Catanduanes Economic Forum

A 'new kid in the block' is fast becoming the 'talk of the town' lately. This new kid is called People Initiative. The widely perceived opinion that our ‘smart lawmakers’ are failing us, and they are for the most part, to expedetiously deliver the goods on the much publicized Charter Change, has resulted in the citizen-inspired movement which is quickly gathering speed, popularity and momentum.

As the concept of People Initiative-driven reforms spread in the countryside, it is hard to miss the excitement of those that back it up and the equally energetic noise making of those who oppose it.

A short background on the People Initiative: Citizen-inspired, totally legal, extremely popular, a political freight train on steroids. Focus is on the proposed Charter Change. There are over 300 organizations nationwide affiliated with the movement. The movement was spearheaded by a group called Sigaw ng Bayan under the leadership of a very savvy lawyer named Raul Lambino. For more information on the movement please go to www.sigawngbayan.com . There is a provision in the 1987 Constitution that allows for people-initiated constitutional amendment. This group has utilized it to try to bypass the eternal foot dragging of our 'men' in the Senate. Our lawmakers are not too keen on people-initiated changes to our constitution. They are worried sick of a lot of things. Thus the birth of One Voice. This is just one of several groups fighting the People Initiative tooth and nail. One Voice supposedly has a lot of money to spend on full page ads in newspapers, tv informercials and public forums for a few months. Purpose, to shoot down the People Initiative. This amounts to a good chunk of money. And the little guys are wondering just who is footing this huge bill. They think its the special-interest folks whose businesses, wealth, position or power are threatened by the upcoming reforms. I am of the opinion that their suspicion is well grounded.

The special-interest families or clans of our nation do not give a hoot about reforms that will be sure tickets to the demise of their many generations of economic strangle hold or monopoly of businesses in our country. Monopolies do not want to let go of that power and money. And this, ladies and gentlemen is one reason that the rich in our country become richer and the poor become poorer. When our nation's economy is finally LIBERATED from the clutches of the powerful few, this is when we will, as a NATION, be able to fully grow and compete in the global arena of wealth acquisition. Our present constitution has a lot of restrictions on foreign ownership. This in itself is a big hindrance to foreign investors. This is one area that I understand will be addressed by the new Charter.

The United States is wide open to any legitimate foreign company to own real estate and businesses in the U.S. The exceptions are businesses from rogue nations or nations that harbor terrorists. China is now enjoying their great newfound wealth because in 1978 they dared to remove the many restrictions that hindered investors' access to ownership and gave them more freedom of movement.

Our special-interest folks dread seeing this competition from the outside. Our more open minded and economically savvy reformers and business owners want the billions of dollars of investment money to come in. I do not have to think twice which side I will support on this.


The good news: The EDSA revolts or People Power have awakened us into some level of awareness and reality. The continued interest and show of concern by more and more citizens, young an old, clamoring for change is indeed an awesome development. The People Initiative if properly nurtured, planned and executed could be just the beginning of many great positive changes that the nation for the first time will ever witness. I have always dreamed of this long-overdue awakening of our people. We have been indifferent and we have slept too long. Now, from the little guys to the town councilors of the nation, baranggay heads, governors, bishops and some proponents of the reform movement in the senate, everyone is sending out a message loud and clear. We are sick and tired of status quo, sick and tired of poverty, sick and tired of inefficiency in government, sick and tired of corruption, sick and tired of being called the 'sick man of Asia' ,sick and tired of taking the back seat in the world economy!

The bad news: I am sure that a lot of us are looking forward and excited to see the first signs of the much needed reforms in our country . The ultimate reward of course is when we start seeing the fruits of these reforms. I will name one reward that we want to see. And this is that quality of life for our citizens start to dramatically improve. China in a few years time moved millions of its citizens from poverty to middle class status. I appreciate the enthusiam of the citizen reformers. Enthusiasm propels, motivates and fires up everything that once were indifferent, lethargic, aimless. But I say it is one thing to get really excited about a great idea but it takes more than just tons of enthusiasm to bring the desired changes to fruition.

