Taking its cue from other cabinet departments that have been employing good governance mechanisms to improve performance, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) put down their progress indicators and base camps in a 2016 governance scorecard. Initial discussions among directors, employees, and stakeholders representing the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and Board of Investments (BOI) revealed an optimistic view of the future of Philippine competitiveness. If the latest road map is to be followed, Filipinos will be looking at 6 million new jobs, Php947-billion worth of approved investments, and 80% consumer awareness in five years’ time.

While DTI is still in the process of defining high-impact projects that will enable it to meet its targets, Secretary Gregory Domingo is confident that correct planning, execution and monitoring will improve the department’s ability to enable business and empower consumers. ‘If we are effective, our scorecard will show it,’ says Domingo. ‘We have to go after the ramdam (impact) standard.’

The Secretary and his leadership team are bent on developing ‘winners’ that can reinforce DTI’s standing as a zero-corruption Agency of Choice, and the department hopes to eventually be able to measure individual performance according to how well employees execute the demands of the scorecard. As it closes a successful planning year, DTI can expect 2012 to be a big leap forward towards inclusive growth.

Entitled “The BSC Powered Grassroots Governance Movement in the Philippines: A Progress Report” the article delves into the inner workings of PGS and its success as a locally adapted version of the Balanced Scorecard. Dr. Estanislao discusses how much of the “Philippines 2030″ vision has already come true, stating that Filipinos themselves have observed the dramatic decrease in graft and corruption in cities and national departments that use the framework. He notes the growth of the solidarity initiative since he last sat down with the BSR, illustrating the effectiveness of ISA’s public governance fora and PGS boot camps in building a network of governance champions within the county’s public institutions.

Dr. Estanislao also captures these insights in his latest book “Building a National Legacy: Laying the foundations for governance and strategy execution.”

The LCP adopted the road map during the 45th National Executive Board meeting in Tagbilaran City recently. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and representatives of Vice President Jejomar Binay in the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and its attached agencies attended the meeting.

In the same statement, Mayor Oscar Rodriguez of San Fernando, Pampanga, the LCP president, said the road map’s action plans sought to enable city governments to “increase their significant contribution to the national economy.”

Rodriguez said the ways to do that are strengthening the capability of city governments to make policies, ensure the welfare of their constituents and undertake leadership reforms.

“Our road map is proof that the LCP is serious in its resolve… [to] lobby for the best interest of its members and the members’ constituents, and to provide support services to enable all cities become effective engines of growth and significant contributors to nation building,” Braganza said.

Within the LCP, there will be an exchange of information in the implementation of the Performance Governance System to be monitored by its proponent, Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA), said Dagupan Mayor Benjamin Lim, LCP treasurer.

The ISA is headed by former Finance Secretary Jesus Estanislao.

The Performance Governance System, which is practiced by 35 cities and several national agencies, uses a balanced scorecard that was designed by the Harvard Business School. Used also by top-performing corporations in the world, the scorecard shows how strategies will be executed by various departments and members of an organization to attain specific targets within a time frame.

The LCP board directors will meet monthly to compare legislative agenda and strengthen partnership with the national government through dialogues with agencies. ]]> http://isacenter.org/articles/30-percent-poverty-reduction-aim-of-cities-league/feed/ 1 http://isacenter.org/articles/csc-adopts-management-tool-to-improve-service-cut-red-tape/ http://isacenter.org/articles/csc-adopts-management-tool-to-improve-service-cut-red-tape/#comments Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:52:28 +0000 admin http://isacenter.org/?p=1164 This article was published by the Philippine Information Agency and Business World on December 2, 2010.

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has adopted the Performance Governance System Balanced Scorecard (PGS-BSC), a management and performance measurement tool towards good governance.

To this end, the CSC officials and rank-and-file recently underwent a PGS Initiation Working Session, where they revisited the organization’s existing core values, vision and mission statement and assessed how these can be translated to strategic commitments and initiatives.

