YES, PIGS

CAN FLY!Facing the Challenges of Fighting Corruption in Procurement

A PUBLICATION OF

Procurement Watch, Incorporated

UNDER THE JOINT AUSPICES OF

THE PROCUREMENT WATCH, INCORPORATED

AND THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY

ii

YES, PIGS CAN FLY!

Facing the Challenges of Fighting Corruption in Procurement

Published by the Procurement Watch, IncorporatedPhilippine Copyright © 2008

ISBN 978-971-94220-0-6

All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe reproduced or utilized in any form or whatever means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to; Procurement Watch Inc., Unit 2507 Medical Plaza Ortigas Condominium, 25 San Miguel Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Tel. (632) 687-4251 Fax (632) 633-9601Email procurementwatch@gmail.com

This Publication was made possible through the support provided by the United States Embassy under the terms of Grant No. SRP380-07-GR-082. Opinions herein are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Embassy.

Counterpart funding was also provided by Procurement Watch, Incorporated Cover by SCR Marketing & Advertising CorporationBook Design by SCR Marketing & Advertising Corporation

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iv

Acknowledgments

Procurement Watch, Incorporated would like to thank the writers of the book, Ms. Artha Kira Isabel R. Paredes, and Mr. Joseph T. Salazar, who have succeeded in putting a face behind procurement reform. Another writer, Ms. Nerrisa T. Esguerra, penned the Prologue and the Epilogue in addition to her two chapters.

Atty. Amador F. Astudillo, Ms. Josefina U. Esguerra, Dr. Teresa Jayme-Ho, and Dr. Raul V. Fabella have individually put in countless hours and valuable inputs as members of the PWI Editorial Board. Ms. Vina Vidal Vicente has done a terrific job with the final editing.

Ms. Caroline R. Belisario, Mr. Anthony S. Septimo, and Ms. Yolanda C. Vicente of the PWI Staff provided logistical, coordination, administrative and technical support to the writers, editor, editorial board and the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) featured in the book.

PWI is grateful to Her Excellency United States Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney and Ms. Martha Buckley of the U.S. Embassy for their support to this project.

Finally, many thanks to the many individuals who agreed to be interviewed for the feature stories and others who have, in some way, helped organize the storylines, given leads, or offered interesting insights. Their contribution gave us the encouragement to continuously move forward.

i

MESSAGE

Man has been given by God Almighty the task of being His vicegerent on earth. For man to fulfill his awesome duty as “khalifa,” or steward of the universe, he needs to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills, and the right values and attitudes.

People seem to have forgotten – or have simply ignored – this basic, fundamental purpose for man’s life on earth, and have continually destroyed and plundered rather than protected and conserved the earth’s God-given gifts. Materialism and greed has gripped the whole world. The Philippines has gained the notoriety of being the most corrupt country in Asia.

There is a need to bring man back to his true nature, to strengthen his moral foundation, and to make moderation his way of life. Our emphasis on values transformation and increased spirituality is drawn from our ardent desire to restore honesty, trustworthiness, commitment, dynamism and integrity in our people.

The Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA) aims to establish a strong moral foundation as the initial step to be followed subsequently by the development of the intellectual and technical capabilities of the Bangsamoro. We aim to establish a critical mass of morally-transformed individuals who shall serve as catalysts of positive change in communities through the Values Transformation Program.

What encouraged us to continue with our Values Transformation Program are the following observations:

1. Transformed individuals with zero tolerance for corruption involved in project implementation;

2. Fast, high-quality and honestly-implemented projects; and

3. Stories of programs with similar successes

I would like to express my thanks and my support to, and solidarity with, Procurement Watch, Inc. for publishing success stories of civil society organizations engaged in the fight against corruption.

Abas A. Candao, MDChairman of the Board Bangsamoro Development Agency

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MESSAGE

Corruption is the scourge of the nation’s poor. It is harmful to national development as it is also immoral. Billions of pesos meant to support the people’s fight to reduce poverty are diverted into the pockets of many corrupt officials in the government. As a result, the poor become poorer.

This brings to us the realization that combating corruption, in order for it to succeed, requires the participation of all sectors of Philippine society. Our people need to be organized and empowered and with one voice, speak and demand that scrupulous officials be held accountable for their corrupt practices. Unless otherwise emboldened, poor people will continue to wallow in poverty.

In Abra, the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government (CCAGG) organize and empower their fellow citizens to safeguard projects being implemented in their own communities. As direct recipients of a completed project’s benefits, citizens develop a sense of ownership and stewardship, hence committing to safeguarding the quality of the project being implemented in their locality.

The critical presence of capacitated onlookers has improved project implementation in many instances, even saving government resources. Problem-solving sessions among the spectrum of stakeholders are held when mal implementation is detected. In many cases, such problem-solving sessions among project implementers, residents and civil society organizations have afforded the best solutions to surfacing problems.

Concerns unmet by local officials and raised to high-ups have resulted in the sanction of erring officials. Results also include decisions to remove and replace concreted roads or to extend the road, all at the expense of contractors.

Another opening to combat corruption in which the CCAGG is involved is in the group’s vigilant presence during bids and awards activities. Attendance of capacitated observers during biddings ensures the compliance of concerned parties to the requirements of the Procurement Law.

Let us thank Procurement Watch Inc. for its trailblazing effort in the creation and subsequent passage of the Procurement Law, an important step in arresting corruption, particularly in bidding practices. We also congratulate PWI for the publication of this book on civil society organizations’ success stories in fighting corruption, especially along the area of procurement.

May all who read this book be inspired to join the collective effort to work for a corrupt-free Philippines.

Ms. Pura SumanguilChairpersonConcerned Citizens of Abra for Good Government

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MESSAGE

Since its foundation in 2001, Government Watch has worked towards pioneering innovative governance initiatives that aim to curb corruption through transparency, accountability and participation, the Textbook Count project being one of the more successful and popular of these. Fostering state and civil society engagement, Textbook Count has brought efficiency, transparency and accountability to the public sector’s textbook delivery. More importantly, it laid the foundation for active community participation in reforming and empowering the education sector through its simple participatory tools and methods.

More than good results, the most significant impact of Textbook Count would probably be proving that we Filipinos can still make things work—that we can make a difference despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges confronting our country. This is by tapping ordinary people’s genuine desire for change. Over the years, Textbook Count has given a chance to countless individuals to contribute time and resources in bringing about reforms in governance. This clamor and action for reform gives a shimmer of hope—something very much needed these days.

This book of Procurement Watch provides that same ray of light by documenting best practices in the anti-corruption efforts of groups from the citizens’ sector. This book serves as a celebration of whatever minimum gains that are achieved by societal forces in engaging government processes, particularly in procurement. Though celebratory, this should also remind us of the more challenging tasks ahead, as we democratize not only how governance is done, but who holds the power to govern. Hopefully, the small gains that we celebrate here build into more substantive changes in Philippine society.

On behalf of the G-Watch Team of the Ateneo School of Government, I congratulate Procurement Watch for this worthwhile project.

Joy G. AceronG-Watch CooordinatorAteneo School of Government

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MESSAGE

This book celebrates the small victories in the ongoing struggle to reform government procurement and make it corruption-intolerant. The stories featured here hope to inspire the growing mass of volunteers in anti-corruption work. Their painstaking efforts may not result immediately in radical change but they generate incremental successes that keep strong pressure on government to sustain the reform of the procurement system.

Procurement reforms that were ushered in by the passage of the Government Procurement Reform Act in 2003 are widely hailed in the international community for the progress made in terms of rules and regulations. Serious challenges remain however in implementation and enforcement. The Country Procurement Assessment Report of the World Bank in 2007 cited that, “however good the new public procurement system under the GPRA is, like any system, can fall prey to deliberate abuse…(and its) success will require measures to stimulate strong public awareness and support for procurement reform.”

The role of civil society organizations is indeed invaluable in enhancing transparency, accountability and efficiency in public procurement. Procurement Watch, Incorporated shares the challenges faced by most civil society organizations in the Philippines and hopes that through this book project they can be somehow rewarded for their untiring efforts. In the face of these challenges, one does not lose hope. Instead, one keeps up the fight! After all, corruption—and not the government—is the enemy.

Raul V. FabellaVice-PresidentProcurement Watch, Incorporated

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MESSAGE

Development work is life, a journey. It is challenging, difficult and ever-changing. Nevertheless, REACH Foundation Inc. takes pride in its two decades of commitment to serving communities by sustaining development interventions and facilitating reforms for social transformation.

The development milestones that the Foundation has achieved would not have been realized without the enduring support of the partners we have worked with over the years. They are one with us in our development agenda.

Let me then express my heartfelt gratitude and felicitations to Procurement Watch Inc., for featuring REACH Foundation’s actual experiences in government reform implementation. Your effort of documenting experiences and programs, and bringing to light the many endeavours of development institutions, deserves commendation.

This serves as an opportunity for us to rediscover the goodness of men and women in our field of work, and believe once more that much can be done, no matter how seemingly hopeless our society may have become.

May all our efforts spark inspiration that leads change makers, dream weavers, risk takers and forward-looking people into living, doing and believing the essence of proactive citizenship—thereby engaging not just in mere dialogues about preferred futures, but initiating and participating in shaping constructive outcomes.

Ms. Arceli T. NapalanExecutive DirectorREACH Foundation Inc.

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Table of Contents

Prologue… 1

Spirituality and Reality Do Co-Exist… 6Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA)By: Artha Kira Isabel R. Paredes

Under the Watchful Eyes of Concerned Citizens… 25Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good Governance (CCAGG)By: Nerissa T. Esguerra

Small Deeds that Count… 47Ateneo School of Government, Government-Watch (G-WATCH)By: Nerissa T. Esguerra

Quantifying Corruption, Qualifying Efficiency… 69Differential Expenditure and Efficiency Measurement (DEEM) ToolProcurement Watch Incorporated (PWI)By: Artha Kira Isabel R. Paredes

One’s Own Backyard… 92The Rural Enterprise Assistance Center (REACH Foundation)By: Joseph T. Salazar

Epilogue… 120

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Prologue

After their first day in public school, nine-year old Nenita and her ten-year

old brother Roberto trudged home carrying a bundle each of very heavy

textbooks given by their new teachers. They were told to take care of the

books, and instructed to return these at the end of the school year. In the

private school they previously attended, they got to keep their new books.

They were not complaining, though. Their parents have to send all six of

them to school. With their eldest brother now in college in Manila, their

mom and dad could no longer afford private school tuition, so they, the

youngest, had to be transferred to a public school.

Now this school was not so bad, they thought. It’s just that Roberto, who

always wanted his things in perfect order, worried about how he could

possibly make those old, worn-out books look newer. Nenita, the

youngest child who was used to having things done for her, wondered

why she had to carry all these books home, while others were carrying

only one or two or three.

It was only later that Roberto understood that the school could not get

new books each year. And Nenita found out that they happened to get a

complete set of books because they belonged to a section called “special

education for fast learners” or SPED. Pupils from the other 10 “regular”

sections, they learned, had to share books.

Indeed, Roberto and Nenita were lucky, as they were in many other

respects. Their school was nearby; they have the option to take a tricycle,

1

but to save money, they choose to walk for several minutes on the paved

roads of the poblacion or the town center.

In contrast, in mountainous Abra, another student, Pilar, has to walk for

an hour or more, traversing muddy trails to get to school and back home.

Vehicles, public or private, were of little use, because there were hardly

any roads to speak of. Children in other similar hard-to-reach areas in

other provinces around the country must walk several hours just to get to

school. It is no wonder why many would simply choose to just drop out.

Poor quality and/or absence of functional roads also means the

inaccessibility of other services that Roberto and Nenita would normally

take for granted. While the barangay health center may just be a few

meters away, and the nearest hospital a half an hour jeepney ride from

Roberto and Nenita’s house, others in far-flung areas hardly get the

opportunity to see a doctor. Upon illness, few would be able to get to the

nearest hospital, which, in most cases, would mean several hours of

travel. When parents get sick, older children usually have to forego

schooling to take care of their younger siblings.

Yet Pilar, despite being worse off than Roberto and Nenita, is still better

placed than others. Haashim lived, or used to live, in a village somewhere

in Mindanao before violence became intolerable – there was always

either a battle between secessionist groups and the military, or a bloody

fight between clans and warlords, and he could not say which one was

worse. All he knew was they had lost their home and their school had

been burned down. Where his family, together with other displaced

families, found refuge now, accommodation was hardly decent. School-

aged children, many of whom also have had to flee their homes, were

cramped into a few dilapidated classrooms in this area. 2

They were told it was close to impossible to have new classrooms built as

funds were perpetually insufficient. The leaky roofs and broken windows

of the existing school buildings have waited a long time for a taste of

repair.

In fact, for many in the country, schooling is quite a luxury. Due to poverty

and privation caused by conflict, many children are weak, undernourished

and sickly, unable to fight off even the mildest bacterial infection, not to

mention diseases requiring prolonged care. Once in while, when

professionals visit during medical missions, quick remedies are given,

and teeth that caused pain did get pulled out. But doctors’ prescriptions

are rendered practically useless because they could not afford to buy

medicine, not even when the public health centers or hospitals would sell

these at a discount. This is assuming that there were stocks in the first

place. After all, few parents have jobs or livelihood that earns them

enough money to sustain them, particularly when illness strikes.

In this part of the country, and in some others, people have had to accept

that often, jobs and livelihood projects, as well as health services and

educational facilities are only meant for those with connections to the

datus and their powerful clans, or the local politicians who, every election

period, would come to shake their hands.

In many parts of the country, in fact, people had learned to expect that

public funds would not be used for what they were intended.

The stories above are but a composite of common, everyday scenes in

the country and the predicament they portray certainly resonate among

thousands of Filipinos. 3

What does it take to change things? What does it take to buy more

textbooks, to provide affordable medicine, to build roads, to offer

sustainable livelihood to people?

What would happen if, for instance, parents learn that they can check on

textbooks purchased by the government, and verify that these textbooks

actually exist in their children’s schools?

What would happen if townsfolk at Roberto and Nenita’s community are

given the opportunity to check whether the charges on medicine and

facilities in the nearby public hospital – which also happens to serve other

towns much further from, and much poorer than, the poblacion – are way

above the price that you can get from drug stores and other suppliers?

What would happen if people in Pilar’s community read on a newspaper

that road and irrigation projects are to be installed in their area, and

decide to volunteer to help monitor the implementation of such projects to

ensure that the contractor delivers exactly what needs to be delivered, on

time, and in good order at that?

What would happen if contractors hired to build school buildings in

Haashim’s community are reminded that the “standard operating

procedure” of overpricing, giving bribes or kickbacks to politicians and

government bureaucrats, or using substandard materials in construction,

are punishable by law and runs counter to the basic teachings of their

own religion, as well as the values instilled upon them by their parents

and elderly? Accordingly, what would happen if citizens and government

officials are reminded of the same principles that tell them it is wrong to

accept bribes and to tolerate such behaviour?4

What would happen if people in the community where Haashim now lives

volunteer to build classrooms themselves to prove to local bureaucrats

that such construction costs half the amount the Department of Education

claims is required?

Some of the answers can be found in the succeeding pages of this book.

The Philippines has one of the most advanced laws and policies on public

procurement as embodied in the Government Procurement Reform Act of

2003. Since its passage, the law has been a major breakthrough in the

country’s anti-corruption effort. But, young as it is, this obviously has not

yet met its full potential as an effective anti-corruption measure.

As this book demonstrates, there are stories out there that speak of the

many ways to deal with problems related to the use and misuse of public

funds. These stories exhibit the range of ways – from simple and

innovative to technical and complex – with which we can deal with a

multi-faceted and deep-seated problem like corruption.

True, some may have been more successful than others. However, this

does not mean that the less successful ones deserve no acclaim; nor

does it mean that the more successful ones should be heralded as silver

bullets that will completely eradicate and end corruption.

These are not stories that compete with each other for fame and glory.

Rather, these are true-to-life stories with successes and challenges, from

which citizens can draw inspiration and lessons.

5

Spirituality and Reality Do Co-ExistBangsamoro Development Agency (BDA)By: Artha Kira Isabel R. Paredes

6

In 2006, 93 Grade IV pupils squeezed themselves into a makeshift

classroom, with some squatting on the ground; while 54 Grade III pupils

attended their classes in a small outdoor stage with just a roof protecting

them from the elements.

Pupils at the stage were barely able to concentrate because of

distractions posed by weather changes and the noise of passing vehicles

at Midtimbang Central Elementary School, located along the highway in

Barangay Midtimbang, Talayan town in Maguindanao province.

Maguindanao, some 906 kilometers southeast of Manila is one of the six

provinces of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

In several instances, as many as 100 pupils were packed into one room

with each armchair seating two pupils because of the lack of chairs and

classrooms, according to Guaibai Guialudin, Talayan district supervisor.

The 14 classrooms in the elementary school, mostly built in the early

1970s could no longer accommodate the growing number of pupils, which

then totaled 984. Apart from the increasing population, the buildings were

ramshackle with dilapidated windows, chairs and desks.

So, in late 2006, when the Bangsamoro Development Agency (BDA)

informed Guialudin that they would be the beneficiaries of a Japanese

grant for a new 6-classroom building, everyone - teachers, parents and

students - was elated. The school was chosen as one of the 12 recipients

of the embassy’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security

Projects (GGP).

7

The Grant

The Government of Japan publicly launched the Japan-Bangsamoro

Initiatives for Reconstruction and Development in December 2006 in the

presence of Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Representatives of the

Japanese Embassy had already started looking for priority projects, such

as school buildings and water systems in mid-2006, and had asked the

BDA to identify candidates for GGP grants, Engineer Aida Silongan,

former member of the BDA board of directors and project coordinator of

the 12 GGP projects from 2006 to 2007, said.

Engineer Silongan was aware that the Japanese government was keenly

interested in supporting rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in

conflict-affected areas in Mindanao. The barangay had not itself been the

site of violent conflict between government and rebel troops, but offered

temporary haven for displaced families of nearby villages at the height of

the Estrada government’s all-out war in 2000. As in many other areas in

Central Mindanao, these villages were linked to the Moro Islamic

Liberation Front (MILF) and had suffered years of fear and neglect. A

study commissioned by the Japanese embassy noted that due to the

long-standing conflict between government and the MILF, basic social

services had fallen remarkably short and infrastructure in decrepit

conditions, “resulting in most people being in extreme poor conditions.1”

On December 7, 2006, Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki and

Ms. Guialudin, who was Midtimbang Central Elementary School principal

at that time, signed a GGP grant contract of 3.4 million pesos for the

1 Katahira and Engineers International IC Net Ltd., The Study for Socio-Economic Reconstruction and Development of Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao (Inception Report), April 2007.

8

construction of a six-classroom building. The funds would also cover the

cost of painting, construction of a toilet, and procurement of 50 armchairs,

two ceiling fans, and lighting fixtures for each classroom. A remarkable

feature of this Japanese grant was the direct release of the funds to the

school through a special bank account, so that all disbursements to

suppliers and contractors could be easily facilitated by the school.

GGP supports “small-scale projects directly benefiting the grassroots

level, as well as contributing to the socio-economic development of their

respective countries.2” Hernan Pineda, GGP Program Officer said that “in

consultation with the Office of the Presidential Adviser of Peace Process

(OPAPP), the International Monitoring Team (IMT) and BDA,” they had

identified more than 3,000 conflict-affected barangays in the provinces of

Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Basilan, and some parts of Region IX in

Mindanao. Unlike the usual bilateral assistance from Japan, which is a

government-to-government undertaking, GGP is open to non-government

organizations (NGOs), peoples’ organizations (POs) and local

government units (LGUs), which can directly submit applications for

project proposals.

For the 2006-2007 projects, Pineda said BDA “acted as a clearing house”

that endorsed projects and monitored and facilitated the actual

implementation of GGP projects in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao.

He elaborated further that the criteria for choosing the approved projects

are based on “urgency” and “necessity.” Although GGP is nationwide in

scope, “more than half of the projects are located in Mindanao,” he said.

2 http://www.ph.emb-japan.go.jp/bilateral/oda/grassroots.html9

BDA

“The MILF, through a Central Committee resolution, created BDA in June

2, 2002. Its mandate is to ‘determine, lead and manage relief,

rehabilitation and development programs in the conflict-affected areas in

the Mindanao.’”3 The agency’s main office is based in Cotabato City,

some 900 kilometres southeast of Manila. Their activities are always

governed by their commitment to demonstrate Islamic values, according

to Ines Bagadion, a BDA adviser who helped develop training modules for

community-organizing strategies.