And this is the bad news. One thing that is clearly missing is a detailed and precise blueprint that is easily understood by and easiy accessible to the common folk. This wilI achieve a truly people-driven reform. The people have to understand so they can participate and become active contributors on just WHAT the reforms should be, HOW the reforms will be carried out, WHY these reforms are necessary, WHEN these reforms should take effect, WHO the key players should be. I have spent a good many hours looking for the What's and the How's of the proposed Charter Change and I have not come accross a one-stop site that has given me a clear picture of WHAT our citizen Framers/Reformers intend to do and just HOW they intend to carry out these changes. Even the extensive website of Sigaw Ng Bayan has not shown the details of the proposed changes in the Charter Change. This writer will appreciate a lead to this source of information, if it exists.

Attention to Detail: I love Aircraft Carriers and they are truly fascinating. These war machines have hundreds if not a few thousand systems within systems. There are millions of individual components inside each system. It takes a few thousand men with their respective specialties to operate, maintain and repair these systems. In order to achieve and maintain excellence, to run this ship efficiently and carry out its mission, each and every crewmember has to fully pay attention to a lot of details in his respective field of expertise. We should expect nothing less in framing our next Constitution or in running our institutions or businesses. We have to look into the smallest of details. I am still of the opinion that our existing Constitution would have worked fine. It was HOW our government managers ran things that ended us in the ditch. They failed to pay attention to detail in many areas of 'national housekeeping and national book keeping'.



Direction: Okay, so when and if the ship is finally running and it is manned by a fully capable crew, what's next? How about knowing where to sail to? Destination, destination, destination. When we arrive what will we arrive to? And in which direction do we go to get to that destination? When the Constitution is "re framed", we the people should be fully involved. It is not enough to bring about changes. We should have reforms that are targeted and designed to maximize the desired results. This is where attention to detail is an absolute must.

Woudn't it be nice to visit an extensive and regularly updated no-nonsense website for Catanduanes that covers where we have been, where we are and where we want to be? And feature what? How about past, present and future or desired achievements? Infrastructure progress reports that are short and sweet would be truly great to see. Infrastructure dream lists would be cool as well. Economic status, milestones and projections would be awesome. It was great to read about successful entrepreneurs in Virac in one of the Tribune's latest issues. But we have to have a provincial website that anyone from anywhere in the world can look at at any time and get updated on the status of our desired achievements. Why? Take a lesson from the little guys called red blood cells. I heard that these little things know exactly what they are doing and where they are going 24/7! And we would hope so. Our good health depends on their efficiency! I heard that within each red blood cell are dna codes that match the dna codes of our whole body. So the red blood cells could go anywhere in our body and continue to function accurately because it carries all the instructions or blueprint in its memory. Talk about connectivity! No wonder they do their job efficiently! I also heard that inside any organization or corporation, the ones who take the pains to let their folks know what their goals are for the next hour, day, week or year are more successful than those who 'just play it by ear' or simply don't care.

Congressman Santiago said it well concerning the potential of the Philippines to tap into the 'outsourcing industry' where India leads and generates huge revenues from. This is a great wealth of information. A great opportunity indeed. If only we can move just a tad closer to how we on the island can jump in on this opportunity. I do not have all the answers on how a call center can be put together on the island. There are quite a few call centers now in Manila and its neighboring cities. How do we attract these companies to set up shop in Catanduanes. A provincial website could have one section covering our economy in addition to other equally vital goals and issues we face on the island. This is where the nuts and bolts of a call center could be published and will be an eye catcher. It could lead to people from all over pitching in with either time, talent, money, sweat and knowledge. It might just happen! But we all got to stay connected and never lose sight of our objective. A well planned provincial website clearly outlining our goals will achieve a lot of things. It will serve to focus our direction and let us all know what the provincial goals and visions are.

So what has the People Initiative got to do with us on the island? What has it got to do with our economy? Plenty!! For starters, the Initiative is a great unifier. The ancient Egyptians rallied around building the pyramids in their quest to guarantee their souls' passage to heaven. Their efforts did not necessarily guarantee their safe passage to heaven but they achieved remarkable engineering feats that had applications other future builders utilized and benefited from. Again they had a goal and they got united in the process of reaching their goals.



