vate enterprise in public expenditure has time and again shown itself to turn against national inter-est. As such, it would be a far more sound eco-nomic policy if the Aquino administration would nonetheless stimulate public investment as early as now (even in this precarious situation) in order to truly recapture, in practice and in institutional-ization, a strong public expenditure program that would stimulate legitimate, visible and beneficial economic growth down to the grassroots.

BAND AID BLUES: The Aquino Government’s Policy on Public-Private Partnerships as Dangers to Economic Development and Democratization

Among the most-highlighted policies of the current administration under President Be-nigno Aquino III is its re-affirmation of the value of the private sector in economic devel-opment. Consistent with the 1987 Constitu-tion’s affirmation that “the State recognizes the indispensable role of the private sector, encourages private enterprise, and provides incentives to needed investments,” the Aqui-no administration (of a decidedly liberal-democratic nature with neoliberal econom-ic policies) reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening private enterprise’s capabilities for profit-maximizing and rent-seeking, as befitting its role as among the country’s main income generators.

However, beyond the usual liberal underpin-nings of the ideology which his party up-holds, President Aquino’s predisposition to maintaining the role of private actors in the political economy of the country is rooting from a somewhat different aspiration: that of reconsolidating resources for public expendi-tures and investment. The methods may be liberal, but the operating logic is very much mercantilist (arguably even socialist) in ori-entation, seeking to maximize national inter-ests in the socio-economic playing field at a desirable and beneficial level.

We do acknowledge that the intention of re-capturing strengths and wealth for the state apparatus is important at this crucial time of renewal. All the same, the tactic of maintain-ing strong ties and giving wide leeway to pri-

2

The CitizenTHEME: The Aquino Administration - FEATURED WRITER: Hansley Juliano

The Assembly’s Official Newsletter

HANSLEY JULIANO Photo by Jake Dolosa

2FEATUREDOrder of

Masks: Hansley Adriano Juliano

5 LITERARYPOEM: Sea of

Sheets & Oracion Para Stella

7 EXTRASTheses on

SMS (A parody of Karl Marx’s Theses on Feuer-bach)

“ The methods may be liberal, but the operating logic is very much mercantilist ...”

VOL 1:1see page 3

THE CITIZEN2

Order For Masks: Hansley Adriano Julianoby: Karen Mae Cruz

Hansley A. Juliano is currently a senior AB-Ma Politi-cal Science major in the Ateneo. Aside from his usual

academic demands, he is currently the Secretary-General of Ateneo’s Matanglawin, member of HPAIR’s Research and Training Department, and a member of ACMG’s Li-turgical Committee. His interests expand from travelling, historical museums, different systems of thought, history, social reform, democratization, classical and Philippine literature up to more contemporary topics such as popu-lar music—particularly of Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. But it is particularly Hansley’s prowess in writing that makes him one remarkable character. Having been exposed from various literature and different modes of writing in such an early age, he comes to the conclu-sion that writing is a vocation. It is about the challenge of weighing the impact a piece can have to its readers. Writ-ing is also a responsibility that should make sense, or at least depict realities. Asked about what he prefers more, Hansley cannot choose between whether he likes writing

more for academic purposes or for leisure. This is because he believes that different modes of writing have varying objectives, challenges, and promises. Academically, he writes with such rigor and complexity simply because he thinks that there is no other way to do this other than challenge the reader to think even further. As for leisure, Hansley works with streams of thought. “Kapag academic, hindi puwedeng bite-size kasi kailangan ma-challenge at mahubog ang mambabasa. Pero kapag leisure, kailangan bite-size ang mga sulat para maisaloob ng buo ang mga emosyong nais kong maipadama. There is a necessity of

dichotomization in writing.”This perspective of needing to problematize writing is already indicative of Hansley’s passion for writing. This passion is partly driven from some texts that he already read. His first deep exposure to the realities of the Phil-ippine state was when he read Alberto’s Abeleda’s Ang Kasaysayan ng Pamahalaan ng Pilipinas when he was grade 2---only to find out in High School that it was their school’s Sibika book! Rizal’s infamous Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo remind him of how important it is to consider everything important in Philippine society. These texts are his initial influences in his interest in poli-tics. But beyond the realm of politics, it is Henry Nou-wen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son that seems to have the most impact on him. “After all these years of trying to relate to people, it is still an effort for me to know or like the people for their own worth. I try not to be the focal point by waiting for that moment where there is a ‘pagsa-salubong’ of the minds. We always identify ourselves ei-ther with the older or younger son but no one really both-ers about identifying with the father. In a sense, I want to be the father who wants to acknowledge, accommodate, and relate…hence I write.”

In the end, Hansley admits that writing is not a solid dis-cipline. Hence, he continues to experiment with different modes because he also understands that different masks have to be worn for different audiences. “You can only communicate as much as long as the audience is listening to you.” He admits that even his own discipline (Political Science) seems to habituate itself more on the academic ground. There is a need for a genuine integration of ad-vocacy so as to increase plurality and sustainability. He believes that writing can be a tool to speak for those who cannot. These people may have their personal constraints such as apathy but it motivates Hansley to write even more. “My environment pushes me to write. In times of need-ing to recapture my passion, I sit-in in classes I had taken before or I go to the National Library especially when do-ing serious research. It is cathartic, tiring, and meaningful. Literally and figuratively, these keep me grounded in my writing. It makes me think that I still am worthy.”

