Quo Vadis, Citizen Participation?

A Conference-Workshop by PODER/ G-Watch of the Ateneo School of Government

4-5 August 2015
The country prides itself of an active civil society. Nowadays, we hear a lot about the desire for
participatory governancethe kind of governing with active participation of citizens. Many efforts
have been done under the Aquino administration to make governance accessible to civil society
organizations (CSOs) and to ordinary citizens. The president's mantra Kayo ang Aking Boss! puts
the citizens supposedly at the center of power, determining what government does.
We have initiatives like Bottom-Up-Budgeting (BuB), Open Government Partnership (OGP), Open
Data Philippines, transparency seal, Budget Advocacy Partnership and the likeall aiming to open up
information and processes for citizens to use. There are also legally-mandated participatory
mechanisms at the national, regional and LGUs levels, down to the barangay. Our Constitution
provides numerous mechanisms to practice direct and representative democracy. The Local
Government Code of 1991 has recognized the role of non-government organizations in development
and has provided numerous spaces for participation at all levels for all sectors.
Yet, staring us at our faces is a persistent scandal plaguing the country for centuries now: the stark gap
between the richest and the poorest. The recent article of Ronald Mendoza and Katherine Peralta on
Rappler entitled A Nation of Billionaires, Dynasties and Yayas brought the issue of inequality back
to our attention.
The said article noted a study of Prof. Cielito Habito in 2012 that says growth in the aggregate wealth
of our 40 richest families in 2011which Forbes Asia reported to have risen by $13 billion in 20102011was equivalent (in value) to 76.5 percent of the growth in our total GDP at the time...
Legislators wealth also increased during that period, by 30% for senators and 12% and 7% for
congresspersons. The same Rappler article noted that 18 million accounting for over 90% of the total
belong to the poor and low-income group earning less than PhP5000 per month and only about
22 thousand families belong to the group earning about PhP60,000 or more a month in the
Philippines...This is around one-tenth of 1% of the total households in the country.
The broadening of democratic space is a product of many years of struggle to make government
accessible and bring it closer to the people, challenging the paradigm of elite democracy. It aims to
build true empowerment of the people, where citizens' decisions and actions are not subject to and
determined by the powers-that-be under the context of patron-client relationship, but are instead a
product of their independent capacity to fight for their rights.
Such empowerment is thought to be critical to the deepening of democracy, which is considered vital
to achieving substantive change, which ultimately boils down to bridging the gap between the rich and
the poor.
Is this where we are heading with the way we conduct participatory governance today? Where are we
in this agenda of citizen empowerment? Where has the advancement of the citizen participation
agenda brought us? Are people able to hold power to account today to fight for their rights? Is there a
deepening of democracy contributing to substantive change? Is power truly inclusive today?
The Political Democracy and Reforms/ Government Watch (PODER/ G-Watch) program of ASoG
will be convening a two-day conference-workshop with the title Quo Vadis, Citizen Participation? It
aims to look at current efforts to advance participation and transparency in governance with the view
of starting the conversation on critically reflecting about where citizen participation is going in the
country.

Specifically, the conference-workshop will look into key citizen participation and transparency
initiatives that are the subject of ongoing studies by the PODER/ G-Watch of ASoG, with the
conference-workshop serving as a means to generate feedback on the emerging findings of these
studies. These are:

the Open Government Partnership (OGP);

the Bottom Up Budgeting (BuB); and
civil society participation in the procurement process.

The conference-workshop will also dare to take on the challenge of investigating the factors that can
explain the successes of initiatives involving citizen action by featuring what works type of
research, thereby gleaning from it what can guide future actions and discourse on citizen
empowerment.
It will also look at the most basic form of citizen participation: the exercise of the right to suffrage.
How is our exercise of that right so far? Have electoral reform efforts succeeded in improving that
right of suffrage?
This conference-workshop will bring together government reform champions and representatives
from key CSOs, social movement groups, political parties, academe, government agencies, LGUs and
media, with the view of harnessing their varied perspectives to take on this challenging question so
vital in the country's quest for inclusive democracy and substantive development.

Draft Program (for further discussion)

Day 1
9:00am-10:00am

Opening
Fr. Jett Villarin, President, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU),
or
Atty. Jaime Hofilea, Vice President for Social Development,
ADMU
Backgrounder on the Conference-Workshop
Ms. Joy Aceron, Program Director, G-Watch / Ateneo School of
Government (ASOG)
Opening Keynote
Sec. Florencio Butch Abad, Department of Budget and
Management (DBM), or
Sec. Joel Rocamora, National Anti-Poverty Commission

10:00am-12:00nn

Panel: Reforms and the Role of International Platforms like the

Open Government Partnership
PODER/ ASoG
Sec. Florencio Abad, DBM
Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan, Right to Know, Right Now Coalition
Usec. Austere Panadero, Department of Interior and Local
Government
Panel Moderator: Asec. Maxine Tanya Hamada, DBM

12:00nn-1:00pm

Lunch

1:00pm-3:00pm

Panel: Preventing Corruption and the Impact of Citizen

Participation in Making Procurement Transparent and Accountable
PODER/ G-Watch
Usec. Francis Varela, Department of Education
Atty. Dennis Santiago, Government Procurement Policy Board,
Technical Support Office
Mr. Sixto Dodo Macasaet, Caucus of Development NGO
Networks (CODE-NGO)
Panel Moderator: Dr. Francisco A. Magno, De La Salle UniversityJesse Robredo Institute of Governance (DLSU-JRIG)

3:00pm-5:00pm

Workshop
What have we achieved so far through citizen participation in
governance?
Are these gains and result empowering to the citizens? Why and
why not?

Is it consistent to what the citizens need?

What are the challenges to advancing citizen empowerment?
Any specific comments on the studies of PODER/ G-Watch?
Day 1 Hosts: Cindy Uy (G-Watch Dumaguete) and Mickel Ollave
(G-Watch Puerto Princesa)
Day 2
9:00am-10:30am

Reporting on Workshop Outputs

Second Day Opening Keynote: Rep. Leni Gerona Robredo,
Camarines Sur Representative

10:30am-12:30pm

Panel: Questioning our Assumptions: Research and Learning on

What Works on Citizen Participation
Vertically-Integrated Monitoring and Advocacy Initiatives
Francis Isaac, DLSU-JRIG
What Works? Scaling Up Social Initiatives
Dr. Ma. Elissa Jayme Lao, Institute of Philippine Culture
Research on KALAHI and/or BuB
Philippine Institute for Development Studies
Panel Moderator: Mr. Jalton Taguibao, UP Political Science
Department, or
Ms. Carmel Melay Abao, Ateneo Political Science Department
Open Forum

12:30pm-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30pm-3:30pm

Panel: Exercise of Right to Suffrage: Has it Improved Almost Three

Decades After Martial Law?
Mr. Ramon Casiple, Consortium on Electoral Reforms
Dr. Julio Teehankee, DLSU
Mr. Risa Hontiveros, Akbayan!
Dr. Ronald Mendoza, Asian Institute of Management
Panel Moderator: Chay Florentino-Hofilea, Rappler
Open Forum

3:30pm-4:30pm

Closing
Closing Keynote
To be identified
Closing Remarks
Antonio La Via, Dean, Ateneo School of Government, or

Atty. Jaime Hofilena, Vice President for Social Development

Day 2 Hosts: Amelia Mancera (G-Watch-S. Leyte) and Anna Bueno
(PODER/ G-Watch-Ateneo)