BDA is run by former members of the Bangsamoro Development Council,

a group described by Chairman of the Board Dr. Abas Candao to have

been organized to work on the Bangsamoro Development Plan. The

council was to serve as a “roadmap” and a “reference point,” so that when

they “take on the reins of power of the government, we know what to do,”

he said.

“I thought of this (council) because, we have the armed struggle, we have

the MILF and there’s also the political struggle but I said, okay, granting

that we win either by this or violent struggle or by peaceful negotiations

after that, what?” he asked.

Back then, the MILF was negotiating the aspects of security, ancestral

domain and relief and rehabilitation with the government, and what was

then the Council was established to take care of relief and rehabilitation

concerns.

3 http://bdamindanao.page.tl/Home.htm10

In the 1970s, the MILF broke away from the Moro National Liberation

Front (MNLF), which fought for self-determination of the Bangsamoro

people. The former started peace talks with the GRP (Government of the

Republic of the Philippines) in 1997, until two all-out wars against MILF

were declared. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resumed peace talks

with the group when she became president in 2001.4 In June 22 of the

same year, BDA was created by virtue of the GRP-MILF Tripoli

Agreement on Peace.5

When BDA was created, officers of the Council “from the chairman down

to the regional managers” were appointed by the MILF central committee,

and members have been unable to pursue the council since, Dr. Candao

said.

The prime movers of the BDA were made up a few dedicated

professionals with restricted experience in development work that went

beyond medical missions. They had very limited resources to carry out

their mission, so external assistance such as the GGP is a good

opportunity to expand their local networks and project a good public

image as the development arm of the MILF. But a project such as this

involved the handling of millions of pesos and dealing with contractors

and suppliers where graft and corruption are commonly known to take

place. The BDA decided to embark on the project well aware of the risks,

but with an earnest desire to find the right way to deal with such risks

through culturally-sensitive activities.

4 http://www.luwaran.com5 http://bdamindanao.page.tl/Home.htm

11

Anti-Corruption through Spiritual Preparation

Before the start of project implementation, the BDA insisted that all GGP

recipients in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao undergo a three-day,

live-in Training-Workshop on Values Enhancement. It turned out to be an

effective anti-corruption tool because even the private contractors were

made to attend the sessions along with the school principal and some

community members.

The training was BDA’s “standard” way of “leveling off” on the values that

it espoused with those that transact with them, Silongan said. Values

tackled are mostly based on the Holy Q’uran but are not exclusively

Islamic; “universal values” such as transparency, honesty and

stewardship are some of the important ones. Their accountability here on

earth and to God are given emphasis, said Silongan, who, at training,

would be garbed in a simple and dignified-looking hijab (Muslim attire that

covers everything except the hands and face).

In very clear terms, Silongan told them that soliciting, offering and/or

accepting bribes were forms of unacceptable behavior. Attendees were

also told that BDA will conduct surprise visits and were warned that the

minute they find out about any wrongdoing, they would have the

implementation of the project stopped.

12

It was the first

time for both

Guialudin and

Engineer

Taukan Mato,

proprietor and

general

manager of

Must

Enterprises and

Construction,

the contractor of

the Midtimbang school project, to attend this type of training. They were

taught to strictly follow the program of work to avoid corruption, and to

pay attention to dollar depreciation, as it meant an inflation of the initial

prices and cost estimates.

Guialudin, who is an educator herself, learned a few technical things. She

described the workshop as “very practical.” They were taught how to

differentiate standard quality materials from substandard ones based on

“markings” found on the materials, Silongan said. She cited iron bars as

an example, expounding that sizes are usually indicated by the dots

engraved on them. Although teachers of the school did not attend,

Guialudin said she was able to echo what she learned from the seminar

during meetings at school. Practicing what she learned, Guialudin

submitted regular reports of expenses to her co-teachers and showed all

expense receipts.

Training for Values Enhancement

The Values Enhancement Training of the BDA has modules that include the following:• Concept of Islamic Values and

Development,• Role of Iman (faith) in Developing and

Sustaining Islamic Values• Role of ‘Ibadah(worship) and the

Pillars of Islam in Developing Islamic Values • Application of Islamic Values.

The last module incorporates pointers in taking care of and sustaining infrastructure and economic projects, dealing with development partners, maintaining harmonious relationships with community members, and enforcing the Shari’ah (sacred law) in all activities.

13

Smooth-sailing implementation

Guialudin recalls the construction to have started on February 13, 2007.

Construction went uninterrupted for three months since there was no

problem with the influx of funds. The grant was deposited into a project

account with Guialudin and Dr. Danda Juanday, BDA Executive Director

as co-signatories. The bank account also served to monitor the release of

funds and confirm if the amount spent and/or withdrawn equals the actual

accomplishment, Silongan said.

Construction went smoothly. BDA did not encounter any difficulties in

auditing and monitoring. Silongan attributes this mainly to the Values

Enhancement Training-Workshop, where the principal and contractor

were made to understand that it is wrong to bribe and settle with

substandard quality of materials just to get a cut. They were also warned

that BDA will not tolerate corruption and that the agency will be

conducting field visits every now and then, she added.

Although the school staff members were not involved in the purchase of

materials, they made sure to inspect if materials matched those indicated

in the program of work, Guialudin said. In the case of Midtimbang School,

no materials delivered were substandard, but BDA Chairman of the Board

Dr. Abas Candao said that since the agency started conducting Values

Transformation Training sessions, there have been instances when

materials that did not match the project specification had been returned.

After building the six classrooms, former Principal Guialudin was audited

by an independent auditor from Manila, and findings indicated there that

14

the project “was in compliance with the terms and conditions of the

Embassy of Japan in the Philippines.”

The establishment was formally turned over by Japanese Ambassador

Yamazaki on July 4, 2007. Even before the turnover, however, the school

was already allowed to use the facilities because of the students’

situation, Pineda said.

Timely Blessing

The Midtimbang Central Elementary

School now has a total of 20 classrooms.

Each of the six n ew classrooms came

with a comfort room, two ceiling fans,

armchairs and teachers’ tables and chairs,

a stark contrast to the old decrepit

buildings that have no ceilings, no partitions, no toilets and poor

ventilation.

Teachers, parents and pupils are very grateful for the project, and they

show it. Guialudin, who wore a beaded tandong (turban) to cover her

head at the turnover, proudly reports that these days there is a 100

percent attendance of parents during the Parents, Teachers and

Community Association (PTCA) meetings.

The school, which had 1,252 enrollees from Grades I-VI in the school

year 2007 to 2008, is one of three complete elementary schools in the

town of Talayan. Four other primary schools only cover Grades I-IV

according to the school’s project proposal submitted to the Japanese

Embassy.

15

According to the proposal, the school has the largest population of

students who come from at least six of the municipality’s barangays. In

2006, the school’s “cohort survival rate” (the percentage of enrollees at

the beginning grade or year in a given school year who reached the final

grade or year of the elementary or secondary level6) is pegged at 32

percent. Only 75 students from the 233 Grade I enrollees in 2001 reached

Grade VI.

Nationwide, the Department of Education (DepEd) recorded a decrease

in cohort survival rate from 2001 to 2006. From 69.05 percent in the

2001-2002 school year, the percentage dropped to 58.36 in 2006.

Most of the children are from “poor families who were formerly Internally

Displaced Persons (IDP) caught in the middle of armed conflict,” the

proposal stated. This could also be one of the reasons of the school’s low

cohort survival rate. Guialudin said both MILF and MNLF operate in

Midtimbang, but there have been no instances when the school was used

as an evacuation center for families caught between crossfire.

With six new buildings, the six 70-student classes were split into two

sections and additional volunteer teachers were requested from the local

government. Pupils were really “happy,” especially those that did not have

their own classrooms, Guialudin said.

Current Principal Abdulkarim Balo Dalimbang agrees with Guialudin’s

observation. He also said that aside from the students, teachers also

prefer to hold classes in the new classrooms, whenever possible. He

6 http://www.nscb.gov.ph/pressreleases/2007/Jan04_PR-200701-SS2-01_educglossary.asp

16

noticed that the teachers were both “inspired” and “excited” to teach in the

new classrooms, and they even go as far as decorating the rooms “as if it

were their own homes.”

Outstanding Performance

Motivated by the new classrooms, the school for the very first time

received an “outstanding” mark in the recent DepEd evaluation. This

mark, Dalimbang said, is something the school “will try to maintain.”

The J-BIRD classrooms at the

Midtimbang Central Elementary

School are remarkably immaculate

and well-maintained - the windows

are adorned with curtains and the

walls are lined with educational

charts, pictures and tables. Art

projects are also on display.

The policy of the GGP grant requires school management to maintain the

facilities; GGP will monitor each project up to five years, Pineda said.

According to Dalimbang, the building serves as classrooms for Grades

IV-VI pupils because the older children are more responsible in taking

care of the new classrooms and facilities. Cyclone wire bought with funds

from the PTCA has been installed to prevent anyone from breaking and

entering. The doors are triple padlocked for added security. Due to the

absence of a water system, pupils fetch water from the municipal hall,

17

about 100 meters from the school, to keep the comfort rooms clean

everyday.

The classrooms are occasionally used by municipal employees for

seminars and meetings on weekends because it is equipped with lights,

chairs, comfort rooms and electric fan, Dalimbang said.

Grateful

Guialudin said they were grateful to the people of Japan for funding the

construction of their new classroom building and to BDA for the Values

Transformation Training-Workshop.

Both the district supervisor and Principal Dalimbang are hopeful that they

will soon be able to find a grant that can help them renovate the old

classrooms, which had been built during the time of President Ferdinand

Marcos in the early 1970s. They said they would gladly work with BDA

again, and Dalimbang said he would willingly attend the three-day Values

Transformation Training when the time comes.

Although this was the school’s first time to work with BDA, officials say

that they did not encounter any difficulties, a statement seconded by

Silongan. The BDA program coordinator said all the 12 projects yielded

good results. According to her, recipients have welcomed BDA and

appreciated their efforts, and the agency could see that most of them are

really willing to learn the right values.

18

GGP Program Officer Pineda, meanwhile, said he is thankful for BDA

because the agency has really been a “big help” to them, especially in

monitoring the progress of the projects.

He also praised the group’s practice of conducting Values Transformation

Training sessions before starting the implementation of all their projects.

BDA asked for the agency’s approval before pushing though with the

training of beneficiaries and contractors, he shared. He also

complimented BDA’s practice by saying it is different from other NGOs in

that they are “lean” more towards Muslim moral values.

Changing People

Even before the Values Transformation Training modules were developed

in 2005, BDA had already been conducting Values Transformation

Training sessions, according to Silongan. By her reckoning, trainings

started as early as 2003, although it was only in 2005 that they conducted

Training for Trainers (TOT) seminars. There are currently 47 trainers from

BDA, excluding those from six other regional management offices, she

shared.

BDA started the Values Transformation Training-Workshops because the

country as a whole has gained the reputation of being one of the most

corrupt countries in Asia, according to BDA Chairman of the Board Dr.

Candao.

There is an “obvious” corruption “from Malacañang down,” which “seems

to have become part of the Philippine culture already” he said. He added

further that the agency was “concerned” that they will “end up with a lot of

19

implementation failures,” especially with the practice where “part goes to

the pocket and part goes in implementing.”

Developing the Values Transformation Training modules was a move “to

start correcting” the norm and “to begin making a change among our

people,” Dr. Candao said.

Engineer Ruby Andong, BDA training support staff, said the training

began as part of spiritual development for the group’s catalysts,

especially in preparation for incoming projects. But on the first training

session, the group realized that that there were many Muslims who

needed to take into heart and live the Muslim values, she said.

Islamic and Universal Values

With the recognition that there is a need to reaffirm Muslim values, BDA

undertook the conduction of Values Transformation Training sessions.

Then, they were advised by the World Bank that they could be “more

consistent” if they developed a module that could serve as a “guide,” Dr.

Candao related.

“So the World Bank funded a seminar-workshop, a write-shop actually, to

come up with the modules,” which eventually became the basis of their

workshops, he said.

The modules are based on Islamic principles and incorporates universal

core values, such as trustworthiness, transparency, accountability,

competence and honesty, he said. Silongan said the training they conduct

20

expounds on how a Muslim should live based on the teachings of the

Holy Koran.

Dr. Candao said the training is now required of all individuals, groups and

organizations as “social preparation” for projects with the BDA, and they

have convinced their partners, including the Japanese Embassy, of the

seminar’s necessity before undertaking any project.

More than 4,000 people have already undergone the three-day training

“all over Mindanao,” in conflict-affected areas where BDA operates and

which the agency has divided into six regions. Majority of trainees are

women, Dr. Candao narrated. After training, participants are organized in

study circles that can meet on a regular basis to sustain and increase

their knowledge of the values taught to them.

The study circles in the communities are advised to meet every week to

remind one another of what they have learned. They are given additional

verses from the Holy Koran to expand their knowledge in line with the

values that they have to live by, Silongan said.

But the BDA Chairman of the Board admits that the agency has not been

able to do follow-on training, which would definitely require time and

funds. “We see also that another thing that can make them continue

doing that is if we are able to give them some income-generating

activities,” he expressed.

He acknowledges the need to validate, monitor and evaluate their

trainees. “In all places, how is it being implemented, what’s the success

rate, how do we say that it’s effective, it’s working,” he asked.

21

Fruits of Labor

Despite the need to work more on following up with their trainees, there

have already been positive results from sessions that BDA has conducted

all over Mindanao. There have been instances when individuals and

communities refused to accept substandard construction materials from

hardware stores. In another instance, the treasurer of an organization

refused to give in to demands for a cut from funds to build a community

learning center. “The treasurer was really firm and said no, over my dead

body something like that,” Dr. Candao revealed.

In another workshop conducted for young teens, many of whom used to

dress with hanging t-shirts revealing the navel and short skirts, the

training facilitators taught their teenaged participants the value of dressing

appropriately and wearing head covers. “We were just fortunate that there

were available dresses from Malaysia to giveaway,” he said.

Muslim women are taught by the Koran not to expose any part of the

body in public, Silongan explained.

Andong also recounted that during one of the trainings, two siblings who

had been estranged for years cried in each other’s arms and made

peace.

Dr. Candao said he would like to attribute such incidence as effects of the

Values Transformation Training-Workshops, and would even recommend

that non-Muslims attend the trainings.

22

Sometimes, non-Muslims would sit in on the sessions, and the group

would hear appreciation for Islam. These participants would offer

comments, such as “if only it is put into practice,” something which Dr.

Candao said he is always glad to hear. It means the person who said it is

enlightened about his misconceptions on Muslims, he said.

Long Process

Still, transforming peoples’ values and what they have been accustomed

to is a “long process,” and changes will not take effect in three days. But

at least they see good outcome, Silongan said. She estimates that in the

sessions, one could only see 20 percent of the trainees whose

transformations are immediately manifest.

Indeed changing people in one training session seems farfetched, but

what is important is starting and initiating the process, according to Dr.

Candao. “Although with some people it became very immediate,” he

added.

At the moment, the training modules are undergoing several revisions.

According to the BDA Chairman of the Board, the original modules were

designed for people on the grassroots level. “Now realizing that we have

to deal with other levels of people” like those working in government,

modifications are being made “to suit this level of people.”

Topics such as gender, among others will be incorporated into the

modules, Silongan said. Also, the revised modules will place more

emphasis on conflict management.

23

While the effort to transform people’s values is tedious and takes a long

time to become reality, the BDA holds steadfastly on, looking to the Koran

for fortitude and inspiration:

“God will not change the condition of the people until the people change

what is in them. First develop people before we can develop the

community or the environment.” (Suurah Ar-Ra’d:11)

24

Under the Watchful Eyes of Concerned CitizensConcerned Citizens of Abra for Good GovernanceBy: Nerissa T. Esguerra

25

On the way out of Abra province, one has to traverse through the

Tangadan tunnel at the boundary of the Abra-Ilocos Sur highway. There,

you see the likeness of Gabriela Silang upon her horse, urging her

compatriots to battle. Suddenly, you sense the road becoming rougher,

more undulating. The smooth ride is gone, and you forget that you were

trying to dredge up what the history books told of Gabriela Silang.

Irregular strips of black plaster keep the cracks of the provincial highway

from turning into fissures. The driver swerves about trying to avoid one

pool of water after another.

Then Engineer Ruel Busque answers the question that barely began to

form in your mind.

“This is the Ilocos Sur part of the highway; it starts right after Tangadan

tunnel. The Abra part of the provincial road that we passed would have

been like this as well,” he says. The Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good

Governance (CCAGG) monitored the Abra side and found out that the

contractor had started pouring concrete without compacting the

underlying surface, rendering the road vulnerable to damage from heavy

rains and floods. The CCAGG asked the Department of Public Works and

Highways (DPWH) director to conduct a ‘remove-and-replace’ operation,

Engineer Ruel relates. The contractor had no choice but to comply with

the request.

Indeed, the results of the monitoring work of the Concerned Citizens of

Abra for Good Governance could not have been more concrete, literally

and figuratively. In a culture where consumers could hardly return or

replace a defective item bought from a hardware store with hard-earned

money, getting a contractor of a multi-million peso project to re-do his job

is no small feat. 26

It was not too long ago when roads in the province of Abra were very

often nothing more than works of fiction in the disbursement records of

the Marcos government's Ministry of Public Works and Highways

(MPWH). It was not unusual to discover that a major road costing millions

of pesos officially recorded as “completed” was nothing more than a trail –

“yung dinadaanan ng kabayo sa bundok,” (like horse-trails on a mountain)

as Engineer Rene Brasuela, a long-time staff member of the CCAGG

would describe them.

Some two decades after those anomalies were exposed and eleven

engineers of the MPWH were suspended, roads in Abra today are not

only passable to vehicles; they are roads through which one would

actually enjoy travelling. Motorists now enjoy well-paved roads free of

potholes, floods, and heavy traffic; they seem to be embraced by trees

lined up on each side of the highway, guarded by neatly arranged stones

along the road, and refreshed by the beautiful view of the mountains,

valleys and fields.

When People Power Began

It is not hard to understand why people in the mountainous province of

Abra would be protective of their roads. “Very emotional ang problema ng

kalsada,” (Roads are a very emotional matter) Manang Pura Sumangil,

chairperson of the CCAGG relates. She recalls the first time that

Abraenos got their long-time wish from then newly-installed President

Corazon Aquino, who gave Abra five million pesos – a lot of money then

– to build what is now the Lamunan road. People badly wanted to have a

road that they believe would pave the way to development that had until

27

then eluded their province. Back then, Manang Pura says, nearby

schools, public markets and hospitals did not seem to be as near as it

now is; children, women and even the sick had to walk far to get to where

they needed to go. People had to traverse muddy paths during rainy

days. Farmers could hardly get their produce to the market. Even

teachers came in only on Tuesday and then left for home on Friday

morning; after all, no superintendents would be there to check. Even

government leaders seldom visited the province due to its inaccessibility.

Thus, when President Aquino heeded the call of the women of Abra, who

wrote her a letter telling her of their plight, Abraenos made sure that they

were there not just to watch over the construction, but to do much of the

work themselves. People would manually crush stones and lay these

down to build the road’s foundation. Men, women, children, the elderly –

they all came out to help, Manang Pura says.

It is, therefore, not surprising that, after watching over the elections,

Manang Pura and many of the volunteers of the National Movement for

Free Elections (NAMFREL) would find themselves training their watchful

eyes on roads and other public works projects. After all, in this part of the

country, that joke about corrupt government officials boasting amongst

themselves of the high percentages of kickbacks they got from

construction projects resonates well.

One official boasts: “See the road there? I got 20%.” The

other goes: “Well, see that building there? Mine was 30%.”

Then the third goes: “See that bridge there?” The first two

officials are perplexed, seeing nothing. The third official

continues: “That’s 100%!”

28

Concerned citizens of Abra had long been hearing a lot of “ghost stories”

– those “ghost” projects that had been paid for and advertised as

“completed,” but were nowhere to be found. They knew that graft and

corruption abounded in public works, and they wanted to do something.

Invigorated by their experience as NAMFREL volunteers and not wanting

to disband, they formed the Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good

Governance in 1986 – the year of the People Power revolt.

Backed up by the diocese, the

CCAGG started as a church-

based initiative, founded by

members of the Social Action

Center and led by Manang Pura

Sumangil, who was then in her

mid-forties.

The CCAGG’s first “break” into project monitoring was through the

Community Employment and Development Program of the Aquino

government. The program was implemented all over the country from

1986 to 1988 in order to hasten the recovery of rural economies from the

economic recession of the mid-1980s. Under those circumstances,

corruption inflicted a burden that did not have to be endured. Thus, when

the invitation from the regional director of the National Economic and

Development Authority (NEDA) for CCAGG to be involved in monitoring

road projects, Manang Pura’s group was only eager too accept. A

Memorandum of Agreement was soon signed, which stipulated that:

NEDA would provide training on basic monitoring to CCAGG members;

the Ministry of Budget and Management (MBM) would send data on

budget allocation and releases for each of the projects: while the DPWH

would release the program of works to CCAGG. 29

It had not taken long for CCAGG to find what they had hoped not to

discover: incomplete or non-existent projects that were reported as

“completed” in a paid newspaper advertisement; inferior-quality road

projects that could not withstand the weather or even normal daily use; an

irrigation project for indigenous peoples that was completed but proved to

be useless because water flowed only up to a few meters, among others.

These various “discoveries” were a result of using substandard materials

to reduce cost, of faulty engineering design, or, worse, of outright fraud.

With CCAGG’s relentless pursuit of these cases, eleven public works

engineers were suspended, only to be subsequently reassigned

elsewhere. Over the years, there were attempts by local politicians to

bring these engineers back to their old posts. Every time, those attempts

were opposed by the CCAGG. Old habits and impulses were kept at bay,

but they were alive and assertive.

Playing Tough Roles

Legendary is a word that could well describe what CCAGG had done in

those early days. The strength of the group's reputation has grown

through the years. CCAGG has even become a verb: “baka ma-si-

CCAGG ka” (directly translating to “you might be CCAGG’ed”) is a

warning not to be taken lightly in Abra province. Whereas before, erring

public officials and contractors could easily get away with cheating, the

threat of being caught and prosecuted has now become real and credible.

Perhaps it is the threat that counts, so to speak.

30

This kind of threat is not something to be welcomed with open arms by

those being monitored.

“At first we were ill at ease with CCAGG because they were our

watchdogs,” DPWH Engineer Agnes Bernardez says. The case of the 11

engineers of the DPWH was also a big blow to them. She says that the

case has somehow created a rift between the MPWH and CCAGG.

“Masakit na may nadawit sa ganong kaso,” she says. “Pero ok lang kasi

lesson to learn yon. We have to be alert at all times sa lahat ng gawain

namin. Conscious kami sa anong ginagawa,” she says. (It was painful for

us that there were people [in our ranks] who were involved in those

cases. But that’s okay because it was a lesson to learn. We have to be

alert at all times in whatever we do. We are now conscious of what

people are doing.)

Despite the high profile case and the accompanying public outrage, some

still thought differently. Manang Pura recalls that a government legal

officer tried to pressure them to accept a non-functioning irrigation project,

telling them that not signing off on the project as completed would be

tantamount to stalling the inflow of funds for other projects. “Kung ikaw

ang kinakausap nang ganon, you feel the heaviness, that you are denying

other people of projects,” Manang Pura says. But Manang Pura was

aghast over the official’s reasoning. And she had more reason to be

aghast: even the DPWH engineers would later agree with the CCAGG

engineers that the project had faulty design and needed to be replaced.

Some of the DPWH personnel did not really like the CCAGG, Engineer

Agnes says, because there came a point when they had to wait for a

CCAGG report to process payments. They had to abide by the

instructions of the regional director of DWPH who decided to make the

CCAGG monitoring report a prerequisite for the processing of final 31

payment to contractors ever since the case of the 11 engineers erupted.

This arrangement had been in place for a number of years until the

Commission on Audit (COA) formed a group of technical audit specialists

sometime in the mid-1990s to monitor project implementation. The

technical audit specialist’s report had now become the official requirement

for final payment.

CCAGG involvement nevertheless continued even after its report was no

longer a payment requirement. In 2000, the CCAGG entered into a

Memorandum of Agreement with COA to conduct a participatory audit

exercise in Abra. However, despite being described as successful by all

parties, such that the lessons from the audit process were later

incorporated into a manual on the Conduct of Participatory Audit

published by COA, the exercise was discontinued upon the appointment

of a new Commissioner, who believed that preliminary audit findings were

not supposed to be disclosed to outside parties.

Still, the CCAGG had a role to play. While COA auditors would only focus

on documents, CCAGG complemented COA’s work by doing actual site

visits and physical inspection. Another DPWH engineer, Ferdinand

Tadeo, says that CCAGG staff members, being engineers themselves,

help them in the technical aspect. The CCAGG monitors are able to spot

design deficiencies or inferior quality materials, he says, which they in

DPWH would sometimes not notice or perhaps even tolerate. “Mahirap

humingi ng pondo kaya minsan pinagkakasya,” the engineer reasons. (It’s

hard to get funds, so sometimes we make do with what’s available.)

But there is yet another special role that CCAGG plays, one that neither

the COA nor the DPWH could easily take on: that of a mediator or

“bridge” between and among the DPWH, the contractors, and the 32

community members or end users. Partly because of the Filipino culture

of being non-confrontational and indirect, there are things that people

could not directly tell government personnel or contractors and vice versa.

The CCAGG tries to fill this communication gap.

“Nakakatulong sila, pati settlement kung may problema sa mga tao

doon… Kung ano yung problema dun sa site, pinapaabot din sa amin.

Kasi kung minsan yung project engineer hindi palagi doon. Minsan hindi

rin masabi sa PE yon (problema), sa kanila (CCAGG) sinasabi.

Pinapaabot sa amin kung ano yung problema. Parang tulay sila between

DPWH and the end user,” says Engineer Agnes Bernardez. (They help us

in settling problems at the project site, especially since the project

engineer cannot always be there. Sometimes, if people can’t tell the

project engineer the problem, they tell the CCAGG. The CCAGG then

relays it to us. So they act as a bridge between the DPWH and the end

user.)

Thus, while it was not easy for DPWH staff to accept CCAGG after their

colleagues were suspended, they eventually recognized the importance

of the role that CCAGG has been playing.

Keeping Afloat

Stories abound on CCAGG’s successes and effectiveness in exposing

and preventing corruption through people’s involvement. But like any

other NGO, the CCAGG always has its challenges, particularly in terms of

funding.

33

“Wala kaming pera non, maniwala ka,” (We had no money then, believe

me.) Manang Pura says. But volunteerism then was very strong, she

says. There was no need to pay honoraria. Sometimes their staff would

not get their salaries. Still, the volunteers needed to eat and travel.

Manang Pura recalls how people would send them bundles of string

beans, which they would then cook into adobo and pack these in ice

cream containers. “That’s what we would bring to Manila,” she says,

“when we were pursuing the case of the 11 engineers.”

Sometimes, they would go to a restaurant and ask if they can “borrow”

food for the CCAGG monitors. The owner would simply ask how many

monitors would go and where, and would immediately prepare and pack

the food.

Yet,

CCAGG had the option of taking offers from those they meet at the

project sites – the contractors, who would try to hand fat envelopes with

money inside to CCAGG monitors. “Pang merienda lang,” the contractors

would say. The CCAGG staff would just smile and turn down the offer,

wondering among themselves at just how expensive merienda could be.

Contractors would get mad, Manang Pura says. They would curse

CCAGG volunteers; they could not comprehend why CCAGG would

refuse even a bottle soft drink. “Sasabihin ng contractors ‘P_tang_nang

34

Brasuela yan, pati Coca-Cola ayaw niya!’ But that is part of our standard

operating procedure. We do not want bending (sic) our principles,” she

says.

“Kasi salbahe yang mga contractors. Pakakainin ka… tapos (makes

tapping motion) gaganonin ka sa likod, ‘bahala ka na sa amin ha’. Aba

hindi, we don’t want to be influenced by them. (Contractors are naughty.

They would offer you food then tap you on the back and meaningfully say

‘you should now take care of us.’ But no, we don’t want to be influenced

by them). “Whatever we see, that is what we report,” she says firmly.

Politicians would also offer money, which they would refuse, saying they

are strictly non-political. Even if the money is not meant as a bribe and is

offered in good faith, they argue that accepting this would compromise

their position somehow.

Beggars cannot be choosy, but CCAGG chooses not to beg. They even

refuse funds from international donor agencies if they think this could put

them in bad light in the eyes of some of their allies. After all, they have

been accused of being “reactionary, anti-revolutionary CIA agents” –

something which they don’t bother responding to because the people,

community members themselves, would be the first to come to their

defense.

A major international funding agency once invited Manang Pura to a

seminar on social accountability. Upon learning of CCAGG’s work, the

funding agency was eager to support the kind of activities that CCAGG

undertakes, and Manang Pura thought that this agency could possibly be

a source of much-needed funds. But upon hearing two participants

criticize the funding agency, she junked her own thoughts.

35

Local politicians have, at times, also expressed a desire to work with

CCAGG, even to provide financial support. But CCAGG members are

thoughtful in their hesitation and firm in their decision against crossing

that bridge. “Politicians would have their own reasons; it would be difficult

for CCAGG to be associated with politicians,” Manang Pura says.

CCAGG is content with the support of the church. Their office space,

including water and electricity, is subsidized by the diocese. “Ang

ginagawa naman namin ay maka-Diyos, makatao,” one CCAGG staff

says, as if anticipating a follow-up question on why the diocese supports

them.

They sometimes hold fund-raising activities. They used to organize

evening dances, they say, but they had to stop because people no longer

want to stay out at night with the rampant killings that had been landing

on the news. Instead, they would accept donations and contributions from

well-meaning supporters, and occasionally do catering services and raffle

draws.

“I don’t know if we are operating on a very idealistic setting,” Manang

Pura says. “Is that wrong?” she asks.

“We do not have an annual budget,” Elsa Tiggangay, CCAGG

accountant, says. “But we have a general fund,” she continues. They

hardly have overhead costs – again because the diocese, which has its

own fund-raising activities and some business ventures, takes care of

these – but they have to pay for staff salaries, as well as for monitoring,

which is their “signature” activity. They charge these to the general fund.

Elsa explains that the general fund comes from projects, miscellaneous

donations and contributions and occasional fund-raising activities. 36

Asked if the general fund is large enough to sustain the CCAGG in case

no projects come in, Elsa says it will probably last for only a few months

to fund staff salaries and operations.

How does the general fund get to be replenished?

While in the past, the CCAGG only did monitoring, its good reputation has

allowed it to venture into other projects and access some funds. For 2007

through 2008, for instance, the CCAGG has been involved in six projects,

which draw on the strengths of CCAGG in project monitoring, community

organizing and even mediating and peace-building. When developing

funding proposals, the CCAGG embeds staff salaries and costs for

honoraria – which are real costs to be incurred, given the nature of work

and activities expected from the CCAGG.

What happens after the project receives funding is something else.

Because most funding agencies would not fund overhead costs like

regular staff salaries, only project-based staff would have to be funded.

Salaries for the regular staff who must work on a daily basis, but would

rarely have a chance to be involved in project implementation cannot be

charged to projects.

Yet an interesting internal arrangement among the staff and officers of the

CCAGG prevents regular staff from being unfairly treated.

Upon joining CCAGG, the staff members enter into an unwritten

agreement that their salaries are not theirs alone, so to speak. They are

aware that they will not get the salaries as stated in documents in full, as 37

some of it will have to go to the general fund. And no one minds. Even

those who receive honoraria when they are invited as resource persons

for other organizations would not keep the money, or the gifts, for

themselves. Other resource persons from outside invited by the CCAGG

as consultants or resource persons would also share their honoraria with

the organization. The CCAGG would pool together the amounts in the

general fund so that the regular staff can get salaries, plus, if the funds

would allow, some basic benefits like social security, health, and housing

contributions.

When cash flow is scarce, the CCAGG would still rely on the diocese to

tide them over. Accumulated bills for internet and communication are not

a cause for disconnection, as these are also provided by the diocese.

Still, financial sustainability remains a nagging issue. While Manang

Pura’s “charm” still serves as a “magnet” for funding institutions, say the

staff, accessing funds is becoming more and more difficult.

Rather than banking on their reputation and monitoring skills to get funds

to at least raise staff salaries to a level comparable to their Metro Manila

counterparts, or perhaps to get just a little more compensation for the

hard work, the CCAGG choose to be involved in more voluntary work,

which they have been known for. They are now part of a larger national

network called Road Watch, which is chaired by CCAGG’s own Manang

Pura and which will monitor the procurement process for, and

implementation of, foreign-funded, large-scale road projects of the

DPWH. For the moment, they are allotted about 45,000 pesos for six

months – barely enough to cover travel expenses for monitoring and

materials for training in three regions, they say. The amount will not

38

provide for allowance to buy new shoes to replace their old, worn-out

pairs, Belmor Pacapa chuckles.

Financial sustainability seems a real challenge. So are they worried?

Belmor was quick to reply: “Ako, personally hindi ko iniisip yon.” (It

doesn’t cross my mind.)

But Elsa, the accountant, says she thinks about these things too – “I also

think about the stability of the organization, and at the same time your

own personal stability especially if you have a family,” she says.

But as though reassuring Elsa, Belmor remarked: “May dalawa akong

college e. Way back 1992 nagsimula ako dito, malilit pa sila. College na

sila e. I mean, meron din akong agam-agam na maaaring ang CCAGG ay

hindi gumalaw o maging stagnant kasi nga dahil sa pondo. Kaya nga ang

iniisip ko dapat laging may project na sumusuporta, So kailangan talaga

yung proposals ng project dapat constant yung pag-access mo ng

pondo.” (I’m sending two children to college. I started here way back in

1992; they were still very young then. And now they’re in college. I mean,

I also worry about CCAGG getting stopped in its tracks because of

funding. But that’s why I think we need to constantly be on the lookout for

projects that can support us. That’s why we need to keep developing

project proposals so we can access funds.)

So while one may interpret Belmor’s “hindi ko iniisip yon” as something

akin to “bahala na,” it is not really so. Rather, hearing the staff’s

responses, one can sense not only the contentment, the fulfillment they

get out of what they do, but also the confidence, perhaps knowing their

own determination to keep the CCAGG alive. Now that Manang Pura is 39

in her retirement age – in fact, she no longer works full time for the

organization and just visits the CCAGG office about once a week to check

and sign papers – the younger CCAGG members know that they need to

act quickly. They have been discussing this matter in their strategic

planning sessions, they say.

A lot of ideas have been brought up – like making use of the Internet to

get support from outside the country, tapping resources of overseas

Filipino workers. “We are thinking that people who go abroad do want to

help,” the staff say. “If you see a big house in Bangued it's either a

politician's house or that built by an overseas worker,” Engineer Ruel

shares. The OFWs may not be physically here, he continues, but they

see these people helping their province mates. Abra's Ilocano-Tingguian

association in Hong Kong, according to Engineer Ruel, has projects in

almost every town in the province. A lot of them give out scholarships for

bright and deserving students. “Perhaps in the near future they would

also want to support the work of CCAGG. We just have not decided how

we want to reach out to them. We don't even have a Web site yet.”

The ever-vigilant Manang Pura can only agree. Like a mother who gets

impatient with her college graduate who she thinks is slackening off in his

job search, she sighs: “They are taking their own sweet time.”

“Once a CCAGG, Always a CCAGG”

Having experienced the golden years of CCAGG at a time when people

power was at its peak, Manang Pura now worries that the spirit of

volunteerism is no longer as vibrant as it was before.

40

Pura Sumangil recalls those early days with both pride and nostalgia. “We

were so naïve and fearless,” she beams, still amazed at what the CCAGG

hazarded to do. The other founders who led those early skirmishes have

since passed away, and this may be a large part of the volunteerism that

Pura Sumangil misses.

Many of the other original volunteers have since taken up government

posts or gone abroad. Even recent batches of volunteers have ventured

into other things – although not without having served in the CCAGG for

at least a few years.

Other CCAGG volunteers have stayed on.

Engineer Rene Brasuela is one of those

young volunteers who, twenty years ago,

worked hard to investigate the fictitious

NorLuz reports of the eleven DPWH

engineers. He is still with CCAGG, as one of

its core staff members who go around the Ilocos region working with other

groups who have sought the CCAGG's assistance.

“I'm also observing the young people,” Manang Pura says. The youth

today seem to be very busy, she says. And many of them, even those

who volunteered with CCAGG for a while, are setting their sights on a lot

of different things; many want to go abroad.

But then again, Manang Pura says this is not necessarily something to be

sad about. The good thing about Filipinos going abroad, she says, is that

they get to experience not just a better life but better systems, better

governance. Thus, they come back with higher standards, with new sets

of skills and, of course, resources that many would be willing to share 41

with the community. She has seen this happen, she says, and the

province reaps the benefits.

Engineer Ruel Busque is one CCAGG engineer who came back after

staying a few months in Hong Kong in 2007. He remains an active

CCAGG staff member. Engineer Rene, who chose to stay on,

occasionally goes out of the country not for so-called greener pastures

but to spread the word and share his skills to other nations. He, however,

speaks kindly of his former colleagues who, he says, need to support

their families by working abroad. But the CCAGG alumni, they all say,

always make it a point to come by and meet CCAGG people in Bangued

-- “once a CCAGG, always a CCAGG.”

Manang Pura simply hopes that people who go abroad will come back

after temporary sojourns in other countries. And she hopes that when

they come back they will see even more clearly how much work still

needs to be done in their home country.

A Look to the Future

For some, the true measure of the success of an organization like

CCAGG lies in the loss of a need for it. The CCAGG was formed to fill a

gap in governance. And analysts would say that the CCAGG has already

been able to institutionalize a mechanism of accountability, for checks

and balance among public institutions.

While elsewhere today, other national government agencies still contend

with the kind of “SOP” (standard operating procedure) where contractors

42

and suppliers allot a percentage for bribes to government officials and

personnel, regional line agencies in Abra find themselves getting used to

the “right” SOP – where government agencies’ transactions are

transparent and people are given the chance to be involved in

government programs.

Perhaps without meaning to, DPWH Engineer Agnes somehow reinforces

the supposition that the CCAGG has served its purpose.

Asked about the possibility of CCAGG folding up, she replies:

“Mamimiss din namin sila kasi nakakatulong din sila sa amin. Pero hindi

naman siguro masyado kasi may TAS (technical audit specialists) na.

Saka public na ngayon, aware na rin (ang mga tao) sa nangyayari. Saka

nakapag-ano na sila e, parang may gala-galamay na sila sa mga local

units… Hindi na gaya ng dati na walang paki ang mga tao..” (We will miss

them because they help us. Then again, maybe not, because we already

have the TAS. Besides, people now are more aware of things that are

happening. They (CCAGG) have already established their networks at the

local units, unlike before when people did not seem to care.)

Likewise, the CCAGG staff believe that they were already able to bring

back the institutional checks and balances – the mechanisms that had

been undermined by a long period of dictatorship and abuse of power.

The problems associated with national government public works projects

in Abra are no longer as grave as before, they say. This is why the

CCAGG can now look beyond Abra.

Engineer Agnes says she is also happy that CCAGG is now going

beyond Abra to help other provinces in setting up similar organizations. 43

“They now share their experiences with the rest of the country. They even

go abroad. At least it all started in Abra,” she says. “Proud na rin kami.

Parang yung relationship sa amin na experimental, magagamit nila sa

ibang provinces, ibang nations.”

But there are still problems.

In Abra itself, CCAGG has yet to figure out how it can help citizens hold

their local governments to account. “I would say that our impact after all

these years has largely been with the agencies of the central

government,” Manang Pura says. This view is shared by the CCAGG

staff. Manang Pura observes that local government politicians give much

less care for procedure and transparency requirements, compared to

bureaucrats of NEDA, National Irrigation Administration (NIA),

Department of Public Works and Highways or the Department of

Agriculture (DA). In the case of these line agencies of the central

government, it has almost become a routine for them to hand to the

CCAGG the list of projects to be implemented in the province, as well as

the programs of work for projects that CCAGG would monitor. Local

government officials feel much less obliged.

Locally-elected officials seem different, “maybe it's because even CCAGG

staff believe them to be different or possessed of authority that mere

appointees and employees of line agencies do not have; pero bakit ba?”

challenges Manang Pura. “We should hold them to account and require

them just the same to be faithful to the public interest.”

Manang Pura obviously still dreams for more for Abra. She cites Naga

City Mayor Jesse Robredo, who put up a Web site where all projects are

made known to citizens. It’s a citizen-friendly Web site, she says. “This is 44

what it means to be transparent. Open book. May pakialam ang mga tao.

At nabibigyan sila ng chance na makialam. (People have a stake and

they are given the chance to get involved.) After all, the money that is

used in running the government is the money of the people, from our

taxes… Totoo nga, maliit lang ang binayad kong tax, pero every day of

my life, I buy soap and shampoo, and toothpaste and for every thing that I

buy, may indirect taxes yan e. Ang VAT ang laki-laki, 12%. Ba’t hindi nyo

kami bibigyan ng chance na makialam?” (It’s true, I pay an insignificant

amount of [income] tax. But every day of my life I pay indirect taxes for

every thing that I buy. Why won’t we be given a chance to participate?)