“You can only communicate as much as long as the audience is lis-tening to you.”

the past regime’s BOT Law (formally known as Repub-lic Act No. 77118). It re-oriented the BOT Center into the Public-Private Partnership Center of the Philippines and has been transferred from the jurisdiction of the Depart-ment of Trade and Industry to the National Economic and Development Authority, highlighting the integral part of private enterprise to nation-building as defined by the cur-rent administration. Section 2 of EO No. 8 highlights its vital functions, which include “project facilitation and as-sistance to the national implementing agencies”, “advisory services, technical assistance, trainings and capacity devel-opment”, “managing and administering a revolving fund to be known as the Project Development and Monitoring Facility “ and the like.

The fine print of the Executive Order reiterates that the pri-vate partners our state actors will trust in the implementa-tion of these economic development are ultimately to hold themselves responsible before the authority of the govern-ment. It is a conscious and commendable statement in the necessity of reining in private interest in the aftermath of a rampant neo-liberal economic policy from the past regime. Nonetheless, it exposes to us the limitations and dangers of the very idea of private enterprise being given a part in determining what is best for public spending, as we will highlight.

Vol 1 Issue 1| Dec 2010 3

Easy Money for Easy Ways Out

The current administration acknowledges the dilemma that it is strapped of its annual budget as a result of the ex-cesses of the concluded regime of Gloria Macapagal-Ar-royo. With this impression, President Aquino intimated in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 26, 2010 that our national savings cannot manage to cover all the remaining state expenses of the current year. As such, the incumbent administration has decided to take on the offers of a majority of private companies to spend on infrastructure and other public operating systems. One promised, the President enthusiastically shared, to build an expressway from “Manila cutting through the Central Luzon provinces of Bulacan and Nueva Ecija all the way to the topmost areas of Cagayan Valley.”

National defense, the President also promised, would benefit from these public-private partnerships through a funding of US$100 million. The money would serve to modernize our nautical defense units. For tradeoff, the land where our currently-outmoded military bases will be used for commercial purposes, promising to build jobs that would address our ever-growing unemployed sector (one is reminded of the potential we saw in Subic Bay Metropolitan Area). The current administration is opti-mistic enough to outline that with these developments, we will also be able to address the ever-stagnant agri-cultural sector and introduce modernization that would revitalize its productivity and, hopefully, will allow our agricultural products (raw and processed) to finally break in the global market and finally allow the Philippines to participate at equal footing with fellow developing coun-tries in global free trade.

The idea of public-private partnerships has been crafted during the Arroyo regime under the label “Build to Op-erate Transfer” (BOT), with the logic that private enter-prise would build and initially operate systems important to state functioning. After a particular time, the state will purchase rights to these systems wholesale, as well as managing the expenses and losses incurred by the com-panies. These promises, as might be gleaned from the gravity of the situation, were not left as flowery words. Last September 9, 2010, President Aquino has already released Executive Order No. 8 mandating reforms to

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1MAIN STORY: “ BAND AID BLUES ...”

see page 4

THE CITIZEN4

Merchant, Thy Name Is Midas

Privatization of public interest enterprise have probably become among the most characteristic economic policies of the last five administrations, in adherence to the desire for unbridled and progressive economic development at the expense of disposing of state capabilities to intervene in economic trends taken. Walden Bello has noted in the book The Anti-Development State that among the usual reasons for privatization, “to use the proceeds to improve its fiscal position” has figured in countless cases of priva-tization gone awry, such as the sorry state of Manila Water and Maynilad. More contemporarily, the creation of inde-pendent power plants (IPPs) during the administration of President Fidel V. Ramos came back to haunt the public when electric bills skyrocketed over the past decades.

In addition to this, a majority of the promises that priva-tization supposedly carry for the management of state fi-nances remain unsubstantiated to this day. Borrowing an outline used by an IBON Foundation Issue Primer on the issue:

1.Privatization did not necessarily result in improved ef-ficiency. The claim that practices of private enterprise are always universally efficient in managing resources in any situation should simply look at the Philippine situation and the examples of other countries (such as South Ko-rea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) who strengthened government-owned companies that assured consistent and sustainable delivery of goods to see it is a lie.2.Privatization has resulted in the more bankruptcy and in-debtedness of most governments. Due to being upheld by these private companies to accomplish the promise of sub-sidizing and/absorbing losses incurred during operation, heavy privatization, whether monitored or not (especially by neo-liberal government offices) will only serve to tie down public funds at a level not too different from being tied down by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.3.Privatization has significantly hampered the people’s access to social services. Private enterprises are self-serv-ing and have profit first and foremost on their minds. To subsume basic goods to this underlying logic is equiva-lent to commodifying these goods at prices that are out of reach from the regular day-wage laborer. The power crisis

showed us how even families with stringent energy-saving methods still find it difficult to make ends meet.4.Privatization has intensified problems confronting the workers. With an increasingly-globalizing market domi-nated by the desire for disposable labor and far more in-creased profit, labor has already lost its organizing power with the advent of contractual laborers (which do not re-quire the demands of tenure and regular wages by regular workers and as such). The clause for protecting private in-terest in such cases has ultimately worked against the in-terest of the laboring classes more so when demands are being brought in front of government offices.

