Benchmarking Catanduanes' Political and Economic Progress

Submitted by junsoriao on Wed, 08/15/2007 - 6:16am

As a body politic, the Philippines is far from achieving political and economic autonomy. In spite of those favorable economic statistics heralding the achievements of the current administration, much remains to be done to sustain those gains. If there is real commitment that is noteworthy, it is the one about reducing the debilitating effects of poverty, which the President vowed to tackle head on. To this ideal, she shows courage and proven leadership, nowwithstanding the voices of those doubting Thomases from within and without her administration. To sustain economic gains is no easy task for a President whose primary responsibilities include the maintenance of a robust economy to ensure the continued stability of peace and order, to promote hope, and to instill confidence to her other leaders.

A dynamic society like the United States rely on the strength of public opinion founded upon learned information. Thoughts arising from certain groups distilled through intelligent debate become the basis for concerted action and may become the law of the land if consensus supports it at the national level. A duly elected public official like a senator or a congressman risks the thought of losing his or her job if he or she does not deliver. The citizens have certain expectations and it is not their job to always remind those in office to perform them with efficient and effective results. The President of the Philippines, no doubt, synthesize informed public dissent as opposed to popular opinion. The former will ensure her place in
history as a modern stateswoman and not just simply a popular politician that swam with the current.

The private sector has a way of monitoring progress; it is referred to as benchmarking.
The art of benchmarking is about measuring progress, evaluating results, and taking definitive actions to
ensure resolution of problems. Stated differently, it is all about looking at problems as challenges and
opportunities. In Catanduanes, there is a great need to benchmark performance of political leaders.
The premise that their election in office hinges on public service, then for them to excel on this account is normal expectation that they themselves should manage, let alone be reminded constantly as to where they always fail or what areas they may be lacking.

Should we benchmark the Congressman of Catanduanes?
Should we benchmark the Governor and the provincial board members as well?
How about the town mayors and their councilmen/women?

In my humble opinion, all of the above require stringent benchmarking. Because if we do not, the modus operandi will be the same: business as usual relative to nepotism, pork barrel resolutions, and influence peddling. To do these things, the electorate must:

Inquire about what our Congressman has accomplished so far in the lower house.
Ask him about legislations he authored or initiated.
As to the Governor, inquire about those public work programs.
Are projects awarded to the lowest bidder with quality performance?
We can also check the activities of town mayors.
Are they just good talkers during fiestas?
Are they always drunk?

AND LASTLY, THE ONE MOMENTOUS CHALLENGE OF THEM ALL.
ARE THOSE NPAS STILL IN THE HINTERLANDS OF THE PROVINCE?
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO GET RID OF THEM.

junsoriao

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a thought:

Submitted by pepito on Wed, 12/23/2009 - 10:26pm.

benchmarking the performance of our elected leaders in catanduanes is difficult when some (or should i say most) of their pr men consist of some (again, most?) island mediamen themselves.

a call for a free and more vigilant local press

cai's picture
Submitted by cai on Sun, 08/26/2007 - 2:51pm.

i think all of your questions can be answered if journalists in catanduanes would have better access to information and become more vigilant. we have to face the fact that ordinary catandunganons cannot just go up to the mayor or any public official for that matter and ask him/her about his/her activities. these people have public relation gurus who try to shield them from social criticism, hiding the negative and super imposing the positive (even if at times there are none). apart from a vigilant and free press, the province must also have a statistics body or a partnership with an independent national statistics body to measure the true performance of public officials and even the processes followed by the private sector. the statistics and analysts must create certain criteria or maybe a simple checklist of all the projects and/or undertakings of the government. from there, the body will get information from all agencies about the projects or bills that LGU officials initiated every year. actually, this body can even be manned by a special reports team in a local newspaper. they can come up with an annual report similar to the SONA on what has been done by local officials for the past year. this can be a supplement in a newspaper or a section within the newspaper. i know this is quite a task but someday, somewhere catandunganons must find a way to identify where their taxes are going and if the officials they elected are REALLY and TRULY working for them. we just have to find more creative ways to get the information we need.

benchmark

bahi's picture
Submitted by bahi on Thu, 08/23/2007 - 9:35am.

because it is sheer idiocy to do ineffective things all the time. Benchmarking solve the problem. Because it sets standard to make things easy for private and government workers to make things happen. That is why catandunganon must be aware of what is happening. They must be. Or we may be part of the huge problem there. Big things come from small things such as surfing in this very simple yet complete site. All you need is here. from politics to poetry and bandillos. So catandunganon. Who knows we will make that big difference. And it all started with the works of jun soriao. Take the lead man.