Manang Pura does acknowledge the reality that local officials often treat

local public resources as if these are theirs to dispense as they please.

“We need new approaches,” she says. She reveals they are planning to

create modules on public participation in the local budget process

because this is one of the best ways to get access to the information that

they need for their work. In another sense, however, this is also a new

field for them – CCAGG usually comes into the scene only after projects

and contractors have been chosen and after programs of work have been

developed. Working on local government budget and procurement

processes would allow people to see how priorities are set and how

designs are chosen.

Unfortunately, despite the milestones achieved with line agencies, and

despite the implementation of the Government Procurement Reform Act,

the budget and procurement processes at the national government level

still also remain quite impenetrable, almost beyond scrutiny. DPWH

Engineer Tadeo acknowledges that, where before they would choose

from among only two or three contractors, more contractors now come in

to bid for projects. But then, he says, some of these would turn out to be 45

dummies of old-timers and would be found to lack the necessary papers.

It is also hard to detect, much less, prove that there could be bribes,

commissions or kickbacks, he says, as there are also ingenious and not-

so-ingenious ways of hiding these or simply because people may have

come to accept this as part of how government works.

This perception is consistent with a 2007 Social Weather Station survey

among Filipino managers in selected cities and business areas which

reveals that the median allowance for bribes to win government contracts

is 20%. The survey also reveals that most of the respondents were asked

for bribes but only few reported it, with 69% believing that nothing will be

done anyway. One hopes that with CCAGG around and with the culture

of honesty and openness that the organization has been trying to instill,

Abra would be an exception.

Still, the risks are there.

It is no wonder that Manang Pura, even after decades of hard work and

commitment, refuses to just count their accomplishments and instead,

continues to search for ways to deal with the problems. Her impatience

with the “slowness” of the younger generation is only a sign that there is

so much more that needs to be done. In a country where corruption is

deep-seated, it is hard to say that a watchdog like the CCAGG will lose its

relevance in the near future.

46

Small Deeds that CountAteneo School of Government, Government-WatchBy: Nerissa T. Esguerra

47

In March 1999, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)

came out with a disturbing report, revealing dirty deals among a

significant number of officials and personnel of then Department of

Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) and suppliers of textbooks and

supplementary educational materials for the last 20 years or so7. The

report exposed how bribery had become a way of life for DECS suppliers

and accounted for as much as 65 percent of textbook funds.

The PCIJ report was made even more disturbing when serious shortages

in textbooks, together with delays and difficulties in procurement and

rising costs were discovered. Data from a World Bank project document8

showed that in 1998, eight pupils had to share a single textbook. The

Philippine Human Development Report 20009 revealed the dismal state of

financing for, and quality of, basic education in the Philippines: “The

DECS estimated that some P6.8 billion would be required in 1999 to

achieve the target 1:1 ratio of books to pupils including instructional

materials, and P3.6 billion to achieve a second-best solution of a 1:2 ratio.

The DBM-recommended budget for textbooks in 1999, on the other hand,

was P479.6 million, enough to purchase only 7,377,969 textbooks, or

about 7 percent of what DECS estimated they need to meet their target.

Clearly, the program is collapsing.”

7 Yvonne Chua, “Up to 65% of Textbook Funds Goes to Bribes” http://www.pcij.org/stories/1999/textbook.html; “The Chain of Corruption in Textbook Purchases”, http://www.pcij.org/stories/1999/textbook2.html and “Can DECS stop Textbook Scams? http://www.pcij.org/stories/1999/textbook3.html. Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, March 1999.8 World Bank 2004, Implementation completion report on a loan in the amount of US$100 million on a social expenditure management project. (http://www.worldbank.org)9 Philippine Human Development Report 2000: Quality, access, and relevance in basic education

48

Anecdotal accounts also abounded. It was not uncommon to see school

children sharing worn-out books with pages were falling apart, and

containing obsolete information. School administrators and teachers

complained of delays in receiving their textbook allocation, when they

knew that DECS had already purchased these; they also complained of

not having received their allocations at all.

It was a serious problem needing serious attention, more importantly from

the academe and civil society, who knew that the issue at the education

department was only a symptom of a bigger problem in public

management.

In 2000, the Ateneo School of

Government formed Government

Watch (G-Watch), a special project

for civil society engagement in

developing a framework for

performance appraisal in government

agencies, particularly in the area of

public expenditure management. The project intended to propose

guidelines for monitoring the implementation of government programs.

The principle behind G-Watch was that “(c)itizens’ involvement in public

management prevents corruption and improves people’s access to basic

services.”10

It was within this framework that the Textbook Count was initiated.

Textbook Count was not only a just-in-time response to well-publicized

reports; it was also part of a deliberate targeting strategy, knowing that it 10 http://www.g-watch.org/profile.html

49

was impossible to cover all government programs. G-Watch chose key

government agencies that provide basic social services and major public

goods. Within these agencies, they chose programs that directly benefit

or reach the people, those “big-ticket” items or those that eat up a large

chunk of an agency’s budget, and are thus known to be highly vulnerable

to corruption. Textbook purchases and deliveries fit these criteria, and so

did school building construction, public works, purchase of medicines,

and distribution of disaster relief.

Textbook Count was conceived as a simple project meant to address a

complex problem. For G-Watch, addressing one part of the problem could

already yield significant gains: if only citizens could actually know what

exactly was supposed to be delivered to them and then be able to check

this against what they received, if they received any at all, then this could

already make a big difference, G-Watch thought.

Armed with a framework backed by an academic institution, a network of

civil society organizations (CSOs), some simple monitoring tools, and a

lot of zeal, G-Watch embarked on monitoring textbook purchases and

deliveries. Eager to demonstrate how it could be done and what kind of

results could be delivered, G-Watch invited officials from the Department

of Education (now dubbed DepEd), among others, to a presentation on

the pilot project.

The idea caught the interest of Juan Miguel “Mike” Luz, who had just

joined the Department of Education as Undersecretary in November

2002. Undersecretary Luz, whose experience spanned government,

private business and the non-government (NGO) sectors, challenged G-

Watch to do this on a larger scale11. This response was exactly what G-11 Based on interview with Dondon Parafina

50

Watch had been hoping for. A few months later, the undersecretary, with

the full support of DepEd Secretary Edilberto de Jesus who also

happened to be newly appointed as well12, and in cooperation with G-

Watch, was able to transform the G-Watch concept paper into official

DepEd memoranda and to prepare the DepEd personnel for the

implementation of the program.

Thus, in 2003, the DepEd-sponsored Textbook Count 1 was born13. It was

just in time for a major textbook procurement that was funded by the

World Bank – a welcome financial relief for DepEd. Fully aware of the

risks in a privatized setting, the department decided that civil society

organizations were to take part in the complete textbook procurement

cycle, from bidding to production to final delivery.

At about the same time, a law was passed on January 10, 2003, which

institutionalized transparency measures in public procurement, including

the participation of civil society organizations. This was the Government

Procurement Reform Act or GPRA (Republic Act No. 9184), which

consolidated more than 60 laws pertaining to public procurement.

Boosted by GPRA, it was all systems go for monitoring a total of 37

million textbooks and teachers’ manuals for elementary and secondary

education, amounting to P1.3 billion and which would be coming from

different suppliers, both local and foreign.

As things began to unfold, the initiators realize the scope and intensity of

the work that had to be done. With about 5,500 delivery points

12 Secretary de Jesus was appointed in September 2002.13 Grace Leung (2005), “Textbook Count and Civil Society Participation: Effecting System Reforms in the Department of Education”.

51

nationwide, it became clear that resources would be insufficient. But this

reality only fuelled even more the drive to make it happen. Ideas poured

in. With different networks in the private sector of Undersecretary Luz and

in the civil society organizations of G-Watch, all it took were a few phone

calls and meetings and things rapidly fell into place.

Non-governmental organizations were the first to volunteer to be counted

in upon learning of the initiative. The National Movement for Free

Elections (NAMFREL), with its nationwide network of volunteers highly

experienced in counting and monitoring the elections, took the lead in

mobilizing volunteers and facilitated Textbook Count civil society

operations at the district level or the actual delivery sites. Other CSOs

that joined included Association of Ministers and Ministries in Nueva

Ecija, Caucus on Development NGO Network, Concerned Citizens of

Abra for Good Government, Konsyensang Pilipino, National Secretariat

for Social Action, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines,

Philippine Governance Forum (G-Watch, Budget Advocacy Project and

TAN OpTeam), and Procurement Watch Inc.

Still, it seemed that the number of people they could mobilize was not

enough. The following year, DepEd purchased another 14 million

textbooks, teacher’s manuals and lesson guides, amounting to P660

million.

Fortunately, G-Watch Coordinator Dondon Parafina still had something

up his sleeve. He had an organization in mind that fit the requirements of

Textbook Count. The organization’s two-million or so members were all

over the country, he thought. They were full of energy. They were mostly

teachers and students who had a stake in the textbook procurement and

distribution. The mission of Textbook Count was also congruent with the 52

organization’s principles. Dondon thought the organization’s participation

would make a huge difference. At the back of his mind, he thought they

could be the answer to questions from some members of funding

agencies who were hesitant to give funds for Textbook Count as they

were sceptical about the feasibility of such a gargantuan task.

Boys and Girls Come Along

It was a breeze for Dondon Parafina to get the Boy Scouts of the

Philippines (BSP) to partner with and help G-Watch cope with the huge

task at hand. He was, after all, a boy scout himself.

Dondon made that phone call to Nixon Canlapan, Officer in Charge of

Public Relations and Communication Division of the Boy Scouts of the

Philippines, who was glad to entertain the call. Nixon had reason to trust

Dondon, who was not only an outstanding boy scout14 but was also

chairman of the Ten Outstanding Boy Scouts of the Philippines

Association (TOBSPA). The Girls Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) was

also a logical link that was activated.

Presented with a convincing concept, the BSP and GSP readily took on

the task. After a series of meetings and presentations, various

Memoranda of Agreement were signed, sealing the partnership between

and among the BSP, GSP and G-Watch for Textbook Count.

Looking back, Nixon candidly and matter-of-factly admitted that Textbook

Count was initially just an opportunity for publicity or “visibility”, as he

called it. He was, after all, in charge of public relations and his

14 Parafina was among the Ten Outstanding Boy Scouts of the Philippines in 199253

responsibility was to keep people aware of the Boy Scouts. When

Dondon approached him, proposing a partnership for what was to be the

second phase of Textbook Count, Nixon immediately grabbed it, thinking

that this was a good public relations material. This would be a first for

BSP, he had thought.

Soon enough, the boys and girls scouts were all over school districts,

joining adult members of civil society organizations in checking lists,

photocopying, collating and stapling monitoring sheets, counting books,

scanning the textbook pages to check for damages, ink smudges or poor

quality paper, and texting reports of non-delivery and other problems to

the coordinators in charge.

As public relations officer, Nixon was not disappointed. He was pleasantly

surprised at how the scouts’ participation in the Textbook Count caught

media’s attention. Photos of scouts and stories of their participation were

featured by media. It was a success, “visibility-wise.”

But the experience far exceeded Nixon’s expectations and went beyond

his original intentions. As Textbook Count was being implemented, Nixon

began to appreciate the deeper meaning of the project, and how this was

related to scouting that puts emphasis to community service and love of

country. Initially, he said, the scouts saw what they were doing simply as

being helpful to others – helping the adults at DepEd with their job, just as

they would help the elderly carry things like these books. But during the

course of interacting with G-Watch and the rest of the CSOs, they began

to realize that they were actually being part of a much bigger effort to fight

corruption. They learned that thousands of textbooks purchased by the

government at millions of pesos did not reach school children and

something had to be done about it.54

For scouts, Nixon said, corruption was

a big word, something that they could

do nothing about, something that

involves politics. They never thought

before that simple deeds could matter.

After all, it was not really a huge effort

for BSP. Each Scout Master chose

only two or three scouts to participate in the Textbook Count so it was not

as if they were mobilizing the entire scouting community.

The scouts never thought that spending a few hours to count and send

text messages could actually have an impact, that these could deter any

attempts at short-changing the public, especially school children. And

they probably never thought that their mere presence—young school

children whose minds adults try to nourish and protect from harsh realities

and whom adults pin their hopes on—could act as a deterrent against

wrongdoings.

Thus, what was initially thought of as an ordinary public relations tactic

became something far more relevant and meaningful.

The young ones themselves are generally pleased with what they had

done. In a study on youth participation in Textbook Count, James Paul

Esguerra and Mary Jean Tan15 quoted a girl scout from Metro Manila as

saying:

15 James Paul H. Esguerra and Mary Jean P. Tan (2006). “Youth Participation in Textbook Count”, an effect study written for Government Watch, Ateneo School of Government, with funding support from Partnership for Transparency Fund.

55

“At first, nahirapan kami kasi marami iyon, iilan-ilan lang kaming girl

scouts at babae pa kami pero doon nakita ang pagsasamahan namin;

ang unity at pagsusumikap na magawa namin para makatulong sa ibang

tao not only sa nakakabata sa amin, sa mas matanda at kasing-age din

namin” (We had a hard time, because there were just so many books,

and there were just so few of us girl scouts and we were females at that,

but that also proved our unity, our perseverance to be able to help others

not only those who were younger than us, but also to those who were

older than us and to our peers.)

It helped that the scouts recognized what they did for Textbook Count as

part of their duties as scouts. Esguerra and Tan noted that initially, the

scouts’ assistance stemmed from duty, something that the teacher or

Scoutmaster asked or told them to do. Most had done it because

participating was part of the badge merit system.

But having had a taste of success and feeling of usefulness to the

country, many of the scouts were now eager to join the Textbook Count

again. In fact, Nixon Canlapan said, Scout Masters had to manage the

“competition” among scouts; those who joined before wanted a repeat

while those who were unable to participate wanted to experience

Textbook Count.

Collective Action

The scouts indeed proved to be helpful and had made a lot of difference

for Textbook Count. But there were also other organizations that shared

their resources and whose strengths and potentials were tapped and put

to good use. Textbook Count benefited much from the collective efforts of

56

NGOs, students, teachers and educators and community-based citizens’

movements.

Moreover, coming from the private sector himself, Undersecretary Luz

knew that there was more potential out there that remained untapped.

And he knew the right persons to call. It did not take a lot of cajoling for

two private firms to be willing to join the effort. Like the scouts, the private

firms did not have to deviate much from what they were already doing.

Soon, a known advertising agency16 was developing print advertisements

for Textbook Count, and a soft drink company17 was asking its sales

people to unload some cases of soft drinks from their delivery trucks to

make space for textbooks that had to be delivered to hard-to-reach areas

—all done pro-bono for DepEd, even if these may have entailed some

digging into the companies’ profits.

It was probably one of the most inspiring stories of people’s collective

action.

Significant Results

Yet it was not just the act that was significant; significant too were the

results—yes, the textbooks—that were actually delivered, and the savings

that went with it.

In Textbook Count 4 alone, Geert van der Linden of the Partnership for

Transparency Philippines estimated the total savings secured by

Textbook Count at about P151 million, an amount which, according to

him, far outweighed the cost of the project, which was placed at about

16 Campaigns and Grey17 Coca-Cola

57

P2.7 million, consisting mostly of in-kind contribution and less than a

million pesos as cash18.

A 2006 study by Simon Gregorio showed similar results. According to the

study, the savings, in terms of guaranteeing that government resources

were not wasted, exceeded the cost of monitoring. “(F)or every peso

spent in monitoring,” Gregorio wrote, “civil society monitors guaranteed

that PhP3.99 was not wasted. Even by the standards of business, this is

a good return.”

There was also marked improvement in the length of time it took for

DepEd to open the bids until the textbooks are delivered. The entire

process was cut by half: from 24 months to 12. This was attributed to joint

efforts at discovering problems and bottlenecks and then facilitating

communication between the DepEd national office and the districts as

well as with the suppliers/forwarders and recipients.

Likewise, the volunteers ensured durability of the textbooks (better quality

paper, better binding, clear printing). Suppliers were compelled to take

back and replace books that did not meet the quality control standards

being followed by DepEd and the monitors.

Although direct attribution could not be made, prices of textbooks were

significantly cut by 40 to 50 percent. Prices of textbooks went down from

about P90 to as low as 39 pesos – an amount much less than the price

estimate used by DECS in calculating the budget requirements for

meeting its target textbook-to-pupil ratio in 1999.

18 Geert van der Linden reported that PTF gave a grant of $22,555 plus in-kind contributions amounting to about $43,180.

58

This was said to be a clear result of the benefits of the GPRA that opened

government procurement to public bidding. It was also believed the

CSOs’ presence during the bidding process, as prescribed by the GPRA

and as ensured by the DepEd, deterred attempts at overpricing.

Even the World Bank, which funded the textbooks, was happy. The Bank

had repeatedly lauded the achievements of Textbook Count in its reports

and public statements and in various forums.

Exciting Times

And then there were other stories of DepEd-CSO collaboration to thwart

corruption attempts. Unscrupulous suppliers may be able to offer

kickback to those in government to bag large contracts. But it only takes a

single person in government to gather the courage to foil these attempts

by providing “tips” – that is, give hints to people outside that something

fishy could be happening.

Dondon narrated that sometime in 2007, an informant from DepEd called

up G-Watch to seek help19. The informant was troubled by documents

showing that DepEd could be paying more than P200,000 for the 600

desktop computers that could be bought in computer shops for less than

P50,000 each. Bids were scheduled to be opened the next day and the

informant was worried about what could happen. In no time, a G-Watch

representative was sent all the way from Manila to the DepEd regional

office to observe the bid opening. Yet G-Watch was not sure this would

be enough. They needed to reach the media. But G-Watch also had to

manage this well, fearing that irresponsible media reports could damage

the reputation of DepEd, put the informant’s life and career in danger and

19 Interview with Dondon Parafina59

strain the relations between G-Watch and the DepEd. G-Watch had to

carefully choose the members of media to whom the “tip” would be sent.

The following day, the report came out with the “alarm” and this prompted

the DepEd to cancel the opening of the bids.

For Dondon, it was one of the most exciting days of his experience at G-

Watch.

Not All Roses

While it may seem to have been all rosy, Textbook Count also had its

challenges and setbacks. In a meeting of the CSO consortium on May 9,

2008, Joy Aceron, formerly senior researcher and now coordinator of G-

Watch, acknowledged these. She said that Mike Luz’s departure from

DepEd20 had been a great loss. After all, Mike Luz not only fully

appreciated Textbook Count, he had successfully made it work in DepEd.

Without him in DepEd, they now face the risk of not having any strong

champion in DepEd. Without a strong champion who sees to it that

policies are adhered to, procedures are strictly followed, and problems

are promptly addressed, Dondon says that there had been some

slowdown and procedural lapses in Textbook Count since Mike Luz left.

The CSOs also had to face a serious problem that they were possibly not

in a position to address. In 2005, Antonio Calipjo Go, academic

supervisor of Marian School of Quezon City, came out to expose that a

316-page textbook used by 2nd year high school students had 413

20 Luz was forced to resign from DepEd in April 2006, months after he refused to honor checks issued by the President’s Social Fund to fund the scholarship program of Zambales representative Antonio Diaz. Source: Yvonne Chua, “Mike Luz quits DepEd”, April 22, 2006. http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=858

60

errors-- historical, technical, substantive and grammatical errors and

discrepancies. Since then, Mr. Go had closely monitored textbooks and

claimed to still find numerous errors each year.

It was obviously a vital concern, yet CSOs were not ready to deal with it.

Textbook Count was a fairly simple undertaking and it was rather easy to

mobilize people to go out and count. “But content requires another set of

skills,” Dondon said, “which might not be in the civil society anymore but

is nevertheless very important. Kasi one criticism is, if you don’t look at

the content and you just monitor the distribution, then you are like

facilitating the distribution of bad eggs.”

“(N)oong mga panahong unang lumabas yung lalu na yung kay Calipjo

Go (During the time that issues on substance were being raised

especially by Calipjo-go) … we discussed it with the civil society

members. Anong gagawin natin dito? Nagpapakapagod tayong nagmo-

monitor ng distribution…ano yung dini-distribute natin? Baka lason pala

yan. (What do we do with this? We were working hard trying to monitor

distribution. But what are we distributing? Could we have been

distributing poison?)

As is typical of Filipinos, Dondon now would just recall the experience

with a laugh, making fun of themselves. “Nakumpleto nga... Proud na

proud kami, wow, 86%, bumaba yung presyo, yun pala lason naman.”

(Indeed we completed it... We were so proud, wow, 86% [delivery

guaranteed], prices went down… Then we find out that it is poison.)

But as it turned out, there was an even bigger problem. This time, it could

not be a laughing matter.

61

As if the 1999 PCIJ story on the chain of corruption at DepEd was not

revealing enough, in early 2008, one witness in the person of Jun Lozada

came out and claimed to have first-hand knowledge of deep-seated, high-

level and large-scale corruption in government procurement. Among other

controversies, Lozada mentioned that a major project of the DepEd was

tainted with irregularities. This was the Cyber Education package.

Originally a $23-million distance-learning package, according to a

Newsbreak report, the controversial project was said to have been

transformed into a $329-million broadband project and a $500 million plus

Cyber Education project21.

The revelations propelled Dondon into depression. Seriously bothered by

Jun Lozada’s testimony, Dondon began to question the achievements of

Textbook Count and his own contributions. He felt as if they were out

there, celebrating success and counting the huge benefits of what they

had done, only to find out that they had barely scratched the surface.

While they were busy trying to save a few million pesos of DepEd’s

resources, more lucrative projects were being brewed somewhere

beyond their watchful eyes; projects that, if Lozada were to be believed,

threatened to channel even more tremendous figures from government

coffers into private pockets.

Suddenly their achievements were dwarfed by the enormity of the

problem. Did their Textbook Count efforts really matter? Were they

barking up the wrong tree all this time? Did they not just waste time,

energies and resources? Was it an exercise in futility?

21 Lala Rimando, “Senate Key Witness to Corroborate Neri”, Feb. 6, 2008, Newsbreak. http://www.newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4149&Itemid=88889051

62

These questions may still linger in the back of the minds of Dondon and

the rest of civil society. After all, the issues brought up by Jun Lozada

remain unresolved up to today.

Fortunately, the abrupt realization of the gravity of the situation did not

have a lasting impact on the civil society’s morale. Spirits may have been

dampened for a while there, but recent events have only served as a

reminder that the job that remains unfinished.

Today, according to Joy Aceron, the fax machines and mail boxes of G-

Watch constantly receive invitations from several government agencies

wanting to have civil society observers in their procurement processes. G-

Watch staff would often receive calls from government personnel,

seemingly worried that something wrong could happen in their bidding

process. G-Watch, with its skeletal force and limited resources, can only

accommodate so much that it needs to farm out these invitations to other

members of the CSO consortium.

Certainly, this is not the time for CSOs to back out; now that other

agencies have begun to see them as potential allies that can be counted

on to protect public funds, as strong watchdogs and supporters that can

keep corruption at bay. Clearly, civil society participation is wanted and

needed.

No Silver Bullets

Still, however, challenges are up ahead. The CSO consortium has been

faced with sustainability issues.

63

Can their limited and dwindling resources meet the growing demands?

With Undersecretary Luz out, will DepEd continue to welcome and

support civil society participation? Can the consortium sustain itself? Will

the volunteers keep doing this each year? Will the private institutions

brought in by Undersecretary Luz continue to work for Textbook Count?

Will G-Watch continue to be existent, considering that it remains a

project, or a non-permanent entity created by the Ateneo School of

Government? Is DepEd ready to go on its own for the textbook monitoring

without help from CSOs?

Fortunately, it is the CSOs themselves, together with their partners in

DepEd and their international development partners, who are asking

these questions and are constantly searching for answers. Textbook

Count is now on its fifth sequel, and it must be noted that each one is not

always the same as its predecessor. Adjustments and new innovations

are constantly introduced, as well-timed responses to issues and

problems are encountered.

Among themselves, the CSOs, trained to have critical minds even for

their own actions, also had some thinking to do regarding their impact,

including some possible unintended consequences. They had to ask

themselves: Are they helping government and strengthening the

systems? Or are they weakening the system by inadvertently

encouraging “laziness” or “complacency” by doing what government

personnel are supposed to do? Are they taking on government’s job of

ensuring clean and orderly procurement process and complete and timely

delivery of goods?

These are some questions that CSOs bring to the surface during their

meetings. Dondon shares his own view:

64

“Textbook Count was a response to a specific situation and the situation

already required that kind of direct intervention,” Dondon said, referring to

the actual checking and counting of books that, for some, is tantamount to

taking over DepEd’s responsibilities. ... It worked because it delivered the

results. (But) if we will be continuing it, I mean non-stop, then in the long

run we might not be contributing to the strengthening of the system. We

will be encouraging laziness, complacency.”

“But a corollary theoretical question there is, “Dondon continued, “tumitigil

ba yung participation ng civil society? (Does civil society participation

stop?) And in some discussions I mentioned no, it doesn’t. Participation

will be always an ongoing process but it has to be reinvented. So hindi

sya yung pare-pareho (it’s not always the same thing), just static, what

you started you just do over and over repeatedly. It has to be reinvented.

Kasi baka naman hindi na yung Textbook Count type intervention yung

kailangan. Baka naman more on the policy. (It could be that a Textbook

Count type intervention is no longer what is needed. Maybe (what is

needed is more on the policy side)… So it’s an ongoing process and you

have to be able to see the situation that needs to be addressed. Wala

naman (There is no) silver bullet or a single solution. You have to keep

adjusting keep responding to the needs of the times,” said Dondon.

Dondon argued that Textbook Count is context-specific and “it’s a

mechanism that should be there and retrieved when needed… At some

point we have to pause and stop volunteering because that is an

indication that the system has been repaired and it’s ready to function on

its own. But if it happens that the same problem recurs,” he said, “then we

have a ready mechanism.”

“Institutionalization doesn’t have to mean that you keep doing it over and

over; (that) it has to be repeated every year... We are already in Textbook 65

Count 5 and that’s what’s happening – probably because the system is

not ready,” said Dondon.

Consistent with the CSO framework, Textbook Count 5 is now designed

so that G-Watch, which has ably served as the overall coordinator and

secretariat, will take a more hands-off approach, to allow the CSOs and

DepEd to work together on their own, hoping that the present systems

and mechanisms of checks and balances will work without much

intervention.

The scouts are being eyed to take on bulk of the work of G-Watch. The

BSP and GSP’s strategic presence is suitable for the job, according to

Dondon.

However, Nixon Canlapan admitted that the scouts are not yet ready to

take on that kind of responsibility. He said that Textbook Count is still

associated more with the Public Relations Division, although those in

Operations have been active in the actual monitoring work. The

Operations Division, he said, would ideally be the one to take the lead.

Even so, the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts still have a lot of things to

learn. Nixon said they do not yet have the kind of network and institutional

credibility as an overall coordinator. Without elaborating, Nixon mentioned

that the BSP may have to tread on precarious political grounds,

considering that its National President is Mayor Jejoma Binay, who is at

odds with the Chief Scout, the President of the Republic Gloria

Macapagal Arroyo.

At this point, it may be too early to withdraw totally, that is why there is

Textbook Count 5 as well as Textbook Walk, which aims to monitor

textbook delivery down to district levels. What is important is that the 66

CSOs themselves are aware of the intended, as well as the unintended,

consequences of what they are doing.

So while G-Watch is sharing the lessons and experiences with other

countries and expanding its operations to East Asia and the Pacific, the

people behind it are also thinking about how to calibrate their work so that

they can phase out of Textbook Count without any reversals of the gains

they have achieved. Fortunately, two years since the original “champion”

at DepEd has left the department, there seem to be no indications that

DepEd is about to turn its back on its CSO partners. Although there may

have been some slowdown and procedural lapses, as well as remaining

corruption allegations, G-Watch says they still work closely with DepEd,

particularly through the Procurement Service and the Instructional

Materials Council Secretariat. They count on middle managers to

continue what they started and to win top management support. After all,

education is supposed to remain a priority of government.

Joy Aceron is now pondering on the need to work towards strengthening

institutions, not just in the executive department but also the oversight

agencies such as the Commission on Audit (COA), but they have yet to

draw up concrete plans. After all, the Philippine political system already

has, in principle, the necessary checks and balances between and among

the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Departments. It may be worth

trying a little harder to make these mechanisms work, just as they simply

helped do some “repairs” and inject some oil into the DepEd’s existing

machinery.

After all, they too are eager to reach a point where they will be there only

to celebrate successes of their partners, occasionally lending a hand

during hard times, and constantly exchanging thoughts. 67

68

Quantifying Corruption, Qualifying EfficiencyDifferential Expenditure and Efficiency Measurement (DEEM) ToolProcurement Watch IncorporatedBy: Artha Kira Isabel R. Paredes

69

As early as 5 a.m. on weekdays, the

length of patients queuing at the

Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical

Center’s Out Patient Department

(JRRMMC-OPD) reaches half a

kilometer.

Patients, most of whom are poor, have to stay in line for hours under the

sweltering heat of the sun. Those residing far away from the hospital,

located at the San Lorenzo Compound in Sta. Cruz Manila, would often

spend the night at the waiting area just outside the OPD to make certain

they are accommodated when the OPD opens from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Such was the case of Ernesto Abad, a 67-year-old patient from Barangay

Calawes in Antipolo City, some four hours east of Manila. He and his wife

Lorenza, 69, accompanied their son Philip, 14, arrived a day before their

early morning follow up check-up.

Mang Ernesto, who makes a living as a farmer planting and selling

vegetables and root crops such as string beans, bitter melon, cassava

and squash, said he tried consulting other doctors near his hometown but

was not relieved from his constipation and bloating. Neighbors suggested

he should go to JRRMMC because it was “affordable” and had “kind and

good doctors.”

“You just have to bear with the long line and several hysterical patients

because it can take time before the doctor sees you,” he said in Filipino.

He recalled his first OPD consultation, saying he was scheduled five days

later for an appointment with a specialist, but he and his family decided 70

not to go home anymore. Instead, they lived at the hospital waiting area,

where they ate, slept and bathed in order to save money on fare.

Despite having had to wait five days for a

consultation, Mang Ernesto is all praises with

JRRMMC. “Even if you don’t have money,

you get well,” he said.

JRRMMC, one of the 72 government-

retained hospitals, or a hospital under the

supervision of the national government

through the Department of Health (DOH),

was the pilot agency where Procurement Watch, Inc. (PWI) tested its

Differential Expenditure and Efficiency Measurement (DEEM) Tool in

2006.

The DEEM Tool objectively and qualitatively measures graft and

corruption in government agencies in monetary terms using paper trail. It

looks into the procurement by comparing the actual cost of goods as

stated in vouchers to the true cost of goods in the market. The higher the

actual cost compared to the surveyed market price, the most likely an

agency is either corrupt, or inefficient, or both and vice versa.

With the help of the DEEM Tool, not only is the hospital’s pharmacy

expected to sell cheaper and readily-available medicines because of a

faster and more efficient procurement system, but, in the long run,

generate savings to hire more doctors and nurses to give immediate

medical care and attention to patients.

71

From perception to precision

PWI, which initiated the DEEM Tool project, was founded in 2001 by a

group of individuals from different specializations and fields, such as the

government, academe and the private sector. Its mission is to reduce, if

not eliminate, graft and corruption through procurement reform.

Transparency, accountability and efficiency in public procurement are

among the group’s endeavors. 22

Studies on corruption in the Philippines are usually “perception-based,”

like surveys measuring the percentage of Filipinos who think a certain

agency is corrupt. PWI thought of developing a Tool that would give

“concrete” and “precise” results, and not just show how people rate the

efficiency of government agencies, DEEM Tool Project Manager and PWI

Technical Officer Frances Caerina Sy said.

The idea of creating the DEEM Tool “started with a very informal

discussion” with one of the PWI board members a year or two after the

passage of the Government Procurement Reform Act (GPRA), former

PWI President and Chief Executive Officer Josefina Esguerra said.

PWI has extensively lobbied for the enactment of GPRA (Republic Act

No. 9184) that provides for “modernization, standardization and regulation

of the procurement activities of the government and for other purposes.”

The non-government organization (NGO) was a part of the technical

working group that helped draft the law, which was passed on January

10, 2003.

22 www.procurementwatch.org.ph72

During the informal conversation, Esguerra was asked, “what impact do

we want to show?” and “have we prevented corruption?” This discussion

led PWI to start looking into the experiences of other NGOs and came up

with the idea of “measuring corruption in terms of two costs - the cost at

which government bought it” and the cost at which the market is offering

it, she said.

Nurtured Idea

From the day of its conception, the DEEM project “was always attracting

support from people,” from other civil society organizations (CSOs) to

friends in the academe, Esguerra related.

Esguerra presented the idea to Dr. Ana Tabunda, a professor at the

University of the Philippines (UP) School of Statistics and the head of

Pulse Asia, which conducts public opinion-based polls on social issues.

According to Esguerra, Dr. Tabunda encouraged her to pursue the

concept, further adding that the Tool would be the “first” of its kind, but

would entail an enormous amount of work.

CSOs also warned PWI that the task would involve several complications

and they should be ready to deal with the Commission on Audit (COA)

and problematic vouchers.

PWI conducted initial meetings with prospective consultants, a

government institution and a partner organization in late 2005. The roster

of consultants included Dr. Tabunda, as well as Heidi Mendoza, former

state auditor of the Commission on Audit (COA); Virginia Garriel, director

of systems procedures of the Bureau of Department of Budget and

73

Management (DBM), and Assistant Professor Charlie Labina from the UP

School of Statistics.

The National Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), a multi-sectoral

group that has been working for clean and honest elections since 1983,

and which also monitors procurement at government-retained hospitals

such as JRRRMMC, became a partner organization.

The Asia Foundation (TAF) agreed to fund the DEEM Tool project. TAF

awarded a grant of 1,793,750 pesos (US$42,495.85) to finance the

project for 10 months in a letter agreement dated March 1, 2006.

Formal partnership

Even with the approved funding, PWI was only able to proceed after the

Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was signed two months later.

“It took us quite a while” to get the MOA between PWI, DOH, JRRMMC

and NAMFREL signed, Sy, who took over when the original program

manager resigned, explained. The MOA ensured the support of DOH

from the secretary down to the director, and helped PWI work through the

bureaucracy, Esguerra said.

On May 10, 2006, at the DOH main office in Manila, PWI President

Esguerra, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III, JRRMMC Medical Center

Chief Dr. Alicia Lim and NAMFREL Chairman Jose Conception Jr.

entered into a Memorandum of Agreement that stated “all of the parties

believe that measuring corruption is the cornerstone of an anti-corruption

program.”

74

JRRMMC also committed to open

its 2004 and 2005 records,

including the annual procurement

plan, annual audit report, request

issue vouchers of pharmaceuticals,

bidding documents, delivery

receipts, purchase orders, sales

invoices, and so on, as agreed in the MOA.

For Dr. Lim, the team-up with PWI was “most welcome” and a chance to

prove that contrary to the notion that there is “hanky-panky” in

government deals, “government hospitals are very transparent about the

procurement system.”

She said she also saw it as a good opportunity that could make JRRMMC

“the model” since it was “the first time that Procurement Watch will

partner with a government hospital.”

“We are most privileged and I think we have nothing to hide and if there is

anything, if they discover anything then I will consider it as an opportunity

for change,” Dr. Lim said.

To make PWI’s entry formal among hospital employees, the Medical

Center Chief issued a hospital order stating that “all papers that will be

required by the team from Procurement Watch be opened for scrutiny,”

she said.

75

Perfecting the Tool

For the project, volunteers were divided into the statistical team and the

assessment team.

As the first step to developing the Tool, the statistical team “had to do the

sampling frame” by recording “each and every voucher in 2005,” totaling

3,582, according to Dr. Tabunda, who worked with Labina in the statistical

team.

After the initial research, the statistical team met with PWI to finalize the

types of purchases and services that should be included in the sampling

frame. The statistical team made two stratifications.

One was based on the type of procurement, which was qualified into

types and subtypes. The types of procurement were: supplies with drugs,

medical laboratory, surgical, office, transportation, housekeeping, dietary

foodstuffs, and others as subtypes; services with janitorial, laundry,

security, repair and maintenance, renovation, waste disposal, printing,

pest control and others as subtypes; equipment with equipment purchase

and equipment rental as subtype; employee benefits; and

refunds/reimbursements.

The other stratification was based on the procurement subtype, check

amount, and whether the vouchers were part of a congressional inquiry. It

included: all disbursement vouchers more than P500,000; all

disbursement vouchers in the box; equipment purchase less than and

equal to P500,000; equipment rental less than and equal to P500,000;

combination of drugs and medicines which are less than or equal to

76

P500,000; combination of medical supplies less than or equal to

P500,000; other supplies less than or equal to P500,000; and repair and

maintenance less than or equal to P500,000.

This was how the statistical team arrived at 208 disbursement vouchers

used for the project.

After carefully going through the JRRMMC documents and transaction

records, the statistical team produced the 10-page DEEM forms or

summary sheets each covering a “specific stage of the procurement

process.23”

The form went through several revisions in consultation with the experts

Mendoza and Garriel. Other NGOs were also invited by PWI to comment,

Dr. Tabunda said.

The following forms constitute the DEEM Tool:

1. DEEM Tool Project Sample Reporting Form - used for input of fund

source, check identification, voucher identification, check data, other

voucher data, count of forms and remarks/observations

2. DEEM Tool Project Item Information - used for input of count of line

item and line item description

3. DEEM Tool Project Purchase Request Information - used for input of

request identification, details on requested item, details on request

source, other request data and remarks/observations

23 Ramkumar, Vivek, Our Money, Our Responsibility: A Citizen’s Guide to Monitoring Monetary Expenditures (The International Budget Project, 2008) 54.

77

4. DEEM Tool Project Purchase Order Information - used for input of

order identification, details on ordered item, supply data, other order

information and remarks/observations

5. DEEM Tool Project Invoice Information - used for input of invoice

identification, detail on invoiced item, other invoice data and

remarks/observations

6. DEEM Tool Project Inspection Information - used for input of delivery

and inspection data, details on inspected item and remarks/observation

7. DEEM Tool Project Inspection and Acceptance Information - used for

input of general acceptance data, details on item accepted and

remarks/observations

8. DEEM Tool Project Abstract of Canvass Information - used for input of

general canvass data and details of canvass

9. DEEM Tool Project Abstract of Bids Information - used for input of

general bidding data details of bids

10. DEEM Tool Project Information from Other Documents - used for

input of contract date, annual procurement plan, Bids and Awards

Committee (BAC) secretariat minutes, function of the unit, memorandum

of receipt and remarks/observations.

Training Day

With the DEEM forms ready, the assessment team, comprised of

members from PWI, NAMFREL and the Fellowship of Christians in

Government (FOCIG), underwent a one-day training session to learn the

“nitty-gritty” of filling these forms up.

Dr. Tabunda explained what a disbursement voucher looked like and

which details - check number, check date, payment date, etc - go into

78

which blanks in the forms. The team did exercises for practice. For

inconsistencies, such as contradictory date of payment and check date,

they were taught to write such remarks in the remarks/observation

column of the corresponding form.

The assessment team was also taught to encode the data in an Excel

sheet before going out to the field to retrieve the sample vouchers and

market price of goods. Sy said the team went to the hospital’s COA to

request to have each of the voucher photocopied. Such was the bulk of

documents to be photocopied that it took them a month to obtain a

complete set of vouchers. The photocopier of the hospital even broke

down from overuse, and they had to use a digital camera to get copies of

the rest of the documents.

Accomplishing the forms took another month and a half. For every line

item, a separate form was needed, so if there were 35 line items in one

purchase, this meant that 35 forms had to be filled up, Sy said. Plus, each

item had to be specified; she cited an example of a voucher entry “various

instruments” that actually meant differently-priced and differently-sized

brain spatulas.

Filling up the forms was “tedious,” according to Arturo Lim, one of the

volunteers from NAMFREL. “The possibility of errors was ever-present,”

he added. After filling up the forms, data had to be encoded carefully

because a simple encoding error, such as an additional zero at the end of

850, makes a big difference. And field work was still needed in order to

get the true cost or the market price of each item.

79

Documentation “holes”

Going over the 2005 JRRMMC vouchers, the assessment team found

many documentation “holes,” Immanuel Magalit, who was assistant to Sy

in the DEEM Tool Project and PWI Development and Communication

Officer at that time, said.

The team found “missing documents” such as abstracts of bids which

were supposed to be attached to the vouchers, he said. In some

instances, the date of purchase request, which should have been at least

two months ahead of the actual purchase, was the same as the date of

purchase.

It could have meant that there was corruption in the process; that a

supplier was already chosen even before the bidding. But it could also

have been that the purchase request was only made when they were

being audited, he said. “So it’s possibly corruption, but the greater

likelihood is carelessness in the process,” Magalit said, adding further that

there was “no indication” of corruption in JRRMMC.