With these precedents, one might be inclined to believe that privatization is an out-and-out bane that would ulti-mately screw up the Philippine economy. However, the current situation of fiscal insufficiency has shown that the Aquino administration appears to have enough justification to rely on the benefits which public-private partnerships would afford us now. It would be more prudent, in a sense, to consistently monitor the development of these public-private partnerships’ efforts to stimulate local and foreign investments once again. Simultaneously, we should press the current administration to commit to strengthening pub-lic finance institutions for state stability and sustainability of social services in the long run. After all, it is never a sound policy to make a new loan in order to pay a long-standing loan.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3“ BAND AID BLUES ...”

Vol 1 Issue 1| Dec 2010 5

LITERARY WORKS

Sea of SheetsAwake in the wee hours sipping instant coffeeHow I am tempted to simply drift away,Nay, float like a zeppelin at haste to fleeAnd see that from heights where wings sway,Naught indeed are works of man to this day.Right immediately, though, I cease fantasizingOnce moonshine breaks through my windowAnd lo, the questions remain challengingDaring me to answer mysteries of long agoZephyrs chiming, their voices ghastly echo.

- Hansley Juliano

Recommended Readings:

FUN FACT:

Out of sheer boredom, Hansley translated the first chapter of The Prince in Tagalog.

THE PRINCENiccolo Machiavelli

THE CITIZEN4 THE CITIZEN6

Oracion Para Stella

Do you dream of deserting like your comrades under Lucifer?Or endure the ennui of eternity under your external fixities?Oh, ye whom stoics and fools have called deities,Grant wishes do you really, to the sincere sullied?May I ask, then, who among you was tasked to watch me,Not for my folly but for her who’s sole memory,Illuminate her paths always, Even if I should pay, And fall myself astray Into the byways - Hansley Juliano

Love. Sex. Marriage. Society. Interested in sexual politics but have no desire to read academic writings? Leo Tolstoy dis-cusses social truths within twisted tales that would surely get you thinking.

LEO TOLSTOY: THE KREUTZER SONATA

THE CITIZEN6

THESES ON SMS A PARODY OF MARX’S THESES ON FEUERBACH

1 The chief defect of all hitherto existing text messages - that of yours included - is that the message, expression, familiarization, is conceived only in the form of the object of mimesis, but not as inventive human wordplay, message-craft, not subjectively.

2 The dispute over the sincerity or the non-intentionality of the text message which is isolated from the encoded characters is purely an ashumera question.

3The “walang basagan ng trip” doctrine that text messages are

products of brain farts and bursts of inspiration, and that, therefore, unusual texts are products of oth-er brain farts and higher levels of serotonin, forget that it is the texter who jejemonizes the brain farts and that it is essential to jeje-monize the jejemonizer himself.

4The text message consists in re-solving the difficulty of character space towards character reduc-tion. It overlooks the fact that af-ter completing this work, much chika is still to be transmitted. For the fact that the “G.M.” clause de-taches the text message from its exclusivity to a single receiver and establishes itselfs in the infrared waves as an emotion-free expres-sion can only be explained by the cleavages of multiple inbox pack-ages clogging the inbox of the poor being included in the sending list.

5The text message, not satisfied with smiley-based expression, ap-peals to multi-character image-building; but it does not conceive im-ages as accurately as (though far more hilariously than) MMS.

Vol 1 Issue 1| Dec 2010 7

6 The essence of the text mes-sage is no abstraction inherent in all text jokes or corny Hallmark rip-offs. In its reality it is the en-semble of pixels and characters.

7The text message, consequent-ly, does not see that the “astig

factor” is itself a barkada prod-uct, and that the text joke which is analyzed belongs in reality to particular subsets who appreciate toilet humor.

10 The standpoint of the texter is “imagined” relationships; the standpoint of the phone user is communication, or vocalization.

8Textmate life is essentially ar-tificial. All G.M.’s which mis-lead intentionality into com-placency find their “tsansang makaiskor” in setting “eyeballs” and in the consistent devouring of dilapidated text joke books..

9The highest point attained by con-summate texting, that is, texting relationships which has never went beyond the realms of “text-mates”, is the contemplation of the textmate in the bathroom or the solitude of one’s room with further finger practice.

11The texters have only passed on stale messages in various per-mutations; the point, however, is to pasa-load.

MANAGING DIRECTOR: Coco NavarroEDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Karen Mae CruzASST. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Leiron MartijaLAYOUT: Coco Navarro & Janine Motos EDITORIAL CARTOONS: Teofanet Mallilin

EDITORIAL BOARD:

Vol 1 Issue 1| Dec 2010 8