9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
Pulungang Claro M. Recto (Faculty Center Conference Hall)
Rizal Hall, College of Arts and Letters
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
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."
PROGRAM:
9:00-9:30
REGISTRATION
9:30-9:35
WELCOME
REMARKS
FLORA ELENA
R. MIRANO
Dean
College of
Arts and Letters
University of
the Philippines-Diliman
9:35-9:40
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
9:40-9:45
INTRODUCTION
OF THE SPEAKERS
9:45-10:00
CAROL P.
ARAULLO
Chairperson
Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan
10:00-10:15
GARY B.
OLIVAR
Executive
Director
10:15-10:30
ELLEN
TORDESILLAS
Columnist
Malaya and Abante
10:30-11:25
OPEN FORUM
11:25-11:30
CLOSING
REMARKS / SYNTHESIS
MODERATOR:
Malaya C.
Ronas
Professor
Department of
Political Science
College of
Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of
the Philippines-Diliman
ABOUT THE FORUM:
In his recent State of the Nation Address, President Aquino intoned: "Let us end the culture of negativism; let us uplift our fellow Filipinos at every opportunity. Why are there people who enjoy finding fault in our country, who find it so hard—as though it were a sin—to say something nice? Can we even remember the last time we praised a fellow Filipino? Let us stop pulling our fellow man down. Let us put an end to our crab mentality. Let us make the effort to recognize the good that is being done." This from the administration that relied on contrast and unrelenting criticism against the previous dispensation to justify its acceptability to the electorate during the May 2010 national elections—the whiff of hypocrisy in this statement is too strong to ignore. In Aquino’s “A Social Contract with the Filipino People,” for example, he put to good use his association, through his mother, former President Cory Aquino, with the touted 1986 People Power Revolution and all its perceived virtues. It would not be too far-fetched to surmise that parallels are drawn between Cory Aquino’s revolutionary government contra the supposedly evil and oppressive Marcos dictatorship and Noynoy Aquino’s transformational leadership against the supposedly corrupt Arroyo government. As such, good governance has been the guiding principle of the Aquino administration, transparency and accountability its accessory catchwords. After Arroyo’s scandal-rocked government, hardly anyone can object to such a scheme. But blaming his predecessor for his present difficulties might appear, in the long run, to be devious—an exercise in misdirection, an element of cheap tricks that works only on the gullible and the inattentive. Rid this nation of wang-wangs, both real and metaphorical, still people will ask if this is the much-vaunted social transformation that we must aspire for. (But why social in the first place? Because we cannot hack an economic one?) Or is this the usual bread-and-circus populism hyped by the government’s media machine as “social transformation” to exude gravitas? The president’s appeal to end negativism is reminiscent of Imeldific hokum that we only look for the true, the good and the beautiful. Criticize others when in campaign, demand only praise when in office. Will platitude and sycophancy soon be state policies? Is this the president’s message for the next five years? Much room for conjecture remains as to whether his administration will succeed in keeping true to its words—and the ultimate effect on its popularity and legitimacy in the event that it fails to do so.
Below is a playlist of the video recording of the forum:
Below is a playlist of the video recording of the forum:
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