FOR the Philippines to rise above the ensuing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, experts agreed on the need to strengthen both the public and private institutions nationwide.
Stratbase ADR Institute President Dindo Manhit said the country should not abandon the rule of law to cope with the health crisis.
He noted that stronger public institutions, responsive legislation, good governance and more responsible citizenship are much needed at present.
“There is a need to focus on the importance of whole-of-society solutions, strengthening institutions and legislation, the shift to e-governance and continuous political development in building a new and better normal for the country,” Manhit explained.
Ateneo School of Government Dean Ronald Mendoza, on the other hand, warned that the government’s recent threat to close down and take over private companies, supposedly as part of its response to Covid-19, would drive away investors from the country.
“At this point, rising cases, rapidly filling hospitals, our return to tighter lockdown, and a slowing economy could push us toward some of the same strategies unsuccessfully deployed during the dictatorship [of the late President Ferdinand Marcos],” he said.
According to him, there were similarities in the way President Duterte and then-President Marcos address any crisis, particularly the narrative track of “ending the oligarchy.”
Mendoza said such term, which can be broadly defined as a small group of powerful individuals or groups that can shape society, can also apply to political dynasties, as they are very much concentrating power in the political system.
“You can own the business and become senator, and also become president, and also become congressman,” he pointed out.
Oligarchs existing both in the government and the private sectors somehow indicate wrong political and economic systems.
“In economics, if ever there is a monopoly or an oligopoly, more often than not, this is considered to be a market failure.
The same can be said of our political market…. If a handful of families have managed to control all elected and appointed positions, in practically all the local government positions and national [sic], then that is an indication of a political market failure,” said Dr. Julio Teehankee, professor of Political Science and International Studies and former dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the De La Salle University.
President Duterte earlier vowed to end oligarchy, while House Speaker Peter Alan Cayetano called for a change in the oligarchic system.
Rather than focusing on business owners, Teehankee said the government should start the reforms in the political system that perpetuates political dynasties.
If the current trend of political power consolidation continues, he cautioned that “by 2040, 70 percent of local government officials will be dynastic.”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes