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Monday, September 26, 2011

Will Thailand's Luck Change with Yingluck? (A Public Lecture by Somchai Phatharathananunth)

3 October 2011 (Monday)
10:30 a.m.-12:00 noon


Conference Room
Third World Studies Center
Lower Ground Floor
Palma Hall
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City

Despite winning an absolute majority in the Thai parliament, the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra faces an uncertain future. Why does a government whose political party won 16 million votes, larger than any government in Thailand’s history, worry about its future? Led by the 44-year old businesswoman with no previous political experience, Pheu Thai Party won 265 of 500 parliamentary seats in the 3 July 2011 elections, only the second time a single party had won an absolute majority. Born in Chiang Mai, Yingluck graduated from Chiang Mai University (BA Public Ad) and Kentucky State University (MA Public Ad) and was President of giant property developer, SC Assets, a firm founded by her brother, ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose regime ushered in intense political conflicts before he was toppled in a 2006 military coup. What are the roots of the political conflicts that have rocked the kingdom since the 2006 coup? What is the nature of state power in Thailand? What is the impact of socio-economic and political changes in the last three decades on the dynamics of the current crisis?

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ABOUT THE LECTURER: 
Dr. Somchai Phatharathananunth is with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Mahasarakham University in Northeast Thailand. He has a PhD in political science, Leeds University, UK. His dissertation, later published by NIAS Press, entitled Civil Society and Democratization: Social Movements in Northeast Thailand examined the struggles of a rural social movement, the Small Scale Farmers’ Assembly of Isan (SSFAI), and the role of civil society in the democratization process. The book’s external reviewer described it as a “sophisticated, well-researched and extremely important contribution to Thai political studies.” He was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University in 2010. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the UP Third World Studies Center and a recipient of an Asian Public Intellectual (API) grant to study Philippine social movements.

Organized by the Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA Philippines) and the UP Third World Studies Center.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Rationalized Inability: The President’s Hand in the Untouched Local Government Code (A Public Forum)



September 29, 2011 (Thursday)
1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Pulungang Claro M. Recto (Faculty Center Conference Hall)
Rizal Hall, College of Arts and Letters
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City

PROGRAM
1:00-1:45
REGISTRATION

1:45-1:50
WELCOME REMARKS
J. PROSPERO E. DE VERA III
Vice President for Public Affairs
University of the Philippines

1:50-1:55
INTRODUCTION OF THE 2011 TWSC PUBLIC FORUM SERIES
MARIA ELA L. ATIENZA
Director
Third World Studies Center
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

1:55-2:00
INTRODUCTION OF THE SPEAKERS

2:00-2:20
ALEX B. BRILLANTES, JR.
Professor and Former Dean
National College of Public Administration and Governance
University of the Philippines-Diliman

2:20-2:40
DANTE B. GATMAYTAN
Associate Professor
College of Law
University of the Philippines-Diliman

2:40-3:50
OPEN FORUM

3:50-4:00
CLOSING REMARKS / SYNTHESIS

MODERATOR:

JORGE V. TIGNO
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

Organized by the Third World Studies Center (TWSC) and co-sponsored by the UP Office of the Vice-President for Public Affairs (OVPPA), the Philippine Political Science Association (PPSA) and the College of Arts and Letters Office of the Dean, this forum is the third installment of the 2011 TWSC Public Forum Series, "The B.S. Aquino Administration: Possible Perversities, Perverted Possibilities."

ABOUT THE FORUM

At the very start of his presidency, President Aquino took the helm of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). But as with his romances, the dalliance lasted a mere nine days. He eventually appointed to the post the current secretary, Jesse M. Robredo. Not to begrudge him his personal happiness, but since then, President Aquino’s romantic escapades have been part of the news cycles more often than his articulations on how his administration would take on the bastion of political patronage and locus of feudal rule, the local government units. The exception to this observation are the instances when the president pines for Puno—Rico Puno—to remain DILG undersecretary in charge of police matters even after Puno confessed to a possible liaison with a jueteng lord. Add to this Puno’s wooden response to the Luneta hostage-taking incident. The president’s enthusiasm as a serial dater may be inversely proportional to his inclination to address broad and complex institutional policy issues like local governance. But this perception seemed not to be true when he was running for the presidency. On October 6, 2009, in front of a hundred local government executives, then presidential aspirant Sen. Benigno Aquino made this statement: “Ang paniwala ko ‘yung local government unit, d’yan ho nababatay kung maayos na gobyerno o hindi.” He went on to commit for a review: “I-review muna natin ‘yung na-devolve. ‘Yung mga nag-succeed, bakit nag-succeed? ‘Yung nag-fail, bakit nag-fail?” Then, he became president and nothing was heard again from him on this matter. Not even in his State of the Nation Addresses. Perhaps the president prefers courting chieftains and wooing warlords, as when Malacañang was accused of playing footsie with the Ampatuans just to be able to nail whatever charge on his despised predecessor. Should this not be true, then October 10, 2011 must have a particular significance to his administration. Said date marks the Local Government Code’s two-decade existence that spans five presidencies. The code started as one of the achievements his mother’s presidency. But in his administration, the code may end up as an object of benign neglect, if not considered first as a tradable political commodity. It will be—if not already—a code of governance unsullied even by the most glancing of critical reviews yet marked by ravages of local politicos’ adeptness in exploiting the limitations of the code to perpetuate themselves in power. And as the administration pursues its peace agenda, most visible in its negotiation with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the limits of the code will be further exposed to the pawing, clawing, biting horde of opportunists and provincial potentates.

Can the Aquino administration offer transformational leadership sans any alteration of the basic code of local governance? What failures and missed opportunities will this adherence to the status quo bring about? Maybe it is a misplaced hope that trifling with the Local Government Code will ever lead to reforms. Maybe nothing’s broken. Maybe there’s nothing to fix. Maybe, just like the president, a perfect date is all there is to it.

KEY QUESTIONS
  1. Are there any chances that the Local Government Code of 1991 will be, at the very least, reviewed during Aquino’s government? What developments could possibly pressure the administration to take a stronger and more definite stance regarding local governance issues? 
  2. What are the chances that the president will exercise his power of "general supervision" over local government units (sec. 25, par. a, R.A. 7160) to influence the outcome of the upcoming local elections during his administration? 
  3. How judiciously will President Aquino exercise his power to direct national agencies to “provide financial, technical, and other forms of assistance” (sec. 25, par. c, R.A. 7160) to local government units? 
Please follow the links below to access Dr. Brillantes' and Prof. Gatmaytan's PowerPoint presentations:

Dr. Alex B. Brillantes, Jr. - Two Decades of Decentralization and Devolution in the Philippineshttps://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AXIczjzkKCDkZGc3ejl2dmZfNDhjOTNobWRncw&hl=en_US

Prof. Dante B. Gatmaytan - The President's Predilections

Friday, September 02, 2011

Partnership or Subservience? Reassessing Philippine-U.S. Military Relations



Partnership or Subservience? Reassessing Philippine-U.S. Military Relations
(A Public Forum)

September 12, 2011, 9:00am-12:00nn
Claro M. Recto Hall, Faculty Center, University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City

PROGRAM:

8:30-9:00
REGISTRATION

9:00-9:05
WELCOME REMARKS
Maria Ela L. Atienza
Director
Third World Studies Center
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

9:05-9:10
INTRODUCTION OF THE SPEAKERS

9:10-9:35
Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III
Representative
4th District of Quezon
15th Congress
Republic of the Philippines

9:35-10:00
Atty. Evalyn Ursua
Professorial Lecturer
College of Law
University of the Philippines-Diliman

10:00-10:15
REACTOR 1
Eduardo C. Tadem
Professor
Asian Center
University of the Philippines-Diliman

10:15-10:30
REACTOR 2
Yuen Abana
Campaign Officer
Partido ng Manggagawa

10:30-11:40
OPEN FORUM

11:40-11:50

SYNTHESIS
Virginia Suarez-Pinlac
Spokesperson
Scrap VFA Movement

11:50-12:00
CLOSING REMARKS
Francisco Nemenzo, Jr.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Political Science
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

MODERATOR
Ronald C. Molmisa
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

ABOUT THE FORUM:

The public forum serves as a lead up to a commemorative event on September 16, 2011, the 20th anniversary of the Philippine Senate’s vote to end U.S. military bases presence in our country. The Filipino people’s victory in its struggle to close and dismantle the U.S. bases in 1991 was one shining and glorious moment in our history. It demonstrated how our united will could move the Philippine Senate, which had long been dominated by pro-bases senators, into asserting national sovereignty.

More than ten years of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which supplanted the U.S. Military Bases Agreement in 1998, is sufficient time to review how this later agreement has affected issues of national sovereignty and security, and the life of our people. After a series of public hearings on the VFA, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the previous Congress came out with its report, and forthwith its chair, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, authored Senate Resolution No. 1356, calling for a review of the VFA, which was approved by the Senate in 2009. Resolutions which demanded the termination of the VFA were also filed in the current Congress by Senator Santiago in the Senate (Sen. Res. No. 3), and by Representative Lorenzo R. Tañada III in the House of Representatives (House Res. No. 17).

The P-Noy Administration’s response in the later part of 2010 was to initiate a review of the VFA to be headed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, justifying that termination may be too radical. Nothing has been heard of the status or results of the review. High-ranking U.S. political and military officials have come and gone, during which the VFA must have been taken up, yet the P-Noy Administration continues to be mum about the matter.

All are invited to attend this vital public discussion on American interests and Philippine sovereignty.

Co-organized by the UP Third World Studies Center, the UP Diliman Department of Political Science, and the Scrap VFA Movement. 

Here is a link to Rep. Erin Tañada's paper read in the public forum. 

Also, here is a playlist of the video recordings of the public forum: