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Seminar

How to Win the Economic Scramble: Seminar for Young Politicians

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Details

It’s the economy, stupid. Prof. Alex Magno from the Centrist Policy Institute (Photo, right) and Presidential Economic Adviser, Gov. Joey Salceda (Albay) have given outlooks on the economy and discussed current developments and a possible stimulus package for the Philippines to an audience of 40 young politicians from all parts of the country.

Gov. Salceda praised the stimulus package of the government and said it was right to do hard decisions in good times to be in a better physical position to address the needs of the country when the economy is worsening. Everybody agreed that the economy will be the top issue in the upcoming 2010 elections. However, whether there are still concerns that campaigns might not be as issue-based as they should be. The participants of the seminar were invited by the Centrist Policy Institute (CPI) with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) to discuss the importance of ethical leadership, issue-based politics and its role in the upcoming 2010 elections.

CPI Executive Director Francis Manglapus said that politicians should run on the basis of a platform and inform the people about the policies they stand for. Young politicians should invest in their knowledge on certain issues to be able to run an issue-based campaign, he added, while calling for ethical campaigning.

The concept of issue-based politics and ethical campaigning is currently highly relevant given the context of the upcoming 2010 elections, leaving voters widely in the dark as to the shape of the incoming batch of candidates that will be running. Traditional politics in the Philippines have been widely associated with personality-based politics, and a shift towards issue-based politics continues to be challenge for those who wish to run for office.

Provincial administrator of Pangasinan, Rafael Baraan, outlined the failures of personality-based politics: candidates who run with no clear understanding of the position and the issues relevant to the constituency end up either losing elections, fail in good governance, and unable to carry out their jobs well. Baraan further advises upcoming candidates, “……you should know why you are running, you should know your job, and you should know what you want to do, and where you want to lead your constituency.”

However, general manager and founder of PUBLICUS, Malou Tiquia, pointed out why politicians of the country do NOT engage in issue-based politics, and resort back to the personality game; she points out that the voters themselves do not demand candidates to address issues nor have concrete campaign platforms; furthermore, Philippine media does not cover “the issues”, what positions candidates take on them, but is more interested in personalities—the candidates’ background, political heritage, passions, temperament, and so on. Tests of characters for candidates would involve hard questions—what is the role of money? Do you win at all expense? What is the role of the COMELEC?

Dr. Dennis Gonzalez, Associate Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, emphasized the importance of having ethics in running for public office, and that political power without ethics will be destructive to others and oneself. He further stressed that political power without ethics becomes abusive and corrupt, which demoralizes constituents and creates mistrust. Dr. Gonzalez has previously given workshops on ethical campaigning together with KAS on its How to Win an Election project in 2006 and 2007, and again in October of 2008.

Other resource persons included social entrepreneur Illac Diaz, who also volunteered for the Obama campaign in the United States, and Marikina mayor Marides Fernando, who discussed her administration’s policies that currently make Marikina City a thriving community.

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Zum Kalender hinzufügen

Veranstaltungsort

Manila, Philippines

Kontakt

Klaus Preschle

Asset-Herausgeber

Asset-Herausgeber

Bereitgestellt von

Auslandsbüro Philippinen