Philippine Bureaucracy

Philippine Bureaucracy

I. A POLITICAL SYSTEM DEFINES ITS BUREAUCRACY:

That the Philippine government has consistently failed in satisfying the needs and growing expectations of the Filipino people is a fact rather than a perception. What is widely perceived however, is that such failure of government is only due to the inefficiency of its bureaucracy to produce and deliver public goods and services. To accept the perception that the inefficiency of the bureaucracy is the main culprit in the failu re of government is to grant the dichotomization of the orientation of governance and the administration of its affairs.

The form and substance of the bureaucracy as the main machinery of government is heavily defined by the latter's policies and politics. It cannot be expected to produce and deliver goods and services corresponding to the needs of the people if the policies of government are anti-people. In the same manner that the bureaucracy cannot operate differently and independently of the ills of th e Philippine political system.

A political system is based on its economic foundation thus it is beyond doubt that economic power makes political power. In a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society such as the Philippines, it is easy to conclude that the fo reign investors, their local counterparts such as the big compradors and landlords, who are the main players in the economy, control the state thru their cohorts in government. That it is their business, to effectively manage the affairs of the bureaucrac y as a means and source of graft and corruption for further self-aggrandizement and their perpetuation in power.

The basic issue of the misprioritization and misutilization of the national budget clearly represents that the business of governance depends on the interests of the power holders rather than the people they govern. The coming of the public debt aspect in the 80s worsens the misprioritization of government's annual budget in favor of foreign debt payment allocations and is usually followed by t he national defense budget, the sum of which account for about three-fourths (3/4) of its grand total.

As the foreign debt payment becomes automatic the government went into deficit spending, in order to correct this, the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) prescribed the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) which included the aust...

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... a dictator.

Ramos has improved the blue print of mar tial rule of Marcos, why not, when he has the comparative advantage of being educated at West Point which is one of the best training grounds of agents of the imperialist United States of America. His regime has not reached desperation as its psychologica l-war tactics are still effective in a situation which does not yet necessitate an open fascist rule.

From the point of view of the CESOs and the rank and file of government employees, the process of re-engineering the bureaucracy is but another exercise of patronage system in the positioning of the proteges of the politicians and the high bureaucrats. While in the process, victimizing hundreds of thousands of government personnel who shall be dismissed in violation of the merit system of the civil service and their security of tenure. For the public sector workers, this is another round of their continuing struggle to defend their rights as workers much more their right to a source of livelihood. As they have proven that the exercise of their strength thr u their organization is their reliable instrument to protect their interests, such is the route that they shall take.