376
[3] http://www.freedomhouse.org/inc/content/pubs/fiw/inc_country_data.. March 20, 2009
[4] Han.p.380.
[5] http://www.freedomhouse.org/
[6] Ibid
[7] Understanding Social Policy .NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”, p.9
[8] Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.p.38
[9] “Different Perspectives on Social Development” Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan:UNCRD,p.9
[10] Ibid
[11] The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989
[12] The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html
[13] Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.
[14] Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition,2007

Marikina: The Little Singapore of the Philippines

2009-04-04T03:00:00.000-07:00

By Prof. Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA student, UP NCPAG

1.0. Introduction

The Philippines and Singapore are far apart in lots of aspects – territorial size, population, religion, history, dominant race, political culture, etc. To some observers, the two countries are beyond compare.
But a hypothetical question arises: can a part of a country be totally different that it can be comparable to another country on their aspirations. Or to be exact, can Marikina City, being within the cultural, religious, economic, political ambit of the Philippines, aspires to be like Singapore. Can it be done? When Marikina Mayor Marides Carlos Fernando attended as a resource speaker of the doctoral class in public administration, she said that in a certain time of the Fernando’s administration in Marikina, they decided to benchmark on Singapore.
But there is something - a factor in Marikina’s success story - that maybe of interest to the public administration practitioners and the general public. We will call that factor the “Marikina Way”. Is the “Marikina Way” the city’s benchmarking package on Singapore?
Actually, Kerala of India is just like Marikina, in a way. Kerala is part of India; yet, it is better than the average India taken as a whole. “In contrast with the growth – mediated mechanism, the support – led process does not operate through fast economic growth, but works through a program of skillful social support of health care, education, and other relevant social arrangements. This process is well exemplified by the experiences of economies such as Sri Lanka, pre – reform China, Costa Rica or Kerala, which have very rapid reductions in mortality rates and enhancement of living conditions, without much economic growth.”[1]

1.1. Notion of Development
Development is a way to extend freedom and freedom, in a way, also helps development, this is in essence what Sen is telling us in his book. But what is really development? “Activities of modern nation states in promoting their development fall under the four categories previously listed: producing an economic surplus, promoting social and cultural integration, governance and education. For purposes of explanation, they are discussed separately. However, their usefulness to the state for national development comes only through their interaction. All four are so intertwined and interdependent that to select one as preeminent, as economists, business and government have done with producing an economic surplus is to distort understanding of the process.”[2] Development administration therefore is administering or running the affairs of a country to produce an economic surplus, and promote social and cultural integration, governance and education.
1.2. Notion of Administration
Public administration is defined differently defending on context and emphasis. According to David Rosembloom, public administration is the action part of the government. It is the means by which the purpose and goals of government are realized. As a field, public administration is concerned with the means for implementing political values and is identified with the executive branch. It differs with political science on its emphasis on behavior, methodologies and bureaucratic structures. Dwight Waldo defined it as the organization and management of men and materials to achieve the purpose of government. To him, it is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of the state. According to Raul de Guzman, public administration may be viewed to refer not only those activities in implementing policies and program of the government but also the process and contents of these programs. Gerald Calden, on the other hand define it as a cooperative group effort in public setting showing interrelationships of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the government. Being part of a political process, it has important role in the formulation of public policy. In a significant way, public administration is different and more important than private administration. It is however closely related with the individuals and private groups providing services to the community. As a field of study and practice, it is closely related to the human relations approach of management.
1.3. Development Administration and Administration of Development
“It is equally true that there is no widespread agreement on the theoretical center and boundaries of the “field”. There is more agreement on the premise that “development administration” is part of the subject matter of public administration.”[3] At this point, we should disabuse our minds by trying to sophisticate a generally simple locus and focus of the concept. The location is public administration and the focus is development. It is using the ideas and processes of public administration for social and economic development.
1.4. How Different is Singapore and the Philippines?
Taken from Freedom House, freedom in the world circa 2008 for the Philippines and Singapore, found at http://www.freedomhouse.org. , the difference of the two countries is enormous. Philippines have a population of 88,700,000 while Singapore has 4,600,000 only. Both countries are partly free but the Philippines scores better in the area of civil liberties and political rights. The Philippines was under the Spain for around 300 years, went under American control in 1998 and got its independence in 1946. The country was once one of the wealthiest in Southeast Asia but since 1960’s; it has been plagued by economic mismanagement, insurgencies and widespread corruption. Singapore started as a British trading center in 1819 and eventually become a British colony. It become independent in 1959, joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 and gained full independence in 1965. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) transformed the poor city into a regional financial center and exporter of high – technology goods, but restricted individual freedoms and hindered political development in the process. The Philippines has a presidential system, almost similar to America. Singapore has a parliamentary system similar to Great Britain. In the Philippines, corruption, cronyism and influence peddling are rife in business and government. Despite the recent economic reforms, a few dozen powerful families continue to play an overarching role in politics and are very wealthy. Singapore is known for lack of corruption. Transparency International’s 2007 Corruption Perception Index ranked the country fourth out of 180 countries surveyed.
To sum it all Singapore is richer, less corrupt but less free; Philippines is freer, more corrupt and not that rich.

2.0.”Marikina Way”: A Brand of Governance
”Marikina way” is born out of circumstances and experiences of MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando and Marikina City Mayor Marides Fernando who for the past 15 years, has transformed Marikina City from a neglected, backwater town known only for its shoe industry, into a highly urbanized city capturing the imaginations of the Filipino people by the manner in which it won several local and international awards. Bayani is the only son of a dedicated town Mayor who never enriched himself in public. Being the only boy among several sisters, and with an imposing and nationalistic doting father as his model, Bayani, early in life learned the very foundation of “Marikina Way” – good taste, respect for your neighbor and community, action, godliness, social equity, and political will. Somewhere along the way, he departed from his father’s path when he took engineering instead of his father’s law degree. This is an indication that he is capable of thinking out of the box in addressing a problem. His engineering expertise contributed to the strength of Marikina’s physical reconstruction and MMDA’s ability to solve pressing urban problems. Marides, the current Mayor of the city and the better half of Bayani, on the other hand, is a rich girl born in a silver platter from wealthy industrialist parents of national stature. She was able to continue the social orientation, inculcation of urbanity and urban revitalization in Marikina. When President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed Bayani to MMDA, the instruction was to do in Metro Manila what he did in Marikina. This indicates that there is something about “Marikina Way” that excites the imagination of people, even the president of the republic. During the meeting of AIM – based International Movement of Development Managers (IMDM), a proposal of tie - up among IMDM, Konrad Adenuer Foundation and the AIM Policy Center, for a short seminar – workshop among newly - elected local officials about the way things are being done in Marikina (“Marikina Way”). This thing leads to Mayor Marides Fernando formally coordinating with the Ateneo School of Government about Marikina’s grass roots political program and documentation of “Marikina Way”. As we will see, “Marikina Way” is an eclectic style of public administration, picking the best and applicable features of reinventing government, reengineering government, new public administration, new public government, and classical public administration concepts like administrative science, scientific management and Weber’s bureaucratic model.It emphasizes leadership, good taste, expertise, political will, action, good judgments, and good governance in public administration because how can one choose the best approach from the array of contending views of the brightest public administration thinkers of our time, if one does not know, at least, their basic ideas, to begin with. This may sound very elitist and skewed towards highly educated leaders, but the stark reality in leadership is that how will you reach your destination if you do not know where you want to go and you do not know how to get there?
“Marikina Way” emphasizes freedom from the box created by contending academic thinkers because it gives you the flexibility to use your judgment calls as a leader, with only your good taste, love of community, “can-do attitude”, political will, desire for action, love of God and concept of social equity as your basis of action.

2.1. “Marikina Way” in the Lens of Public Administration Concepts

2.1.1. The Scientific Management School
According to Frederick Taylor, there is one best way of performing in any organization and this best way can be discovered by investigating the various components of work and announcing the result of the study to the workers so that they could adopt them. He said that detailed time and motion study improves the efficiency of the production process. He said that every single act of workmen can be reduced to science. It is therefore the role of the managers to design and to conduct experiments, to plan the work process, to discover the efficient techniques and to train workers to these techniques. This will usher the mutuality of interest between workers and entrepreneurs because high productivity gives higher salary or incentives to workers and bigger profit for the entrepreneurs. The key concepts of scientific management school are the identification of a standard of an ideal worker, time and motion study, the work standard and the differential rate system. Taylor’s method was applied more in the ground level and is useful among line managers as it addresses the kind of characteristics the line managers must have. Time and motion study has the following steps: define the task to be studied and inform the workers to be studied, determine the schedule of the study, time the job and rate the workers’ performance, and finally come up with the standard time. In real life however, unionized workers fear that working faster would lead to fewer works available later. There are also instances that the emphasis on too much productivity and profitability leads to exploitation of workers and even customers. This also undermines the discretion and better judgments of the managers. As a whole however, time and motion study eliminates unnecessary motions, combines similar activities, improves the arrangement of workplace and improves the design of tools and equipments. The “Marikina Way” is strong in the advocacy of one – best - way principle, owing to the fact that the main proponent of this eclectic concept is a highly successful mechanical engineer, Bayani Fernando, who made his first million as a businessman constructing high rise building in the country’s main business district. The redesign of road networks in Marikina city which maximizes the use of river banks and creek banks for accessibility, at the same time preventing them from being converted as squatter areas, is an application of ergonomics. Marikina city even has the standard time for the response of the firemen and the policemen by placing public safety substations in strategic places in the city. The advocacy of see – thru fences is also along this line. It creates illusion of spaciousness, prevents crime, and gives beauty to the environment because it will encourage the owners of the place to beautify the area since it is seen by the public. The implementation of set - back from the road in residential and commercial areas, being a law in the building code, is well implemented in Marikina City. Tearing down existing residential and commercial buildings just to comply with the set – back rule as per zoning ordinances, might be very cruel. But, in applying for new construction or major repairs, an applicant is required to comply with the set - back rule, thereby slowly but surely, rectifying the mistakes of the past, thru time. Garbage collection is always on schedule, one set of schedules is for biodegradable wastes and another set is for non biodegradable wastes. The citizens, partly to develop awareness of the system, are required to tie green strings to plastic bags containing the biodegradable waste and pink for the non biodegradable. Incidentally, green is the political color of Bayani Fernando during his political campaigns in Marikina and pink is the color of current mayor Marides Fernando. This scheme combines political campaigning, value formation and operation management. Engineering and construction equipments are well maintained to develop the capacity of the city in doing fast and pro - active engineering responses, like clearing of obstacles on the sidewalks. Bayani Fernando loves to say, in fondness, that some city engineering office in some cities in Metro Manila doesn’t even have the technical capacity to remove an empty, huge and stinking concrete flower base obstructing the side walks of the main thoroughfare of the metropolis. The contribution of “Marikina Way” to the scientific management school of Frederick Taylor is that it is not enough that you identify the one best way, what is important is your will to implement them. That is what differentiates the “Marikina Way” from ordinary scientific management school adherents.2.1.2. New Public Administration (NPA) The so called new public administration was born in 1968 at the Syracuse University, Minnow brook Conference Center. Most of the ideas were contained in Frank Marini’s work “Towards New Public Administration”. New public administration rejects the politics – administration dichotomy of Woodrow Wilson. It believes that administrators, aside from just implementing the will of the state, should make policies too. They should take matters into their hands, so to speak. Another salient idea of NPA is the recognition of values as an important component of public administration. It distanced from the earlier practice of too much emphasis on data collection and statistical manipulation. NPA is more normative in approach. It is an advocate of change. Values and norms occupy a premier role that guides the direction. Social equity is another important concept in NPA. Before NPA, public administration is too much concerned with efficiency and economy, which is too aloof from the nature of public service. Rather, NPA believes that benefits must be greater to those who are disadvantaged. NPA also believes that clients or the public must be allowed to participate in the operations of a public office as a way of a democratic exercise. Cooperation must be the name of the game rather than competition. Finally, NPA believes that change is always a part of public administration, so organizations must be adaptive to change. Organizations must not be static and be pro-active. Organizational restructuring must be based on the needs of public service rather than the internal concerns of the organization itself. “Marikina Way” is heavy on the values and norms of the community due to the fact that the main proponent of this approach, Bayani Fernando, is a “parochial” son of a former mayor of a clannish town, Marikina, which is known for “small town’ values. It is no wonder why “Marikina Way” is pushing for “urbanidad”, which is the right conduct in a highly civilized and urbanized society. Public administration therefore is the vanguard of this community values. This explains the fact that if you walk in the streets of Marikina without any upper shirt, you will be apprehended by the police or barangay tanods because you violated the “urbanidad” values of the community. Drying your clothes (panties, brief, T-shirts, etc.) in front of your house, when you have plenty of space at the back is not only violative of “urbanidad” but a sign of gross bad taste, and so, the public servants, as the implementing arm of the will of the state has the responsibility to rectify this violation of good taste. If you let your dogs roam in the street uncared and unfed, you showed disrespect to your community and therefore, the public servants has the responsibility of correcting your uncaring attitude by hauling your neglected pet into the city pound. Social equity is also very strong in “Marikina Way”. Bayani Fernado hates people calling themselves urban poor because to him, it is derogatory. He even joked to one of his campaign staff saying, “ikaw urban poor ka ng urban poor kaya hanggang ngayon mahirap ka pa rin”. He does not want to call the – used - to - be “squatters” as squatters, not even as “depressed area” residents. He wants to call them “nakatira sa matataong lugar’ or living in a highly populated area. What is the point? He wants to give dignity to everyone as a way of his pursuance of social equity. On record, he was able to relocate thousands of ‘squatter’ families to permanent relocation areas with land titles, electricity, road, water, telephone lines, cable television lines and near to their place of work. To relocate them, Bayani Fernando has to fight rich and professional land grabbers supported by some influential local politicians who were occupying the relocation areas. The fights are both in physical show of force and in court. “Marikina Way”, therefore, defines public administration as using the power of the state to champion justice and social equity.2.1.3. New Public Management (NPM) The New Institutional Economics and New Public Management is a marriage of two different streams of ideas emerging after World War ll – development of public choice and principal agency theory. NPM generated a set of doctrines intended for administrative reforms grounded on transparency, incentive structure, user choice and contestability of public decisions. NPM however is better known in the advocacy for business type managerialism in the public sector, in the tradition of international scientific management movement and respect for technical expertise. In line with business type managerialism, NPM calls for discretionary power of the public entities to achieve results and usher better performance through the development of appropriate cultures and active standardizations and measurements of output. NPM talks about citizens as customers, and the public servants are accountable for the results of their actions. It suggests a more decentralized structure doing a wide variety of alternative service delivery. The “Marikina Way” believes in transparency and showed physical manifestation of this belief by, for instance, breaking the physical disconnects of the city hall employees, by making their offices exist in a glass house, literally seen by the public. No special and separate rooms were provided to the department heads, as a manner of saying that they have to be transparent with their staff. In particular months of the year when long lines are expected for a certain tax payments, for instance, queuing is handled like in private airlines – customers get a number, take their seats and wait for their turn as their numbers are being flash in an electronic gadget just in front of the office. In other words, ‘Marikina Way” is about using a well - settled business sector management practices into the public administration. In the private sector, development of corporate citizenship is a concern. In Marikina city hall, professionalism is very much applied in hiring, uniform (just like the pilot’s uniform), training (they have Center of Excellence), and tapping outside consultants for specific projects.2.1.4. Reengineering Government Reengineering the government is an approach popularized by Michael Hammer and James Champy. It requires fundamental rethinking and more radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements of a set of critical measures such as quality, service, cost and speed of delivery. It advocates for an abandonment of long - established procedures and principles prevalent in government bureaucracy, and instead, invent new processes and structures. It is even willing go to the extend of starting from scratch, just to dramatize the need to reengineer the lethargic bureaucracy. It seeks breakthrough by moving away from ineffective and antiquated ways of government bureaucracy. The need for reengineering comes from intense competition, constants change in the socio - political environment and the pressure from more engaging public. Basically, there are organizations that are more inclined to do reengineering: those in deep trouble, those that are on the verge of achieving the peak of success and want more innovations to fast tract the process, and those who anticipate some problems in the near future. There are key themes in the process of reengineering. It may look on process - the entire process. It may look for aim or ambitions of the leader in his attempt for a breakthrough. It may go for rule - breaking in the field of specializations and sequence of activities. It may decide to deliberately abandon the sense of timing. Reengineering advocates for the creative use of information technology, allowing the organization to work in more radical ways. Some characteristics of the reengineering processes involve combining of several jobs into one, allowing workers to make decisions, steps in the process are done in the natural order, processes have different versions, work is performed where it makes the most sense, checks and control are reduced, reconciliation is minimized, a manager provides a single point of contact and finally, hybrid centralized and decentralized operations are prevalent. The “Marikina Way’ that approximates reengineering is its latest successful effort to connect the different barangays and the offices in the city hall in a centralized information technology network. The leaders of the city government and political party are massively using the SMS or texting technology, and internet, in their daily communications. Mayor Marides Fernando even revealed that there are aspirants in the Kabayani Party (the local party of the Fernando’s) in the coming barangay elections pleading their appeal for endorsement thru text messages to the Mayor. The City Government has been operating under seven major clusters with different offices inside each cluster, namely, administrative support, public order and safety, finance management and project development, citizen’s affairs, infrastructure development and transportation, economic development, and, lastly, health and environment management. Bayani Fernando believes in doing things differently to the point of breaking away from the traditional ways of doing things. In the tradition of reengineering, he initiated the extended rotunda concepts in the main thoroughfare in Metro Manila as the Chairman of Metro Manila Development Authority, thereby solving the massive traffic problems in the past. He initiated the MMDA Art as way of fighting graffiti in Metro Manila streets. He even suggested arming the MMDA enforcers with jungle bolo instead of guns or “batuta”. The logic being, aside from being historical and patently Filipino, a jungle bolo is not as fatal as gun where one can kill people even in a distance, but on the other hand, jungle bolo is not as weak as the “batuta” in cases of heated street encounters. During the latest workshop of top Kabayani Party leaders, Bayani Fernando insisted on changing the usual format of VMOKRAPISPATRES in strategic planning. He suggested a Vision, Will and Action statement followed by a Decalogue. This leads us to one specific highlight of “Marikina Way’ – independence of mind, openness and not being captive to any ideology, approach and theories. “Marikina Way”, being grounded on strong family values and sense of “small town’ community is silent about contentious issues like sex education, population control, and other controversial issues like same sex marriage , mercy killing, and maybe even formation of world government being advocated the followers of The Globalist Manifesto. Some extreme prescriptions in reengineering the government may also run contrary to the basic beliefs expounded in “Marikina Way” despite the fact some of their practices are within the ambit of reengineering the government. “Marikina Way” therefore is a thinking public governance approach that smartly adopts eclectically good concepts and practices from any school of thought as long as they are doable, they serve the public better, and they respect the culture and tradition of the community.2.1.5. Reinventing Government Reinventing the government is one of the emerging public administration approaches today, popularized by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler. It calls for entrepreneurial approaches to governance, characterized by innovations and creative energies in formulating solutions to variety of governmental problems. In a nutshell, it suggests that government must posture in entrepreneurial ways. As such, it may involve revisiting the ways resources and processes are utilized to maximize productivity, efficiency and effectiveness after the realization that the traditional ways of doing things are no longer effective. Reinventing government is grounded on key premises such as belief in the government bureaucracy, that effective government is a requisite in making civilized society works, that public servants are basically good despite of an imperfect system in which they work with, that the conventional or traditional approaches are becoming irrelevant in facing governmental problems today and finally, a belief in equity and equal opportunity for all. Reinventing government advocates for several working principles. The government today must be catalytic, a government that steer, instead of row. A government must be empowering, not serving, believing that it is the community who owned the government. The government must be competitive against fellow government offices and against the private sector in service delivery. We should do away with rule - driven government and usher in a government which is mission - driven. Government must be result - oriented by way of emphasizing results rather than processes. It is not the need of the bureaucracy that is important, rather, the need of the constituencies. The government must be enterprising, emphasizing earnings rather than expenditures. A government must be preventive rather than curative. Decentralization of public institutions should emphasize teamwork rather than hierarchy. Lastly, the government should be market oriented by way of leveraging change through market forces. Having come from the private sector, the concept of reinventing government is very close to the hearts of Bayani Fernando and Marides Fernando, the two major proponents of “Marikina Way”. Interviews with civil servants close to Marides Fernando quoted her as emphasizing cash inflows to the government instead of perennial cash outflows. The logic being that if the government has plenty of resources in its coffers, it will have plenty of flexibility in doing real pro - people projects that are identified as priorities. Bayani Fernando, however, thinks that the government should provide political party finance rather than the political parties raising funds from its members and supporters. To him, this will lessen corruption in the government because political parties are not too pressured to raise campaign funds that usually are always the source of paybacks after elections. Merging social equity with entrepreneurship, “Marikina Way” believes that the rich must have bigger share of burden than the poor as a way of flowing back to the society the blessings that the rich have been reaping. This explains the fact that Marikina increased the real property tax because the rich are the ones that owns real estate properties. Towing of cars illegally park, with cash penalties, also hits the rich because they are the ones that own cars in the first place. While building permits in Marikina are basically free, the logic is that the boom in the construction of structures brought about by free building permits, energizes the economy and increases the aesthetic view of the community. Grantmanship, or grant sourcing, is also being pursued by Marikina City government. A possible partnership with Habitat for Humanity for the housing project of the poor city government employees is now in the pipeline. Funding agencies have worked with the city government on several projects like bike lane, saving Marikina River, etc. Marides Fernando believes that government support does not always mean dole outs. It also means moral support and good governance. One innovative program of the city government on tax collection effort is to provide a system of discounts and amnesty for taxpayers, thereby encouraging early payments and fewer delinquencies. A very specific project, the Marikina Citizens First Privilege Card, provides a series of discount to card holders on some identified private establishments.