Another possibility was that “several hands have already been through

them,” he reasoned, as several pages had been torn or detached from

the metal fasteners during audit. He also observed that employees in

general had the “desire” to follow the correct process.

Joaquin Navarrette, Administrative Officer V of the Property and Supply

Section said the DEEM Tool project helped orient employees on the

process of procurement. The BAC secretariat admitted to being “bookish”

about following procurement practices.

80

He said he is aware of the sanctions of not following the law, which

involves a sentence “not less than six years in mandate but not more that

15 years imprisonment,” he elaborated. “Every move” is “documented” in

procurement; if a supplier is disqualified from the bidding process, there

has to be a valid reason, he said.

Magalit said that Navarrette found an ally among the volunteers because

nobody would listen to him when he talked about following proper

procurement procedure.

To Navarrette, following the procurement law is like crossing the

pedestrian lane, which is “100 percent safe. When you don’t cross using

the pedestrian lane, no one is liable should you get hit and you could

even get arrested for jaywalking,” he reasoned.

To Market, To Market

Going on field work and calling pharmaceutical companies and

manufacturers to ask for medicine prices was an “exciting” and

“challenging” experience, recalled Laarni Tejome, one of the volunteers

from the assessment team.

The team went to stores known to sell the hospital purchases at a lower

price. They went to Bambang, Sta. Cruz, Manila for prices of medical

supplies, Banawe, Quezon City and Mandaluyong City for medical

equipment and to Gilmore, Quezon City for computers.

81

During fieldwork, volunteers realized the importance of paying attention to

specifications because there were so many variations, she said. So

persistent were they in getting the true costs that store owners started

becoming suspicious, Tejome noted.

The team canvassed wholesale prices from at least three stores, which

were then averaged. There were cases where assessors were suspected

of being competitors just fishing for prices, Sy narrated.

Arnold Bonagua, a volunteer from FOCIG, remembered time when they

were “blocked by a security guard and prohibited from entering a shop”

and instances where they needed to “disguise as a buyer from a well-

known hospital.” There were times, too, when they had to pretend that

they were going to establish a pharmacy, Tejome said.

“The distributors and suppliers don’t want to volunteer information,”

suspecting that the DEEM volunteers are “spies,” Lim said, adding that

obtaining the market price of goods was the “frustrating part of the

project.”

“We oftentimes felt that we were not getting the accurate price; either it

was overpriced or under-priced. We learned that sometimes they will

quote an unrealistically low price for reasons that they only knew,” Lim

said.

Also, since the items were bought in 2005, and the research on the true

cost was done in mid-2006, some of the medicines and equipment were

no longer available, or had been phased out. As a result, some of the

items had to be deleted from the list. Other price entries also had to be

rechecked for typographical errors.82

In other cases, items had to be revalidated because of discrepancies,

such as the true cost of an item was found to be one fourth or one half the

actual cost, Dr. Tabunda said.

An example was the price of oxygen gas, which the team gathered was

worth 4,500 pesos but for which JRRMMC only paid for 350 pesos.

According to Sy, it turned out that the price they had researched included

the price for the oxygen gas containers. The hospital procured only the

gas.

Although the team was able to get the price of items, Dr. Tabunda sees

valuation as one of the bigger problems encountered by the assessment

team because they “were probably getting inflated cost” of the items

bought in 2005. She attributes this to the fact that “industries do not keep

records of their prices” and lack proper documentation of prices, including

medicines.

The Tool, she said “has to be accompanied by correct valuation” because

it is crucial to the Tool’s accurateness in measuring corruption. If the

valuation is wrong, then everything can go wrong, she explained.

More Than a Million in Savings

Results of the DEEM Tool implementation at

JRRMMC revealed that the hospital’s actual cost of

24, 831,240.75 pesos (US$ 590,376.62 ) was lower

than the true cost of items pegged by the

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assessment team at 26,305,529.57 pesos (US$ 625,428.66). In its 2005

procurement, the hospital actually saved 1,474,283.82 pesos (US $34,

927.36).

However, the overall savings does not mean that the procurement is

totally efficient. Table 1.1 shows that, when compared to the PWI

independent price survey of the same quality, and, in some instances the

same brand, the items cited proved to be overpriced from 12% up to 98%.

Additional savings of P232,518.00 could still have been generated.

Table.1.1

Item & QuantityJRRMMCUnit Price

in PHP

PWI surveyedUnit Price

in PHP

Total Amount Paid in

PHP

% Variance(overpriced)

200 vials Cisplatin (Kemoplat) 50 mg

IV630 484 126,000 23.17%

10 boxes Dental needles, G-27

342 300 3,420 12.28%

70 boxes Covered Glass 24 x 56

379 30 26,530 92.08%

20 bottles LISS 10 cc/bottle

538 200 10,760 62.82%

12 reams Tracing paper for EEG

2,400 62.50 28,800 97.39%

2 bottles ink for EEG

2,600 2,000 5,200 23.07%

3 boxes Suture Silk

2,520 280 7,560 88.88%

2 boxes Suture Silk

2,833.43 280 5,666.86 90.11%

9 dozen Suture Premilene 5-0 B

Braun, 36/box with needles, tapes, ½

circle, 90 cm

4,500 1,800 40,500 60%

1 Pc. Bone Drill Small Small Hand

Disk Aesculap Brand CAT. No.

37,226.08 9,750 37,226.08 73.80%

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BUNNEL FR 005R7 Pcs. Adult

Manual Resuscitator

10,500 2,725 73,500 74.04%

6 Pcs. Pedia Manual

Resuscitator10,500 3,250 63,000 69.04%

As explained in the DEEM Tool Project Sampling Plan, the Tool’s target is

the “cost differential for a line item.” This is arrived at by subtracting the

actual cost (amount paid by the agency as stated in the disbursement

vouchers) from the true cost (the benchmark price or prices of items in

the market. Zero-cost differential “implies no savings or loss to the

agency.” A negative amount represents losses in transactions, while a

positive figure represents the agency’s savings.

Nonetheless, Dr. Lim for her part was elated over the results of the PWI

audit. She has openly expressed pride in the hospital’s reputation for

having a “clean process in procurement” and for being “fair and square in

dealing with bidders.”

Volunteers found “price discrepancies,” which can be explained by “the

passage of time,” creating a “difference in the situation,” Magalit said. The

presence of existing and additional competitors and the lapse of medicine

patents were some of the factors that may have contributed to the sudden

decrease in prices, he disclosed. There were also some situations that

their research “did not take into account,” he said.

Brand Preference

Another finding, which is in violation of Section 18 of the Government

Procurement Reform Act, was the procurement of expensive Vitamin C

brands through direct contracting instead of bidding. Vitamin C is a 85

common pharmaceutical product, and not one particular pharmaceutical

company could claim exclusivity to it nor could present a certificate of

exclusivity for the product as justification. There are generic, branded

generic and branded vitamin C available in the market; therefore, there

was no justifiable cause to employ a direct contracting method of

procurement for Vitamin C.

The hospital explained they had two drugstores: one where they sold

generic brands and a commercial drug store where at least three known

brands were made available due customers’ demand.

Navarrette explained that, although cheaper medicines are sold at the

DOH pharmacy, customers do not buy them. Since most medicines are

“prescription-based” most medicines bought are branded, he said.

Medicines at the DOH pharmacy are also not necessarily cheaper that

those bought at the drugstores just outside the hospital, Navarrette

explained. However, he is quick to add that comparisons should only be

made to reputable drugstores such as Watson’s and Mercury Drugstore,

because the source of medicines coming from outside these franchises

can be suspect.

True enough, certain medicines were found not to have comparable

prices at the pharmacies outside the hospital. They were either cheaper

or more expensive, depending on what kind of medicine they were.

Jing Orillo, who has been at the hospital for a week to take care of an

aunt who gave premature birth through C-section, said that when the

doctor prescribes medication, she makes sure to compare the prices at

the DOH pharmacy and those outside.86

Some medicines are “more expensive” at JRRMMC, she said, but some

are also bought at a cheaper price. Mefenamic acid, which costs 1.50

pesos at the hospital, is sold at 3.00 pesos outside. One particular

medicine for the baby, which costs 760 pesos each at the hospital, is sold

at only 600 pesos each outside, she said.

Anticipated Fruits

If the Tool becomes “more systematized” with a little fine-tuning, it can be

used as the government’s basis in monitoring prices of medicines,

Tejome said.

A “scientific, objective measure” of corruption, such as the DEEM Tool,

will hopefully improve the procurement of medicines and decrease the

cost of medicines and medical care in the long run, Magalit said.

“But when are you going to feel that?” he asked. He suggested that there

should be a “post test” and an “intervention based on what you learned”

from implementing the Tool.

JRRMMC currently provides Social Welfare Assistance (SWA). Mang

Ernesto, for one, considers the hospital rates here cheaper, even with the

fare he and his family have to spend for the four rides they take from their

home in Barangay Calawes to JRRMMC. Aside from PhilHealth and rate

reduction for charity patients, he said he also gets a senior citizen

discount.

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He said he knew of a patient with 25,000 pesos worth of hospital bills, but

only paid 25 pesos. Another patient who gave birth to twins paid only less

than 3,000 pesos.

Even with cheaper medicines and lower professional fees, however, other

patients are still too poor to afford health care. Suffering from feet

numbness, Lina Makabuhay, 51, consulted a doctor at the JRRMMC, but

confessed that her frustration over not having a cent to spare for medicine

pushed her to throw her prescription away.

Makabuhay, who is originally from Bicol and has lived in the streets of

Baclaran, Pasay and Carriedo since coming to Manila, said she did not

even bother to read the prescription. She has had to beg from other

patients just to eat, and would not know where to get the money for the

prescription.

Independent Assessors

For Esguerra, who was instrumental in the Tool’s development, DEEM is

“an opportunity for community people to play a role” and is about

“engaging people from all walks of life to challenge the procurement

outcomes.”

The project proved that it is possible to have “independent assessors”

who can challenge the actual prices. It showed that a “community

organization can be more creative in getting data,” she said, citing that

volunteers did everything they could to find the market prices of goods.

“They did not stop at the first block” and exhausted all possible options,

she said.

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She is also grateful for Dr. Lim’s support. Dr. Lim accepted the project

wholeheartedly and even eagerly participated in several focused group

discussions (FGDs). The Medical Center Chief revealed that she has

made an effort to correct and reform hospital practices she learned from

the FGDs were incorrect.

PWI’s strategy is “not to find corruptors but to look at the system and give

advice to the public or government on the weaknesses in the system,”

Esguerra said.

In a May 2006 press release on the DEEM Tool project’s formal launch,

PWI said that in the long-term, the Tool “is expected to support efforts to

push for reforms in government through evidence-based policy making for

integrity development, corruption prevention, and organizational

strengthening strategies.”

The statement posted in their website also stated that the Tool aims to

“identify specific problem areas for reducing opportunities for expenditure

leakages and streamlining of operations that are key components of

Integrity Development Action Plans of many government agencies.”

Corruption can be quantified

PWI’s DEEM Tool implementation at JRRMMC proved that corruption is

quantifiable.

Corruption is not immeasurable, commented Bonagua of the assessment

team. A “corrupt-free government” can be achieved with the Tool, he said.

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Lim, also of the assessment team, sees DEEM as “a step forward

towards an efficient procurement system of the government.”

“The Tool looks into every aspect of the procedure and it is very detailed.

Any discrepancy in the signatory or timing, for example, will raise a red

flag,” he said.

Sy, along with the rest of the volunteers, acknowledged that Dr. Lim was

one of the “keys” to the project’s success, considering that a major

prerequisite in implementing the DEEM Tool is the agency’s cooperation.

“What’s good is that, director Lim actually was a reform-oriented person”

and she wanted to know the procurement status of the hospital; so it is

“one big thing” that she agreed because “most agencies will resist this

kind of audit,” she said.

Dr. Tabunda also shared the project manager’s observation, saying that

the agency is “relatively clean” and that the Medical Center Chief was “for

transparency of transactions.” For other prospective agencies where the

DEEM Tool can be used, the question is “do they let you in,” she said.

“The wonderful thing about the project was the director of the hospital

was very cooperative, very, very cooperative, that was a plus factor for

the team,” she said.

Dr. Lim admitted that she is “very strict” about transparency in

procurement. “I cannot really tolerate any wrongdoings when it comes to

procurement and I’m glad to say that the observation of Procurement

Watch was very, very inspiring,” she expressed.

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Navarrette, JRRMMC BAC Secretariat affirmed that Dr. Lim has always

been pro-reform. He shared that the good doctor has told him to “call her

attention and she will listen” should he see any flaws in documentation.

She has likewise advised him not to approve documents just because it

had her signature on it, he said.

Refining for future projects

With the extent of work that PWI had to do because of the numerous

items subjected to audit, members of the DEEM Tool project have

learned to concentrate on one item at a time so as to finish the audit in a

shorter period.

The project exceeded the allotted 10-month duration because of the very

wide variety of items the team covered. Originally slated to run from

March to December 2006, the project extended until September 2007.

Sy said the positive result of the application of the DEEM Tool in

JRRMMC just showed that the hospital was able to save. If the research

had been done in concurrent time to the actual procurement, hospital

officials would have been more informed of the discrepancies between

prices, and would have made even better procurement decisions.

PWI would like the DEEM Tool “to have more impact on the agency”

rather than just inform them how much they had saved, she said.

In their next project with the Department of Education (DepEd), the focus

will be on furniture, particularly armchairs and tables. PWI will just have to

“refine” the Tool and exclude other information that will no longer be

91

needed for this next agency, Sy explained. One of the NGO’s goals now

is to “simplify” the Tool so that it is adaptable and could be adopted by

other government agencies.

“I guess that’s the learning, you don’t dissipate your energies trying to

cover so many items,” Dr. Tabunda seconds.

Other lessons learned from the JRRMMC experience, according to Sy,

were “time management” and engaging in a non-linear operation. For the

DEEM Tool pilot project, the assessors first got the vouchers, then filled

up the forms, then encoded entries. Some tasks could have been done

simultaneously, she said.

The pilot agency also learned from the DEEM Tool experience. Dr. Lim

said the experience taught them “not to keep our guard down.” She

boasts that the hospital has adopted some of PWI’s recommendations

since, and has taken the initiative to separate the warehouse from the

procurement service to keep checks and balances firmly in place.

They have also hired the services of a procurement adviser to evaluate

the hospital’s performance “to guide us and in order to set the track

straight,” she said.

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93

One’s Own BackyardThe Rural Enterprise Assistance Center (REACH Foundation)By: Joseph T. Salazar

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It took several minutes for my tricycle driver and I to figure out the location

of REACH Foundation's office. It was tucked in one end of Ortiz Street, on

the blind side when you turn left from Narciso. Before that, I had a couple

of other tricycle drivers refusing me when I told them that I wanted to go

to REACH Foundation on Ortiz Street. All this trouble despite showing

them the address on the cover of the foundation’s company profile they

sent me a few days back and an incessant plea to just take me and go,

and to worry about finding the Foundation when we get there instead.

The problem of physically locating the Rural Enterprise Assistance Center

(REACH Foundation) in a small city is symbolic of a number of problems

that the Foundation and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

like it are facing. The organization has been in existence for 21 years, but

it has yet to find its presence among the residents in the city. Even more

ironic, as I found out later on, is that the 2,700-member strong Surigao

City Federation of Tricycle Drivers and Operators, Inc. is one of the

numerous partner organizations of the REACH Foundation under the Anti

Graft and Transparency Advocates of Surigao City, Inc. (AGTASI), a

coalition of different NGOs, federations and interest groups struggling for

the eradication of urban poverty. REACH Foundation’s main focus,

however, is not programs for the urban poor, but on creating conditions

for sustainable growth in the countryside, an undertaking that requires

expertise and capability in different fronts of advocacy and engagement.

As such, the REACH Foundation has to acquaint itself with numerous

roles—from environmentalism to economics, from cultural management

to traffic management to even combating human trafficking itself—just to

push for reform and change not just in their locality but also in the whole

region.

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At the core of the REACH Foundation is a series of thoughtfully-planned

and well-set up projects that question the government’s commitment to

numerous developmental efforts in the region. REACH has been

persistent in community-based initiatives, planning the structure and

growth of mostly foreign-funded aid projects, making sure that the grants

dispersed reach their intended beneficiaries, and that they are carried out

in the long-term. These efforts do not only engage developmental work,

but also instill awareness in the citizenry to indirectly monitor government

activities on all fronts. For REACH, it is crucial to mobilize different

sectors in clamoring for transparency, accountability, and in ensuring that

steps towards local, regional and national development are pursued

through other channels. Instead of addressing the problem of corruption

by nipping it directly from the bud, citizens are invited to participate in

community developmental efforts directly in order to increase not just

awareness of government activities, but also to engage them into

rethinking the government’s role in different aspects of their life.

Two such projects I have observed while there were the Sustainable

Livelihood & Enterprise Development (SLED) in Barangay Magupange

and the Promocion del Tejido Social y Productivo Para El Desarrollo

Integral de Comunidades Rurales En Caraga in Barangay Dugsangon.

Both projects exemplify REACH Foundation’s commitment to rural

development. The establishment of services that aim to give livelihood to

both rice and livestock farmers in the communities mentioned above

concretizes their goals and objectives. Through these projects, the

Foundation was able to encourage land reform as a necessary

component for genuine development while instilling environmental

awareness. Aside from providing the raw materials and technology to set-

up these projects, they are also transforming the attitudes and

expectations of the community, empowering them to rethink their concept 96

of community, their place in and relation to it, and what contributions

individuals as well as specific institutions like the government can do in

improving their lives. Concerns such as health programs, shelter and

education, women’s rights have been pursued as important aspects in

development efforts in the community. Both also point out the

weaknesses in government efforts to alleviate existing conditions in the

respective communities, and implicitly suggest strategies as to how

increased awareness and participation by barangay members can help in

monitoring government activities but also in making sure that government

units are involved in the lives of small communities.

Cornerstones

The residents of Barangay Magupange, located in the municipality of

Placer in Surigao Del Norte, are the recipients of funding from Heifer

Philippines International, a non-profit organization. After being

approached by Heifer, REACH Foundation assessed the conditions in the

barangay and determined that it was best suited for the objectives of the

funding agency. Located at the center of gold mining activities that were

exhausted during the Spanish period, Magupange boasts of not just rich

mineral and gold deposits, but is also blessed with an abundant supply of

varied kinds of fish and bountiful harvest from the rice fields. Despite the

rich resources and labor available in the area, however, they lacked the

much-needed start-up capital and the technical know-how to initiate farm-

based enterprises to expand existing livelihood activities that can help

contribute to development in the area. Magupange’s resources have

provided livelihood for mostly coconut farmers, whose income is limited

by the lack of livelihood opportunities.

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Because of the area’s topography, backyard farming was encouraged

and Heifer, under the recommendations of REACH’s SLED program, was

to contribute funds to purchase carabaos, cow, goats, and swine as

possible livestock for distribution to 40 of 67 families in the barangay.

These families also received fruit & forest trees such as banana plantlets,

kalamansi, jackfruit, and acacia, and vegetable seeds, like ampalaya,

eggplant and sweet pepper. In return, families receiving aid were to work

on the development of a predetermined set of values that were at the

core of Heifer’s programs. For Heifer, it was also important to strengthen

the community’s socio-cultural foundations. For the community’s quality of

life to improve, it wasn’t only necessary to set up opportunities that will

bring about economic change, but it was crucial to instill values and

principles that will harness competence and contribute to a sense of

community that will guarantee the growth and sustainability of their

economic accomplishments in the long term.

For Heifer’s programs to be implemented, training sessions were

conducted requiring the participation of both men and women. The pivotal

seminar presented what Heifer refers to as their ‘cornerstones’—

foundational values that the organization deemed crucial for the success

of the project. At first, the cornerstones seemed hackneyed as the first

letters of these values were embedded acrostic-style in the words

‘Passing on the Gifts.’ The seminar aimed to instill in the community

specific values that reinforced a collective ideology centering on concern

for neighbors, commitment, responsibility and spirituality. I was taken

aback initially, but when Jonathan Macasa—one of REACH Foundation’s

senior members and its Coordinating Officer for both Barangays

Magupange and Dugsangon—first accompanied me to take a look at the

site of the SLED project, it was easy to see the cornerstones taking effect.

98

After only a year of implementing the SLED program, the members of

Barangay Magupange appeared to be a very closely-knit community. The

closeness comes not just from being familiar with each other, but with a

sense of collective responsibility that the members share. They admitted

to the change themselves, candidly revealing that before the

implementation of the SLED project in their barangay, their concern for

their neighbors was always aroused by gossip and hearsay that delved

into the negative tales of each other’s personal lives. “Kahit magkakalayo

ang mga bahay dito, alam mo kung ano nangyayari sa mga kapitbahay

mo (Even if the houses are far apart, you know what’s going on with your

neighbors),” one of the women candidly told me. The attitude towards the

neighbors changed eventually. As they participated in more livelihood

projects and exchanged ideas with one another, a collective identity

emerged and a renewed confidence in the community became apparent.

