SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ACCOUNTANCY AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Bonifacio St., Baguio City, 2600 Philippines

REACTION PAPER:
Section 1, Article XII

MGMT 204
LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF PHILIPPINE BUSINESS AND CORPORATE ENVIRONMENT

Schedule: 5:30 – 8:30 Wednesday

Room: S523
Professor: Ma. Conception C. Castro-Santiago, AB, MS Pub. Mgmt., Ll. B.

Submitted by: VILLAR, Maan P.

Course: MSBA 1
Submitted on: August 10, 2011
SECTION I, ARTICLE XII
 “Great nations are built pebble upon pebble, stone upon stone, and brick upon brick upon the
collective effort of citizens. There are no great leaders where there are no great followers.”
- William M. Esposo, As I Wreck this Chair

Two questions arise from the goals and suggestions espoused from the provision of the
constitution that seeks to align the economic goals of the country and provide directives as for
its development; first, are these goals met on an individual and legal level, and, second, are
these directives duly followed?

ARTICLE XII, SECTION 1:

The constitution provides the first goal for the national economy which is a more
equitable distribution of opportunities, income and wealth but the underlying economic
condition that proves that this goal is severely unmet is the growing wealth gap which is
already considered almost a societal norm in the country. Plutocracy in the country can be
attributed to the growing and still unresolved wealth gap and unequal distribution of wealth,
those in the lower income lines has no power to claim the right to their taxes at the most basic
level of the problem. Apparent is that corruption causes this wealth gap to widen, where the
money of the people is only going to a miniscule percentage of the population while people
subjected to being at the verges and at the grip of poverty. There is a clear picture of
plutocracy in the country where only the rich amass more and more wealth from the poor and
the wealth stays with the few wealthy and powerful elite. The people are forever seeking a
voice that has not been granted to them, a voice that has been suppressed by manipulative
means imposed by the rich. As of 2010, social mobility has been in an all time low, there needs
to be a prompt, a push and a leeway to penetrate and stay true to the economic goals of our
Constitution. Many say that despite the principles of social mobility, Filipinos are still destined to
not reach and rise up to the upper middle class.

In an effort to bridge the wealth gap, the senate pressed for the approval of a bill that
would allow public participation in budget deliberations. Bill No. 2857 which is the People’s
Participation in the National Budget Process Act of 2011 is also aligned with Article 8 of
the Philippine Constitution which allows for a more participatory form of governance. Article 8
affords people’s organizations with the right to effective and reasonable participation at all
levels of social, political and economic decision making. This is also in line with the current
administrative policy of transparency which was reflected in President Aquino’s budget message
for 2012. Senator Teofisto Guingona III filed a similar bill when he was a member of the House
of Representatives and the Senator is now confident that the new bill will finally see the light of
day under the present administration. Quoting the President, the P1.8-trillion national budget
for 2012 was “designed to transmit daylight into the crevices of governance, starting with the
use of the people’s funds”.

Under Bill No. 2857 accredited Civil Society Organizations (CSO) would be allowed to
attend and participate in budget deliberations in both the Senate and the House of
Representatives. CSOs would have access to the copies of the budget proposals submitted by
the national government agencies (NGAs) and government-owned and controlled corporations
(GOCCs). This is true also for other documents prepared by the Department of Budget and
Management (DBM). CSOs would be allowed to submit their respective position papers to the
DBM and even their own alternative or proposed budgets and they would also be allowed to
present written proposals on projects and activities of government entities.

Guingona (Senator Legarda and Cayetano are also co-sponsors to the bill) said in his co-
sponsorship speech that “Participation is not only enshrined in the Constitution but is part of our
culture as a people, which goes back to traditional community practices and village councils
where every villager participated and contributed to community decisions.” Fostering
participation in the 2012 budget could be a great step in helping alleviate poverty levels in the
country because budget allocation decisions would not only come from those in direct or
influential control over budgetary considerations but it would come from the common Filipino
who could provide a better insight and concretize the why’s of where to put the taxes of the
people, only then would the disquiet be toned down as the government yields to the
preferences of the public. Other countries also tried passing the same kind of legislation,
examples of these countries would be South Afrrica, Bolivia, India and Brazil.

With the government being by and for the people, Guingona said words that indeed
made me believe in the new bill being passed and it being a bridge to bring us back to what
was truly espoused by the constitution as to our economy, he said: “Humility in the knowledge
that the government does not know everything is the key to development. We need to open up
government processes to the people. Knowledge gleaned from people from the grassroots will
only enhance and inform government’s decision making when it comes to spending people’s
money for the greater good.” I can only think of the endless possibilities that could be opened
up by the bill and how it would alleviate our ailing economy, with the participation of the
masses in decisions in budget allocation more justice and acceptance of the final decisions
would be imminent. Also, it would promote the Filipino self-interest as to how to handle our
economy, not only the interest of those already occupying the higher rungs of society as to the
conduct of business within the country. For example, more funding could be allocated to the
procurement of investment opportunities that would promote employment thus expanding the
productivity of the untapped labor markets in the country and also to attain our long pursuit of
promoting full employment. What is good is that this investment procurement would not be
dependent on the dictates of foreign investors, it could be localized like how South Korea
promotes nationalism in its consumerist and investment activities and an example would be that
Korean products are first to be chosen over foreign products.

Wealth should not only be confined to the upper rungs of society, everyone should be
an active and productive part of the national economy as what Article VII, Section 1 of our
Constitution says, one of the goals of the national economy is a more equitable distribution of
income, wealth and opportunities – we should live by this and promote it to eliminate the
crutches of poverty on our country men. The bill would be an important aid in promoting equity
as it controls the control of monopoly and the protection against unfair competition.