2.2.0. “Marikina Way” in Development
Public administration the “Marikina Way”, an eclectic public administration approach whose credence is anchored on the world class progress of Asia’s shoe making capital, Marikina City, and can be viewed in the statement of its city mayor Marides Fernando: “Our city hall is run like a private corporation. We treat our clients as our customers whom we want not only to satisfy but to delight” This view of public administration is within the new public management framework which does not emphasize much the administration and politics dichotomy but on the private sector’s total quality management concept of customer satisfaction. But because “Marikina Way” also uses other paradigms of public administration, it is therefore an eclectic approach to public administration.

2.2.1. The Early Child Health Care and Development Program of Marikina: A Case in Point
How do you run a city like Marikina – clean, organized, international acclaimed, prosperous, peaceful and world class, with its former Mayor one of the leading presidential contenders of the country in the 2010 elections and its present Mayor one of the Top 7 finalists in the World Mayor Award? “Our City Hall is run like a private corporation. We treat our clients as our customers whom we want not only to satisfy but to delight.”[4] – Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando.
The Marikina local government is divided into seven clusters, namely, administrative support, public order and safety, finance management and project development, infrastructure development and transportation, citizens’ affairs, economic development; and, health and environmental management.
The children’s welfare is found under the cluster of citizen’s affair, specifically, in the Social Welfare and Development Office. Aside from this office, the following are also found in the citizens’ affair cluster: Department of Education – Marikina, Public Information Office, Community Relations Office, Marikina Settlements Office, City Women Council, MCF Manpower House, Teens Health Quarter, Local Civil Registry, MCF Privilege Card and the Office of Senior Citizens Affair.
The city Social Welfare and Development Office is one - story structure called Social Action Center, detached from the main building where the Office of the Mayor is housed. In that Social Action Center, several officers are also found like: Volunteers Office, SOCO, PNP and Traffic Management.
The city Social Welfare Development Office has been devolved from DSWD to the city government of Marikina. The office was run by an OIC who is a licensed social worker. Together with the OIC, there was a Consultant directly reporting to the Mayor. The consultant is a TV producer of a child show and was a neighbor of the Mayor in her ancestral house in Pasig. The OIC eventually left the post for personal reasons and joined an entry level job at the Marikina Fiscal’s Office, the Consultant took over as the OIC then hired a 24 – year – old licensed social worker as his assistant.
The city Social Welfare Development Office is picture of a workplace that is changing often, desks are changing depending on the circumstances of the office politics, full of clients daily and perhaps, in an attempt to manage the flow of clients, a sign is posted in the door reminding the customers to whom to report regarding their needs. The post says “services offered”: referral; social case study report; medical, financial and funeral assistance; certificate of indigency, PWD, PYAP/TN; and solo parent. Then, names of concerned staff handling these services are listed .Take note that in the list, there is no specific concern for children’s welfare. The OIC and her assistant have their separate rooms, the rest of the 13 staff are together. On the adjacent room is the Children in Conflict with the Law Shelter with around 25 inmates. Based however on Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, the office has the following services: assistance in crisis situations, referrals, seminars and counseling and child – friendly intervention which handling of juvenile cases. Take note again the lack of mention of child welfare concerns and day care centers despite the fact that the city also manages around six day care centers all over the city of 16 barangays. Barangay councils for the protection of children are not active.

3.0. Singapore: the Model of “Marikina Way” in Governance
Governance is the process of decision making and implementation or non implementation of what were decided. Good governance, on the other hand, has 8 major characteristics. “It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.”[5]
Figure A: Framework of Governance of Singapore[6]

3.1. Transparency means that “decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. It also means that enough information is provided and that it is provided in easily understandable forms and media.”[7] “According to surveys examined by Transparency International, Transparency is in the values in the governance style of Lee Kuan Yew, the founding Prime minister of Singapore. He said that there must be “order under the law and not the capricious, arbitrariness of individual rulers.” [8] Although,he did not menetioned among his values public availability of important governmental informations. Today, “Singapore is perceived to have least corrupt public sector among Asian nations. Singapore ranked number 5 worldwide. Hong Kong and Japan joined Singapore as the only Asian states ranking among the top 25 nations. Asia's largest nations, China, India, and Indonesia, all scored in the bottom half of the 133 ranked nations.”[9]

3.2. Accountability is a key requirement of good governance. “Not only governmental institutions but also the private sector and civil society organizations must be accountable to the public and to their institutional stakeholders. Who is accountable to whom varies depending on whether decisions or actions taken are internal or external to an organization or institution. In general an organization or an institution is accountable to those who will be affected by its decisions or actions. Accountability cannot be enforced without transparency and the rule of law.”[10] It is worthy to note that Lee Kuan Yew did not specifically mention accountability as one of his seven values in governance. Although he said that a government must make sure that his people are well care d for, their food, housing, employment and health.

3.3. Participation by both men and women is a key cornerstone of good governance. “Participation could be either direct or through legitimate intermediate institutions or representatives. It is important to point out that representative democracy does not necessarily mean that the concerns of the most vulnerable in society would be taken into consideration in decision making. Participation needs to be informed and organized. This means freedom of association and expression on the one hand and an organized civil society on the other hand.”[11] Traditionally, women played a significantly smaller role than their male counterparts in patriarchal Singapore. However, in recent years, there is an increasing level of female participation in the Singapore political arena. Lee Kuan Yew, in his governance values said that there should be no discrimination between people, regardless of race, language, and religion. “Singapore has consistently been rated as one of the least corrupt countries in the world .The World Bank's governance indicators have also rated Singapore highly on rule of law, control of corruption and government effectiveness. However, it is widely perceived that some aspects of the political process, civil liberties, and political and human rights are lacking.”[12]

3.4. Rule of Law in good governance requires “fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. It also requires full protection of human rights, particularly those of minorities. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force.”[13] Since winning independence from Malaysia, Singapore embarked on a set of national policies that set Singapore on an upward economic progress, “including state investment in electronics and other export industries, the nationalization of major industries, the control by a housing development board of all rental property, tax holidays to welcome foreign investment, and the establishment of basic legal foundations for a free-market economy.”[14] Rule of law is one of the governance values stated by Lee Kuan Yew

4.0. The Points of Reform Marikina Can Further Do be The Little Singapore in the Philippines?
Benchmarking is a tool used by the multinational corporations to copy the practices of their companies into their own operations for better result. Marikina should therefore benchmark on the direct pronouncement of Lee Kuan Yew himself. “ As an Asian of Chinese cultural background, my value as for a government which is honest, effective, and efficient in protecting each people and allowing opportunities for all to advance themselves in a stable and orderly society, where they can live a good life and raise their children to do better than themselves. In other words: (a) People are well cared for, their food, housing, employment, and health.(b) There is order and justice under the rule of law and not the capricious, arbitrariness of individual rulers. There is no discrimination between peoples, regardless of race, language, religion. No great extremes of wealth.(c) As much personal freedom as possible but without infringing on the freedom of others.(d) Growth in the economy and progress in the society.(e) Good and ever improving education.(f) High moral standards of rulers and of the people.(g) Good physical infrastructure, facilities for recreation, music, culture, and the arts; spiritual and religious freedoms, and a full intellectual life.”[15]
Marikina should also use the Figure A: Framework of Governance of Singapore.
In the meantime while Marikina is fine tuning its benchmarking effort on Singapore, it should continue doing the “Marikina Way”.
Specifically, in the case in point, in practical concerns, Marikina should do the following:

4.1. Institutions
Findings: the staff in Marikina’s DSWD office is overloaded; there are staff members who have to work after 5 pm and during weekends. Recommendation: realignment of duties and work loads.
Findings: it was noted that CRC, MDGs and children’s welfare is not well advocated in the city hall and even among the Marikina City SWDO staff. Being a devolved function, SWDO is being viewed as an office that dispenses funeral and medical assistance basically. Recommendation: advocacy and information campaign about CRC, CWC, MDG and other children’s concern that the office are suppose to handle.

4.2. Structure
Findings: Marikina’s social welfare office is not yet on the level of studying these cultural differences since it is still saddled with organizational concerns. With the frequent changes in the Marikina City SWDO, the organizational capacity to respond to a new task like ECCD Accreditation is still weak. The OIC is new and her assistant is also new. Recommendation: team building sessions and thorough job orientation.
Findings: It was noted that out of 13 staff, some of them are not college graduates and joined the service as a political accommodations rather than based on qualifications. Only one of them is a license social worker, the assistant of the OIC. Recommendation: professionalize the staff, assign the less qualified somewhere else and hire more social workers into the unit.
Findings: the Marikina City SWDO lacks a staff that is well - versed in planning, data gathering, and doing reports. It was learned that there are several attempts as early as 2004 to work on the ECCD Accreditation but the office simply can not do it up to now. One challenge also is the volume and nature of data being asked (See Exhibit A). Recommendation: hire another assistant, probably another social worker, whose job is to handle planning, reporting, rules compliance, accreditations, project proposal writing, data gathering and safekeeping.

4.3. Behavior
Findings: there is a perception that a job in the Marikina City SWDO is dirty and unfashionable and the staff members of the office are not that presentable. This perception can easily lead to being unable to get data and simple favors from other offices that look at themselves as more superior. Recommendation: professionalism; a high profile children’s welfare champion from the Marikina City Hall must be groomed. The present OIC, being a Consultant and a personal friend of the Mayor is a good material for this task. She just has to get familiar with theoretical base, other issues and concerns on children’s welfare and must be passionate enough in advocating them.

4.4. Leadership
Findings: Barangay Councils for the Protection of Children (BCPC) are not well organized. Recommendation: assign two councilors, one per district, to help the Marikina Marikina City SWDO to organize and sustain the BCPC.

8. The Marikina City SWDO had been very busy. Some staff does overtime without pay. Some work on weekends…and yet; they seem to be not so focused on children’s welfare activities. At present, only the OIC is handling the ECCD concerns, and to think that she has other activities, being a close confidante of the Mayor and therefore could be doing other activities on the side, she might end up neglecting her duties on ECCD. Recommendation: assign the ECCD work to the new assistant that will be hired.
Findings: The current Mayor Marides Fernando, who is one of the major architects of “Marikina Way”, is now barred by law from running again as a Mayor. Bayani Fernando, the other architect is seeking a national office. Two dominant Kabayani Party (local party of the Fernandos) leaders are fighting for mayorship. The Fernando expressed preference to the current vice mayor over the other aspirant. But can the “Marikina Way’ be secured with any of them? Recommendation: Do a Lee Kuan Yew by letting Tala Fernando, the couple’s only child, to run for Mayor, the way Lee Kuan Yew made sure that his son became the Prime minister of Singapore. Tala is a US educated business executive running the BF Group of companies.
5.0. Conclusions
5.1. Issues and concerns. This paper has shown that Philippines and Singapore are different. Knowing this, can a city like Marikina sustain its benchmarking efforts with Singapore in the long term? What if a different brand of leadership emerged in Marikina? Can Singapore – benchmarked institutions and structures set by 18 years of Fernando leadership in Marikina sustain itself even with new leadership? Is 18 years long enough to cement a lasting behavioral change among Marikenos. These are the questions that even ordinary Marikenos are asking faced with an election next year where Mayor Marides Fernando is not anymore eligible to run, MMDA Chairman is running for President, Tala Fernando-the only child of the Fernandos- seem to be uninterested, Vice Mayor Marion Andres and Rep Del de Guzman (both Kabayani members) are unable to agree which one will give way, plus a popular third force led by Dr. Fabian Cadiz is snowballing.
“Marikina Way”, by itself, already shows features of good governance. It is however unclear if the Fernando’s got their programs from Singapore or from public administration books. Eclecticism is “Marikina Way” and it sure came from different theoretical and conceptual sources…the credit still goes to the Fernando’s for deciding which tactics are good from the laundry lists of public administration tactics they encountered. Is there a native intelligence on governance where a leader just uses common sense and public interest as his sole basis and eventually come out with a country or a city as good as Marikina and Singapore?
5.2. Areas for further research and investigation
Further researches can be done on the areas of praxis in public administration and good governance. A laundry list of authentic Singaporean public administration and good governance praxis, tactics and concepts can be further studied with more focus. Context can be correlated: can these. Singaporean touch be applicable in different context or situations, like say in Marikina, Kerala or even Russia? What are the generic Singaporean touches that can be applied to any generic developmental or governance situations and which of them can be applied only in Singapore? Can “Marikna Way” be packaged as another brand of public administration? If so, when will “Singaporean Touch” and “Marikina Way” work? What are the generic contexts? Then, learning becomes more useful.
6.0. Bibliography1. Raadschelders, Jos C.N. 2003. Government, a Public Administration Perspective, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Ch. 1, “Government: The Most Central Phenomenon of our Time, pp.3-31.2. Wilson, Woodrow, 1887. “The Study of Administration.” Political Science Quarterly, Vol.2 (June,1887), as reprinted in Jay M.Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde (eds.). 1997. Classics of Public Administration.(4th ed.). Forth worth, Texas:Harcourt Brace and Co., pp.14-263. The following articles and essays reprinted and abridged in Jay M. Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde (eds.). 1997. Classics of Public Administration. (4th ed.). Forth Worth, Texas: Hardcourt Brace and Co: Frank J. Goodnow.1900. “Politics and Administration” pp. 27-29; Frederick Taylor, 1912. “Scientific Management.” Pp.30-32; Max Weber, 1946. “Bureaucracy.” Pp.37-43; Leonard white.1926. “Introduction to the Study of Public Administration” pp.44-52; Luther Gulick.1937.”Notes on the Theory of Organization” pp.81-89; Herbert simon.1946.”The Proverbs of Administration” pp127-141.4. Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom.Anchor Books.New York5. Frederickson, George.1971.”Toward a New Public Administration” in Marini (ed.) Toward a New Public Administration: The Minnowbrook Perspective, Scranton: chandler.6. Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler, 1992. Reinventing Government, New York:Penguin. ”Introduction: an American Perestroika.” Pp.1-24 and Ch. 1, “Catalytic Government: Steering rather Than Rowing,” pp.25-48.7. Hammer, Michael and James Champy. 1993 Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers.8. Osborne, Stephen and Kate McLaughlin. 2002.”The New Public Management in Context.” In K. McLaughlin,S.Osborne and E. Ferlie (eds). New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects. London and New York: Routledge, pp 7-14.9. Hunt, Diana, 1982. Economic Theories of Development: An Analysis of Competing Paradigms, Ch 1 & 2.10. Marikina Citizens Factbook, Second Edition, 2007.11. Marikina City: the Past 15 Years, Published by the Public information Office, City Government of Marikina12. Konstitusyon ng Partido ng Kabayani, as provide by the Office of the City Mayor of Marikina.13. Bagong Filipino Movement, as provided by the Office of the City Administrator of Marikina.14. Articles of Incorporation of Kabayani Movement, Inc. as provided by Securites and Exchange Commission.15. The Bagong Filipino Vision, a PowerPoint Presentation done by the Campaign Staff of MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando.16. Marikina Citizens First Privilege Card Booklet, as provided by the Office of the City Mayor of Marikina.17. Disiplina sa Bangketa at Iba Pang Program ng MMDA by Bayani Fernando as provide by the Metro Manila Development Authority.18. Balitang Komunidad, Opisyal na Pahayagan ng Lungsod ng Marikina. Vol 2, No 2.19. Website of the City Government of Marikina at http://city.marikina.gov.ph/
20. Marikina City- Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaat http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marikina_City
21. http://www.gwu.edu/~edpol/manuscript/intro1-4.htm March 26, 2009
22. Siffin, William J.The Problem of Development Administration. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration. Ali Farazman, editor. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York
23. http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/gg/governance.asp. March 26, 2009
24. http://www.ne.edu.sg/principles_of_governance.htm March 26, 2009
25. Han Fook Kwang et all. Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and his Ideas. Singapore Pres holdings. p 380
26. http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=5299 March 23, 2009
27. http://www.ne.edu.sg/principles_of_governance.htm March 26, 2009
28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Singapore March 26, 2009
29. http://www.democracyweb.org/rule/singapore.php March 23, 2009

[1] Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom.Anchor Books.New York.p.46
[2] http://www.gwu.edu/~edpol/manuscript/intro1-4.htm
[3] Siffin, William J.The Problem of Development Administration. Handbook of Comparative and Development Public Administration. Ali Farazman, editor. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York. P.6
[4] Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition,2007
[5] http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/gg/governance.asp. March 26, 2009
[6] http://www.ne.edu.sg/principles_of_governance.htm March 26, 2009
[7] Ibid
[8] Han Fook Kwang et all. Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and his Ideas. Singapore Pres holdings. p 380
[9] http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=5299 March 23, 2009
[10] http://www.ne.edu.sg/principles_of_governance.htm March 26, 2009
[11] Ibid
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Singapore March 26, 2009
[13] Ibid
[14] http://www.democracyweb.org/rule/singapore.php March 23, 2009

[15] Han Fook Kwang et all. Lee Kuan Yew: The Man and his Ideas. Singapore Pres holdings. p 380

Bayani Fernando:How Can “Oriental” Democratic Forms of Government Address Corruption

2009-02-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

PA 327: Comparative Development Administration, Second Semester 2008-2009
Dean Alex Brillantes Jr., PhD;Submitted by: Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA Student

Based on a graph produced by the World Bank dated 2007 entitled “Systems of Government and Control of Corruption Index” published in Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives, Accelerating Human Development in Asia and the Pacific by UNDP, there are basically 5 forms of government in Asia, namely; monarchy, one party, parliamentary, presidential and semi – presidential. These forms were further refined in a map in the same article identifying the forms of government of different countries in the Asia – Pacific Region. The political systems identified are parliamentary republics, presidential republics, semi – presidential republics, parliamentary constitutional monarchies in which the monarch does not personally exercise power, republics where the dominant role of a single party is enshrined in the constitution and finally, absolute monarchy. It was noted in the said map countries in the Asia – Pacific Region has different political system.
In the graph earlier stated, the forms of government of the Asia Pacific and other countries where plotted against the “Control of Corruption Index 2006” on the vertical axis. It was shown in the graph that the countries under the parliamentary system scored the highest in the control of corruption, with countries under one party system as the least able to control corruption. What is surprising is that countries with monarchy as their form of government scored higher than those under presidential and semi – presidential form of government.
In the article ”Democracy” by Hannah Beech, democracy was defined as “rule of the people” whereby citizens have the power to choose their leaders and live in a society characterized by freedom and justice. Among the five forms of governments, those countries that are in the one – party and monarchy are least democratic compared to those in the parliamentary, presidential and semi – presidential. Yet, in the World Bank graph stated above, the control on corruption is best on countries whose form of governments are in parliamentary and monarchy – a democratic and autocratic system respectively.
Based on above facts, we can conclude therefore that the control of corruption is not dependent on the forms of government or political system. Said otherwise, democracy is not a guarantee for lesser corruption.
Corruption, according to the UNDP article mentioned earlier, is commonly defined as the misused of entrusted power for private gain. The most common forms of corruption are bribery, embezzlement, extortion, abuse of discretion; favoritism, nepotism and clientelism; conduct creating or exploiting conflicting interest, and improper political contributions. There are six characteristics of corruption as a phenomenon, namely; gap between group and individual interest or between short – and long - term benefits; involvement of two or more parties since one can hardly corrupt with one’s own self; corruptions are done by consenting adults; its is done basically for benefit furtherance; the situations where corruption may happen are in those with existence of power and finally, there is a misuse of that power.
It is also noted in the article that women are less corrupt than men, generally speaking. Another thing, same article pointed out that larger countries seem to be more susceptible to corruption than smaller ones. There is an articulation that corruption can actually help economic performance by way of “greasing the wheels”, i.e. allowing businesses to get quicker decisions, cutting through red type and thus operate more efficiently. But the article debunks this articulation by saying that “for every case where corruption is suggested as a way of increasing efficiency, there are always cleaner courses of action that perform at least as well or better.”
A country therefore does not need to be democratic to eradicate corruption. But the article suggests that the more corrupt a country is, the lesser resources are being allocated to education, health and environment. If the ultimate goal of development is improving the lives of the people, then we can say that corruption is anti – development. Yet, corruption can exist in both democratic and autocratic societies.

The article of Beech earlier mentioned poised an alarmist stand on regarding democracy in Asia by saying that “most Asian nations now hold elections, yet true democracy still eludes the region.” The said article is not intended to correlate corruption with democracy, but purely about democracy as it evolves in Asia today. Basically, the article is saying that Asian democracies are showing undemocratic signs lately – mentioning the case of Thailand and even the fact that the LDP of Japan has been in power for so long making it somewhat harmful to democracy.
The connection of democracy and corruption was discussed by the UNDP article more; yet, the conclusion is that corruption can happen even in democratic and the so called “non – democratic” countries.
Therefore, it is basically fallacious or non – sequitur to say that we must be democratic first to eradicate corruption. Or absence of corruption will lead to democracy. Maybe, we can say that lesser corruption can lead to lessening of Sen’s “unfreedom”.
This leads me again to what Bayani Fernando is saying: do not blame the system for what happened to you or your government, rather than, given a system, what can you do to pursue the public good and improve the quality of lives of the people. (If I may add with my own words, life is too short to spend it always thinkering with the system of government like Cha Cha: go to the people..give them jobs and/or teach them how to put food on their table, otherwise, it is just like being “manangs “ in the churches who always pray to God but are not helping other people). It is basically management and decision making that matters. Management being planning, organizing, leading and controlling and decision - making being identifying the problem, generating alternatives that can solve the problem and selecting the best among the alternatives based on a set of criteria rooted on public good, good taste and excellence. Basically, Bayani Fernando knows all alone that corruption is not dependent on the system of government but on generic characteristics that are present in both democratic and undemocratic system of government. And this was confirmed by the two articles earlier that we are talking about.
Eventually, the whole thing about democracy, corruption, development – enhancement or worsening of these phenomena in a certain country - will go back to the framework that Professor Alex Brillantes has told in the class, that it has something to do with the interplay of generic concepts like structure, behavior and leadership. And the interplay of these concepts will be based on how one applies management and decision – making principles and techniques in the pursuit of public good and in improving the lives of the people, as Bayani Fernando would say it.

Goodbye Kagawad Jerry Dulay

2009-02-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

I missed my kid brother Jerry. He is so nice that in the last mass for him before his burial at OLA, the church was full of people who bid godbye to him. He has a lot of friends all over Marikina.
In his short life on earth, at 45, Jerry has the habit of making things light and funny that you will forget your problems and worries. Mayor Marides Fernando has a funny anecdote about Jerry. M.C.F. Basketball Team was organized by Jerry to jump start the campaign of then young housewife Marides Fernando. When she was invited by Jerry in the opening ceremony, she asked Jerry whats the meaning of M.C.F. Jerry, whose real name is Mariano Cerbito Dulay said: "Mam, ang ibig sabihin nyan eh Mariano Cerbito Foundation so hindi ka maaakusahan ng early campaigning."
Jerry would gamble so hard in some lamays. Minsan napataob nya yung bangka and got all the money in the table. To the surprise of everyone, he donated all the money to the relative of the dead. Jerry can not sing. Sintonado sya. But one day he was singing Bee Gee's "Dont Forget to Remember Me", and told me: "Kuya, kinanta ni BF to sa RiverBank kagabi, kaya ko rin pala."
His appearance is ironic - macho, may bigote - pero I realized just now that all his life, he has my mother with him. Just when I though na ako ang mama's boy. Lahat ng pamangkin nyang may problema,he will shelter them at his house and send them to school.Yes, at the time of his death, he was sending 5 of them to schools. Akala ko ako yung pinaka mabait sa angkan...si Jerry pala.
Jerry is an accounting graduate of one of the best universities in the country. He could have been a bank executive or a finance guy of a multinational company in Makati..but he decided to stay in the place where we grew up..as a KB chairman, Barangay Kagawad and Barangay Administrator. He love Marikina Heights and its people so much that he stayed by her through thick and thin.
I have been a veteran of national presidential campaigns - Erap and Roco. But one day, Jerry told me:"Kuya, si BF, dapat patakbuhin natin presidente...buyuin natin"..it turned out na the clamor for BF to run for president is already snowballing all over the country but that turned out to be the first salvo of my campaign works for Bayani Fernando for president (although I was also one of the campaign staff when BF first run for Mayor in 1988 based in Calumpang Market with Kap. Harry Singh as the Campaign Manager)
The last time Jerry visited me in my house in San Roque was one lazy Saturday a week before he died. We are about to take our lunch..he ate a lot..adobo..chicken..etc. While eating , he told my college daughter Lenlen, "Inaanak, pag nag asawa ka, dapat di ka maloloko ng asawa mo ha..dapat alam mong manghuli ha". We all laugh of his "advise". Then he told my only son Esdee, "Oh Esdee, dapat magaling kang mambabae ha..." . It was an unusually happy lunch..very unexpected. Now I realized it was his "huling habilin" to the my children.

Sana panaginip lang ito and one day I will wake up with Jerry still with us.....
Jerry, si Kuya Tutoy mo to.....bakit ka masyadong nagmamadali..we love you..we need you round here...

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PASASALAMAT SA LAHAT NG MGA NAKIRAMAY:

In behalf of the Family of Kagawad Jerry Dulay, Angkan ng Dulay sa Lambak ng Marikina and all descendants of David Dula y Goiti, we wish to thank our friends and relatives who shared with our bereavement on the last days of Kagawad Jerry Dulay with us:
1. Mayor Marides Carlos Fernando for being the first one to extend Bayani Fernando and her family's condolences to our Clan, sent flowers, attended the wakes, sent some logistical supports and bus for the burial.
2. Vice Mayor Marion S.Andres,M.D.,for coordinating a "special - size" coffin and for being with the clan in the wake and in the burial.
3.Msgr. Mariano T. Balbago,Parish Administrator and First Rector of the Shrine,
Diocesan Shrine of Maria, Inang Mapag – ampon ng Marikina,J.P. Rizal St., Sta. Elena, Marikina City,for the Special Mass he personally presided and for the "special- size" burial place at the Shrine Cemetery.
4. Councilors Efren De Guzman and Boy Ponce for initiating a resolution signed by the City Council led by Acting Presiding Officer Councilor Boy Bolok Santos and city council Secretary Lolita E. de Leon expressing condolences to to our bereaved clan.
5. Kap. Edwin Adigue and his family for being on top of the situation for all the needed coordinations. Dr. Fabian Cadiz for a very nice history of Dulay Clan during the last testimonials to Jerry, and for being a kind source of strength for the clan way back in their college days.
6. SK Chairman John Po and his parents and his kagawads, for being with us on those bereavement days. Kagawads Letlet Adigue, Bobby Herrera,Weng Weng Cubarrubias, Martin Tindoc, Boy Reinoso,
7. Kap. Harry Singh, Kap. Tess Daza and Kap. Rudy Francisco for their show of sympathy and concerns, and ready presence and condolences.Kap. Apin de Guzman,Heidi Palanca of Legaspi City's Cherryland ,Ben Bautista,Vic and Fe Bago,Rep. Del. De Guzman,Julie Borje,Mary Justo, Duffie, Rep. Emil Ong, Onding Derpo, Charit Estanislao, Neya Cruz, Lydia de Guzman, Rep. Ome Candazo, Col. Alex Tuprio,Pastor Joey Casas, Boy Cruz, Reggie Pascual,Johnny Cunanan, Fiscal Eddie Guardiano, Judge Garalza,Councilors Tambuli, Ferdie Marco, Donn Favis, Bong Ubaldo, Boggs Reyes,Larry Punzalan, Pag – Ibig President Miro Quimbo, Dr. Tonette Corral,Atty. Cudiamat, Albert Cruz, Joe Balete,
8. Marist PTA, Knights of Columbus Marist Council and Concepcion Council, Alumni of the Ponciano Bernando High School, Asian Institute of Management, Marco Riders, Marikina Heights barangay Employees and Kagawads, Guardian members, friends from the Partido ng Masang Pilipino, Barangay Tanods,pamilya nga mga kasamahan ng tatay namin sa Francisco Cacho and Co., Inc. - the developers of Conceocion Dos and part of Concepcion Uno, Parang and Marikina Heights, Del de Guzman Riders, Marikina Heights Riders Club, Magnificat Parish, What The Bible Says Ministry, Magnificat Choir, St. Gabriel Parish, MSAT Batch 78, Neighbors of I. Mendoza St. in San Roque., FEU students, Neighbors from Friendly Village, NAJAMS, supports from different barangays in Marikina, Couples for Christ, friends from Bicol Visaya Atbp, Inc., St. Camillus Cursillista Group, FEU Faculty Club, Marikina Police, doctoral students of UP Public Administration, neighbors from Marikina Heights, Lupon of Marikina Heights, City Hall Employees, friends from Aksyon Democratiko, Guardiano family of the Iglesia ni Cristo, some members of the UP Vanguard,
9. For all the clan members and relatives from Tondo, Candawid, Cavite, Bulacan, Pasig, Cainta, San Mateo, Quezon City, and Marikina. Mga kababata at mga kabarkada namin.
10. Those who offered prayers, flowers, songs, masses, AV presentations, mass cards,offered cars, and supports.
11. All other friends and neighbors, and relatives who attended the lamay and filled the OLA Shrine during the last mass ..salamat, salamat po.

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Republika ng Pilipinas
SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD NG MARIKINA

RESOLUSYON Blg. 020
Serye ng Taong 2009

RESOLUSYON NA NAGPAPAHAYAG NG PAKIKIRAMAY SA MGA NAULILA NI BARANGAY KAGAWAD MARIANO "JERRY" DULAY NG BARANGAY MARIKINA HEIGHTS, LUNGSOD NG MARIKINA.

Introduced by: Councilor EFREN S.DE GUZMAN
and Councilor ROBERTO C.PONCE
Co- sponsored by: Vice Mayor MARION S.ANDRES, M.D.
Councilor FRANKIE C.AYUSON
Councilor SERAFIN Y. BERNARDINO
Councilor LEANOR F.CARLOS
Councilor ANNA B. DAYAO
Councilor DONN CARLO B. FAVIS
Councilor SAMUEL S.FERRIOL
Councilor HILARIO A. PUNZALAN
Councilor WILFRED S. REYES
Councilor VICTORIANO A.SABINIANO
Councilor PONCIANITO E.SANTOS,JR.
Councilor THADDEUS ANTONIO M.SANTOS
Councilor PONCIANO T.UBALDO,JR.
Councilor FELIPE C.URRUTIA

SAPAGKAT, si Kagawad Mariano "Jerry" Dulay ay naglingkod sa sa Barangay Marikina Heights bilang Barangay Kagawad mula taong 1994 hanggang sa sya ay pumanaw noong ika-29 ng Enero, 2009;

SAPAGKAT, si Kagawad Dulay ay maaalala ng kanyang mga kamag-anak, kaibigan, kasamahan sa serbisyo publiko dahil sa kanyang mga nagawa sa kanyang panunungkulan bilang Barangay Kagawad;

SAPAGKAT, ang pagkamatay ni Kaqawad Dulay aybisang malaking kawalan sa maraming taong naging bahagi ng kanyang buhay;

NGAYON AT SA KADAHILANAN NG LAHAT DITO AY NASASAAD, PINAGPASIYAHAN AT SA PAMAMAGITAN NITO AY PINAGPAPASIYAHAN ng SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD ng MARIKINA na sa kapulungan ay nabubuo, na magpahayag ng ng pakikiramay sa mga naulila ni Barangay Kagawad Mariano "Jerry" Dulay ng Barangay Marikina Heights, Lungsod ng Marikina.

PINAGPAPASIYAHAN PA RIN, na pagkakalooban ng sipi ng Resolusyong ito ang pamilya ni Kagawad Dulay para sa kanilang kaalaman.

PINAGTIBAY ng SANGGUNIANG PANLUNGSOD ng MARIKINA, ngayong ika -4 ng Pebrero,taong 2009.

Pinatunayang ang Resolutiong ito ay ipinasa sa ika - 5 na Pangkaraniwang Sesyon ng Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Marikina ngayong ika - 4 ng Pebrero, 2009.

LOLITA E.DE LEON
City Council Secretary

ATTESTED AND CERTIFIED TO BE DULY APPROVED:

THADDEUS ANTONIO M.SANTOS, JR.
President Pro-Tempore/Acting Presiding Officer

BAYANI FERNANDO EXPOSED: A Bleeding Heart for the Ordinary People Revealed in the APO Concert

2009-01-01T06:56:00.000-08:00

I received a text from Mayor Marides Fernando, “Hapi new year see u at concert tonight’. Sa totoo lang, may lakad sana ako pero chance ko na to na mapanood si Chairman Bayani Fernando at ang APO Hiking Society. Kasi nagtataka ako..bakit parang di tumatanda itong APO..high school palang ako sa MSAT, APO na ito..ngayon wala na yung MSAT, sikat pa rin yung APO. Besides, kasama ko sa AIM Alumni Association Board ang utol ni Jim Paredes at baka sakaling makausap ko si Jim. Daming kwento ng utol nya tungkol sa kanya nung mga paslit pa sila eh…

In that concert of the Apo Hiking Society last Sunday at the RiverBank Ampitheater in Marikina, people, (60,000 of them by the estimate of the APO Hiking Society staff) enjoyed the renditions of the trio of their classic songs. Si Congressman Ed Zialcita ng Paranaque, a ranking national officer ng LAKAS – CMD ang nagbigay ng isang pagbati at isang rendition ng paboritong awit ni Ninoy, ang “Impossible Dream”.

But people, including me, are also waiting for the Champion of the Celebrity Duets, MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando to sing them a song or two. The Chairman is not feeling well…he did not sing. ...he graced the occasion to meet the crowd he is at home with, ..the masses. He avoided going up the stage but when his name was called..he willingly went up and said what to me is a very revealing message of a man whose heart is bleeding from the irony of his circumstances.

He said it is personally painful to him that the Filipino masses know him by the nature of his job and not by the content of his heart. He said that as the MMDA Chairman, when his staff are fixing the sidewalks and he saw some illegal vendors being asked to leave the sidewalk, he can not help but feel their pain, but his staff has to do their job for the greater good of the majority of the masses, the ordinary people and children who are using the sidewalks. He said that it is only thru an occasion like that concert, that he can express his love for the masses. That was the reason why despite that he is not feeling well that evening, he has to show up…to greet the masses he loves so much.

Then, he started cracking jokes by way of announcing his project of cleaning the rivers of Metro Manila. He said his dream is that the masses will have their families do picnics in the riverbanks together. “Sa halagang bente pesos, mararating na ng taga Metro Manila ang ilog ng Marikina. Mag MRT kayo hanggang Santolan, tapos pwede nyo nang lakarin puntang ilog.” He said that by next year, “sana ang mga ilog mula Montalban, San Juan hanggang Pasig papuntang Manila Bay eh pwede ng pag piknikan.” Then, come his authenitc Bayani Fernando Joke that goes this way:
He asked the 60, 000 people around the ampitheater and the riverbanks…”sino sa inyo ang mga taga Quezon City?”, ang daming tumaas ng kamay..Tapos, “sino taga Cainta, taga Antipolo, taga Marikina, taga San Mateo, taga Montalban? Lahat nagsitaasan sa bawat tanong nya. Then ito yung pamatay, sabi nya, “Kayo, kayong, lahat ang nagpaparumi dito sa ilog ng Marikina”..tawanan yung mga tao.
Frankly, pati ako nagulat, dahil tumaas din ako ng kamay eh…pati ako nasisi pa nung lagay na yun… iba talaga ang Bayani Fernando Joke..paradoxical.

At the end of the concert, the APO Hiking Society received an standing ovation and shouts for more..more…more..which they obliged with one last song.

Then APO’sDanny Javier and Marikina Vice Mayor Marion Andres led the “Swearing in’ of the 60, 000 something crowd in the BAYANI nAPO AKO crusade that goes like this:

BAYANI nAPO AKO!

Ginugunita natin ngayon ang araw ng ating Pambansang Bayani na si Gat. JOSE RIZAL sa pagkakataong ito, ipinapahayag ko ang aking sarilingKABAYANIHAN.

“PANUNUMPA NG BAGONG PILIPINO”

Ako ay Filipino, naniniwalang sa akin magsisimula ang pagbabago.

Bayani ako, dahil mahal ko ang aking pamilya at aking bayan.
Bayani ako, dahil hindi ako bumibili sa mga illegal sidewalk vendors.
Bayani ako, dahil may tapang akong sitahin ang nga maling gawain.
Bayani ako, kasi tumatawid ako sa tamang tawiran.
Bayani ako, dahil hindi ako nanunuhol at isinusumbong ko ang humihingi ng suhol.
Bayani ako, dahil hindi ako gumagawa ng nakakainis sa kapitbhay at sa kapwa.
Bayani ako, kasi nagbabayad ako ng tamang buwis sa oras.
Bayani ako, dahil hindi ko pinapaihi at pinapadumi ang aking alagang aso sa tapat ng kapitbahay ko.
Bayani ako, kasi sumusunod ako sa batas at naniniwala na ito ay solusyon.
Bayani ako, kasi hindi ako bumibili ng sasakyan kapag walang garahe.
Bayani ako, dahil may tapang akong isumbong ang mga durugista sa aming lugar.
Bayani ako, dahil kusa akong nagwawalis at naglilinis sa harapan ng aming bahay.
Bayani ako, kasi sinesegregate ko palagi ang basurang nabubulok sa di nabubulok.
Bayani ako, dahil hindi ako nagtatapon ng kalat sa kalye.
Bayani ako, kasi hindi ako nagkukula at nagsasampay sa bangketa at harap ng bahay ko.
Bayani ako, dahil ako ay katulong ng pamahalaan sa kaayusan.

Natapos ang concert sa isang magarbong fireworks.Kumamay ako kay Mayor Marides Fernando nung simula ng concert. Nung patapos na, lumapit naman ako kay Chairman Bayani Fernando upang bumati ng Happy New Year. Dahil ako ay sumakay lang sa bangka mula bahay namin sa kabilang ibayo sa may Shoe Museum patungong ampitheater ay di ako nakapagdala ng kotse..kaya nung pauwi na, napilitan akong maglakad din kasabay ng ganun karaming masang minamahal ni Chairman, ang mga Bagong Filipino

Naaala ko tuloy yung EDSA Revolution sa dami ng tao…young professional pa ko nun, may grupo ako nun na sumosuporta kay Ramos..yung ang tawag namin ay “Kramer Junta”…binata pa ako nun..nag e MBA pa ako sa La Salle ... ngayon, yung panganay ko, magtatapos na ng kolehiyo sa UST..pero, salamat chairman at napadama mo sa aking muli yung feeling ng EDSA Revolution habang binabaybay naming yung kahabaan ng tabing ilog pauwi…kahit papano…

Sasamahan ka namin Chairman..kaming mga masa..wag kang mag alala.

Some Sites that Seem to Mention Bayani Fernando

2008-12-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

BAYANI FERNANDO EXPOSED!!