Another big plus for the Initiative: If the Constitution gets a good major overhaul and the citizens played a part in the exercise, it could be a major breakthrough for our country. It would have marked the beginning of one of the major requirements of a true democracy in our country. One of the signs of a maturing democracy is seeing the full participation of its citizens in the smallest details of government. People Power was such an exercise but People Power was short lived. As soon as we achieved the short term change we wanted, we were back to the 'hands off' mode that we were in before the uprising. We have to be fully attentive to what our elected officials are doing. We have to be fully aware of the laws and policies of the land and be active participants in their full enforcement. With time, changes will be called for to keep ourselves abreast of the world. With the world in a constant change, those that do not keep up with these changes will be left behind, will stay in a perpetual state of confusion and disarray. That is where the Philippines has been for many years.

We, in my opinion, as a nation is beginning to see some very interesting changes. We need to be on our toes to meet these exciting changes. They say that ‘Success is when Preparation meets Opportunity’. This means that when opportunity rolls in and sits right under your nose and you did not prepare for its coming, forget about success. Let us set ourselves up so when the opportunity is at our doorstep we will be able to grab it.

I have mentioned this in one of my letters a couple of years or so ago and because of its significance it is worth repeating here. California and other states use Initiatives to introduce new measures and/or defeat the same measures that affect state laws and policies. These laws or policies could be about taxes, public schools, immigration, licensing, businesses, infrastructure, real estate and just about anything and everything that affects the citizens' lives. Measures are either passed or rejected by the voters. And yes, measures can be introduced by individuals. The individuals or proponents, with the guidance set by the State, put forth the Proposition or desired change. The Attorney General is the key player in approving a Proposition. Once approved it becomes part of the ballot. They are greatly publicized by their respective proponents. Passing and/or rejection of these measures allow the citizens to have a lot to say about their lives, their destinies. This also puts them in control of a lot of issues instead of just leaving things in the hands of a few politicians.

A true democracy is governed and run by the people. The democracies whose citizens fully participate, stay abreast of government affairs and actively interact with their elected officials, do not just in effect become an integral part of the government but also keep the elected officials on their toes. These democracies do a lot better. When most citizens know what is going on in their city, town, province or country , they are able to fully participate in decision making. For a very DETAILED Initiative guide of the State of California please visit http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/initiative_guide.htm. California has new Initiatives introduced during elections. These Initiatives or amendments in the State Constitution serve to address issues of the day to better serve the needs of the citizens.

The People Initiative in our country, ladies and gentlemen, could become a budding 'sister' of this system or provision in the California Constitution. Ours is still in the national level. One of these fine days, we will have to have our own provincial Constitution which will be tailored to fit our own unique situation. We will then continue to 'update' this Constitution through Initiatives as described above.

If you are still skeptical about its usefulness, it would be good to remind ourselves that California is the biggest economy of all the States, ranked number 6 among nations in the world economy. The fact that Californians continue to tweak their state policies to consistently address current issues, keeps them ahead of many things and keeps them very wealthy. California’s annual budget is many times bigger than the whole Philippine annual budget.

Comelec’s recent decision to scuttle the People Initiative with a very weak argument that
there is no ‘enabling law’ approved by Congress to allow them to amend the Constitution despite millions of citizens’ signatures in a petition, is indeed very hollow. If they reflect on the reason why there is a major cry for Constitutional or Charter Change, they will know that it is a majority opinion that the Constitution in its present state is in itself INSUFFICIENT, lacking and missing substance. The missing ‘enabling law’ that Comelec wanted to see is ONE of those INSUFFICIENCIES in the present Constitution. Bottom line ladies and gentlemen, if the Constitution needs changed , let us remove all obstacles so we can change it! Let us not say, this cannot happen because……. Losers!
Let us say, let us find ways on how to expeditiously overhaul this old, inefficient national tool and move on!

In conclusion, whether the Supreme Court rules in favor of the People Initiative or not, we have in effect been successfully introduced to the concept of citizens participating in government policy making which is what a true democracy should be doing. I believe that we are on the road to a government that is truly run by the people. To continue leaving our destinies in the hands of a few politicians and special interest families which historically has not improved our lives does not make sense. It is an economic suicide.
I kid you not!


Joe Joson
California

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