Currently viewing the category: "Governance and Development"

Spend More, Talk Less

On December 6, 2011 By

With the release of third quarter GDP figures upsetting all but the most ardent economic apologists for this administration, the time has come for it to re-think its priorities.

The situation is nearing a critical level. As the whole of Europe is placed on credit watch [...]

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The halo effect

On November 29, 2011 By

The halo effect is a cognitive bias first studied by Edward Thorndike in 1920 whereby the perception of one trait (i.e. a characteristic of a person or object) is influenced by the perception of another trait (or several traits) of that person or object. An example would be judging a good-looking person [...]

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Defying Gravity

On October 6, 2011 By

Faltering growth prospects for the economy and paralysis over how to kick-start big infrastructure projects do not seem to have dampened public support for the president.

Its economic managers remain fixated on ‘fiscal consolidation’ (a euphemism for shrinking public works expenditures to close the fiscal [...]

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Where’s the beef? On the missing “spoils” from P-Noy’s second US trip

On September 26, 2011 By

Does good governance mean good economics?

In an earlier piece last week meant more to mark the 39th anniversary of martial law in the Philippines, I tried to downplay expectations regarding the “spoils” that P-Noy’s US trip would bring describing the situation [...]

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Towards a Strategic Development Road Map (Update)

On August 4, 2011 By

The following is a matrix of the Strategies contained in the government’s Philippine Development Plan 2011-16  plotted against the five key results areas under the Cabinet Cluster system of the Aquino Cabinet.

The five themes include: 1) Good Governance and Anti-Corruption, 2) Human Development and [...]

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That Vision Thing Redux: Wang-Wang Culture

On August 1, 2011 By

In tackling wang-wang culture, has the president left something big out?

The president in his new found role as Sociologist in Chief spoke at his second State of the Nation Address about his vision for a nation free of what he described as a culture of wang-wang [...]

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The Power of One

On July 6, 2011 By

Assessing PNoy’s freshman year: the good, the bad and the ugly

In numerology, the number 1 bears singular importance. The first, the start, the origin of anything bears significance and meaning in the sense that it opens up possibilities, it sets the scene, and it leads the [...]

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The National Development Project, part 3: Renovating the Bureaucracy

On July 3, 2011 By

This is the third of a three-part series on the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016.

We have looked at the PNoy government’s development strategy in Part 1 in which infrastructure was seen as the problem to unlock investment and that better governance of projects would work [...]

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The National Development Project, part 2: Re-defining Good Governance

On July 2, 2011 By

This is a continuation of Part 1: The National Development Project.

Governance is the cornerstone of the Aquino presidency, and this point is brought out by his development plan. Since Public-Private Partnerships which is the Plan’s centerpiece has been around since the mid-80s [...]

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How long is a piece of string?

On June 29, 2011 By

What yardstick are we using to measure P-Noy’s performance?

The arbitrary, rule of thumb of the first year in office is about to come and go for this administration. The obligatory journalistic pieces assessing the president’s performance have consulted the usual suspects.

Political analysts, polling firms and [...]

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