2008-12-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Engr. Bayani “BF” Fernando

A professional Mechanical Engineer. He is the founder of the BF GROUP OF COMPANIES, dealing with construction, steel, manufacturing and real estate. He has built the country’s tallest building, shopping malls, industrial and residential subdivisions and facilities. He is a former Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
He was a three-term City Mayor of Marikina, who transformed the former municipality into one of the best-managed cities and a paradigm of responsive and effective governance. During his incumbency, Marikina City was accorded 55 citations and distinctions.
As Chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Metropolitan Manila has been dramatically changing into a livable metropolis. With his exceptional administrative skills and leadership qualities that have now become the yardstick of performance, he continues to prove himself as an agent of positive change. This earned him the moniker “Mr. Governance”.
For his outstanding work, he was conferred the Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa, Ateneo de Cagayan, The Outstanding Filipino(TOFIL) Award for Government Service, the H.R Reyes Academic Medallion of Honor, Central Colleges of the Philippines and Doctor of the Public Administration, Honoris Causa by the polytechnic University of the Philippines.
Mr. Political Will. “ Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re” a Latin phrase which means “ Gentle in manner, Resolute in action”. He speaks and deals with people from all walks of life with amiable bearing of a real gentleman but decides and acts with a firm political will, uncompromising with his principles. From his passion of building structures, he now prides himself as a builder of character.
The Chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority

THE REFORMER… PERFORMER.. AND PROBLEM SOLVER…
THE HONORABLE SECRETARY BAYANI “BF” FERNANDO

“Bilang isang namumuno hindi ako maaring makiiyak sa mahihirap sapagkat kung bulag din ang aking mata. Paano ko sila maakay upang makaahon sa kahirapan.”
“As a leader, I cannot cry with the poor for if my eyes are blinded with tears, how will I lead them out of poverty?” BF 2003

The Early Child Care and Development Experiences in Marikina City

2008-12-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

University of the Philippines
National College of Public Administration and Governance
Public Administration 323 (Seminar on the Administration of Social Development), 1st Semester 2008, Dr. J. Prospero E. de Vera III

THE ECCD EXPERIENCES OF MARIKINA CITY
By Prof. Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA student

Conceptual Base

Child welfare is within the context of social development. Vague and confused as a concept, social development can be defined as “the enhancement of well being and the progressive enrichment of the quality of people’s lives”[1] Social development is a component of overall development concept. In the Philippine experience, social development has been a major concern – often times handled by the Office of the President or made into a full – blown department with names changing from administration to administration.
Social development or even child welfare has to contend with the other concerns of the state, like defense for instance. “Social policy making must be seen as a political process. It has already been stressed that social policy cannot be analyzed on its own, without referring to other activities of the state.”[2] Also, it must be realized that social development is always a work in progress because it “involves a process of change which is fostered through a deliberate human action.”[3] Social development is dynamic – which partially explain for instance why in the Philippines, the Council for the Welfare of Children has been passed on through times like ping pong balls from the Office of the President to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Vague as it is – couple with dynamism – social development must be defined using different perspectives. The United Nations Center for Regional Development defined social development as a “sectoral development and the provision of social services involving the improvement of the quality of life of the people through education, employment, health, housing, social welfare, agrarian reform, community development or disaster welfare.”[4] Take note that this 1983 definition from UN does not carry children’s welfare in it. In the same UN article however, a slightly different perspective of social development is defined as “supportive of and providing services for those in special needs and involving the development of, and provision of services to women, children and disadvantaged group”[5] This definition seems to put children’s welfare as an after thought concern – not in the mainstream.
There are also perspectives that say social development is nothing but providing welfare dole outs to the constituencies, which seems to be the prevailing thinking of most LGUs in the Philippines.

Benchmarking the Concept on International Conventions

It is in these multi perspective concepts that this paper seeks to approach the early child care and development (ECCD) experiences in Marikina. The best way to handle a concept is to have a benchmark. In this case, the best benchmark for ECCD is the globally prevailing document – the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC).In the unofficial summary of the main provisions of the CRC, its “preamble recalls the basic principles of the United Nations and specific provisions of certain relevant human rights treaties and proclamations. It reaffirms the fact that children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection, and it places special emphasis on the primary caring and protective responsibility of the family. It also reaffirms the need for legal and other protection of the child before and after birth, the importance of respect for the cultural values of the child’s community, and the vital role of international cooperation in securing children’s right”[6]
The CRC defined a child as a person under 18, unless the national laws recognize a country – specific age of majority. It encourages positive actions for non – discrimination on children and the government should always pursue the best interest of the child. It said that the state must implement the rights of the child. It must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents to provide guidance for the child. The child has the right to life, name and nationality; and identity. The child has the right to live with his or her parents. Parents and children have the right for reunification. The state shall safeguard the children’s right to have their own opinion, freedom of though, conscience, religion and association. The privacy of children must be provided and the state shall ensure the accessibility of children to information. It is the responsibility of parents to raise the child but the state shall provide assistance to the parents. The child must be protected from abuse and neglect and the states should protect children without families. The convention recognizes adoption. Special care should be given to refugee children, children of minorities and disabled children. The child has the right to the highest standard of health, medical care attendance and social security. They have the right to adequate standard of living and education. The child has the right to be protected from child labor, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, sale, trafficking, abduction and other forms of exploitation. The child has the right to be protected from torture and deprivation of liberty. The state shall take measures that children below 15 years of age has no direct part in hostilities. Rehabilitation and proper handling of victimized children as well as those in conflict with the law should be ensured. The state is obligated to inform the public of the CRC and they have to submit reports, which must also be available to the public.
With this backdrop and taking into account that the Philippines is a signatory to the CRC, it is now clear that children’s welfare is a big responsibility for the LGUs.
Another important document that articulated for the welfare of children is the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “The Millennium Development Goals are the world’s time –bound and quantitative targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions – income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion – while promoting gender equality, equality, education, and environmental sustainability.”[7] There are basically eight MDGs, namely, eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability; and, develop global partnership for development. The MDGs have 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators. I had the opportunity to report this topic in a doctoral class and we counted how many of these goals, targets and indicators pertains to children. The conclusion of the class is that out of 8 MDGs, only 1, the goal number seven (ensure environmental sustainability) has no direct provision about children’s welfare. But then, it is commonsensical that a good environment is beneficial to children – making the MDGs as another pro child welfare international document.

The Philippines Approach to Child Welfare

After passing through some basic social development concepts and international statures, it is now time to look into Philippine national documents and see what they have to offer for children’s welfare.
The CRC and MDGs, the international statures that articulate for children’s welfare, have a great influence on Philippine national programs and legislatures that concerns children. “The Philippines now stands in a critical point in time, faced with the challenged of realizing its commitments to the CRC, the MDGs, and the WFFC goals and the vision of Child 21.The current development and context in the country present complex and difficult issues.”[8]
The report submitted by the Philippine government, third and fourth periodic reports of States parties due in 2007, to be exact, talked about the country’s continuing review and enactment of legislations in compliance with CRC. The report identified the following legislative gaps: minimum age of criminal responsibility, minimum age of sexual consent, prohibition of torture, lack of comprehensive juvenile system, discrimination against children born out of wedlock, use of children in pornography, and corporal punishment. To work on these gaps, the country enacted the following laws: RA 9344: Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act – raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 9 to 15; RA 9208:Anti – Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 – instituted policies to eliminate trafficking, specially women and children; RA 9231: Elimination of the Worst Form of Child Labour Act of 2003; RA 9255 : An Act Allowing Illegitimate Children to Use the Surnames of their Father; RA 9262 : Anti – Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004; and, RA 9288 : New Born Screening Act of 2004.
The report said that despite all these laws, the current efforts are still inadequate. It plans to work on the remaining gaps such as: minimum age of sexual consent, child pornography, corporal punishment and other form of violence, discrimination against children born out of wedlock.
The report also said that in 2000, we formulated the Philippine National Strategic Framework for Plan Development for Children for the period 2000-2025, or Child 21, to build sensitive and child friendly society in the 21st century.
It also mentioned the role of the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), the main institutional mechanism in coordinating the implementation and monitoring of NPAC/Child 21 as well as in coordinating formulation of all policies for children and monitoring CRC implementation. Take note CWC, later on this paper will figure prominently on the ECCD concerns in Marikina City.
The committee report also noted that the mandate and resources of Philippine Commission on Human Rights (PCHR) in the promotion and monitoring of children’s right is limited, and it recommends strengthening them.
As regards to the budgetary allocation for children, the report mentioned that 30% of national budget goes to debt service – interest payment with insufficient allocation for social development and children’s program. To address this, the Philippines proposed in 2005: “Debt – to –MDG Financing”, a debt reduction scheme in exchange of MDG Financing.
The country also pursued international cooperation in its quest to provide wider service to children by working with GOP-UNICEF, ILO, JICA, USAID, BEAM, QTVET, ADB, WB, Save the Children-US, Save the Children-Sweden, WVF, Consuelo Foundation, CCF, ATD Fourth World, and IJM.
The report also said that the government also pursues Cooperation with civil society in pursuing children’s welfare thru the CWC sectoral committees, inter-agency bodies on child protection other than CWC, NGO Coalition for CRC Monitoring and Philippine Inter – Faith Network for Children.
The government initiated the CRC principles/provisions of advocacy thru the CWC and UNICEF IEC campaigns, Child Info – based Knowledge Network Centers in 24 LGUs, Bright Child Campaign of CWC, CWC and Task Force on the Popularization of the CRC in 24 municipalities in central Philippines.
We also disseminated the contents of the 2nd periodic report and concluding observations when the CWC printed the report itself for dissemination, convened committee and networks to brief them of the report, and thru TV and radio interviews as well as meetings and conferences.
Finally, as part of our compliance with CRC, the country initiated the preparations for the 3rd and 4th periodic report by CWC sending letters to agencies and NGO’s to submit their inputs; convened 3 consultations; and the Technical Management Committee of CWC Board reviewing the consultation’s write up, writing comments and integrating them with the second report. The report was submitted to CWC Board for Review, preparation of the final draft and submission.

The Child Welfare Program of Marikina City

Having shown some basic concepts in social development, the international conventions related to child welfare and the Philippine national programs on children, it is now time to go to an specific LGUs like Marikina, hoping that what we will see in this city as regards to program on children’s welfare could give us insight on what is happening in other LGUs in the country.
For the interest of brevity, we will dispense with the discussion o the basic demographic data about Marikina because they are readily available by googling them in the internet.
How do you run a city like Marikina – clean, organized, international acclaimed, prosperous, peaceful and world class, with its former Mayor one of the leading presidential contenders of the country in the 2010 elections and its present Mayor one of the Top 7 finalists in the World Mayor Award? “Our City Hall is run like a private corporation. We treat our clients as our customers whom we want not only to satisfy but to delight.”[9] – Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando.
The Marikina local government is divided into seven clusters, namely, administrative support, public order and safety, finance management and project development, infrastructure development and transportation, citizens’ affairs, economic development; and, health and environmental management.
The children’s welfare is found under the cluster of citizen’s affair, specifically, in the Social Welfare and Development Office. Aside from this office, the following are also found in the citizens’ affair cluster: Department of Education – Marikina, Public Information Office, Community Relations Office, Marikina Settlements Office, City Women Council, MCF Manpower House, Teens Health Quarter, Local Civil Registry, MCF Privilege Card and the Office of Senior Citizens Affair.
The city Social Welfare and Development Office is one - story structure called Social Action Center, detached from the main building where the Office of the Mayor is housed. In that Social Action Center, several officers are also found like: Volunteers Office, SOCO, PNP and Traffic Management.
The city Social Welfare Development Office has been devolved from DSWD to the city government of Marikina. The office was run by an OIC who is a licensed social worker. Together with the OIC, there was a Consultant directly reporting to the Mayor. The consultant is a TV producer of a child show and was a neighbor of the Mayor in her ancestral house in Pasig. The OIC eventually left the post for personal reasons and joined an entry level job at the Marikina Fiscal’s Office, the Consultant took over as the OIC then hired a 24 – year – old licensed social worker as his assistant.
The city Social Welfare Development Office is picture of a workplace that is changing often, desks are changing depending on the circumstances of the office politics, full of clients daily and perhaps, in an attempt to manage the flow of clients, a sign is posted in the door reminding the customers to whom to report regarding their needs. The post says “services offered”: referral; social case study report; medical, financial and funeral assistance; certificate of indigency, PWD, PYAP/TN; and solo parent. Then, names of concerned staff handling these services are listed .Take note that in the list, there is no specific concern for children’s welfare. The OIC and her assistant have their separate rooms, the rest of the 13 staff are together. On the adjacent room is the Children in Conflict with the Law Shelter with around 25 inmates. Based however on Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, the office has the following services: assistance in crisis situations, referrals, seminars and counseling and child – friendly intervention which handling of juvenile cases. Take note again the lack of mention of child welfare concerns and day care centers despite the fact that the city also manages around six day care centers all over the city of 16 barangays. Barangay councils for the protection of children are not active.

One Fateful Meeting at the CWC Office

The class of Prof. Popoy de Vera had a session in the Office of CWC. During the lecture of Ma. Elena S. Caraballo, Deputy Executive Director, CWC Concerns, she discussed about different LGUs who are ECCD accredited, which are only very few. She mentioned, among others that Marikina is not accredited, and being the Consultant of the Mayor of Marikina City. I was assigned by our Professor to look into it and make it as my paper; hence, this paper was written specifically due to that fateful meeting.
I arranged a meeting between Mrs. Caraballo, Mayor Fernando, City Social Welfare Development Office OIC, Tess Valentino of DSWD NCR and other members of ECCD Network in Metro Manila.
The Mayor and CWC Executive Director agreed that Marikina City government will work for the ECCD Accreditation and CWC will provide around 5 Million pesos counterpart funding for a city ECCD program. The Marikina City SWDO OIC was appointed ECCD Officer. Deadline was set, series of activities were planned.
Separate technical meetings were done to plan for data gathering, planning sessions and submission of needed requirements.
After the meeting, I intentionally did not join them anymore in their succeeding meetings because I don’t want to appear that I am interfering with the job of the Marikina City SWDO OIC, as a matter of professional courtesy, both of us being Consultants of the Mayor. Besides, since the data needed are already set, deadlines are set, forms to fill up are available; I feel that it is just a matter of doing it and I am not needed anymore.
One evening, I received a text message from Mrs. Caraballo informing me that one of the members of the multi sectoral ECCD Committee of NCR told her that the scheduled planning session for ECCD Accreditation in Marikina will not push thru and she is afraid that Marikina will never be able to catch the deadline anymore. She informed me that she is preparing a letter to the City Mayor informing her of the development.

Findings and Recommendations

1. With the frequent changes in the Marikina City SWDO, the organizational capacity to respond to a new task like ECCD Accreditation is still weak. The OIC is new and her assistant is also new. Recommendation: team building sessions and thorough job orientation.
2. It was noted that out of 13 staff, some of them are not college graduates and joined the service as a political accommodations rather than based on qualifications. Only one of them is a license social worker, the assistant of the OIC. Recommendation: professionalize the staff, assign the less qualified somewhere else and hire more social workers into the unit.
3. Staff is overloaded; there are staff members who have to work after 5 pm and during weekends. Recommendation: realignment of duties and work loads.
4. It was noted that CRC, MDGs and children’s welfare is not well advocated in the city hall and even among the Marikina City SWDO staff. Being a devolved function, SWDO is being viewed as an office that dispenses funeral and medical assistance basically. Recommendation: advocacy and information campaign about CRC, CWC, MDG and other children’s concern that the office are suppose to handle.
5. The Marikina City SWDO lacks a staff that is well - versed in planning, data gathering, and doing reports. It was learned that there are several attempts as early as 2004 to work on the ECCD Accreditation but the office simply can not do it up to now. One challenge also is the volume and nature of data being asked (See Exhibit A). Recommendation: hire another assistant, probably another social worker, whose job is to handle planning, reporting, rules compliance, accreditations, project proposal writing, data gathering and safekeeping.
6. There is a perception that a job in the Marikina City SWDO is dirty and unfashionable and the staff members of the office are not that presentable. This perception can easily lead to being unable to get data and simple favors from other offices that look at themselves as more superior. Recommendation: professionalism; a high profile children’s welfare champion from the Marikina City Hall must be groomed. The present OIC, being a Consultant and a personal friend of the Mayor is a good material for this task. She just has to get familiar with theoretical base, other issues and concerns on children’s welfare and must be passionate enough in advocating them.
7. Barangay Councils for the Protection of Children (BCPC) are not well organized. Recommendation: assign two councilors, one per district, to help the Marikina Marikina City SWDO to organize and sustain the BCPC.
8. The Marikina City SWDO had been very busy. Some staff does overtime without pay. Some work on weekends…and yet; they seem to be not so focused on children’s welfare activities. At present, only the OIC is handling the ECCD concerns, and to think that she has other activities, being a close confidante of the Mayor and therefore could be doing other activities on the side, she might end up neglecting her duties on ECCD. Recommendation: assign the ECCD work to the new assistant that will be hired.

END

Acknowledgement:

I wish to acknowledge social worker and assistant to the OIC Carolyn Sta. Maria for granting two interviews about the operations of the Marikina City SWD Office; OIC and fellow Consultant Nadeia Sarte for giving me access to her office and providing crucial data on ECCD; the members of the ECCD Network Tess Valentino, Elsie Romualdez and Lucia Bronio for their assistance in the several meetings we conducted; CWC Deputy Executive Director Ma. Elena S. Caraballo for graciously granting our invitation to meet with the Marikina City Mayor; the Marikina City Mayor Marides Fernando for her decisiveness and accommodation to meet the ECCD Network Members; for Sec. Bayani Fernando for his "Marikina Way" doctrine that things can still be improved - ala continuous improvement stuff, and finally, to my professor and fraternity brother at the UP Vanguard Fraternity Professor Popoy de Vera for giving me the opportunity to have this concern of my hometown as my paper on his subject.

Bibliography:

1. “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.: UPCPA,

2. Understanding Social Policy. NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”

3. Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.

4. “Different Perspective on Social Development. ”Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan: UNCRD,

5. The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989

6. The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html

7. Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.

8. Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition, 2007

[1] “Trends and Patterns in Social Development Efforts of the Philippine Government”, A Reader in Philippine Social Development by Bautista (ed), Q.C.:UPCPA, p.3
[2] Understanding Social Policy .NY: Basil Blackwell Inc., Chapter 1- “What is Social Policy”, p.9
[3] Social Development: the Development Perspectives in Social Welfare. London: Sage Publishing.p.38
[4] “Different Perspectives on Social Development” Local Social Development Planning, vol.1.Japan:UNCRD,p.9
[5] Ibid
[6] The Convention on the Rights of the Child. As adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20 November 1989
[7] The UN Millennium Development Goals. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/index.html
[8] Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child Consideration of Reports Submitted by the State Parties Under Article 44 of the Convention. September 19, 2007.
[9] Marikina Citizens’ Factbook, A Guide to Key Government Services, Second Edition,2007

BAYANI FERNANDO and LEE KUAN YEW ARE CORRECT

2008-12-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

PA 327: Comparative Development Administration, Second Semester 2008-2009
Dean Alex Brillantes Jr., PhD

Submitted by: Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA Student

REACTION PAPER TO CHAPTERS 1, 2, 4 & 6 OF “DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM” BY AMARTYA SEN

The paper shows the relationship of development and freedom. Basically the book is saying that development and freedom has a direct relationship. Development is a “process of expanding freedoms that people enjoy.”[1] In a way, the book is arguing against the propensity of some authors to talk of development in terms of quantifiable GNP, income and the likes. To the author, development requires the removal or at least, lessening of what he termed as “unfreedom” such as poverty, tyranny, poor economic opportunities, social deprivation, and neglect of public facilities or repressive states.
The way I see it, and perhaps as a way to add to the thesis of the author, there must be a way to find the correlation of freedom and development in several typologies of the stages of the development of any state. Are freedom and development directly proportional, meaning, the higher is the stage of development, the higher is the freedom? Or inversely proportional: the higher is the development, the lower is the freedom? When are they directly proportional and when are they inversely proportional?
Another interesting I would like the author to expound is the concept of the means and the end as applied to freedom and development. Is the freedom the end or the means of development ? In what way? In what situation?
Actually, the author did say that “freedoms are not only the primary ends of development, they are also among its principal means”. In a way, freedom and development are the end and the means of each other, a cyclical relationship (my opinion, not of the author). Said other way, the more freedom a society has, the more development it can have, and vice versa. The only aberration to this addendum of mine is what the author termed as Lee Thesis (from Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore), that too much freedom is not good for economic development. But the author is quick to say that the Lee Thesis is based on too little empirical evidence.
The author proceeded with a 12 – chapter development of his book.
The first chapter talks about the perspective of freedom. The author said that “the useful ness of wealth lies in the things that it allows us to do – the substantive freedoms it helps us to achieve.”[2] He said that it is important to see development in the perspective in the substantive freedom of people. It will make us understand deeper the process of promoting it. But because components of freedom are heterogeneous, comparing and ranking development experiences based on precise criterion is not suggested by the author.
This hesitation of the author to try to be precise is a typical “defense mechanism” of the so called “intellectuals” that borders, at worst on intellectual dishonesty. The tactics being is to appear “sophisticated” as one can be by avoiding categorical assertions and in the process hiding in the comfort of confusion. The game plan is to avoid being cornered with an idiotic notion.
It could have been better if the author will present a framework of ranking and comparing the “development as freedom” experiences of nations based on precise typology and in the process contribute into making public administration as a science. When the framers of MDG put together concepts into quantitative goals and targets, they try hard to be precise and were not afraid to be different or wrong – because they are honest about what they know and what they want.
Chapter 2 talks about the end and means of development by saying “enhancement of human freedom is both the main object and the primary means of development”[3] The society and the state has the role of strengthening and safeguarding human capabilities. Said other way, the state should remove or lessen hunger, diseases, violence and ignorance from hampering the capability of its citizens to pursue what they want.