Members of the Multi-Sectoral Governance Coalition (MSGC) composed of representatives from the civil society, media and business sectors collaborated with the CSC during the working session. They included former CSC Chair Ricardo L. Saludo, Manila Times President/CEO Dante Francis M. Ang II, Personnel Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) Executive Director Gerardo A. Plana, Raul Dizon and Vicente Carlos Roque from Gawad Kalinga, and Erico Habijan of the National Educators Academy of the Philippines.

Representatives of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) and Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), including ISA President Francisco C. Eizmendi Jr. and DAP President Antonio D. Kalaw Jr., also attended the working session to assist the CSC in going through the Initiation Phase of the PGS-BSC installation.

After the CSC has satisfied all the requirements under the Initiation Phase of the PGS-BSC installation, it will be granted a status of “PGS Initiated”. Succeeding phases are Compliance, Proficiency and Institutionalization. An organization is elevated into a status of “Maharlika Hall of Fame” upon full institutionalization of the PGS in the organization.

CSC Chair Francisco T. Duque III said that installing the PGS-BSC will be a big boost to the Commission’s goal to improve public service delivery and curb corruption in government.

Dr. Jesus P. Estanislao currently heads two organizations committed to governance reforms: the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Institute for Solidarity in Asia. He has spent much of his career founding or rehabilitating institutions. He was the founding Dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, founding President of the University of Asia and the Pacific, and founding Executive Director of the Center for Research and Communication, among others.

He is best known for being appointed to the Cabinet of President Aquino in 1989, where he served as Secretary of Economic Planning, Director General of the National Economic Development Authority, and subsequently as Secretary of Finance. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and an MA in Economics from Fordham University.

Here, Dr. Estanislao shares with Business Agenda valuable insights on the economy, governance and love for country.

BA: What are your expectations for the Philippine economy under P-Noy?

JE: Very good; this is real change. It just so happens that he’s coming in when emerging markets are being favored, which brings us real support. There’s quite a financial flow coming our way, projects that have been shelved before are being reactivated, and a lot of money is coming in.

BA: Your advocacy is good governance in LGUs. What is your level of achievement in this area?

JE: My first advocacy was Corporate Governance…working with the BSP, the SEC, the Department of Finance—that’s how I started. Then it became very clear that it was impossible to push that unless there’s a parallel advocacy on Public Governance. With Corporate Governance, we deal with corporations, which are profit-oriented, and so we get them to live up to their CSR, because justice for all and the small people, and the public interest are easily forgotten in the promotion of self-interest.

Public Governance, on the other hand, operates on three levels: the LGUs in the city level, national government agencies, and the national government. For the LGUs, we work with the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), in particular, with city mayors who are committed to good public governance. We are working with provinces, cities and municipalities, which are in various stages in our Performance Governance System (PGS) Pathway. Over the past six to eight years, we have worked with about a third of the country’s cities, or 40 out of 120. If we are to cite the top five participants on the basis of the results they’ve produced, these would be: San Fernando, Pampanga; Iloilo; Marikina; Tagbilaran, Bohol; and Calbayog, Samar.

BA: Do you think that the current growth spurt experienced by the Philippines is sustainable in the long run?

JE: The current growth of rate of 6.5 to 7 percent is something we can use as a base for something higher, as we should be aiming for 10 to 12 percent growth per year. We can get there if we want to, if we organize ourselves, if there is more fiscal responsibility…In San Fernando, Pampanga, for example, there is less dependence on the Internal Revenue Allotment or IRA. The goal is to bring the IRA dependency ratio to less than 50 percent.

BA: What industries would support this growth?

JE: It depends, because it varies with every city. Many are agriculturally-based, for some it would be the BPO, or tourism, or manufacturing…You have to find out the possibilities of every city. And you have to continue promoting investments in small- and medium-scale enterprises.

BA: Do you foresee the Philippine peso hitting below the P39-level next year?

JE: It’s possible, it can be done. But it’s not a question of predicting. But yes, there is a tendency because money is coming our way.

