I am posting part of an article I made a long long time ago when the government was considering dancing the ChaCha. I posted it in some of the forums I participate.

“…..
What can local executives achieve in a federal government that cannot be attained in our present Constitution? I can’t fathom what could hinder their actions given the amount of autonomy given them.

The Mayor of Manila can defy the National Historical Institute, an arm of the National Government and get away with it. The mayor uprooted Mehan Garden.

While the parties were locked in legal combat, the destruction of Mehan Garden was underhandedly continued till there was nothing left to preserve.

The good Mayor also decided to close permanently a portion of a road (Rizal Avenida) against the will of the MMDA and the DPWH.

There are times when I commute through that area so I know for a fact that that area is now permanently closed. A real living breathing local official can collide against the arms of the National Government and the National Government tucks its tail and runs away faster than a speeding bullet. WOW!!! THAT IS POWER!!! Maybe on a local level but power nonetheless!!!

The President is going for a shift to a federal government to empower the local officials more. Does this mean that the closure of that portion of Rizal Avenue would not have been possible without her consent or support?

The mayor closed of a major road towards the south (2 side roads/now major roads are accorded the route to the north) and access is now afforded through a narrower one when that one just used to be a side road. So that single side road is now the major road!!! And he has a fondness of doing that left and right!

I have to admit that there are times when pressed under the traffic in that area, I curse our local mayor from the highest of heaven to the lowest of hell. I just can’t help it. If PGMA did have a hand in that road closure; I SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED HER NAME IN ALL MY CURSES TOO!!!

And now the mayor is setting his sights on the Arroceros park.

Read more about the Cebu City mayor in what he does. Closing roads and denying access to certain people, shooing his hated people away, etc….

A local mayor can perform such vindictive and childish acts and not be afraid of anyone! The National Government is already seemingly inutile against such a local official and they are supposed to be granted more powers in a federal form of government??? …… ”

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Update for the Manila road: The new mayor of Manila has decided to re-open to traffic the concerned part of the Avenida road with or without the blessings of the President.

In cabinet meetings she has been known to throw things at her cabinet secretaries.

The one thing she learned from her father was the fact that while DM was Vice President he spent the entire four years traveling to every nook and cranny of the archipelago exposing himself to the voters in preparation for his running for President. That together with the fiscal crisis towards the end of Garcia’s regime helped propel DM to the Presidency. She can speak several major dialects fluently.

It was DM who had to run to the IMF-WB that brought the country into the economic management and control of the IMF-WB till today.

Please note that this is not about her person but about her ability as a leader. In that regard she is inadequate.

It was Hobbes and Adam Smith who first defined wealth as the power to command labor. The role of government is simply to mitigate and arbitrate that power for the common good. Taking over that power is not the proper role of the administrators of the state.

In that regard the President and her government has failed like her previous counterparts as she not only has failed to stem the influence of the wealthy but has singly distorted and debased institutions of governance and has made government dependent on the few to the detriment of the many.

deathly fearful? definitely this is a over over over exageration. This is one reason that makes Gloria critics less credible top me. Sobrang OA pare!

just the same, hvrds, the things that you write is not really a first hand account. sabi sabi lang. would have been better if that group that you mention would be the one to publish something and questioning Gloria’s economic/academics credentials.

bakit ba takot sila? ano ba ang kinakatakot nila?

This is an example of why we should have Regional Governments with a direct share of taxes generated from within their citizens consumption and production. Its called “subsidiarity”. Why should the goddam president have to worry about a godforsaken road???

Federalism (not the same as what we have under the Local Government code) is the only remaining political arrangement that the Philippines has not tried. If we can’t change the constitution due the risk the gma will hijack the process towards a parliamentary system, then we can live with a pseudo form that accomplishes the same thing..change the way the tax money flows. Make it direct tax share for LGUs, make them more locally accountable and for christsake make them plan those barangay roads.

That’s the best description of GMA, the flip flop queen. The latest proof is her flip flopping on her previous order about the military offensive against the barbaric MILF right after being cautioned by foreign aid donors.

It is interesting to note that notable persons who had to do business with that particular agency are her closest business supporters. They rose to prominence together with her. It is like she simply transferred from the DTI to the office of the chief executive of the country. Now from the business constituency her constituency is at present the legislature and local governments who she depends on for political support.

For those who have had personal dealings with her I can say this. She is hard working and really drives to get to understand the details of her work. She does not spend time on the rationale for the process. She tries desperately to master the process. When it comes to the Big Picture she is almost clueless. In our very first meeting we clashed over her ignorance of the rationale for the process she was involved in. She did not realize that she was causing delays. I was under the impression she was a public servant. She is extremely sensitive about what you think of her capabilities.

Even though she had majored in economics she has never practiced the craft of equilibrium economics and is not even involved in the theoretical discipline of the craft.

She is deathly fearful of being in a room with some of the real practicing equilibrium economists of the country. I personally know some of them and do not have their permission to name them but the group that came out with that paper that raised the ruckus about the need for new taxes otherwise our favorite junk bond queen would have pushed debt payments to cover almost the entire budget of the country and would have pushed the country into a major crisis. Finance is a critical issue as it dwells with abstracts such as competence, confidence and certitude. Uncertainty can be deadly.

Joey Salceda used his knowledge of the language of the group to establish himself as the Presidents savior and led the PR campaign to raise the rates of NAPOCOR and the e-VAT.

Remember the alarm was not raised by any branch of the executive department or legislative department but a few equilibrium economists from U.P. Once again the system of checks and balances were not working or were almost non-existent.

She and Big Mike were busy thinking of ways to ensure her hold on the Presidency.

Hence even a small slippage in tax revenues and it is small in relative terms reverberates with the financial community that has seen numerous times when government has failed to keep up with it’s commitments.

For all of that the chief executive bears the responsibility. That is why she is well known also as the flip flop queen. She bends to which ever strong wind blows.

but what i saw and what others see, is quite similar. the president most definitely does not do sampling. again, go over what the source said. she goes over the budget line by line. literally.

as for whether the president by now would have realized this is inefficient or not, obviously, for her, it works. and no one who wants to keep their job will question it -or be tolerated in the government very long. this goes for the work methods of all presidents, not just her, of course.

of course we differ on whether this is important. i think it is, because it helps explain why a lot of energy is being expended, but the country isn’t getting its bang for the buck, so to speak.

Your main point is actually delegation. Which is one my weaker points too when I was started working with Intel. But once you realized the ineffectiveness of this this weakness you will easilly be motivated to work and learn how to delegate.

I dont think Gloria with all her work experience prior to becoming president would be so dumbed no to realize the unproductiveness of such weakness. I dont thin she will be able to last that long if she doe’sn’t how to delegate. For all we know, she may just be doing some spot check or sampling. Just like everybody who encounter such a thick document.

Then you have mentioned that your source just mention one or two or three instances against the whole budget items. Im am having an impression that you are overreacting again. Do you really have to devote a column for this and even choose childish title for it? What positive things we can get from this kind of write up? That we should stop Gloria from checking the budget?. Or teach Gloria how to delegate like she doesn’t have that skill?

Gloria has a team , we all know that. Of course, the Haytt 10 resignation hurt may have hurt her image as far a a teamplayer and manager. But there are more than 10 who stayed with her. This people woudl have been a good source to judge her of being a team player and delagtion skills.

I believe it would have been more credible if you based this write up on your expereince while working with her in the past. Not on a short conversation with your source who actually had a very limited picture of the whole.

I just don’t believe that its fair to use the very little information you got from a source to judge Gloria. Its just too little really.