This confidence stems from the awareness that still a lot needs to be

accomplished. Livelihood activities have expanded, and the only way to

sustain these is through close cooperation with each other. While each

family in the community has their own animals to take care of, they all

have to depend on each other to carry out other activities. Animals

acquired through the help of Heifer are contained in common areas in

proximity to several households, and are attended to by everyone in the

family. Their responsibilities extend beyond this. They also take care of

their own gardens where they cultivate different kinds of vegetable and

fruit crops either for their own consumption or to sell in the nearby

markets. Organic waste from the animals and plants they tend to are

collected and converted to biogas using digesters assembled also

through the help of Heifer.

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And the projects do not stop there.

They look forward to other

activities in the future. In one

month they will be conducting their

first ‘pass-on’ activity, where the

first recipients will literally be

“passing the gifts” of their swine’s

offspring to other families being

initiated into Heifer’s program

through the Cornerstones seminar.

“Mayroon kaming promise sa

kanila (We have a promise to

them),” reveals former Barangay

Captain Domingo Jamer. “Pag nandito na yung mga biik sa amin, i-pass

on na sa kanila para sila rin makinabang (When the piglets are ready, we

will pass it on to others so that they can make use of them too).” The first

recipients will be the remaining 27 families who were not covered by the

first program. In a few more years, the constituents of Barangay

Magupange see themselves passing on the gifts to other barangays and

are optimistic that they will see the lives of people in their province

transforming. Aside from strengthening raising livestock and farming

activities initiated by Heifer through the help of REACH Foundation, the

members are already planning infrastructure projects for their area. As of

now, they have set up a few water reservoirs and three bio-gas tanks.

These bio-gas tanks are situated near the community’s designated

pigpens to collect waste materials that will be converted to gas used for

cooking in nearby houses. They are also keen on creating much needed

service institutions like a micro-finance cooperative to allow them to

expand their livelihood initiatives.

100

Heifer’s cornerstones have also helped the barangay citizens confront

issues concerning sustainability, nutrition, gender and spirituality. These

have helped re-educate the barangay on pressing concerns that needed

to be incorporated in their lifestyle and livelihood decisions. One farmer

has reoriented his backyard garden to accommodate vegetables that

were known to help fight diabetes, while another beamed with excitement

over her child’s wish to pursue an agriculture-related course for college,

instead of taking popular courses like nursing and computer science that

will draw them out of the community and into the city. Most of all, these

changes have made it easy to mobilize the support of their community for

any activity. “Pag merong kailangang tao para magboluntaryo, lahat ng

tao dito tulong-tulong (If we need people here to volunteer, everyone

helps out),” says Mrs. Virginia Jamer, wife of former Barangay Captain

Domingo Jamer. “Wala nang bayad tulad ng paggawa namin ng reservoir

(They don’t demand for payment like when we had our reservoir made).”

They notice these changes in the community and in each other. They are

prouder of their gardens now. The new livelihood initiatives had not only

supplied them with food and extra income, it has also allowed them to pay

attention more to their surroundings. They attribute these changes as a

result of participating in the Cornerstones seminar, and living out its

principles and core values. They point out to numerous developmental

projects in other barangays and how these have made only temporary

changes for their recipients. Once the money has run dry and the

implementing processes of a particular grant have ended, people revert to

their old lifestyles. As one of the citizens of the barangay quipped: “Pag

na-corner ka na, napapalambot ang puso (Once you’ve been cornered,

your heart softens).” With what they have learned from the Cornerstones

seminar, the people from Magupange are certain that they can continue

101

building their community long after the Heifer project’s and REACH’s

presence have disappeared.

What is of interest in Magupange is that there is minimal government

participation in the current developmental efforts of the barangay.

Participation comes in the form of local barangay officials who have been

responsible for mobilizing the community and allowing outside entities like

the REACH Foundation to gain access to their community. Other than

that, most barangay members hold the intentions of higher officials

suspect. “Kung tutulong ang gobyerno, ok, pero hindi kami dapat sa

kanila lang aasa kundi mas sa sarili namin (If the government helps, ok,

but we can’t depend on them as much as we should depend on

ourselves),” explains Mrs. Jamer. “Pero ang loyalty ba ng mga opisyal

dito wala naman sa itaas kundi sa tao. Sana gano’n din ang gobyerno

(However, the loyalty of officials here isn’t for the people in power but in

the community. We hope the [national] government will be like that).”

Structures

If the initiatives in Magupange were implemented with the sincerity of the

government held suspect, those in Barangay Dugsangon in the district of

Bacuag, Surigao del Norte directly challenge the local government’s role

in the same developmental efforts for rural areas. Located half an hour

away from Magupange, Dugsangon is a community situated within

expansive rice fields. Aside from rice, other plants suited for planting in

Dugsangon include corn, coconut, banana, root crops and legumes.

Because of extensive farming activities in the area, the REACH

Foundation applied the Sustainable and Integrated Area Development

(SIAD) under multiple partnership schemes with different institutions

102

locally and from overseas. The project was developed by REACH under

Project CARAGA of the Philippine Partnership for the Development of

Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), an initiative that receives

its funding from the Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional

(AECI).

Less than a year old, the SIAD has a clear agenda geared towards the

development of organic farming, education and health care reforms. If the

SLED emphasized a shift in values and attitudes, the SIAD focused more

on the infrastructure development to support the objectives mentioned

above. To achieve these, the SIAD has prioritized three infrastructure

projects that would provide the space for the implementation of other

projects in organic farming, education and health care.

First of these structures was a storage area for organic fertilizer. Local

resident Jerry Moreno provided the technology for the organic fertilizer

being produced in the area. Not originally a farmer, Mr. Moreno left his

office job elsewhere when a vacation to his native Dugsangon awakened

the possibility of life as one. He left his job to relocate back to Dugsangon

and 5 years later, he has discovered the benefits of organic farming. His

experiments proved vastly beneficial. Mr. Moreno’s fertilizer, made

primarily of a combination of rice hulls and animal manure, was met with

skepticism at first. As REACH Foundation’s Coordinating Officer

Jonathan Macasa tells me, “Nag-umpisa kami na 20 farmers sa rice

tapos in-introduce namin ang organic. Tapos gusto nila reduced, 1 sack

lang, 2 sacks lang, 3 sacks (We started with 20 rice farmers. And they

didn’t want a lot, just 1 sack, 2 sacks, 3 sacks).” It’s safe to assume that

not a lot of the farmers trusted the new methods that Mr. Moreno

introduced. Eventually, however, the organic fertilizer proved better as it

resulted to higher yields at a reduced cost. 103

It is no surprise then that it eventually became popular among the

farmers. “Ngayon,” Mr Macasa adds, “Gusto na nila mas marami ang

organic kaysa inorganic.” True enough, the Dugsangon farmers are not

only making a livelihood with the crops they yield, they are also able to

see the potential in selling the same fertilizer outside their area. As a

result, Mr. Moreno was recognized as one of the most outstanding

farmers in the CARAGA region for his work on organic fertilizer. Aside

from that, demands for his fertilizer have grown. At the moment, they

have a quota of producing 150 bags per month for their co-farmers in

their barangay. They also plan to take on the government’s offer to

purchase 500 bags of their organic fertilizer per month for distribution to

different farmers in Surigao del Norte. Right now, they are saving up

money to have their fertilizers assessed so that they can have it patented

and sold to a wider audience, a task Mr. Moreno says he can only do with

the help of his fellow farmers.

With the help of Mr. Macasa and the REACH Foundation, Dugsangon is

preparing feasibility studies to expand their livelihood projects. Aside from

taking steps to produce and distribute their fertilizer, they have also

drafted proposals to set up infrastructure for a community store and

pharmacy that will sell basic commodities the residents usually obtain

from a distant poblacion. They also plan to enter the business of making

kropek (or fish crackers) and breeding fish, as well as invest in modern

farming implements that can help the community maximize the potential

of their farms. A portion of the profits from all these undertakings will be

used to augment their existing educational and health funds.

The second infrastructure under the SIAD project in Dugsangon that Mr.

Macasa showed me was the new schoolhouse for the Dugsangon 104

Elementary School. The old and existing structure is tattered and

dilapidated. The ceilings have holes and rain seeps through most of the

parts that are in place. Made mostly of wood, the old school building’s

walls are crumbling and no longer performs its function of sheltering

occupants from the elements outside. The new schoolhouse is sturdier as

it is made of cement and is laid on thicker foundations. It has a fresh coat

of white paint and looks pristine beside the old one. Despite the

appearance of the schoolhouse, it has had its share of controversy.

During the planning stages of the project, the local bureau of the

Department of Education (DepEd) said it was impossible to construct one

for under a million pesos, and hesitated to commit to giving its share for

the structure of the school facility. Mr. Macasa, barangay officials and

citizens of Dugsangon went on with the construction anyway, and finished

the building for roughly four hundred thousand pesos. This prompted the

DepEd to commission an identical structure for the school. Whether they

were embarrassed for what the community was able to accomplish

without them or impressed with the numbers that the barangay was able

to save, DepEd’s earnestness and commitment to serve was seriously

challenged by the community.

The third structure being built in Dugsangon was the barangay health

center. Here, the gaps in government deliverables could be observed

more clearly. When Mr. Macasa took me to the site of the health center

being constructed beside the barangay hall, a barangay councilor

immediately approached Mr. Macasa complaining about the slow pace of

fund dispersal from the government. Funds from the Agencia Española

have already been exhausted, and the completion of the structure

became problematic as the community awaited construction materials

that were to be purchased through local government unit (LGU)

contributions. At the heart of all these discussions is Barangay Captain 105

Lovell Gingo, a young man who originally ran for Barangay Councilor only

to be whisked into his current post after the incumbent Barangay Captain

took another government post. Despite his youth, he was well-suited to

the task at hand. When I asked the Barangay Captain Lovell Gingo about

the problem, he was defensive and offered no concrete solution to the

government’s slow action: “May counterpart sila na binigay yung LGU na

municipal. Hindi ko alam pero yung semento at gravel galing sa kanila.

(As counterpart, they gave [their share], the municipal local government

unit. I am not sure [how much their share is] but the cement and gravel is

theirs).”

The implementation of the Agencia Española-funded project in

Dugsangon highlights a persistent contradiction in transparency efforts in

the Philippines. Questions linger about the details of the procurement

system, itself reflective of fragmentary relations between national and

local governments where corruption seems to be accepted from the top

officials down. The deployment of TAG-related projects throughout the

country signifies a willingness to reunite the nation with its estranged

government. While there is broad support coming from civil society

organizations and the general public to participate in community-building

efforts, the question remains as to whether different units and branches of

government have the political will to align their activities with the rest of

the nation. After witnessing the REACH Foundation’s participation in

procurement efforts in distant cities, and their developmental efforts in

Magupange and Dugsangon, one wonders, where is the government in

all this?

Like-minded

106

REACH recognizes the plurality of the developmental efforts they need to

address, if only to provide a framework that tackles a series of poverty-

oriented rural development arbitrations that respond to both local and

global pressures affecting not just Surigao, but the entire CARAGA

region. Spatially, this explains why REACH has to situate itself in a

seemingly-disjointed urban setting. Despite catering to a significant

majority of rural projects, much of the networks needed to sustain these

activities in the countryside are dependent on the physical and social

infrastructure of the city. Surigao City still provides a potent base for the

REACH Foundation’s operations as they engage a multitude of projects

from as far as Dinagat Islands off the coast of Surigao all the way to

Cagayan De Oro in the other side of Mindanao.

By situating itself as such, REACH’s initiatives are spread across the

region. As a result, the organization is able to take on a number of

initiatives locally and regionally, providing a structure for the

implementation of a number of programs needed by other agencies and

organizations seeking REACH Foundation’s help.

“What do you get out of all these networks and linkages you have

established through the years?” I ask Mrs. Arceli T. Napalan, the REACH

Foundation’s Executive Director and co-founder, who doesn’t only

assume authoritative control over the administration of the projects but

also poses as mother, aunt, sister, confidant and friend to many of

REACH’s members and volunteers. She shrugs, redirecting our

conversation elsewhere, afraid to assume a self-righteous position on

matters dealing with corruption in the country. “Mahalaga ang aming

samahan,” she emphasizes, “our camaraderie is important”. Mrs.

Napalan’s convictions when it comes to developmental issues are deeply

rooted in a long career heavily punctuated by personal relationships. 107

Within REACH Foundation, the members find a means to strengthen a

sense of community not just in their projects but also in their personal

relationships that help in strengthening their coalition into a well-

coordinated team that can think clearly and can keep their objectives in

sight as challenges unfold. Despite the lack of resources to combat

irregularities in government, the organization cannot help but underscore

its camaraderie, its sense of family and community to offset the lack of

institutional mechanisms that make their work harder. REACH draws its

support from other institutions and recognizes the contributions they

make not only in supplying funds but also in entrusting the organization

with projects that speak of a high sense of esteem for what the REACH

Foundation has achieved. In conditions that are challenged by limitations

of every kind of resource imaginable, the solidarity shared under the

network Mrs. Napalan is trying to keep together is sacred.

In this network, the biggest challenge is to find a place for the government

especially in matters involving social and economic development. I

imagine the inanity of having to say that to anyone, especially one who

holds high regard for the nation and the role government and other

institutions play in unifying the collective. Mrs. Napalan believed the same

once. “Sabi ko nung una magtatrabaho lang ako, magiging independent,

at hindi ako aasa sa gobyerno (At first I said I will just work, I will be

independent and I will not expect anything from the government)”, she

admits. However, her experience has taught her that in order for change

to happen and gain legitimacy, the government must be involved and

made to act on its mandate. She has found it impossible to find

developmental projects that will not involve the government even if only

minimally, eventually recognizing that all the activities of organizations

like hers involved transactions with the government to achieve legitimacy.

108

Because of this, REACH has involved

itself in the implementation of the

Transparency and Accountable

Governance (TAG) project funded by

the United States Agency for

International Development (USAID)

through The Asia Foundation (TAF).

Ever since signing an agreement with the Mindanao Coalition of

Development NGO Networks (MINCODE) in April of 2004, REACH has

taken upon itself the duty of working as Area Coordinator for Surigao City.

REACH was hesitant at first, since it meant a realigning and refocusing of

the Foundation’s own initiatives. From an administrative perspective, it

meant the relocation of personnel that REACH does not have. Its existing

members were working on a number of undertakings for the Foundation

and all of them needed to undergo training to handle the responsibilities

involved with the implementation of TAG. From a political standpoint, the

battle against corruption presented many daunting challenges of having

to work closely with local government units. The government’s image has

been tarnished, and any attempt to clean it up meant having to deal with

a number of adversities that REACH was not prepared to face— dealing

with resistance from people in various sectors who see no need to

change the status quo, and even infuriating a number of government

officials and elected politicians themselves.

Nonetheless, the REACH Foundation could not decline the pressing

needs the TAG project was trying to address. So far, REACH has been

successful at activating preliminary measures that guaranteed

transparency and accountability in government-related procurement

functions. On its first year, REACH, in partnership with a number of LGUs

established the SURIGAO-TAG Action Reform Agenda, a primer that has 109

structured the development of TAG advocacy in the succeeding years in

the region. Through the SURIGAO-TAG Action Reform Agenda, REACH

was able to enlist the support of different local government units and

establish their commitment and willingness to ensure the implementation

of guidelines and activities that enhanced coordination and monitoring of

different civil society organizations. Under the same plan, a series of fora

meant to increase awareness on TAG was conducted to help amplify the

need to strengthen service efficiency in government activities.

By focusing the organization of their committees on the tasks outlined

above, they were able to pave the way for other initiatives. The

committees helped identify critical activities that had to be done and

needed support from each member organization involved. It also paved

the way for the establishment of the Anti Graft & and Transparency

Advocates of Surigao, Inc. (AGTASI) the year after, becoming the

regional counterpart for the implementation of TAG. The AGTASI became

an indispensable forum supporting both private and public initiatives for

counter-corruption reforms and good governance, drawing attention

towards efforts for economic growth and the eradication of poverty.

These efforts were disseminated through a weekly radio program that

was aired every Saturday from 10:30 am to 11:00 am in DXSN AM Radio.

Despite enjoying limited airtime, the radio program dubbed as GARBO

(Good Governance, Accountability and Reform Building Organizations)

Nan Surigao, was successful at mobilizing the different civil society

organizations under the AGTASI, and providing a venue where they can

stage their advocacies and concerns. Leaders and key persons from

these organizations took turns each week to host the program and

discuss matters affecting not just their own respective agendas, but also

the numerous issues and different implementing policies affecting Surigao 110

in general. Unfortunately, the radio program was eventually pulled out

due to a lack of funds.

Notwithstanding the closure of GARBO Nan Surigao, REACH Foundation

was still able to maintain a collegial atmosphere within their location for

the successful execution of TAG’s objectives. They conducted a

Scorecard Workshop for the Surigao City Government. In this workshop,

the city government was given a very satisfactory rating after careful

evaluation of the assistance it provides across different units. This rating

motivated them further to maintain high standards prompting different

local government units to deliver their services more efficiently, and to

participate in initiatives that allowed for the realization of TAG’s

advocacies.

To ensure that civil society organizations (CSOs) and local government

units worked hand in hand to attain this goal, the REACH Foundation

spearheaded the production of a Procedural Handbook and Service

Manual for the city’s local government units. The manual is fairly simple

and straightforward. It categorized different services provided by the

government and listed down the hours of operations and the respective

officers-in-charge for every step of the process that one needed to take.

Through simple flowcharts produced in a basic word processor, they were

able to identify the different officials—both big and small—from the

government who managed the different bureaucratic procedures, as well

as provide information on the requirements needed to facilitate specific

requests. As a result, the administrative procedures have become more

accessible to not just civil society organizations but also individuals who

might need these services, guaranteeing transparency in all transactions

involving the government agencies in Surigao City. The manual has

provided an important tool to guarantee the efficient delivery of services 111

among its constituents. At the same time, it became instrumental in

minimizing instances of abuse and corruption since the primary

individuals responsible for carrying out a specific task were already

recognized and were made accountable for their actions even before any

dealings and transactions with the government were made.

Under the AGTASI, the REACH Foundation has found ways to connect to

other CSOs and LGUs in Surigao City, making it possible to monitor not

just government schemes and projects but also in taking note of the

numerous initiatives that were already in place and needed to be

continued, those that could be improved and those that needed to be

initiated still. The AGTASI also identified the different institutions that

were to participate in these initiatives, and provided a structure for their

coordination and management. These efforts helped REACH to formulate

a joint LGU-CSO Sustainability Mechanism & Plan for the province. They

have also been active in the configuration of the city’s Real Property Tax

procedural reforms, and sat in the Surigao Land Administration and

Management Project (SLAM) along with businessmen as members of its

Project Steering Committee.

Even with a firm and well-established system in place, the REACH

Foundation still confronts a lot of other obstacles in its attempts to solidify

the TAG program. Their Procedural Handbook and Service Manual and

connections with other NGOs are but a small step among a multitude of

other obstacles they need to confront if they want their efforts to make a

difference in the city, in the region, and in the nation. At the root of many

these obstacles is funding, a problem emphasized to me many times by

different members I have talked to. Lack of funding has not only

dampened efforts in maintaining the radio program, but it also has

inhibited the development and expansion of many other programs. 112

Procurement Efforts

The most basic consequence of this is the inability of the Foundation to

mobilize its members, allowing them to intensify their participation in

government-related procurement activities. Since taking in the TAG

project in 2004, there have only been two REACH Foundation members

who have been deputized to participate in a number of procurement

practices with the government, and both work on a somewhat voluntary

basis. While REACH has had relative success in monitoring government

activities in Surigao City, thanks in part to their Procedural Handbook and

Service Manual that explicitly itemizes steps and accountable personnel

who handle such procedures in LGUs, their participation as procurement

volunteers extend beyond the boundaries of the city. They are also invited

to participate in bidding projects in Butuan City, capital of neighboring

province Agusan Del Sur, and other areas in the region away from

Surigao. These projects are taken on by the two volunteers as diligently

as they can.