BA: What are your views on the public-private initiatives of P-Noy for various infrastructure projects? And can you give advice on what the government can do to entice the private sector to support these, given what happened to NAIA 3, North Rail Transit, and others?

JE: Public-private initiatives are absolutely necessary…the more we have, the more successful we will become. But all of the processes must be transparent.

BA: Your key project now is the Performance Governance System (PGS). In a nutshell, what do you intend to accomplish with this in the next three to five years?

JE: We have to emphasize the good governance practices, namely Fairness, Transparency and Accountability. With the performance scorecard, after six months, we will see if the province or city or municipality did it. We have also covered 10 national government agencies, and our ambition is to cover 75 percent of all national government agencies in the next two years. We have specified which we should be targeting.

The challenges we face are: one, change in leadership—will the new leaders of the participating group continue with the good governance practices?; two, they really have to think together—they have to operate on the basis of clusters, not just individual agencies; and three, the participants’ discipline to report every six months.

At the level of corporations, the goal is to produce results, increase productivity, instill Corporate Social Responsibility, and create a mechanism to deliver good business results overall.

BA: What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

JE: That the Filipino is convinced that we can do things, that we have a system for ensuring that things get done. We have the tendency to talk too much, maraming pakulo, all talk and no action…Good governance practices produce the benefits for the development of our people.

BA: Is there anything you miss about working in government?

JE: Wherever you go, you are there to serve. It has different demands, and you just have to look at what you want to do. So the answer to the question is no, because I’m serving the people, and I push the same way as I would have if I were in government.

BA: After all these years, you are still in the thick of service to the country. What makes Dr. Estanislao tick?

JE: You have to learn how to love. And one of the things is to love your country and the Filipino people. Because without that love, you’ll just be thinking of yourself, stuffing your pocket with money, making yourself glorified and well-known. My motivation is to serve the Filipino people…there is poverty that has to be reduced, development pathways that have to be opened.

BA: Finally, what are your thoughts on the recent separation of Church and State issue raised by Carlos Celdran?

JE: There are real issues, but many are overblown. We are all for responsible parenthood. P-Noy shows respect for the freedom to choose; the government is not going to impose but is willing to educate everybody—I think that’s a very reasonable stance. It’s just that the press exacerbates the differences. I am taking the positive sides of both positions and I think there’s more in common than it seems. By the way things are being said right now, we can find common ground. Pres. Cory didn’t go as far as Pres. Noynoy, but where he is, it’s still okay, we can find common ground.

ISA aims to be a leading public governance reform institute in East Asia by 2015. According to its website (isacenter.org), ISA has the following key purposes : work with sectoral leaders in raising the standards of professional and ethical practice as well as of social responsibility in their respective sectors; work with public officials in institutionalizing a public governance system, in partnership with multi-sectoral coalitions, for the long-term development of their communities and institutions; and work with institutions to develop centers for leadership dedicated to the continuing training of citizens in the exercise of their civic duties and in their participation to serve the common good of society. Mr. Francisco Eizmendi, former San Miguel Corporation president, is the current ISA president.

Among the key advocacies of ISA is the Public Governance System, which uses the famous Balanced Scorecard developed by Robert Kaplan, a Harvard Business School professor and David Norton, co-founder and president of the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. Noting that more than 75% of an organization’s value comes from intangible assets that couldn’t be captured by traditional metrics, Kaplan and Norton conceptualized the Balanced Scorecard to enable organizations to quantify critical intangibles such as people, information and culture.

To Kaplan and Norton, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” In their subsequent work, “Strategy Maps,” they argued further that “you can’t measure what you can’t describe.” Both “The Balanced Scorecard” and “Strategy Maps” were published by the Harvard Business School Press.

ISA is convinced that the Balanced Scorecard model is not only applicable in the business sector but also in the public sector, as well as in the nonprofit sector. It must be pointed out that the Balanced Scorecard is not just a measurement system but also a strategic management system, which has enabled many organizations all over the world to execute their strategies effectively.

Among local government units in the country that have adopted the Public Governance System are San Fernando, Pampanga and Iloilo City. Both have already gotten citations for breakthrough accomplishments. San Fernando was given the Maharlika Award while Iloilo City became the biggest winner as it got inducted into the Palladium Hall of Fame for effective strategy execution within the PGS framework. The awards were given by David Norton himself.

National government agencies and public institutions such as the Philippine Military Academy, the Philippine Navy, the National Electrification Agency, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Department of Education have also used the PGS. So have professional organizations like the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants and an association of nurses.

It was moving to listen to Dr. Estanislao passionately talk about the personal, institutional and social values that must attend public governance. This piece is titled “Solidarity” not only as an allusion to ISA, but also because solidarity is a core value in the realm of public governance. Solidarity, Dr. Estanislao explained, is a profound sense of interdependence. He said it is a deep commitment of every member of an organization to work towards the common good. Solidarity fosters the spirit of generosity.

Solidarity, Dr. Estanislao stressed, is best understood by asking the question, “what can we do for others and for the community, instead of asking, what can others do for us or what can the community give us and do for us.”

Please log on to http://jslatoza.wordpress.com/ ffor the author’s blogsite from which this article was taken. Also published in the Daily Guardian in Iloilo City on Feb 17, 2010.

Bani is noted for producing the sweetest, reddest and juiciest watermelon in the country. When Anna Levy of Washington D.C., Ashley Acedillo of Institute for Solidarity and Asia and I visited Bani, Dr. Beth Navarro, Mayor Marcelo Navarro’s wife, served us the reddest, juiciest watermelon I have ever tasted. It was colorfully delicious, a delightful combination of color and sweet taste..”

Scientists are just discovering the wonderful health benefits of watermelon, writes Dr. Willie T. Ong. In his Starweek article, Dr. Ong cites findings of an ongoing study conducted by Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center.

The deep-red watermelon variety contains the pigment lycopene which helps slow down aging and prevents prostate cancer. Watermelon has vitamins A and C which are beneficial for our eyes. Watermelon increases the body’s arginine, an important amino acid that relaxes the blood vessels making it good for the heart and for men suffering from erectile dysfunction.

Watermelon is made up of 92% pure alkaline water which makes it safe for the stomach and a good alternative drink. It has health benefits for the whole digestive tract, starting from the mouth, esophagus, stomach and intestines. For example, it can relieve people with mouth sores. It can treat constipation and normalize bowel movement. Like coconut water, it cleanses the kidneys and bladder.

It is a rich source of B vitamins, electrolytes and potassium. Compared to an apple, it only has half as much sugar, and yet it tastes sweeter because of its high water content. It is effective for preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion. The pulp can be used to treat heat rash and burns. Finally, which makes Dr. Ong’s article even more interesting, watermelon contains more glutathione per bite than 95 other fruits and vegetables making it an alternative solution for whitening and antioxidants.

Do you know that the best watermelon in the country is produced in Bani, Pangasinan?

Bani is noted for producing the sweetest, reddest and juiciest watermelon in the country. When Anna Levy of Washington D.C., Ashley Acedillo of Institute for Solidarity and Asia and I visited Bani, Dr. Beth Navarro, Mayor Marcelo Navarro’s wife, served us the reddest, juiciest watermelon I have ever tasted. It was colorfully delicious, a delightful combination of color and sweet taste.

Bani farmers started planting watermelon in commercial quantities only in 1989, three years after the Bureau of Soil introduced the product to them. With a combination of talent, hardwork, government support and the Bani community spirit, Bani farmers have mastered the art and science of producing the sweetest, juiciest and reddest watermelon in the country.

Bani is quite an interesting town. Dubbed as the “Golden West”, it is located in the westernmost part of Luzon and lies between Tampac Bay on the northeast and South China Sea on the west where its coast is punctuated by a handsome cove . It is surrounded by four more popular towns — Bolinao on the north, Anda on the northeast, Alaminos on the east, and Mabini on the southeast and Agno on the south. Honestly, I never heard of Bani until I visited the town in February 2009. Bani is a third class municipality with a population of only close to 46,000 people.