One problem with this kind of valuation for development is that this is so hard to quantify because the valuation is qualitative. The problem with qualitative valuation is it is so subjective that it is so hard to compare across different countries. It is even possible that pushing countries into a development ranking based on freedom might end up doing it like in a beauty contest – with common set of judge and an attempt to subject them to a common set of criteria, with a reminder that the decision of the board of judges is final.
Chapter 4 is a detailed attempt to link poverty as a capability deprivation. The author noted that economists concentrate too much on efficiency and less on equity. Differences in mortality show the inequities among races, classes and gender. Income does not automatically convert into a certain desired lifestyle and capabilities.
A Pinoy earning dollar in the US does not mean that he is better off than a Pinoy earning peso in the Philippines. In the US, a Pinoy will always feel as a second class citizen. He has no freedom “not to work” in the US because it is “no work – no eat” there. A Pinoy spending his income in the US has also to contend with high cost of living – negating his high income earned in dollar in the US relatively to a peso earned in the Philippines.
Chapter 6 talks about the importance of democracy as an essential component of the process of development. The permissive roles of political freedom and civil rights demonstrated usefulness in preventing economic disasters. Organized opposition is important. “More informed and less marginalized public discussion of environmental issues may not only be good for the environment; it could also be important to the health and functioning of the democratic system itself.” [4]
Too much democracy, like the forum shopping or court injunctions, oftentimes delays or hampers governmental functions. Eventually, it might hinder other freedoms like freedom from poverty because it may delay economic activities. A call for the elimination or toning down of these “excesses” of democracy is in order. It is at this instance where Bayani Fernando and Lee Kuan Yew has a point.
[1] Development as Freedom. Amartya Sen. Anchor Books. New york. p. 3
[2] Ibid. p.14
[3] Ibid. p.53
[4] Ibid.p.157

BAYANI FERNANDO GETS IT DONE

2008-12-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

PA 327: Comparative Development Administration, Second Semester 2008-2009
Dean Alex Brillantes Jr., PhD

Submitted by: Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA Student

Diagnostic Essay – Due 17 November 2008

Read the article of Farazmand (on development administration) and Grindle (on good enough governance) and present your own analysis of the state of development (underdevelopment) and governance in the Philippines today. You may of course locate your discussion within the context of global developments today.

The Philippines Today and Some Prescription to Make It a Better Country

A lot of Filipinos are wondering….what happened to the Philippines? We used to be next to Japan in the early 50’s, now we are far behind. There are a lot of positive things about our country and our people. We have a superior culture, westernized: English speaking, Roman Catholics, with western surnames and practices all the western cultural rituals – Christmas, Halloween, New Year, Valentine, etc. We are good looking (mixture of western, Malays and Chinese bloods), well educated and cultured…yet, we seem to be not getting anywhere as a nation.

Before we continue to self inflict further, let me point out that if the countries all over the world are people, Philippines is a middle class guy, so, we should not feel bad about what we are now that much. In fact, we should take this fact as a way to make us feel good and must have self confidence as a people to pursue progress and development as a nation. Always remember that a middle class guy, with proper planning determination, can do better than a rich guy….

Conceptual Basis

Let me start analyzing where we went wrong by talking about basic concepts, like development and underdevelopment. “Activities of modern nation states in promoting their development fall under the four categories previously listed: producing an economic surplus, promoting social and cultural integration, governance and education. For purposes of explanation, they are discussed separately. However, their usefulness to the state for national development comes only through their interaction. All four are so intertwined and interdependent that to select one as preeminent, as economists, business and government have done with producing an economic surplus is to distort understanding of the process.”[1] This definition views national development as a process. Take note that the definition mentions four main clusters. We can say that the lack or a weakness on any of these clusters can be viewed as the opposite – underdevelopment. The definition is advocating for a balance approach, meaning, a development process in all four fronts.

Governance on the other hand is complex. In fact, different organizations have different definition of governance, as shown in the article of Grindle. “Though governance is now virtually a synonym for public administration, much of the literature putatively about “governance” does not even bother to define the term, apparently on the assumption that it is understood naturally and intuitively” [2] But I think it would be clearer if we pick up one definition from among the several definitions presented by Grindle. UNDP defined governance as the “the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country's affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions, through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences”[3] It also defines good governance as “participatory, transparent…accountable….effective and equitable….promotes the rule of law…. ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources”[4] Said other way, good governance is adding democratic and management ideals to the process of governance.

One thing interesting about the article of Grindle is the concept of “good enough governance”, which if you take it in a laymen’s term is governance that is not the ideal but is doable enough given the circumstances, so, therefore, is good enough. This seems to be aligning with Herbert Simon’s concept of “satisficing versus optimizing” in decision making. “A particular important difference between the rational and the bounded rational decision making is this: the rational manager continues to review solution until he or she finds the optimal choice, while in contrast, managers in practice often “satisfice.” To satisfies means that managers in practice tend to be concerned with just discovering and selecting satisfactory alternatives, and only in exceptional cases with finding optimal alternatives. This is not to say that managers don’t try to be rational; it is simply recognizing the fact that in practice, their practice to be rational will be limited or “bounded” by the sort of decision – making barriers.”[5]. Simply put, decide based on the available data, according to your best effort.

Good enough governance, conceptually, is close to satisficing. Do not wait for the ideal circumstances because it may not come and time is of the essence. Rather, concentrate on what activities and programs that can be done given the prevailing circumstances. “The good governance agenda, largely defined by the international development community but often fervently embraced by domestic reformers, is unrealistically long and growing longer over time. Among the governance reforms that “must be done” to encourage development and reduce poverty, there is little guidance about what’s essential and what’s not, what should come first and what should follow, what can be achieved in the short term and what can only be achieved over the longer term, what is feasible and what is not. If more attention is given to sorting out these kinds of issues, the end point of the good governance imperative might be recast as “good enough governance,” that is, a condition of minimally acceptable government performance and civil society engagement that does not significantly hinder economic and political development and that permits poverty reduction initiatives to go forward.”[6]

The Philippine Situation

The Philippines, if we will based on Table 2: Characteristics of Regimes and their Capacities, belongs to the personal rule type of political system characterized by rule through personalities and personal connections. We have political parties, but these parties are the empty shells of presidential candidates who used them in their presidential run. Institutional “stability is highly dependent on personal control of power. Rules of the game emphasize power of elites and personal connections to elites; there is conflict over who controls the state. Organizational capacity of the state is low. Organizations respond to the personal and shifting priorities of powerful elites. Degree of the state legitimacy is low. There is often significant contention over who has the right to wield power; power is used for personal wealth creation. Types of policies in place are unstable; a major objective is to enrich those in power; few basic public services are provided.”[7]
Although, the Philippines can also be considered minimally institutionalized states, in other words, it seems to flip flop between personal rule type to minimally institutionalized states type of political system.
Based on the concept of good enough governance, the Philippines, by virtue of its existing types of political systems are not capable to do “higher” governance characteristics like ensuring equality/fairness in justice and access to services, open government decision making/ implementation process, responsiveness to input from organized groups/citizen participation, and; full accountability for its decisions and their consequences. At its current political system, our government can only fulfill “lower “ level governance like enduring of personal safety, basic conflict resolution system, widespread agreement on basic rules of the game for political succession, government being able to carry administrative tasks, and ;being able to ensure basic services to most of the population.

Recommendation

It is noted that in the typology of political systems that characterizes the regimes and their capacities, political party plays a very dominant role. It is worthy at this point to determine what the political system of the country was when it was number two to Japan: two party systems and partly financed by the state. That system was closest to the present political system of the strongest and richest nation of the world today, the USA. The system was destroyed by Marcos and our political leaderships up to now, are not able to restore it. As I am writing now, our political leaders, and even academicians, are not aware or concerned of the fact that it’s the best system and it should be restored. Because they don’t recognize this fact, they don’t feel the urgency to restore it. If they don’t feel the urgency, nobody feels the urgency and nobody cares. Even this finding of mine could be subject to ridicule and lots of second opinions by people who are academically and verbally eloquent but conceptually “dull”. In Tagalog, they can be described as “edukadong pulpol” or “duminanting bobo”, meaning they can debate eloquently against this finding (or against any topics for that matter) 100 times, cite so many readings, hackneyed and anecdotal opinions with full of forms, but they are actually and basically “dull” for not to being able to get the fact that is staring at them: we were two - party system (the system of the strongest and richest nation on earth and therefore, benchmarking – wise, in basic management term, it is sound) when we were number two to Japan and that system need to be restored. It is as simple as this. The very reason why up to now the system that gave us glory is not yet restored after so many years is the proliferation of the “edukadong pulpol” or “duminanting bobo” in the media, academe, the church, and the national leadership. Kung baga sa basketball, ang tawag sa kanila ay “bano”: magaling pomorma pero di maka shoot. Kung baga sa billiard, sila yung mga player na ang galing pomorma pero mahihina sa planketa. Debaters and talkers are endemic in this country so we cannot seem to appreciate the phenomenon of a doer like Bayani Fernando, as if doing, in an ironic twist, is a sign of dullness. As in a Russian proverb: “it’s the child who works who gets the spanking”. These “edukadong pulpol” or “”duminanting bobo” are so many that make one think that they are indeed endemically enslaving the Philippine society to mediocrity. Today there are different versions of bills in the Congress that talks about electoral reforms and they are not moving for so many years now. They serve as monkey’s wrench to each other. They gridlock each other. All of them are saying so many things that they are bound to have differences in one way or another, and therefore, it will take them forever to reconcile these differences, especially the fact that they do not have a sense of urgency….they can not move on. The solution is to have a bill that will provide government allowance to the watchers of the two leading political parties/ coalitions in the immediately preceding national elections, and the two party system and partial government support to political parties would had been de facto restored without fanfare. Avoid so many other provisions because it will just invite disagreements. The tactics seems to be: teach the monkey one trick at a time for the Philippine society to escape from the slavery of these “duminanting bobo” or “edukadong pulpol”, lots of them are indeed highly educated and well placed. Some of them are in U.P. I know a few of them.

END

[1] http://www.gwu.edu/~edpol/manuscript/intro1-4.htm
[2] The Public Administration Theory Primer. H.George Frederickson and Kevin B. Smith. P.209
[3] Good Enough Governance Revisited. Grindle, Merilee, February 2005. p.14
[4] ibid
[5] Management: Leading People and Organization in the 21st Century. Desslert, Gary. 1998. p.121
[6] Good Enough Governance: Poverty Reduction and Reform in Developing Countries. Grindle, Merilee, p.526
[7] Good Enough Governance Revisited. Grindle, Merilee, February 2005. p.16

BAYANI FERNANDO and LEE KUAN YEW

2008-12-20T08:39:00.000-08:00

PA 327: Comparative Development Administration, Second Semester 2008-2009
Dean Alex Brillantes Jr., PhD

Submitted by: Sofronio “Toti” Dulay, DPA Student

Take - off from Chapter 6 of Sen and reading the articles of LKY, discuss why an authoritarian system is or is not appropriate for the development and development administration.
Development is a way to extend freedom and freedom, in a way, also helps development, this is in essence what Sen is telling us in his book. But what is really development? I always love to state a normal and universal definition devoid of techno talks of a particular group…this is one way to achieve a universal understanding and leveling – off. “Activities of modern nation states in promoting their development fall under the four categories previously listed: producing an economic surplus, promoting social and cultural integration, governance and education. For purposes of explanation, they are discussed separately. However, their usefulness to the state for national development comes only through their interaction. All four are so intertwined and interdependent that to select one as preeminent, as economists, business and government have done with producing an economic surplus is to distort understanding of the process.”[1] Development administration therefore is administering or running the affairs of a country to produce an economic surplus, and promote social and cultural integration, governance and education. Some academicians will attempt to make a more complex definition of this concept, just to appear sophisticated and hide safely their “standing in the society” beyond the comfort of confusions. The more confusion, the more they thrive. What a very unethical way to live…living at the expenses or confusions of others.
Sen, in Chapter 6, correlates democratic system and development positively, meaning, the more the democratic system is working in a country, the greater will the chances of development. He became specific enough by emphasizing the “demonstrated usefulness (of democratic system) in preventing economic disasters is itself quite important.”[2] He went saying for instance that famines do not happen in democratic countries but in totalitarian states. He cited the importance of organized opposition since democratic institutions are not “mechanical device” that runs by itself. Societal values are important to be articulated and inputted into the picture of democratization and development and this articulation can happen through political freedoms and civil rights. There is a need to safeguard the circumstances and conditions that provide the democratic process.
Then came Lee Kuan Yew at the opposite pole of Sen. “All peoples of all countries need good government. A country must first have economic development, and then democracy may follow. With a few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. Democracy has not led to development because the government did not establish the stability and discipline necessary for development.”[3]
The article even showed several examples to show that too much western – type democracy will not work in most circumstances. It even quoted Helmut Schmidt saying “perhaps the west must admit to itself that people living in other continents and other cultural groups with firmly rooted traditions can be thoroughly happy even without the democratic structures which Euro-Americans consider indispensable.”[4]
Actually, Lee Kuan Yew also believes in the democracy as Sen, but they disagree on the sense of timing. Sen believes that economic development and democracy goes hand in hand; Lee Kuan Yew believes that a country must first have economic development, and then democracy may follow. He is wise enough not to go against a universally accepted and encouraged concept like democracy.
But please allow me say a little about an evolving “concept” we called “Marikina Way” as a way to add ethnicity to this high profile discussion. As the Consultant of Mayor Marides Fernando of Marikina City, one of my earliest projects is to conduct a leadership seminar for the leaders of the Kabayani Party, the local party of the Fernando’s of Marikina. With the help of the Ateneo School of Governance, the seminar was held among the top leaders of the party in an expensive hotel in Ortigas. In the seminar, MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, sitting as one of ordinary participants, expresses this idea: “do not blame government structures because they are almost the same since they are universal concepts anyway, what will matter eventually is management and decision making.” To him, blaming structure is just a convenient scapegoat for bad governance because somebody will always say that we are corrupt or the Philippines is poor because our party system, for instance, was a mistake. To Bayani Fernando, democratic structure is ideal, but whatever quagmire you are in – democracy or no democracy, you have to give your best efforts in serving the public. A leader should be the advocate and the champion of the public good. This kind of philosophy is shown in his management style. The public good requires that poor people must have a place to walk and play, so, he recovered the sidewalks from rich store owners and Kotong cops - protected illegal vendors who selfishly stole the sidewalks for their personal benefits at the expense of the public good. In general, it is bad taste to steal, so Bayani Fernando corrected this bad taste staring us in our face – risking his personal political capital to the puzzlement of traditional politicians, paid pundits, political tacticians and paid writers masquerading as pseudo - media. Filipinos are forced to urinate anywhere because we lack public toilets and business establishments “selfishly” control their restrooms, so, the public good, based on BF’s management calculation and decision making process as the most doable at the given circumstances, are the Pink Urinals. We do not have to wait for the Philippines to become super rich or Filipinos to become super – good taste, or do paralysis by analysis by reviewing the whole gamut of governmental structures and democratic principles or history of public administration - to do what is good to the public because by then, our country will be stinking all over and lots of Filipinos dying of gall bladders explosion. Incidentally, Nobel Prize Awardee and public administration icon Herbert Simon’s bounded rationality and satisficing is near to Bayani Fernando’s style, so, he can not be accused of lacking in conceptual framework, the way we doctoral students will love to look even in the face of a working solution just to show that somewhat we are superior in concepts – a shade of intellectual dishonesty or naivety. In a nutshell, it is the Marikina Way – a cross breed of Sen and LKY: “democracy - blind”, or with or without democracy, public good must be advocated (tarpaulin campaign) and championed (MMDA projects). I am not campaigning for Bayani Fernando but if you know him the way I know him, you can not help but wish that he is the next President of the Philippines. The guy is a phenomenon. He lets Sen, LKY and the likes debate to the hilt, wasting their saliva in the process...BF will just do it for the public good.

END
[1] http://www.gwu.edu/~edpol/manuscript/intro1-4.htm
[2] Development as Freedom. Amartya Sen. Anchor Books. New york. p. 158

[3] Lee Kuan Yew. The Man and His Ideas. Han Fook Kwang et al. Singapore Press Holdings. Time Edition.p.380.
[4] Ibid.381

BAYANI FERNANDO

2008-12-20T07:58:00.000-08:00

BAYANI FERNANDO is pro - poor. In his tarpaulin advocacy campaign, his pro - poor inclination is shown by the messages of his advocacy: "pantay pantay kung may disiplina" is saying that the urban poor, the provincianos and the young professionals and children of business tycoons are all equal if we have a working law and a culture of discipline for everyone. Walang palakasan...pare pareho lahat. In a way, Bayani Fernando raised the level of urban poor to the level of the children of the tycoons.

When he gave 11,000 squatters their own homes....he gave hope and dignity to the poor.
Now tell me who among the presidentiables gave homes to the poor? Can we do the roll call?
Hey presidentiables, how many homes did you give to the poor? Noli de Castro? Manny Villar?
Mar Roxas? Loren Legarda? Ping Lacson? Oh, ano? Ilan ang binigay nyo? You mean to say sa tagal nyo sa politika eh di nyo kayang tapatan ang record ni Bayani Fernando? Eh ito..pag sama samahin kaya natin yung mga binigay nyong bahay ..kayong lahat..kaya nyo bang lagpasan yung 11,oo homes na binigay ni Bayani Fernando? See? Sabi ko na nga talo kayo sa performance eh.

Bayani Fernando cleared the street of the encroaching store owners and illegal vendors supportive of kotong cops in order to give the masses a place to walk on and for the poor children to have a place to stay.

I can go on and on telling you of past and present actuations of BAYANI FERNANDO AS PRO POOR... this debunked the myth propagated by some of his rivals that says BF is otherwise.

Bayani Fernando for President in 2010 | Bayani Na! Fernando Pa!

2008-10-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Tina de Castro wrote this in a Government Forum last 8/28/2008

"MAREA FROM HEAVEN" is the sentence that will tell who will be the next president of the Philippines. Mar Roxas should run as vice president only in 2010...wala sa kanya ang destiny for 2010.

The next president is Bayani Fernando.Why?

Yes, we will vote for Bayani Fernando.

1. He is pro poor - relocated 11,000 squatters, open up sidewalks for ordinary people to pass, he provided cheap dwellings in the port area for poor provincianos staying in Manila.

2. He is an EDSA 1 hero - as a young businessman, he used his construction equipments to safeguard the people against probable attacks of pro - Marcos soldiers and tanks.

3. He is religious - a sacristan when he was young, and contiunues to give concerts for the benefits of the church.

4. He is not corrupt, Grace Dyjamco, whose lot in Tondo was bought by MMDA for a anti flood pump told me that what Chairman Bayani Fernando requested from her is to provide for the families squatting on her lot.before MMDA will agree to buy her lot.

5. "Sa buong buhay ko, wala pa akong pinapatay" he always say., Yes, he is not a man of violence. His politics is politics of performance.