One deputized volunteer is Ann Patricia P. Felicio, who is also REACH

Foundation’s bookkeeper and accountant. When she can push back her

main responsibilities in the office, she obliges herself to attend these

transactions. However, there are a number of problems in accomplishing

that. Invitations—especially those coming from Butuan City—often arrive

a day before the scheduled event takes place, and Ann’s schedule in the

office itself is often compromised because of these requests requiring the

presence of an NGO volunteer. I was talking to Ann on a Friday, and at

around 4 pm in the afternoon, after she has just scheduled all her

activities for the week ahead and was ready to end the current week, a

113

messenger arrives carrying a letter from the Bureau of Jail Management

and Penology (BJMP), asking for a volunteer from the foundation to

attend an opening of bids to be held on Monday at 2 pm.

Ann scratches her head in front of me, rethinks her schedule on Monday

and sends out text messages on her phone trying to find someone to fill

for her shoes for the work she has set out to do on Monday. “Mabuti nga

dito lang sa Surigao ito (At least this is only in Surigao)”, she tells me, as

though she was consoling herself. She has no choice but to oblige these

invitations because NGO participation is needed, as the letter states, "to

accord government action with the law”.

The last-minute invitation to the opening of bids for BJMP isn’t as

intrusive as if it were to be held elsewhere. Ann often receives invitations

for bids in Butuan, and sometimes even in Cagayan De Oro, where she

spends a great deal of her day on a bus ride going to these places. As if

the trip going there isn’t problematic enough, round-trip bus fares from

Surigao to Butuan would cost 300 Pesos (approximately US$6), roughly

equivalent to what Ann earns in a day. Often, the money to cover for

these expenses are taken out of the volunteers’ pockets, especially when

these invitations come to the REACH Foundation’s office at a time when

they are financially stripped. It’s not only Ann who has to adjust her

schedule to accommodate late requests like this one; she also has to rely

on her colleagues to help her out with the other responsibilities she is

abandoning just to participate in the bidding.

These invitations speak of a multitude of other irregularities. Mr. Luciano

Beltran, the second of these two procurement volunteers and former

President of the Senior Citizens Sector, a group under the umbrella

organization of the AGTASI, is very keen on pointing these out. “I noticed 114

for example, that in public highways, regional directors they furnish us an

invitation to open the bid,” he says. “My golly, that’s not the only

participation of the watcher. What about the rest of the transaction?”

It’s not hard to understand what Mr. Beltran bemoans. Procedures require

for the participation of NGO watchers during all steps of the procurement

process, allowing them to collect vital documents and information as they

go along the different phases of a project. Volunteers like Ann and Mr.

Beltran need to gather background information on the activity or project

which will be the intended user of the item or service to be procured. They

would need to go over a number of documents, including the minutes of

all meetings and conferences pertaining to the different steps in

procurement, copies of contracts indicating names and the respective

contact information of the different bidders and contractors participating in

the proceedings, as well as progress reports that will help them to monitor

the completion of projects and the delivery of promised services.

More often than note, the only document they are able to secure is the

invitation itself. The invitations are but a procedural lip service. Ann and

Mr. Beltran’s demands to at least get minutes of meetings have fallen on

deaf ears all the time. Whether there are questionable transactions in

these bids cannot be verified since the participation of the NGO

volunteers in the said transactions are reduced to only one step of what

should be a series of procedures. Mr. Beltran laments: “What will

happen? We only witness the opening of bids, and they have already

made agreements. We lose information if we cannot participate in the

pre-bid conference. Worst of all, we are not informed whether the

transaction was consummated or not. That is probably the worst scenario

because sometimes they can make reports for allegedly completed

115

transactions without anything done at all because they can do it in paper.

That is where I found gaps in our participation.”

At 83 years, Mr. Beltran is a vital cog in REACH’s procurement efforts.

Despite his age, he finds the energy to go where government-related

biddings take place. He knows a lot about the people and the business of

dealing with the government ever since he became active in the efforts of

Surigao City’s senior citizens. And he knows that the only way one can

deal with the government is through sheer persistence. Despite being

ignored and taken as a token installation in many procurement efforts, Mr.

Beltran continues to go and sacrifices a lot of his personal time and

resources for it, even if most of the time he feels that his efforts are in

vain.

Persistence is something that the younger Ann is just learning. When I

asked if there were other NGOs in the region who were deputized to

observe these proceedings, Ann quickly replied: “Madami kaming mga

NGO dito, tapos mga accredited pa sa LGU. Minsan nakakaabot kami sa

region, sa Butuan may NGO naman doon na puwede naming mag-sit

down sa lahat ng mga process nila, tapos hindi naman nila in-invite.

Laging kami. Parang pag pumunta ako doon, ako lang laging mag-isa.

Yung sa district ng Butuan ng DPWH, dalawa kami from Butuan, pero

minsan lang siya naka-attend. Pero parang wala na. (There are a lot of

NGOs in the region, and they are accredited by different LGUs. We

sometimes reach the regional level, (even if) in Butuan where there is an

NGO that can sit down on their processes, but they don’t invite them.

When I go there, I am always alone (as NGO observer). There’s someone

from Butuan whom I met in a DPWH meeting, but s/he was only able to

attend once. Now I don’t think I have seen him/her at all)”.

116

Like her compatriot from

Butuan, the temptation to give

up on these procurement efforts

have crossed Ann’s mind every

time. She was tentative at the

very start: “Dati nga, hesitant

kami maging observer kasi

hanggang dulo kung anong

nangyayari doon tapos ifu-furnish lahat. Siyempre masa-sacrifice ang

project, lahat, mga tao. Tapos, ngayon hanggang doon na lang kami (We

were initially hesitant to become observers before because we had to

stick it out until the very end and we had to furnish [documents of all the

proceedings we observed]. Of course, we would have to sacrifice our own

projects, everything, including our own labor resources. Now we are just

made to participate there [in the opening of bids]).”

With local and foreign players keen on making the most out of the

region’s rich mineral reserves fuelling the rise in infrastructure projects,

the contribution of NGOs in government transactions has become

increasingly important, and this is what Ann has begun to realize when

she reminds herself why she has to do these things in those long trips

that make their work in monitoring procurement activities more difficult.

They are often invited by LGUs and regional offices of the national

government, like the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)

in Butuan City, and the two-hour distance makes it physically impossible

for them to pressure these LGUs and regional offices in the distant city to

deliver the documentation required to make the participation of NGO

observers significant.

117

Additionally, the procurement procedures have yet to be implemented

across different LGUs in the CARAGA to gain legitimacy as a practice.

Many LGUs overlook the absence of observers in different official

transactions, making it impossible to make them accountable for their

decisions. But with only two accredited volunteers in the REACH

Foundation, who need to cover work in the capital of two provinces and

other neighboring provinces, the task seems daunting.

The problem is manifold. Different government agencies, especially in

Butuan, seem to capitalize on the reality that there are only a few

deputized volunteers within the region, and they seek the services of

those who live a province away. Mr. Engwan Daniel So, President of the

Surigao City Federation of Tricycle Drivers and Operators, Inc., points out

to me that: “We have suggested in our conference kung maaari sana i-

expand na natin ang participation ng mga observer (We have suggested

in our conference in Davao [Consultative Workshop on Building

Capabilities of Marginalized Communities, LGU’s, and CSO in

Procurement Reforms] if it is possible to expand the participation of the

observers).” Mr. So has also undergone training as a volunteer

procurement watcher but has yet to receive his accreditation. Like Ann

and Mr. Beltran, Mr. So has been involved in the monitoring of

government dealings in the region. Despite not being able to sit in on

actual bidding practices, he knows the weaknesses of the current system.

With numerous contracts and dealings made by various government

bureaus, procurement watchers are sought out by only one government

agency. “Kulang na kulang talaga ang mga observer (There really is a

shortage of observers),” he says. “Dito nga, dalawa lang ang identified

namin. Bakit kami accredited pero lagi lang sa DPWH? (There are only

two accredited here [in REACH Foundation]. Why do we need

[government-wide] accreditation if we only work with DPWH?).” 118

This is a point raised repeatedly by their executive director Arceli

Napalan: “One time may Phil-NGO Congress dito, participating ang lahat

ng mga taga-Surigao Del Norte. Talagang ini-open ko sa kanila. Why is it

na everytime na may planning of a certain project, NGO’s are invited.

During implementation, NGOs are no longer invited, and magbalik ang

NGO during monitoring and evaluation (One time there was a Phil NGO

Congress here, all NGOs from Surigao del Norte participated. I really

opened up to them. Why is it every time a certain project is being

planned, NGOs are invited. During implementation, NGOs are no longer

invited, and they only return during monitoring and evaluation)?”

In their experience dealing with the government, corruption has yet to be

understood as an issue affecting the public sector as many of these

CSOs have been conveniently left out from the information-gathering and

monitoring activities they need to perform to make a critical assessment

of how government spends its taxpayers’ money, and even aid coming

from different foreign sources. While Ann and Mr. Beltran have sat

through a lot of bid openings in Butuan City, they have yet to experience

working on a government project there that complied with guidelines

demanding for the complete participation of NGO watchers from start to

finish, and where all measures affecting the management of public funds

have been made transparent every step of the way. When I asked them

how they felt about going through the motions of opening bids in Butuan

City, Mr. Beltran responded: “More or less, you are unwelcome.” True

enough, each trip to Butuan City merits a question to the local

government unit seeking his services: “That’s why I was asking are we

really serious?” he asks them. “When I mean serious, let us be participant

in the whole transaction, and not just the opening of bids.”

119

While Ann, Mr. Beltran and the other members of the REACH Foundation

who have had a hand in indirectly going through procurement procedures

have achieved moderate success in their own locality, they have yet to

experience success in implementing the same transparency procedures

outside their city. To help them with their procurement initiatives, the

REACH Foundation plans to expand the number of civil society

organizations who will participate as NGO observers in government-

related tasks. They will also seek Procurement Watch Inc.’s assistance in

conducting more training seminars for other civil society organizations, as

well as securing memoranda of agreement (MOA) with government line

agencies in pushing for more active NGO participation in government

procurement activities. The road ahead is daunting for REACH,

accompanied by serious questions that probe the roles NGOs need to

play in order to overcome something seemingly beyond them. With only a

couple of volunteers working on exhaustive government dealings hiding

underneath layers of bureaucratic procedures, organizations such as

REACH also need to find a balance between issues of diversity, authority

and scale not only in enforcing good governance but also in the

numerous advocacies they need to set their sights on.

120

Epilogue

What more can happen?

The preceding stories have opened up windows of opportunities for civil

society to create a lasting impact on curbing corruption. There are many

options for intervention, and yet precisely because of the wide range of

choices, some CSOs or ordinary citizens who want to do something may

not know where to start out of confusion.

To be sure, within civil society, especially in the academic circles, there

have been discussions, as the story on Textbook Count alluded to, on the

role of civil society and the impact of their initiatives. CSOs are torn

between two distinct perspectives. One view is that civil society initiatives

somehow take the place of government – by providing public services

themselves, bypassing the institutional systems, or creating parallel

systems – leading to further weakening of institutions. By taking on the

public servant’s responsibilities, some say, some civil society

organizations inadvertently allow public servants get away with their

121

inaction; these civil society organizations thus do not exact accountability

from public officials for not providing services they are mandated to.

Another view, however, is that where institutions are weak and quality of

governance is poor, the role of civil society is to fill in the governance gap,

to provide for the missing public services. The poor cannot be made to

pay twice, some say; the poor cannot wait for institutions and systems to

finally work to their advantage. That will probably take a lifetime or more.

Yet as the preceding stories, particularly in the case of the more

successful CCAGG, show, there need not be a conflict between the aims

of the anti-corruption movement and the aims of government. Heads of

agencies, procurement boards, economic development bodies, and the

audit commissions within government have a lot to benefit from what civil

society groups can offer. It will certainly make their work of gathering

evidence easier, more so if they help these groups master the standards

of evidence gathering and strengthen their access to information. The

CCAGG has shown the way in this area.

More important than prosecution, however, is the effect that groups of

ordinary people can have in the area of prevention. If the probability of

“being caught” increases, attempts at malfeasance should decrease. As

mentioned in the Textbook Count story, the mere presence of boys and

girls scouts during textbook deliveries may have had profound effect on

the behaviour of government workers as well as private contractors.

Acts of corruption in public procurement sometimes go unnoticed simply

because the few good men and women in the bureaucracy decide that

they could not afford the personal toll doing the right thing might exact

from them. So they decide not to take notice. Yet honest personnel within 122

the bureaucracy are the most important sources of knowledge of how

corrupt acts are done, and how these can be preempted and prevented in

the future. Civil society organizations will never be as knowledgeable as

these insiders, who are able to follow the minute, subtle movements of

dishonest hands.

On the other hand, civil society groups can alter the atmosphere of

intimidation within our bureaucracies. Unlike workers in government, civil

society organizations and media people do not have to face deadly

consequences head on; they do not have jobs to lose. Once civil society

groups become proficient at taking notice and at bringing compelling

evidence before oversight bodies, perhaps using tools like DEEM, a safer

platform is then built for those honest bureaucrats who simply want to do

their jobs. Once the act of raising an issue, posing an objection or

initiating an inquiry is no longer considered a dilemma, the men and

women of integrity within our bureaucracies can do the rest.

This kind of interaction between bureaucracy and civil society underpins

the work being done by civil society groups. That experience of G-Watch

in calling off the bidding for what was suspected to have been an

overpriced computer package showed that civil society can take up the

cudgels for government workers who sincerely want irregularities

exposed but fear retaliation or losing their jobs.

Incidentally, other civil society organizations also perform such a role in

the regulation of privately-managed public utilities like power and water.

Officials and staff of regulatory bodies may often be at risk of regulatory

capture and may often feel the pressure from vested interests. But having

civil society present in public hearings to ask the tough questions and

123

provide critical information, acts that regulators may not be able to do,

can mitigate such risks as regulatory capture.

The experiences written in this book have shown that those within the

bureaucracy do not have to blow the whistle; we ordinary citizens can do

that. We can raise the red flags and we can ask the questions, which

they will then be compelled to answer. We can create the context within

which they can speak honestly, and they can simply put the blame on us.

In this sense, civil society groups are not in the business of replacing

government’s oversight agencies. They, in fact, trigger otherwise-fearful

individuals to action, by gathering evidence that would turn the heat up,

and spur idle butts to movement.

~0~

But while windows of opportunities were opened, there remain windows

that remain tightly closed and guarded by forces unfriendly to civil society.

The CCAGG and CSOs in Textbook Count are able to do neat things –

but they themselves know that corruption can simply shift upwards or be

present in areas beyond the reach of their capacities. Corruption happens

in many stages of the procurement process. In the case of CCAGG’s

monitoring of public works and in the case of the Textbook Count,

monitoring was mainly at the stage of the delivery of the goods being

procured. The task was that of comparing the numerical and technical

specifications of what was procured with what was actually delivered.

This is no mean task. As shown in the chapters, the groups succeeded in

these technically- and logistically-demanding undertakings.

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In both cases, however, the groups themselves recognize that several

things could undermine their accomplishments. For instance, despite

stringent rules and guidelines under the Government Procurement

Reform Law, bid-rigging and cost-padding could have happened in earlier

stages; the choice and specifications of what was to be procured could

have been done with a view to giving an advantage to particular

contractors.

The other chapters show that developing capacities for civil society

effectiveness in other stages of the procurement process does not always

succeed. As in the case of REACH Foundation, the process will often

prove to be too technically demanding. Logistical requirements of

monitoring bids and awards activities in even just one city could strain

and drain the resources of non-government organizations and volunteer

community groups.

In one sense, instilling a sense of dedication in the community or a

renewal of religious beliefs among public servants, which is what the BDA

chose to do, inadvertently serves to cover all bases. An internal moral

drive that censures the self and others and enforces rudimentary

standards of what is acceptable and what is not, even when no one is

looking, has the advantage of being an omnipresent mechanism. It is an

important, perhaps necessary, complement to the more deliberate efforts

of setting up monitoring and check-and-balance mechanisms that may or

may not work even when these are technically and logistically feasible.

Luckily, religion is not the only source of this internal moral compass.

There has been empirical proof that a foundation of universal moral

behaviour among peoples that transcends religious belief and cultural

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backgrounds exists24. Norms of fairness and reciprocal altruism have

been observed to be present in all cultures25. The drawback, however, is

that the efficacy of these norms may be limited to small, closely-knit

communities where people know each other and deviations from the

norm is sooner or later seen and denounced.

It would seem that current efforts, with moral, organizational, and financial

resources needed to scale them up, are extremely modest relative to the

social scourge of corruption in the country. Advocates will want to know

where their efforts can have lasting impact and what other social

approaches, rather than just smarter anti-corruption techniques, might

strike more deeply at the root of this phenomenon. Getting there will

require a sustained process of reflection. Joy Aceron of G-Watch muses

that maybe it is this awareness of the limits of the existing political

condition that lead civil society groups to restrict their efforts to small

arenas and to whatever minimum gains that can be achieved now,

without necessarily negating larger reform efforts26.

The point perhaps is to learn how to use the handy little slings that we

have in order to make those well-placed shots that have felled giants in

the past. How? Perhaps reading the case studies is a good start, though

studying cases of what have not worked can be just as fruitful. For what

good is a case if it does not inform us what to avoid, too?

24 Emmanuel de Dios, 2008. “Secular morality and the University” Centennial Lecture delivered by the author on 7 May 2008 at the National Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. http://www.econ.upd.edu.ph/home/index.php 25 Joseph Henrich et al., 2001. "In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(2), pages 73-78, May.26 Joy Aceron (unpublished), a book review of Contested Democracy by Nathan Quimpo. http://malyari.livejournal.com/

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Also, if advocates are to continue to succeed in promoting anti-corruption

efforts, perhaps it will be sufficient in the meantime to identify some

markers that would describe where procurement or contracting out

processes might fail, and where civil society capabilities might be

deployed with greater effect.

Analysts like Phillip Keefer27 identify important institutional capabilities and

social resources that could make procurement and contracting processes

that serve the public welfare more efficient. We draw from some of his

ideas here.

a) Does the public agency know the cost of providing the good or

service, if it were to provide this using its own personnel and

organizational resources? Can DepEd, for instance, tell whether it is

less costly to contract out the printing of textbooks rather than

maintaining a printing press, or to outsource the building of

classrooms rather than hiring and supervising government-paid

workers and purchasing materials? If the public agency does not

know this, it can end up tapping service providers that are less

efficient than the agency is.

b) Is there a competitive market for the provision of the good or

service? If there were no competitive market, as in the case of those

where heavy equipment is needed for servicing a thin market, the

prior action could be that of determining how barriers to competition

might be removed. Without such action, the public agency would fail

to get the best price, or worse, it could end up with a provider that is,

again, less efficient.

27 Phil Keefer, 1998. Contracting Out: An Opportunity for Public Sector Reform Development in Transition Economies. The World Bank.

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c) If tender through competitive bidding is possible, one must ask if

there are groups that have the capability and a vested interest in

acquiring information about the contractors’ compliance with quality

standards. This consideration becomes more important where the

good or service allows for methods for concealing defects and

shortcuts and where the impacts will be seen only after some time.

The people in Abra, for instance, knew how a poorly designed and

constructed bridge that connects them to other places could not only

affect their quality of life and economic conditions. The CCAGG

volunteers’ motivation, coupled with their perseverance to know the

technical requirements for infrastructure monitoring, certainly helped.

If such countervailing groups were absent, contractors will probably

find it easy to get substandard goods received by the procuring public

agency.

d) If information about quality can be secured, the next important

question is: are there regulators or overseers whose interest and

rewards lie in paying attention to, and doing something about,

information they receive about violations from contracts? Will a COA

auditor, for instance, be rewarded or harassed if she takes note of

complaints of misuse of Philhealth money for rural health units

(capitation funds) by some local government units, which are

supposed to implement healthcare programs for indigents? And are

Philhealth officials, or perhaps the Ombudsman, if asked, empowered

to swiftly act on such information brought to their attention and be

rewarded accordingly? If there are no such regulators or members of

oversight agencies who can be rewarded for doing their job—as when

the contractors are relatives or political supporters of a mayor—then

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the information gathering and whistle blowing by civil society groups

would come to naught.

Where the constraints are severe, Keefer says, it can turn out that letting

the public agency produce the good or service by administration or using

its own internal means can turn out to be the more desirable procedure

even if the public agency has its own internal weaknesses. This perhaps

is one consideration not given emphasis in the Government Procurement

Reform Law.

In any case, the above merely provide hints at where civil society

organizations – whether ordinary citizens’ groups in a small community or

an association of highly educated and skilled professionals – can make a

difference where it can count the most considering their own resources

and capabilities.

After all, so much more can happen when we watch out for windows of

opportunities and keep them open; when we try to force open windows

that have been shut tightly for a long time; and when we try to slip into

other entry points where we can possibly fit.

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