Convergence of actions

NO HOLDS BARRED
Ike Señeres

MANILA -- Elections are coming up next year, and the electorate will again be asked to re-elect incumbent executives or elect new ones. As usual, there will be a mad scramble of paid ads trying to tell the people what the candidates have done or what they could do. The tendency to use ads a means to tell the people about accomplishments or promises is an indication that these candidates do not really have apparent programs of actions that are already publicly known in the first place.

How can we tell whether a local official is a good executive or not? For the lack of a better reference, we should just base our judgment on the compliance of their jurisdictions to the mandated national development programs, which are supposed to have localized translations in the first place.

Take the case of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for instance. As far as I know, the release of Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) is supposed to be tied in to the planning and delivery of local development plans, in theory that is. Another related measure is the compliance of local government units (LGUs) to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As we try to measure how good the performance of a local executive is, we should bear in mind that they may be at liberty to come up with their own ideas as to what public service delivery programs they like, but that does not mean that they are free to disregard or depart from the context of the national plans, more so in the case of the MDGs, because this has international implications, given the fact that these measures are officially reported to the United Nations (UN).

Generally speaking, it seems to be the practice of LGUs to come up with bits and pieces of development projects that are the products of their own imaginations, but these projects are seldom converged to take on the form of cohesive programs that would all add up to the outcome of meeting the basic needs of the people in their jurisdictions, in relation to the MTPDP and the MDGs.

Let us use the issue of access to water as an example. The UN measures access to potable water as an MDG. This means water that people could drink from the faucet, and not just for bathing or washing. How many LGUs are targeting 100% access? As it is now, many upper class and middle class households gain access by buying bottled water, but that does not count. There is even a discrimination issue here, because the poor could not afford to sustain this. The fact is, bottled water in jugs is more expensive the interior areas where the poor households reside.

Using water as an example, we could consider a local public official as a good executive if he is targeting increases to water in the first place, and is able to meet his targets in the second place, aside from the need to sustain the supply. Come election time, the people should vote only for the candidates that have real and visible water access plans and projects.

It is good to see that civic groups and nonprofit organizations have their own projects that deliver one form of access to local communities or the other, but they should all attempt to coordinate their projects with each other, so that convergence will happen. In doing this, it would be good if they could work closely with the local authorities, but that is just an option for them.

As the time targets for achieving MDGs are already set, all local authorities should report how far they are from their targets. As a matter of fact, this should become the real election issues, the issue of who is doing best or doing most in increasing access to the basic services that are targeted by the MDGs. The noise should be in the extent of results, not the intensity of the political ads.

If you are looking for a clue whether your local officials are actively pursuing MTPDP and MDG goals or not, look into the calendars of the local Municipal Development Councils (MDCs), Provincial Development Councils (PDCs) and the Regional Development Councils (RDCs). These local councils are supposed to be meeting regularly. If you do not see a calendar, it means that your local officials are not active. If you see a calendar, look into the minutes to find out who is active and who is not.

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