6. He is nationalistic- his native name, and his daughters native name, Tala, speaks for itself.

7. He gets things done - solve the garbage and traffic problems in Metro Manila.

8. He wants equality of the poor and the rich as seen by his advocacy, "pantay pantay pag may disiplina". so, kahit urban poor ka man or anak ng milyonaryo, sa mata ni Bayani Fernando, pantay pantay lang kayo.

9. Matapang sya - ang backers ng mga colorum bus at FX ay mga generals pero, pina impound pa rin nya to. Di sya takot mamatay alang alang sa bayan.

10. May solution sya sa ano mang problema - and very unique ang solution nya na if you analyze it deeper --ultimately pro poor.Example: Metro Guapo sa Recto..inayos nya drainage, inayos at pinaganda ang mga bahay ng mga mahihirap. San ka nakakita ng tao na itataya nya ang pangalan at buhay nya para lamang makapagsilbi sa mahihirap at sa publiko. Si Bayani Fernando, kayang gawin yan.

reply By: serionchristian registered: 8/14/200, Matsusaka city, Japan

Tina de Castro magaling ang pinili mo! That's a nice pick. Honestly I don't know him, but if you tell the truth about what you said about him so if ever I had the oppurtunity I would vote for him. What you said about him made me feel happy. I mean there is still a politician that is doing his job rightly and honestly. He is helping people the especially the poor ones which is a good thing to do. If he believes in God then he has nothing to worry about. God might even give him the chance to be president and change the country. God will never leave or ignore people who loves him and never forgets about him. We should all pray to God. He is the answer. And the guy you said has a very big chance to be the president for there is no impossible in this world only possible. I pray to God that this man will be the next president and make Philippines a great country. God bless to all and take care.

Bayani Fernando: The Next Philippine President

2008-08-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Bayani Fernando Internet Campaign Kit

(Courtesy of Friendster,Yahoo Answers,Geocities,You Tube, Facebook,PetitionSpot and Blogspot)

1. Bayani Fernando ( Catalyst Leader Tagalog Ver. )

2. Bayani Fernando for president of RP, will you vote him?

3. Bayani Fernando ( Catalyst Leader English Ver. )

4 .Do you think Bayani Fernando is a better alternative for President in 2010?

5.Bayani Fernando for President Petitions

6.Would you vote for bayani fernando as a president?

7.Would bayani fernando make a good president?

8.The Emergence of the "Marikina Way".

9.Marikina City Community Forum: BAYANI FERNANDO FOR PRESIDENT ...

10.Friendster - bayani fernando

11. Marikina News, Marikina's longest running community newspaper

13. Bayani Fernando For President

Mayor Marides Fernando Gets the Endorsements of Public Administration Practitioneers for World Mayor 2008

2008-07-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

Although Mayor Marides Fernando is already in the 11 finalists of World Mayor 2008, the organizers will still have to consult international experts and specialists in the area of governance, public administration and local government. As the specialist of the International Movement of Development Managers (IMDM) in this field, I was encouraged to participate in this consultation process for the selection of the final winner of World Mayor 2008.

Below is the result of my analysis of the finalists:

----------------------------------------

I am the Vice Chairman of International Movement of Development Manager based at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), one of the leading institutions of higher learning in Asia and I am the specialist of the group in governance and local government. I am also a doctoral candidate of Doctor of Public Administration.

I read the profiles of the finalists and for me; they should be ranked as follows:

1st. Marides Fernando, Mayor of Marikina City, Philippines
2nd. Göran Johansson, Mayor of Gothenburg, Sweden
3rd. Phil Gordon, Mayor of Phoenix, USA
4th. Elmar Ledergerber, Mayor of Zurich, Switzerland
5th. Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, South Africa
6th. Salvador Gandara, Mayor of Villa Nueva, Guatemala
7th. Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, Mayor of Tehran, Iran
8th. José Fogaça, Porto Alegre, Brazil
9th. Ulrich Maly, Mayor of Nürnberg, Germany
10th. Jaime Nebot, Mayor of Guayaquil, Ecuador
11th. Leopoldo Eduardo López, Mayor of Chacao, Venezuela

Thank you.

Prof. Sofronio Dulay
Vice – Chairman, International Movement of Development Manager
Director, AIM Alumni Association
4/F Lopez Hall, ACCM Bldg.,
Benavidez cor. Trasierra Streets,
Legaspi Village, Makati City
1223 Philippines

Mayor Marides Fernando is now in the Top 11 Finalist of World Mayor 2008

2008-07-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

The mayor of the Marikina City, Marides Carlos Fernando has been voted as one of 11 finalists in the 2008 World Mayor contest. Fernando stands amongst the world's eleven top mayors chosen through a total of 200,000 votes cast by citizens from all over the world between January and the end of June.

The Mayors of Cape Town in South Africa, Chacao in Venezuela, Gothenburg in Sweden, Guayaquil in Ecuador, Iranian capital of Tehran, Nurenberg in Germany, Phoenix in the US, Porto Alegre in Brazil, Villa Nueva in Guatemala and Zurich in Switzerland will compete with Marikina's Marides Fernando in this year's World Mayor contest.

While public voting is closed, the organizers of the World Mayor project will elect the mayor who has made significant contributions to the well-being of the community as the best mayor of the world in the year 2008.

The winner of the 2008 World Mayor Award and other results will be announced October 14.

Bayani Fernando for president of RP, will you vote him? How about Manny Villar, Noli de Castro, and Mar Roxas?

2008-07-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, because I could see that he could be a good president.

1. He is the enforcer of public good. Poor Filipinos need side walks to walk on and play, Bayani recovered the sidewalks for them.

2. The poor needs a place to stay while in Manila..he built an affordable place for them in the Port Area.

3. The poor needs home..he confiscated lands from professional squatters and give them to real squatters..11,000 of them.

4. The poor needs job... he networked well with different companies both local and intertnational and provide one job per family (in Marikina while he was the Mayor).

5.. The poor wants to go abroad but they dont have money, he contacted Aram Agency and some other such kind of agencies which sent Pinoy abroad without placement fees.

6. Colenels and Generals are putting up colorum buses in EDSA, he apprehended them ..never fearing about his life for the good of the public.

7. Lawyers accupying public land near the river which blocked the bicycle lane for the working class and for the environment... he demolished the structures of the lawyers and challenged them to see him in court instead.

8. He has an abusive strategist who demolished squatters without provision for relocation..he fired his strategist.

9. His engineering staff discovered a big secret japanese WW ll - made manhole and nobody wants to go down and look at them..he went down and see, gave order later to fix them.

10. An obscure Catholic Church parishioner shyly approached him asking him to sing for a dinner fund raising... he went singing bringing in the three tenors and a band...the church raised so much money.

11. A campaigner approached him suggesting they operate a jueting..he almost boxed the guy out of his office.

12. He is the only son of a lawyer who became Mayor of Marikina. He has been well loved, well protected and well provided as a kid in the neighborhood, so he love the people in return and he has a complete trust on the people.

13. He is named Bayani...his sisters are named Mayumi, Ligaya, etc. He named his only child Tala.

14. He is an engineer, he built one of the tallest buildings in Ayala avenue but he likes to be remembered more as builders of characters.

15. His advocacy pictures showed him as a strict guy... but he is pro poor by heart..he said that the reason why he is fighting it out not to cry with the poor..because if he cried with them, "his tears will covered his eyes and when his eyes are blinded with tears, who will lead the way in bringing the poor out of poverty". Bayani is a Sacristan when he was a kid.

16. He looks very stern..but he can look right into your eyes and tell you in a folksy Marikina accent that all his life..."wala pa akong pinapatay na maski sino'...his politics is not politics of violence but politics of performance.

17. He has complete trust on the goodness of the Filipinos...when he ordered to free the sidewalks of encroachments from the poor and the rich violators, lots of politicians said that Bayani is not practicing politics of addition. Yes, but his political mathematics is "politics is subtraction and multiplication"..meaning few violators of the law will be against him for a while but the bigger number of general public..the poor and the rich alike who will benifit from his programs will like him..even those who were gainst him before.

18. He is a super rich businessman..yet, he is a folksy masa at heart with thick Marikina accent. He does not crave for the company of the socialites and his fellow rich.. he is more at ease with engineers and other hard working professionals and poor upcoming leaders.

19. Bayani Fernando is an enigma..a paradox...people are curious how he will clean the BIR, Customs, address the seccesionist movement, raise our GNP, per capita income, combat inflation and globalization....are you curious too?...well, he has a way of doing things....he will do it and he will do it well....BF Gets it Done. He is worth trying and you will never regret the way Marikenos and Metro Manilans are.

Wherever Metro Manila Goes, so Goes the nation..this is the political history of the Philippines.

Source(s):
http://www.geocities.com/globalistmanifesto2/marikinanews.html

Would Bayani Fernando make a good president?

2008-06-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

This article was chosen by Yahoo Answers as the Best Answer for the question: Would Bayani Fernando make a good President?

The answer is written by Toti Dulay, past Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus of Concepcion, Marikina and member of the board of the Asian Institute of Management Alumni Association.

In this Tabata commercial in You Tube, shot in the Dulay ancestral house near the Shoe Museum, Toti is acting as a doting father sending his only son (Esdee, an honor student and basketball varsity player of Marist) to college.

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Yes, BF could be a good president if given a chance and let me tell you the reasons:

1. He is pro - poor. He was able to give homes to 11,ooo squatters as the mayor of Marikina. His advocacy, "pantay pantay pag may disiplina" is saying that the rich spoiled brats and the urban poor are equal...and equality is the hall mark of French Revolution."Kahirapan ay maiibsan pag may disiplina", another BF advocacy, shows that in his subconscious, he is always thinking of the poor. He would scold his staff who will call poor Filipinos as squatters or from depressed area. To BF, these terms are very demeaning..he would call them " mula sa mataong lugar". One time, BF fired his long time consultant and political strategist who demolised squatters without any relocation. His goal is one job per family and he succeeded in Marikina...and now his dream is two jobs per family. He is now arranging, together with his wife, Mayor Marides Fernando, jobs abroad without placement fee, housing for the poor using Habitat for Humanity and Grameen Bank type savings and loan association for the poor. He can talk to the laborers and piyons on the ground.Being an only son, he enjoys jamming with ordinary people and hardworking professionals, unlike some politicians who are always with influential wheeler dealers, socialites and beauty queens.

2. He is not corrupt. He became super rich thru his legitimate businesses which he started as a young bachelor and fresh engineering graduate of MAPUA..unlike some politicians who are very rich but do not have a legitimate business, made one ask where did they got their money.

3. He is nationalistic and it runs in his breeding. All his siblings have native names (bayani, mayumi, ligaya..her daughter is named Tala). His father, Atty. Gil Fernando, is a well loved mayor of Marikina who never enriched himself in office.

4. BF is a devoted catholic. He was a sacristan when he was a young boy. Up to now, he still sings in dinner concerts to raise funds for the Church, kasama yung three tenors nyang barkada.

5. He gets things done. He has a solution for any problem. He would solve the corruption in the BIR, Customs his own way...and he will surely delight us with the results.Can you imagine the garbage and traffic problems in Metro Manila before he became the MMDA Chairman. Filipinos thought before that we are already in the quagmire but BF solved them his way.

6. He is folksy, with native Filipino looks, and a thick Marikina accent..who sings classical songs and whose private jokes are pang masa.

7. He has an equally devoted wife, Mayor Marides Fernando (a daughter of industrialist Meneleo Carlos),who is now one of the contenders for World Mayor 2008. All they dream, Bayani and Marides, is to dedicate their life to serve the people well in their lifetime.Their daughter, Tala, is the one running their businesses, their "breadwinner", they joke.

8. His politics is politics of performance and not of violence. Pinagmamalaki nya, "tignan nyo yung mukang ito, sa buong buhay ko eh wala akong pinapapatay"..you will know na galit sya sa yo pag di ka nya kinamayan..and he will do it even in public..yun na ang pinaka "violence" nya.

9. He does not believe too much in politics is addition..what he believes is "politics is subtraction and multiplication", medyo mas mathematically complicated sya kesa kay Amang Rodriguez. He is the enforcer of public good and the good of the majority and this is the reason why he will end up pro - poor, the way he is turning up now..because the poor is the majority...but, he has a way of doing it...and it is so refreshingly effective that one can almost say..BF gets it done.

Source(s):
http://www.geocities.com/globalistmanifesto2/marikinanews.html

Mayor Marides Fernando is a Contender for World Mayor 2008

2008-05-18T00:59:00.000-07:00

Citizens all over the world took part for the first round of the 2008 World Mayor contest. Out of 100,000 voters nominated a total of 820 mayors for this year, but only 50 had drawn up for the final listing of this contest based on the number of nominations and the persuasiveness of supporting statements. The World Mayor Project was first carried out in 2004. As in previous years, the 2008 contest seeks out mayors who have the vision, passion and skills to make their cities amazing places in which to live and work - and visit. The World Mayor Project aims to show what outstanding mayors can achieve, and thus raise their profile. It honors those who have both served their communities well and contributed to the well being of the cities nationally and internationally. It examines how city mayors, and others governing metropolitan areas, develop innovative solutions to long-standing urban problems such as housing, transport, education and employment, but also how they meet the latest environmental, technological, social and security challenges, which affect the well-being of their citizens.
Some of the finalist for this year’s World Mayor Title is from the world’s best-known and largest cities, while others represent smaller communities.

One of the nominees for this title was our Mayor Ma. Lourdes Fernando. MCF is one of the 50 Mayors in the final round. She is the only one from the Philippines, making her the best hope for the country to win this award. She is fitted against mayors of the leading cites in the world. Three are finalist from Africa which include the mayor of Johannesburg, 10 from North America including the Mayor of Los Angeles, 11 from Latin America which include the Mayor of Havana, 11 are the finalists from Asia which include MCF and the Mayor of Yokohama Japan and 16 from Europe which include the Mayor of Zurich Switzerland. She was judge according to her achievements being elected as the mayor of Marikina in 2001 and re-elected in 2004 and 2007. The progress of shoe industry and its competitiveness. Showing the world how great Filipino are in terms of leadership, values and performance.

The next portion of the competition is internet voting which will end at the end of June. People all over the world are invited to choose, from the list of 50 finalists’ mayor(s) whom one believes most worthy of the title World Mayor 2008 by commenting on their achievements but also, if one wishes, on their shortcomings. Comments should be in English, on why the mayor(s) you voted for deserve to win the World Mayor Award. Votes can be cast your on http://www.worldmayor.com/contest_2008/world-mayor-vote.html
This international competition is tough but Mayor MCF has a fighting chance based on her achievements. The result will be announced on September.

Bayani Fernando Jokes

2008-02-28T02:04:00.000-08:00

Dalawang ulol (foreigners, di ko alam kung anong bansa)..pupunta raw sila sa Pilipinas...sa Marikina.... para maghanap ng pokpok:

Nag pose ang isang Pinay sa blog:

Posted by: diorella August 10, 2008 at 11:36 AM LOL! :)) lagot kay bayani fernando ang mga yan! hahaha! :)

Bayani Fernando Jokes and Erap Jokes are different.

Erap jokes revolve around "matalinong bobo or bobong matalino or esmarteng tange".
BF Jokes appeals on "paradox, the unexpected".

Bayani Fernando Jokes speak of unexpected virtues amidst decadence. It speaks of practicality and doableness against mediocracy and confusion. BF is really a diffrent presidentiable amidst this confusions around us..may sarili syang mundo..may sariling style at may solution sya sa bahat problema.. brutally honest, paradoxically pro poor....unexpected talaga.

Iba ito....I have handled several presidential campaigns.... I took masteral in AIM, I am finishing my doctorate in Pubic Adminstration in UP...I tell you... BF is too good to be true... sya ang kailangan ng Pilipinas. Wag na nating palagpasin ang pagkakataon, this may not happen again.

I need your contributions on this Bayani Fernando Jokes...just write, dont worry about grammar. Say it in Taglish or Englog...it doesnt matter.

You may write your contribution in a way of a comment to this blog or email me at totidulay @ yahoo.com and I will publish it here. Just tell me if you want to be acknowledge formally or you want to be anonymous.

BAYANI FERNANDO JOKES NG ISANG BLOGGER

how amazing. street of manila had no illegal sidewalk vendor?

Posted by moe at August 23, 2008, 10:03 pm

bayani fernando wasn’t needed then, ne, moe?
i just thought.. if bayani fernando becomes president, baka he’d tear down MILF camps down south kasi sagabal sa sidewalk! hahaha.

Posted by J at August 24, 2008, 1:05 am

SAAN NAGKAPAREHO ANG ERAP JOKES AND BAYANIFERNANDO JOKES ?

Answer: both leads to Malacanang..hehehe..read a blog entry below...

thisisausername wrote on Aug 28

earldbest said reg... many people who are consumed by boredom enjoy making fun of Bayani Fernando, and the article is born

=)) That's why there are a lot of Erap jokes too.

Away sa Blog...Bayani Fernando ang Ginawang Panakot sa mga Foreigners na Iniinsulto ang mga Pinoy...

marcell
San Jose, CA

Aug 20, 2008

YOU people haven't learn right now..or in the last 60 yrs......goverment run by filipinos...denegrate to a circus...They can't run anything...are you people idiots ???...you have a mind of a child, an idiot. A goverment run by filipinos are like a goverment run by blacks...in africa...a basket case.

Boy Ogag
Cainta, Philippines
Sep 6, 2008

Marcell, dont ever go to the Philippines.Bayani Fernando will punch your little nose for insulting the Filipinos.You are not welcome in our country.Im serious, there are a bunch of Filipinos now who take nationalism seriuosly.Bayani Fernando is our gang leader.

marcell
San Jose, CA
Sep 7, 2008

..who in there right mine wants to go there..???? are you out of your mineeeeee..????? i forgot your a filipono...you have no mine.

Bogart Fernando
Loma De Gato, Philippines
Sep 7, 2008

the correct spelling is "MIND" not "MINE". No wonder you are talking that way,
mother f____ r

NAKAKATAWA TONG YOU TUBE NA TO..TIGNAN NYO, BAHALA NA KUNG MAGALIT SA KIN SI CHAIRMAN BF..MAGSOSORRY NA LANG AKO...

Phil Younghusband of Celebrity Duets has a Bayani Fernando Joke!

We know that Celebrity Duets isn't a permanent thing. So do you have plans after the show?

I don't know right now, maybe I’ll go into show business, who knows. I'm more of a person who doesn't like to plan too far ahead. I like to take things as they come, as long as I'm enjoying myself, I'd do it. It's difficult to tell if I can play football here, since it's not very popular here; it's difficult to play full-time. But I love football, I still watch and play. At the moment though, I'm not too sure. London--who knows, maybe. I take things one at a time. Maybe an album?

I'd run for president if I beat Bayani (Sec. Bayani Fernando, who is also part of the show)! We already have a joke about it--"What would you prefer, an old BF or a good-looking young husband?" (laughs)

Joke to ni PAPABIRTH..bakit natutuwa ang mga Taxi Drivers sa Pink Urinals

Pero alam ninyo ba na sa atin lang walang gaanong epekto iyong public urinals? Pero sa mga taxi drivers, malaki raw ang tulong sa kanila nito. Ilang taxi drivers na kasi ang naka-usap ko eh at sabi nila mabuti na lang daw may public urinals. Kasi buhat daw na nagkaroon nito, iyong mga GULONG DAW NILA, HINDI NA PUMANGHE HEHEHE. JOKE LANG.

Ito hindi Bayani Fernando Joke..pero nakakatawa...basahin mo pare ko. Appatizer palang to....

Ganito Magbigay ng Masamang Balita
KUMIRIRING ang telepono nang madaling araw.... "Hello, Mister Carlos? Si Arnaldo po ito, 'yung katiwala niyo sa bahay-bakasyunan niyo."

"O, Mr. Arnaldo, ikaw pala. Ano't napatawag ka? May problema ba?

"Um, napatawag lang po ako para abisuhan kayo na namatay ang alaga niyong parrot."

"'Yung parrot kong si Pikoy, patay? 'Yung nanalo sa bird show?

"Opo, Mister Carlos, 'yun na nga po."

"Putris ... sayang! Ang laki pa naman ng nagastos ko sa ibong 'yon. Hay, buhay! Teka, ano nga ba ang ikinamatay niya?"

"E, kumain po kasi ng bulok na karne...."

"Bulok na karne? At sino namang salbaheng tao ang nagpakain sa kanya ng bulok na karne?"

"W-Wala po. Nanginain po siya ng karne ng isang patay na kabayo."

"Patay na kabayo? Anong patay na kabayo, Mr Arnaldo?"

"E, 'yun pung mga thoroughbred horses niyo, Sir. Namatay po kasi lahat sila sa pagod, kahihila ng kariton ng tubig."

"Nasisiraan ka na ba ng bait? Anong kariton ng tubbbiiiiggggg?"

"'Yun pong pinampatay namin ng sunog."

"Diyos ko po! Anong sunog naman 'yang pinagsasasabi mo?"

"'Yun pong halos tumupok sa bahay niyo.... Tumumba po 'yung isang nakasinding kandila, tapos nagliyab 'yung kurtina at mabilis na kumalat ang apoy...."

"Ano? Puuut.... E, may kuryente naman diyan sa bahay-bakasyunan, a. Para saan 'yung kandila?"

"Para sa burol po."

"Ano? Kaninong burol?

"Sa nanay n'yo po, Sir. Bigla kasi siya dumating dito nu'ng isang gabi, walang kaabi-abiso. Lampas hatinggabi na. Akala ko po magnanakaw. Binaril ko."

BF JOKE NI BROD PETE NG BUBBLE GANG:

"Si BF daw, pag nagloloko yung cell phone nya....kinakalas nya ito.. kinukuha ang SIM sabay didilaan..tapos, pagbinalik nya na yung SIM sa cellphone nya, biglang gumagana yung cell phone. Paano nangyari yun? Ba, ambot sa imo..engineer yun , tayo hindi, ang dami mong tanong."

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Hoy, mga bata, wag nyong gagayahin to ha...baka makoryente kayo... o kaya baka malunok nyo yung SIM.

BF JOKE NG ISANG WEBSITE

Philippine Official Launches Prayer Campaign To Lessen Floods In Capital
September 27, 2007
Topics light, help and prayer
A senior Philippine official in-charge of managing traffic, garbage collection, and flood control, on Thursday urged the public to pray harder to lessen floods in the capital Manila and nearby cities. Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando told reporters during a forum that prayers worked before to bring in needed rains, then it would also help to lessen flooding.

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(hoy! dating sacristan yan si BF sa Our Lady of the Abandoned Archdiocesan Shrine nung bata pa sya, kaya di biro yan! seryoso si Chairman hoy, ano ka?)

BF JOKE NI SENYONG GONZALES

Nung kauupo palang Mayor ni BF, may isang taga Pangkalu na pumunta sa opisina nya, excited si kumag, nanalo manok nya eh...humahanngos...sabi eh: "Mayor, may proposal akong project.."

"Oh Bale" (tago natin yung tunay na pangalan ha, buhay pa to eh) "Napasyal ka!!!, ano yung proposal mo?" tanong ni BF.

kwento...kwento....."eh kasi ganito yun, Mayor...hawakan natin ang weteng sa Marikina...malaking pera to..." , sabi ni Bale.

"Ano kamo, huweteng ba kamo...?", tanong ni BF.

"Bale, medyo tumayo tayo ka na dyan sa kinauupuan mo, at baka di ako makapagpigil eh maumbagan pa kita riyan..." , sabi ni BF.

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True story daw ito..sabi ni Senyong Gonzales...habang kinukwento nga nya to sa kin eh tawa ng tawa...nalaglag tuloy yung pustiso.

BF JOKE NI BISHOP FRANCIS DE LEON

As retold by Toti Dulay:

Nuong Sabado, sa Dinner Concert Alay sa Inang Maria sa Kap. Moy, ito ang joke ni Bishop Francis de Leon ng OLA.

Una, nirecognized nya na si BF at Gen. Generoso Senga ay naging Sacristan ng OLA nung mga bata pa sila.

Dalawang klase daw ang mga sacristan ng OLA: yung mababait at yung mga bad boys.

Yung mga mababait daw...nagiging General at MMDA Chairman (Bishop..baka maging presidente pa ito)

Yung mga bad boys...nagiging PARI !

______________________________________

yung anak ko kayang si Esdee na 3 taon ng sacristan ng OLA..mabait o bad boy? Sana mabait!

Why Bayani Fernando joined singing contest
Joke By DJ YapPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 22:06:00 08/26/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Should he win the top plum on "Celebrity Duets," Bayani Fernando, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, already has plans about what to do with his prize money.
"I'm going to use the P1 million to fund my candidacy for president in 2010," he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Fernando was only kidding, of course, but to those who've heard him talk about his presidential aspirations, Fernando's "joke" didn't seem much like a joke at all.

AN ERRONEOUS WRONG MISTAKE

Naimbita si BF as graduation speaker sa Kidapawan. Papunta sa eskwelahan, kumamay sa kanto. May nag iinuman..sabi ng isang lasing sa kainuman.."Bay, Manila boy ini, sangkay ko iton..sabay turo kay BF".

Pumila yung lasing at kinamayan si BF, sabay sabi, "Magandang hapon po, BAYANI CASIMIRO". Nilapitan ng close in bodyguard ni BF yung lasing, "Sir, FERNANDO po hindi CASIMIRO".

Pumila uit yung lasing, at kumamay ulit, "Magandang hapon po, ADING FERNANDO," ang sabi ng lasing. Masama na tingin nung close in body guard ni BF, nilapitan na naman yung lasing, "BAYANI, hindi ADING", medyo me halo ng pananakot.

Sumingit na sa pila yung lasing, kumamay na naman kay BF, this time, sure na sure na sya, kumamay, sabay sabi ng malakas, "Magandang hapon po BAYANI AGBAYANI."

Nilapitan nung close in body guard yun lasing na tila bang bibibigyan ng lekson..biglang sumunod yung bisor.."hoy, wag mong sasaktan yan, pinagmamalaki pa naman ni chairman na wala pa syang pinapapatay sino man sa buong buhay nya..maximum tolerance tayo...baka magalit si chairman."

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BAYANI FERNANDO - SUSAN ROCES TICKET ORGANIZED

After several close door negotiations, Bayani Fernando of Lakas - CMD finally agreed to take Susan Roces as his vice - presidential candidate. The agreement will be confirmed by the Lakas - CMD National Directorate in a few months. Political analyst Prof. Popoy de Vera said that the agreement will be smooth sailing. But he sees problem with the conditions set by the camp of Susan Roces: they want to have the free hand in the selection of the whole Cabinet, making her as the "de facto" prime minister.

De vera was able to get an advanced copy of the proposed cabinet of the Susan Roces Camp.Contrary to elitists' perception, Susan Roces is very prepared to lead the nation to GLORY (with out Gloria) in her capacity as the Vice President of President Bayani Fernando.

In line with parliamentary tradition, Susan recently formed his "shadow cabinet" (a term used to denote the group of people from the opposition who are well versed in policy development and implementation, and waiting to take over the reigns of government once in power). None of the present roster of presidential wannabes can boast such preparation for governance. THE SHADOW CABINET ECONOMIC TEAM - Susan's thrust will be to achieve an ECONOMIC MIRACLE that the country missed in the 80's and 90's. Nobody is better equipped in making this MIRACLE happen than Nora Aunor (Himala). As NEDA Secretary, Sec. Aunor will not draw water from brooks of Kupang (Place of Himala), but would make miracles happen by encouraging people to believe in themselves. According to the future NEDA chief. "Tayo ang gumagawa ng Himala" She will be assisted by Underscretary Madame Auring to guide the government in taking the miraculous path. Sec. Aunor will be supported by Sec. Pepe Pimentel (Finance) and Sec. Roderick Paulate (Budget and Management). As Finance chief, Sec. Pimentel is well aware of where the "Kwarta" is. And no matter how small revenue collection will be, the public purse will be efficiently handled and kept by Budget Secretary Paulate in his "Bayong" with Undersecretary Amy Perez. Finally, the Team is completed by Trade and Industry by the tandem of Sec. Mura and Undersecretary Mahal to make sure that the basic commodities are priced right, neither expensive (Mahal) nor cheap (Mura). SERVICES TEAM - True to his populist color, Susan will give more to those who have less in life. Being allied with the GMA administration, President Bayani Fernando's old post as MMDA Chairman will be given to another Bayani, New MMDA Chair Bayani Agbayani. As such he will scrap the Odd-Even scheme and implement a simpler "Ocho-Ocho" traffic program, i.e., no cars in Edsa from 8amto 8pm. Agriculture Department will be headed by Sec. Vilma Santos to ensure that food supply will be bountiful in all seasons in all regions. Housing, being the cornerstone of the Susan Roces Administration, will be given to an equally regal and competent person, HLURB Secretary Dolphy. As such, he will ensure that the masses get their deserved homes either along the riles (railroads) or airports. The middle class on the other hand will be helped by Undersecretary Nova Villa. The National Youth Commission will be headed by German Moreno so that he can help develop the talents of the millions of Filipino Youth. He will be assisted by Commissioners-At-Large Jojo Veloso and Alfie Lorenzo. Social Welfare portfolio will be given to no less than Sec. Willie Revillame. He will leave his show to prepare for government service. To fund the welfare programs, the young Lucky Manzano will be appointed to the PCSO and PAGCOR. Finally, the Department of Health will be headed by Dr. Vicky Belo. The projects in line are as follows: Oplan Alis Skin Disease, Tangal taba, and Libreng Lipo sa Masa. RESOURCES TEAM - Susan Roce's policy is the full development of our resources for the benefit of the people. Department of Energy will be headed by Sec. Gary Valenciano. No more PPA, just pure energy. The Environment portfolio will be given to Sec. Chin-Chin Gutierrez and supported by Bureau of Forestry Director Rico J. Puno, Mines and Geosciences Directress Gretchen Barreto, and Undersecretary Jimmy Bondoc. DEFENSE AND LAW AND ORDER TEAM - Considering the lack of respect the citizens have for the law of the law, Susan will implement the policy of law without fear or favor. The Defense Department will be given to Sec. Annabel Rama who is feared by the devil himself. If she can handle Ernie Maceda, why not the generals of the AFP. If she can defend Ruffa's integrity despite all her shenanigans, what more the integrity of the national territory. The Department of Interior will be headed by another fighter, Sec. Mystica who is well aware of the workings of the police after figuring in weekly brawls ever since she entered showbiz. She will be assited by PNP Chief Paquito Diaz, an expert on mobs and thugs. FOREIGN AFFAIRS TEAM - Susan will continue the current government's constructive engagement. Among the members of the nation's new foreign service are the following Ambassadors: Africa Union - Susan Africa Austria - Amy Austria Brunei Darusalam - Cristina Gonazalez Colombia - Ace Vergel Germany - Baron Geisler Israel - Dick Israel Jordan - Jordan Herrera Spain - Gerald Madrid Romania - David Bunevacz Russian Federation - Nanette Medved Turkey - Ruffa Gutierrez-Bektas United Kingdom - Princess Punzalan United States - Angelica Jones The Department of Foreign Affairs will be headed by Sec. Melanie Marquez (Miss International) who is very experienced in "international" relationships. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT - Lastly, to manage all the department secretaries, a function of the Executive Secretary, no less than Exec. Sec. Lily Monteverde will "manage" all of them to make sure that they work in line with government policies. If Mother Lily can manage the whole Regal Family (plus Regal Babies), what more the nation's Official Family. She will be assisted by Presidential Management Staff Sec. Lolit Solis, another "talent" manager. To complete the roster of palace officials, the residential Spokesperson's job will be given not to Boy Abunda nor Cristy Fermin as other have speculated, but to the reliable Sec. Rey Pumaloy (Aminin!) to ensure that the government will not hide anything from the public.

We asked Bayani Fernando if he already reviewed the Susan Roces proposal. He said that "babasahin ko mamaya..me inaayos lang kaming drainage dyan sa Kamuning."

5. Naghihintay nang BF Joke mo!

Toti Dulay of the 2nd Congressional District of Marikina City

2007-12-17T03:26:00.000-08:00

This blog page serves as the list of projects and activities initiated, managed or particiaped by Toti Dulay from 2007 to 2010 in his involvement in different organizations:

1.0. Consultant, Office of Mayor Marides Fernando

1.1. Grassroots Political Organization for Kabayani Party

2007:

I was tasked by Mayor Marides Fernando to coordinate with Associate Dean Dennis Gonzales of the Ateneo School of Governance regarding grassroots political organization. The meeting resulted into a Kabayani Party Seminar Worshop held from October 4-5, 2007, at the Astoria Plaza in Pasig City, the Ateneo School of Government conducted a seminar to help jumpstart the party-building process of Kabayani, a local political party based in Marikina City. Kabayani, which was founded by former mayor, now Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairperson, Bayani Fernando and current mayor, Marides Fernando. The Office of City Administrator Melvin Cruz organized the seminar.

The implementation of the vision and strategies formulated in the seminar needs the go signal of Mayor Marides Fernando.

Discussed with Melvin Cruz and Rep.Marcy Teodoro about the plan to put up an independent office for Kabayani Party.

1.2. Marikina City Hall Overseas Employment Project

2007:

With the approval of Mayor Marides Fernando and go signal of City Administrator Melvin Cruz, I initiated a tie - up with Aram Enterprises, Inc. headed by its Vice President Gemma A. Mercado, to send Marikenos to job abroad without placement fee. The project is in coordination with WAO OIC/PESO Manager Gildegardo R. Munar, TESDA and the Training Center at Nangka Elementary School. It will be manned by Engr. Angel Rufo of Rancho Estate, Joseph Quiles of Marikina Heights and Danny Justo of Kenworth.

Those who wants to apply, please proceed to WAO Office.

1.3. Habitat for Humanity Housing Project For Marikina City Hall Employees.

2007:

With the go signal of Mayor Marides Fernando, I initiated a tie - up between Habitat For Humanity and the Marikina City Hall to provide housing for City Hall employees. Series of meetings attended by the Mayor Marides Fernando, Habitat for Humanity President Alberto L. Jugo, City Administrator Melvin Cruz, Demy Posadas, Warren Ubungen, Architech Joy Alarcon came up with a 4-storey hausing project thru Pag-Ibig Fund in a government lot in Concepcion Dos, Second District

2.0. President, Marist School PTA based in Marikina Heights, 2nd District

2007:

2.1. Initiated the Marist PTA EGroup.
2.2. Came up with a Marist PTA logo and Letterhead led by Atty. Mae Lindo
2.3. Facilitated the donation of previous PTA boards headed by Miramar Ocampo of Marikina Heights of 2 million pesos to Marist School.
2.4. Facilitated the election and induction of Marist PTA Year and Section Level Representatives.
2.5. Halloween Party led by Hector Domingo
2.6. Christmas Party by Marist PTA Board hosted by Elaine Santos.
2.7. Renewed PTA SEC and BIR Registration led by Atty. Tess Caalim.
2.8. Activated the Marist PTA Office.
2.9. Launched the Egroup information campaign thru free TShirt to all Year and Section Level Representatives.
2.10. Revived the PTA Christmas Gift giving to all Marist teachers and staff.
2.11. Initiated college entrance review sessions for 3rd year Marist students thru Mrs. Betty Victorino Srimata.
2.12. Initiated graduation ball thru Mrs. Jocelyn G. Papas of DPWH.
2.13. Supported the Bingo Socials of the Marist Employees.
2.14. Supported the "Do Good Button Campaign" of Marist Guidance Office.
2.15. Supported the "Detecting and Handling Children Under Stress , December 14, led by Marist Guidance Office.
2.16. Suppoted recollection led by Alan Biazon

2008:

2.17. Prep School Family Day and Sports Fest led by Mrs. Vem P. Reyes of Miriam College

2.18.Supported the Gift Giving Project to Lolo and Lola on February 14, 2008.

2.19. Supported the Zaphyr, the Variety Show of Marist School, thru coordination with Miss Cruz of the Dance Club, benifits will go to the CRIBS Foundation.

2.20. Supported the Marist Faculty Development Program thru Educational Tour in Bohol, coordinated thru Marist PTA Board Lany Lambinicio.

2.21 Supported the uniform of the volleyball team of Mother's Organization of Marist School (MOMS) in the Marist-Notre Dame Friendship Game.

3.0. Past Grand Knight, Knights of Columbus, Concepcion Council 7631/ Former Lay Minister of Concepcion Church, 2nd District

2007:

3.1. Created the Egroup for Marikina Valley Asembly
3.2. Sponsored one station in the Stations of the Cross
3.3. Lectured on the heroism of Emilio Aguinaldo and Fighters of Balangiga in the Marikina Valley Assembly
3.4. Created the Concepcion Council Egroup.
3.5. Participated in the consensus building for the election of the next Grand Knight.

3.6 Joined in the fund raising dinner dance for Concepcion Church held in Kapitan Moy.

3.7. One of the hosts/sponsors in the K of C Concepcion Annual Xmas Carol

4.0. Former Faculty Club President and Former Management Coordinator, IABF-FEU

2007:

4.1. One of the campaign managers and donors of United Reform Party of the FEU Faculty Union
4.2. Pursued Doctor of Public Administration in UP NCPAG
4.3. Worked with Marlo Valencia for the nomination of Rep.Emil Ong and Dir.Yoko Ramos of the Office of the President as FEU Outstanding Alumni
4.4. Elected Section Representative in the UP NCPAG Student Council
4.5. Written doctoral papers a) Public Administration, the Marikina Way, and b) The On – Going Crusade for Formation of a Global Government: the Philippine Response

4.6. Talked to Rep. Marcy Teodoro to help the UP Faculty in thier fight to be excempted in the Salary Standardization Law

5.0. Titular Head, Dulay Clan of Marikina Valley

2007:

5.1. Directed the political activities of the clan in the last national and barangay elections.
5.2. Assigned one of my houses as temporary shelter of some relatives
5.3. Stand as ninong to the wedding of Iglesia Ni Cristo handog Abigael Salazar and US Navy Teck Guardiano
5.4. Hosted the All Saints Day Reunion of the Clan
5.5. Provided bi monthly cash and medical support to the matriarch of the clan.
5.6. Coordinated with some Lakan Dula descendants
5.7. Provided financial assistant to some members of the clan

5.8. Updated the Dulay Clan Educational Ranking

5.9. Prepared a power point presentation on the History of the Dulay Clan in his laptop.

5.11. Open a dollar account at PNB Seattle, Washington State to be the conduit of remittances among Dulay Clan members in the USA.

5.12. Reprimanded a Dulay Clan member who did not align with the clan's political stand.

5.13. Provided counsel to Dulay Clan members who are not prioritizing education.

6.0. Director, AIM Alumni Association; Vice - Chairman, International Movement of Development Managers

2007:

6.1. Attended Asian Business Conference
6.2. Attended Case Writing Seminar
6.3. Heads the Case Writing Committee
6.4. Pushed for Program Desk concept in AIM Alumni Office

6.5. Talked to a funding agency regarding a pro -poor micro finance program in Marikina.

6.6. Create an Egroup for the participants of International Case Writing Workshop in AIM

7.0. Chairman of the Board, FNC Savings and Loan; Convenor, Council of Elders, I. Mendoza St., and Former Team Manager of Kenworth Basketball Team Based in San Roque

2007:

7.1. Hosted a Mass for the Nuestra Senora de los Desamparados in my house and dinner for mass attendees and Special Guests like Mayor MCF, Chairman BF, Rep. Marcy Teodoro and Monsignor Balbago.

7.2. Helped organized the FNC Savings and Loan Association.

7.3. Offered Christmas Donation to OLA Devotees in San Roque visita.

7.4. Supported my son, Esdee, in his duty as OLA Sacristan.

7.5. Provided cash xmas gifts to San Roque Street cleaners, Drum and Lyre Corps of Parang and San Roque.

7.6. Supported the Marikina East Subdivision Midget Basketball Team in a league in San Roque.

7.7. Held a palaro for the children of I.Mendoza last San Roque fiesta.

7.8. Provided cash xmas gifts to Marriage Encounter Catholic Community, Our Lady of the Abandoned, Sta. Elena, Marikina City c/o Bro. Noel/Sis. Tony Aranas.

7.9. Hosted a new year party 2007 and presided the board of directors meeting of FNC Savings and Loan at the Dulay Ancestral House to declare dividend and increase capitalization.

8.0. Organizer, First MSAT Batch 78 Reunion

2007:

8.1. Accepted the challenged of the batch to be the Sections Mobilizer for the coming Reunion.

8.2. Hosted the Batch Xmas Party at the Dulay Ancestral House in San Roque.

8.3. Assist in the resource requirements of the batch every monthly meeting.

8.4. Proposed that the Batch help the Philipine National Red Cross in Marikina.

8.5. Arranged mass for the late Trelly Pascua; proposed "MSAT Batch 78 Second Generation".

9.0. Kumpare-Kumare ni Toti Dulay

9.1. Arlene Corral Dulay ll (Lenlen) Baptismal: OLA, April 30,1989

Kgd. Gerry Dulay, Councilor Anthony Mendoza, Terry Bodollo, Engr. Jay Francisco, Rep. Del De Guzman, Peter Perfecto, Dr. Jimmy Trinidad, Johnny Tortillas, Ruben San Diego, Atty. Cesar Turiano, Councilor Jojo Banzon, Jojo Pinga, Dra. Antoniette Corral, Lading de las Armas, Rachel Saldariega, Jovita Briones, Victoria Herrera, Ludy Victorino, Cristina Bantique, Emmeline Manrique, Flordeliza Reyes, Vivian Robrigado, Charit Estanislao Derpo.

9.2. Sofronio Corral Dulay ll (Esdee) Baptismal: OLA, April 6, 1995

Ambrocio Dulay,Engr.Bong Corral, Faustino Adamos, Kap Hepe Felipe, Lody Cadenas, Kap. Ben "Gana" Cruz, Nelson Diokno Santos, Tino Valentino, Councilor Fabian Cadiz, Pabling Aquino, Mylene Zerna, Feliciana Prado, Daisy Parangue, Daisy Martinez, Flora Herrera, Jocelyn Roque, Jennifer Alamares. Igan Dee (ninong sa kumpil)

9.3. Katreena Marie Corral Dulay (Katya) Baptismal: OLA, March 3, 2001

Wilson Dulay, Engr. Delfin Corral, Ric Orbin, Crisaldo, Andres, Sandy Borres, Jaime, Councilor Alfredo Mariano, Melvin Mitra, Baron Cervantes, Danny, Ligaya, Rossana, Ana Marie, Ma. Lourdes, Eloida, Mae, Aimee, Ma. Cecilia, Cora, Dina, Veronica, Joy

9.4. James Symon D. Francisco Baptismal:NSSHJ, Makati, July 4, 1998

Bill O' Donnel, Pocholo Domondon, Michael Laganzon, Jose Francisco, Jose Domondon lll, Aris Nueva-Espana, Rep. Del De Guzman, Prof. Toti Dulay, Ma. Rosario Ho, Marika Joan Domondon, Evet White, Cherry Francisco, Cherill Francisco, Rebecca Paguntalan, Aileen Banzon, Germalyn Alotencio

9.5. Catalan -Doyola Nuptial Concepcion Parish Church, July 25, 1992

Rogelio Albon, Prof. Toti Dulay, Councilor Fabian Cadiz, Teddy Manjalat, Lucita Albon, Fe Bago, Olive Zalameda, Delfa Gulay

9.6. Tsutsumi - Evangelista Nuptial IFI La Purisima Concepcion, May 6, 1989

Cho Reyes, Prof. Toti Dulay, Antonio Tan Lim, Manolo Mariano, Alejandro Galicia, Elvira Castro, Purisima Guevarra, Julie Buenaventura, Aliw Mateo, Glo Zabala

9.7. Raptos - Salinas Nuptial OLA,Oct. 2, 1998

Tito Faldas, Rodrigo Balana, Prof. Toti Dulay, Danny Espinosa, Vicente de Jose, Vic Bago, Boy Cacho,Edna Raz, Jessie Salinas, Ofelia Banarez Diaz, Miralona Sanchez, Beth Nillo, Editha Crisostomo, Lydia Garcia

9.8. Guardiano -Salazar Nuptial, INC Central, July 2007

MINISTER MATT PAREJA & EDEN SAMSON ; ENGR. ALEXANDER LLABRES & ADELAIDA MARTIN-MARILOSA; Tarlac Provincial Fiscal EDUARDO GUARDIANO & MELINDA GUARDIANO - CRUZ; PROF. TOTI DULAY & MARICAR BONIFACIO; RETIRED U.S. NAVY OFFICER GONZALO DAYAWAN & ZENAIDA DAYAO

This list is for only those that we managed to keep a copy of invitation. There are many occasions that Toti Dulay acted as ninongs to baptismals, weddings and kumpils but those important events are not listed here because we failed to secure the list of the ninongs and the other details.We apologize. Better still, please furnished us the old copies of invitations so we could add them here.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

2007-12-17T02:01:00.000-08:00

According to the Google cache of Marikina News, the website, was visited by 2, 271,082 visitors as of November 18, 2007, with an average of 100,000 visitors per month.The monthly average visitors make Marikina News an influential advocacy medium.Marikina News covers a varied array of topics – both parochial Marikina, local Philippines and global international.

It is dominating the following categories in Google Search: Marikina News Marikina Way Marikina Ideology Kabayani Tala Fernando Marides Fernando MSAT Batch 78 Lakan Dula Globalist Manifesto Kenworth Marikina Dulay Clan MDM Batch 14 Sofronio Dulay Formation of a Global Government Formation of a World Government Dulay AIM IMDM Marikina Valley Assembly Class Dagitab 82 Saint Raul Roco NCPAG Batch of 18 Globalist Manifesto Advocate Marikina Marist PTA Marikina Apartheid Marikinanews Theory of Divine Revision Bayani Fernando For President Marikina Tom Dula Diosdado Macapagal Ceferino Dulay

AND SO, WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL ADDRESS OF “MARIKINA NEWS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”

FEEL FREE TO WRITE US ANYTHING – FOR OR AGAINST ANY ARTICLE OR LINK IN MARIKINA NEWS.

CONSIDER THIS AS YOUR FREEDOM BOARD.

You can write what you want.

MSAT Batch 78 Joins Bayani Fernando For President Bandwagon

2007-12-10T00:07:00.000-08:00

A group picture of the MSAT Batch 78 Steering Committee taken at the Ancestral House of the Dulay Clan of Marikina Valley near the Shoe Museum in the enclave poblacion of the city.

The 2010 presidential elections is still far,yet this early, people from all walks of life are already thinking of the next president. Anyone form among Noli de Castro and Bayani Fernando of Lakas-CMD; Mar Roxas and Francis Pangilinan of LP; Manny Villar and Dick Gordon of NP; Ping Lacson, Jinggoy Estrada and Jojo Binay of GO will end up as the president and vice-president of the Philippines in 2010.

One of the candidates whose snowballing popularity with silent majority is so eminent is Bayani Fernando. People like him for being straight, genuinely pro poor, and with political will. He is an enigma to lots of Filipinos all over the country. He solved the mess that was Marikina, he saved Metro Manila from decadence... he can save the country.

Bayani Fernando is so pupular that the Marikina News Bayani Fernando for President website is now visited by 2,325,354 viewers as of December 10, 2007, as per Google cache count with around 6000 visitors daily. If you type Bayani Fernando for President in Google Search, there are 12,900 entries.

One of the groups who are into the Bayani Fernando For President bandwagon is the MSAT Batch 78. When this group held their tenth year reunion in 1988, their guest speaker was a struggling local politician of Marikina by the name of Engr. Bayani Fernando.

Now, with most of each members fully stablished in their own fields, MSAT Batch 78, is again in the forefront in the banwagon for Bayani Fernando - this time as president of the Philippines.

Here are some selected excerpts from the Family.Com website of MSAT Batch 78:

Mga kasama, dumating si Vice Mayor Marion Andres nung xmas party natin sa bahay...nagpledge ng isang litson, medyo ayos ang pagkakadiskarte ng presiding officer na si Fortune. Si Neya kasi, masakit ang throat, hindi makapag preside, may sinasabi si doctora Joy Samson kung bakit sumakit, kaya lang unprintable....bakit kaya?Maganda palang gimmick to ha... maimbita nga si Eddie Gil sa susunod na meeting.Sus ginuo, apat na litson baboy at isang litson baka ang mga pledges, hindi kaya mahinog tayo tayo nito ng wala sa oras... kaya sinuggest na yung pledge ni Nelia Calimotan na litson baboy eh iconvert na lang sa alak... ok naman kay Nelia.Mas ok kay Norrel at Jerry Pareja.

1. dinala na ni pinsan Maribel yung leaflets about our reunion. pinamigay na sa lahat.

2. dumating si si Ed Corpus at tinanggap ang pisition na Souveneer Program Editor - In - Chief, Joey, wala na tayong problem.

3. Ginampanan ni Fortune ang papel na chief sponsor na sumagot ng dinner, cash raffle prizes, fundador, beer, softdrinks. Sya rin ang gumanap na chief presiding officer at chief entertainer..lumaban ng videokee kay Nelia...score nya 85 si Nelia 88 (pareng Forts, pang rumble lang yata linya natin). May speaking engagement lang sa Rotary kaya umalis ng mga 4pm...president sya dun eh.

4. Si newly elected kagawad Noel Montoya, lahat daw sasagutin nya... lahat ng tanong natin, susubukan nyang sagutin.

5.Si Maribel pala, dinala na rin yung Shoeland, naka imbak na dito sa homebase natin.

6. Gagawin na rin yung streamer, ni Maribel...financed by Fortune.

7. Dinala ni Redoni yung suggested meno sa reunion. sabi ng grupo, alisin na yung baboy at baka dahil sobra sobra na yung pledge...medyo bababa na presyo therefore ng menu..

8. Pagka alis ng lahat, naiwan kami nina Norrel, Ed, Gerry Barcelona, Gerry Pareja at Redoni... nagbrainstorming kami over two bottles of fundador at half case of beer. lahat napag usapan... ang lumabas na isang idea is dapat maraming programmed activities sa reunion para hindi boring...may D.I para lahat magsayawan... may videokee para kung sinong gustong magpasiklab sa pagkanta ng My Way at Pitong Gatang eh pwede... maraming parlor games... may misa...at may night out para kung sinong mabitin... sa labas na lang ituluy. Sabi namin kay Ed na tumutok sya sa pagpapaganda nga program with his experience in Ateneo.

9. Napag usapan rin namin yung Bayani Fernando for President. Pinakita ko sa batch na dumating ng maaga ang "Marikina News - Bayani Fernando for President" website na meron ng 2.3 Million visitors as now, based on Google count. MSAT Batch 78 controls Marikina News..thru me and Joey and Neya. Si Fortune naman, which is married to a Fernando, will adopt BF in his batch at the National Police Academy. Nadiscuss ko na to kay Mayor Marides Fernando.

By the way...Good boy na si Norrel...

Bayani Fernando For President

2007-12-01T05:29:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia listed the following as presidentiables for the 2010 Philippine presidential elections: Noli de Castro, Bayani Fernando, Mar Roxas, Manny Villar, Dick Gordon, Sonny Belmonte, Loren Legarda,Ping Lacson, Chiz Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Jojo Binay and Francis Pangilinan.

Articles are written for every presidentiable. You may click this: Philippine general election, 2010, if you want to see them.

We are reprinting the Article written by Wikipedia for Bayani Fernando:

Bayani Fernando is well-known to have introduced efficient vehicular traffic systems, improved flood control and waste disposal,providing homes for the squatters of Marikina, securing jobs for so many people as MMDA chairman, and raised Metro Manila's profile through a massive rehabilitation and beautification program. He is known as an advocate of good taste, excellence, no nonesense pro - poor projects, political will in public service, and deep patriotism. (He named is only child Tala, his sisters are named Mayumi, Ligaya, etc.) As a young engineer, he went to EDSA 1, bringing with him his crew and construction equipments to help Filipinos who are sorrounding EDSA then, on their needs. As a young boy, he was a Sacristan and was awarded most outstanding Boys Scout. Lakas - CMD considers him as a presidentiable after noticing that there is a strong snowballing clamor for him to run for national public office.Several signs of this snowballing clamor includes the sprouting of Bayani Fernando for president spots in cyberspace [1] which had been visited by 2,302,267 viewers as of November 26, 2007, according to Google Cache Count, with an average of around 6,000 visitors daily; and [2] with hundreds of letters from all over the country urging him to run for Philippine President in 2010. If you type Bayani Fernando For President in Google search, you will see 38,900 entries, a sign that there is really a snowballing clamor for him to run for President of the Philippines in 2010. This snowball is timely and will reach its peak in time for the presidential elections.Up close, he has a "masa" appeal and a folksy manner, complete with authentic "Marikina accent" and a "native - Filipino - looking - face in a native Filipino name", with a streak of heroic flair from time to time, like firing his long - time political strategist who ordered the demolition of a squatter colony without a relocation.

Political résumé:

Current Post: Chairman, Metro Manila Development Authority
Secretary,Department of Public Works and Highways
Mayor, Marikina City 1992-2001

Discussion:

We are supporters of Bayani Fernando and we anticipate that this Wikipedia entry will become very dominant as the election closes in. We request fair play among all other supporters from other candidates. Let us not edit each other out to float our bet. Say factually your point and we will say factually our point. Bayani Fernando is right now an underdog despite the fact that so many Filipinos would want him to run for President. He has not decided yet whethet to run or not. If you want, please join us to convince him. Bayani Fernando - Mar Roxas is a good tandem specially the fact that Bayani Fernando's father, Mayor Gil Fernando is the founder of the Liberal Party of Marikina so Bayani Fernando has a soft spot on the Liberals. Lets be gentlemen enough not to edit each other out because who knows , we might end up in the same ticket in year 2010... Philippine politics being so fluid. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.86.204.114 (talk) 07:48, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Bayani Fernando for President is indeed snowballing. But a team up between BF and Roxas is very unlikely because BF is a loyal Party National Officer of Lakas - NUCD. He is also one of the few original members of Lakas NUCD who thru times flowered into a national leadership. He is a home grown Lakas officer, so to speak, and that is why FVR is very much behind him, for sentimental reason. In fact, he is the best bet of Lakas today, because according to Dir. Melvin Mitra of Malacanang, VP Noli de Castro is more inclined to join KAMPI.Lakas is the party of FVR and KAMPI is the party of GMA. Bayani Fernando has captured the imaginations of the Filipinos and he is not a traditional politician. Besides, he is also rich, with his company having been one of the top contractors of the country for so many years up to now, so, campaign fund is not his problem. He is unique type of public servant who became rich thru his honest to goodness and above board businesses, unlike some presidential aspirants who are very rich but does not have a business of their own. (Where did they get the money?). You will be surprise that Bayani Fernando has a track record, not only image, but a real track record, of pro poor projects, including giving homes to thousands of squatters when he was the mayor of Marikina and providing employment to thousand of jobless Filipinos. He is a real masa, a masa in real life. Unlike Erap who is only masa during photo ops and campaign sorties, but inside his cirlce, he is sorrounded by elites, beautiful girls and wheeler dealers.In fact, Erap was found guilty making money from the pension of ordinary workers in SSS in connivance with the rich (a reverse Robin Hood, you may say). Bayani Fernando, even in his house and in his office is sorrounded by masa or middle class professionals.. even in social gatherings, he is comfortable in a company of the masa and hard working middle class. Remember, he is a construction boy, so he knows how to deal with the "piyons". When Bayani Fernando said,"tignan nyo tong mukha ko, wala pa akong pinapatay... " True, he has never been involved in politics of violence. His politics is politics of pro poor public service, excellence and good taste. Water seeks its own level and Bayani Fernando has arrived.There is hope for the Philippines now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.53.109.92 (talk) 13:52, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

BAYANI FERNANDO FOR PRESIDENT CHAIN LETTER

2007-11-19T05:06:00.000-08:00

Fr. ED PANLILIO as Elected Governor of Pampanga
I'm 100% sure this income disparity is replicated in all the provinces of the Philippines . If we had more Ed Panlilio's in our government, we would be just like Singapore in a short time.

Read on...... We hope we are witnessing what will be a sustained revolution in good governance in the Province of Pampanga , under its newly elected governor, Fr. Ed Panlilio. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer of August 26, only one month after Fr. Panlilio assumed his gubernatorial duties, the province ' s income from the quarrying of volcanic ash from Mount Pinatubo had reached P29.4 million . (Haulers pay a fee of P300 per truck of volcanic ash that they haul from the quarry.) By contrast, during his predecessor Mark Lapid ' s term as governor, the province ' s income from the same quarrying operations amount Ed to only P29 million a year . This gaping variation in official incomes from the same activity should inspire a new set of textbooks in Arithmetic, especially for the school children of Pampanga.
There is nothing like local color and local situations to cultivate comprehension in young minds.

Sample problems:

1. If Fr. Ed ' s provincial government can collect P29.4 million in 26 days (we assume no quarrying on Sundays), how much does it collect in one day?
Answer : An average of P1.130 million.

2. If Fr. Ed ' s provincial government collects an average of P1.130 million a day from quarrying operations, how much can it collect in one year of 313 days (365 days less 52 Sundays)?
Answer : P353,690,000, or P354 million.

3. If Fr. Ed ' s provincial government can collect P354 million a year, and Mark Lapid ' s provincial government collected only P29 million a year, what is the difference in their official yearly collections?

Answer : P325 million a year. 4. If Mark Lapid was governor for four years and his provincial government ' s annual collections from quarrying amounted to an average of P29 million, how much did his provincial govt. officially collect in four years?

Answer : P116 million. 5. If Fr. Ed manages to remain as provincial governor for four years, and his provincial government ' s annual collection from quarrying were to average P354 million, how much will his provincial government collect in four years?

Answer : P1.416 billion.

6. What is the difference between P1.416 billion and P116 million?
Answer : P1.3 billion.

7. Where did this P1.3 billion go?

Answer : Only God and the Lapids know. ( ' Lapids ' is in plural because Mark, as a second-generation political dynast, succeeded his own father, now Sen. Lito Lapid .
We don ' t know how much Lito ' s provincial government officially collected from quarrying operations during his watch. Should be a good investigative project for media.)

8. If Gawad Kalinga spends an average of P75,000 per low cost house, how many low-cost houses can P1.3 billion build?

Answer : 17,333 low-cost houses. 9. If the average Pampanga family were to consist of five persons (father, mother, three children), how many people would be benefited by 17,333 low-cost houses?

Answer: 86,665 persons .

End of Arithmetic lesson.

Fr. Ed is to be congratulated for setting a high benchmark for collection from quarrying operations against which his predecessors have a moral obligation to explain why their collections were so low, and against which future governors will be judged by the people of Pampanga.
Volcanic ash, by the way, is a superior building material. Many of the buildings, aqueducts &monuments of the Roman Empire that have survived for almost 2,000 years are known to have been built w/ volcanic ash, quarried from the environs of Mount Vesuvius after it erupted in 79 AD.

We don ' t expect Fr. Ed ' s moral victory in Pampanga to be remembered for the next 2,000years.We would be happy with five, ten or 20 years, enough, we hope, to spawn a moral-revolution- by- example to save the Filipinos from their worst enemies - themselves.
GOOD LUCK Philippines !

"Therefore, the primary cause of poverty is not overpopulation of the Phil!
It ' s because our country is overpopulated with corrupt officials"

BAYANI FERNANDO FOR PRESIDENT
ED PANLILIO FOR VICE PRESIDENT

This is worth sharing…
God bless

Note: The first 3 Egroups who received this letters are: imdm42003@yahoogroups.com ,
pa208s1sy0708profdevera@yahoogroups.com , totidulay@yahoogroups.com

Please feel free to add your egroup to this list.

BAYANI FERNANDO,PLEASE RUN FOR PRESIDENT

2007-11-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

According to the Google cache of

"Marikina News - Bayani Fernando for President" website, it was visited by 2, 271,082 visitors as of November 18, 2007, with an average of 100,000 visitors per month.

The website is dominant in the following topics in the Google Search:

Marikina News Marikina Way Marikina Ideology Kabayani Tala Fernando Marides Fernando MSAT Batch 78 Lakan Dula Globalist Manifesto Kenworth Marikina Dulay Clan MDM Batch 14 Sofronio Dulay Formation of a Global Government Formation of a World Government Dulay AIM IMDM Marikina Valley Assembly Class Dagitab 82 Saint Raul Roco NCPAG Batch of 18 Globalist Manifesto Advocate Marikina Marist PTA Marikina Apartheid Marikinanews Theory of Divine Revision Bayani Fernando For President Marikina Tom Dula Diosdado Macapagal Ceferino Dulay

"As a leader, I cannot cry with the poor for if my eyes are blinded by tears, who will lead them out of poverty? The people would eventually realize that what we are doing is for everybody, especially the poor. It is what the people of Marikina realized when we implemented similar measures. They are now more politically matured because they are now reaping the good effects of discipline." Bayani Fernando

You can write what you want to Bayani Fernando in the comments portion below.