As unremarkable as it may seem as compared to other more popular towns in Pangasinan and other provinces, I see the municipality of Bani as one of the brightest stars in local governance in the country. The successful venture in watermelon production is not an isolated episode that demonstrates successful partnership between government and community. There are many other excellent programs. Let me cite two.

First, Bani has received many awards one of which is the Presidential Award for Child Friendly Municipality. Bani won the award for its innovative programs and interventions in the promotion of the rights of children including the Community-Based Child Protection Unit (CPU), establishment of Barangay Civil Registration System, Supervised Neighborhood Play, active participation of children in planning activities, and a functional Municipal Council for the Welfare of Children. Other Bani awards are Cleanest Coastal Municipality, Jueteng Free, Gawad Pangulo sa Kapaligiran and Linis Dayat.

Second, the city hall and a multi-sector coalition have committed to a long-term vision that will make Bani into a city by 2020. Not just a city that qualifies because of population and income but a model green city in Southeast Asia. To prepare itself, Bani has enrolled in the Institute for Solidarity in Asia’s (ISA) Public Governance System (PGS). PGS is a management framework that prepares local governments for governance. Bani’s roadmap defines in quantifiable terms how it intends to become a model green city by 2020.

Bani has institutionalized many initiatives that can help it realize what it envisions to become by 2020 including becoming an educational hub for green technology in Pangasinan, implementing all critical greening technology, and encouraging farmers to exclusively use green farming technology. What gives me the confidence that Bani can successfully journey to its desired future is Bani’s greatest asset – a strong, working partnership between government and the community.

(This article was publised in Business World on April 30, 2009. for comments, write to abfontanilla@yahoo.com or nick.fontanilla@gmail.com)

We now have the three components of our base chart. We have our Core Values, which serve as the true foundations of our efforts to further build our nation and bring genuine progress to our people. We also have a Mission, which gives us our North Star, giving clear direction to our continuing and never-ending efforts at people development within a democratic society. And within that Mission, we have a Vision, which articulates what we aim to realize and achieve within a definite time horizon, in this instance between 2010 and 2030, i.e. in slightly less than a generation.

All three components provide us with a stable base chart, one which does not change with personalities who may serve in top positions of government within a term of 6 years. It is a base chart for governance, which necessarily invites us to think of a long time horizon (instead of only the relatively short term); of our institutions that last (instead of passing personalities); and therefore of strategies (instead of only smart tactics). Moreover, the strategies that need forging should address vital issues that the components of the base chart itself suggest.

These vital issues relate to the values we need to observe in all facets of our life as a nation; the fundamental institutions that are the critical drivers of change; the internal capacity of these institutions and the infrastructure we need to put in place to make them function more effectively; and finally, the economic resources with which to serve the basic needs of every Filipino.

In assessing these issues, we need to look at ourselves squarely. It is true that we have weaknesses we need to address, but also strengths we can build upon. Furthermore, we have many threats we face, and some of these may come to confront us from we know not where. However, we also have opportunities we can and should seize. As a result of making a frank and objective assessment of our weaknesses as well as strengths, and of the threats as well as opportunities that are out there, we can arrive at a set of strategic priorities we need to give serious consideration to and adopt as key spheres for close attention and decisive action.

A close look at these different strategic priorities would reveal that there is a close link between them. A few of them are so closely inter-related with each other that they can fall under one strategic theme, which can serve as a convenient umbrella under which to group them.

Three such strategic themes emerge from the set of strategic priorities, which arise out of the assessment made on the basis of our weaknesses and strengths as well as of our threats and opportunities, taking due account of the base chart for the long-term strategic direction of the governance of our country.

The first of these strategic themes is our “Shared Values”, which serves as the umbrella for six strategic priorities, i.e. “responsible citizenship”; “strengthen drivers of change”; “ethical and professional standards aligned with global standards”; “social responsibility programs spread to sectors and segments of society”;  “the Filipino enjoying the real benefits of development”; and “the Filipino being proud of the Philippines”.

The second strategic theme is “Sense of Progress”. It serves as the umbrella for these strategic priorities: “good governance”; “infrastructure: modern and competitive”; and “growth in real GDP per person”.

The third strategic theme is closely related to the first, and it goes by the name of “Sense of Community”. Under this umbrella are the following strategic priorities: “keep government, in partnership with the private sector, lean, effective and efficient”; “clean and green environment”; and “growth in productivity”.

The strategic themes are few—only three—thereby conferring the advantage of being relatively easy to remember. Moreover, they serve to underscore the strong links between several strategic priorities: fundamentally important as they all are, still they are so closely inter-connected with each other that they can and should be grouped together.

Manila, January 21, 2010

from his column “Swimming Against the Current,”

Manila Bulletin

Further building our nation and bringing about genuine development to our people would take us a few Administrations, perhaps at least a generation or even more. Thus, while understandably we focus on the next six years, we should also allow our vision to stretch way beyond 2016, at the very least up to 2030.

Our vision that we should aim to realize by 2030 should enable us to put behind us one of the deepest problems we have yet to resolve, that of greater national cohesion and national unity. The Vision for Philippines 2030 is put forward as follows: Isang Sambayanang may Kapunuan ng Buhay, i.e. one community with a fullness of life, with special accent and emphasis on “one”. This underscores the dream we ought to realize as a people some 20 years from now—one nation with responsible citizens who deeply love their motherland. Thus, as we love to repeat rather often: Isang baying maka-Diyos at Isang lahing maka-bayan, i.e. one people with strong democratic institutions effectively working for the common good.

We still have to become one national community, one nation, and one people! This demands of all of us responsible citizenship, which makes us identify our nation’s affairs as our very own, our nation’s problems as ours to solve, and our nation’s progress as ours to achieve. This identification with the fate, fortune, progress, and development of our people is how we show deep love for our motherland, and that love needs to be shown in deeds of generosity, selflessness, and commitment to the common good every hour of each week, or as we say nowadays, 24/7.

The exercise of responsible citizenship, which is a duty on the part of all, without any exception whatsoever, is best done through democratic institutions. Institutions take our focus way beyond mere personalities, who necessarily have to leave and pass away from whichever part of the national stage they may occupy for a time. They make us focus on those instruments of a democracy that need to endure: these are the ones that last; they stay from one generation to the next; moreover, they need to be strengthened and made more effective with the passage of time. This task of strengthening democratic institutions is an immediate challenge we need to rise up to, most especially in the next two decades.

It is through our democratic institutions that each one of us is called upon to work effectively for the common good of and in our motherland. Again, the focus should be way beyond self, i.e. beyond ego, beyond immediate family and close relations, and even beyond narrower geographical circumscriptions such as municipalities, provinces, cities, and regions. Rather, our focus should be on what each one of us can do, and what our respective families, municipalities, provinces, and cities can contribute to the general welfare and genuine development of our country, our Inang Bayan. This is a clear invitation for our spirits to soar beyond narrow boundaries and reach national heights, because the nation is our motherland, and we have to give due respect to, and take great care of, our country—our motherland! No one else will.

Strengthening our “democratic institutions” as part of our vision to actualize in the next 20 years would give flesh to what we should continuously be pursuing as part of our mission, that of securing for ourselves and our posterity the “blessings of independence and democracy”. Furthermore, getting every one of us, as responsible citizens, to work “effectively for the common good” as part of our vision up to 2030 would also tie in very well with what we have to keep pursuing as part of our mission, that of “promoting the common good” and of “conserving and developing our patrimony”.

Once again, we have consistency, in this instance between our continuing, permanent mission as a people and our more concrete vision to actualize by 2030.

Manila, January 19, 2010

From his column, “Swimming against the Current,”

Manila Bulletin