IEDP Interviews: Day One

One of the joys of IEDP is engaging with a variety of policy leaders and officials to gain further perspective on our research. Given that my understanding of the Philippine election process is pretty limited, I sometimes lose sight of how important some of these leaders are!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to meet with the Honorable Rene V. Sarmiento, one of the Commissioners of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC); he provided some updates on the all-electronic voting process the country will undertake in the June elections.
























After our meeting, I asked my colleague Tim, a former Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, to offer up a comparison of an official in the United States that would have the same level of influence as Mr. Sarmiento. His response? "We basically just met someone who's essentially a Supreme Court judge when it comes to defining the election outcome."

Wow.

So, as you can imagine, our knowledge of this country grows by the moment -- but we're not stopping now. Off to another day of interviews!

Another Sensational Campaign Ad: Lito Lapid for Senator (!)

(posted on behalf of Aileen):

As an addendum to all the sensational campaign ads we saw on Tuesday, here’s probably the most sensational yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29SNQCvixig

PH Election Campaign Kicks-Off

Along the lines of the prior post, here's an intriguing blog article the 2010 elections campaign kick-off, titled "Philippine Election Campaign Starts; Entertainment Industry Threatened."

Great article on the intersection of politics, media, and celebrities.

Philippine Elections Featured in The Economist

One of our very favorite trade economists in the whole world, Alan Deardorff, passes along this article from The Economist with a title that almost says it all about what the magazine thinks of the upcoming election: "Uncrowning Gloria."

And the article comes just in time for the governance team's presentation next week. It's a great read, it's really short, and it comes highly recommended.

Thanks for the heads-up, Alan!

An Honest Politician?

Presidential nominee Senator Manuel "Manny" Villar said he could not promise to refrain from imposing new taxes once elected, according to ABS-CBN news.

"I cannot make a promise of no new taxes because the new administration will inherit an empty coffer," Manny told the Makati Business Club (MBC).

Instead, Manny vowed to raise government revenues and spend wisely, which he admitted would not be easy.

Manny's statements differ from his rival, Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aqunio Jr. III, who is opposed to new or increasing taxes. Noynoy believes the government can boost its revenues through curbing and punishing tax evasion and smuggling.

Will the May Elections Lie to Us?

Presidential, local and legislative elections are scheduled in the Philippines for Monday, May 10th, 2010. In what ways does this fact affect the broad range of development issues being studied by the IEDP team in February and March? Will the political objectives of local organizations or individuals obscure any aspect of the material or social realities of development that we hope to observe? How do the impacts of an impending election differ in a developing country like the Philippines than they do in a developed Western democracy like the United States? How can we achieve a clear, impartial, value-added perspective on the development picture in the Philippines so close to a major election? Are potential corrections in our research that account for the effects of the elections appropriate? What would those corrections look like?

A cursory survey of the daily news in the Philippines reveals the pervasiveness of electoral concerns throughout the spectrum of topics we've identified as crucial to a comprehensive sense of development trends -- from issues of governance and transparency, to human rights, ethics reform, judiciary reform, and fiscal decision-making.

For example, a proposed bill to introduce freedom of information measures will "go back to square one" after the House failed to ratify it during its last session before recessing for the upcoming election. Some have alleged that the failure to ratify the bill resulted from political calculations originating in the presidential palace, asserting that the the "administration may be 'allergic' to a bill that promotes transparency in the affairs of the state." Here's the story.

On a completely unrelated but not irrelevant note:

There is clearly a dark side to the widespread economic and cultural incentivization of labor migration in the Philippines, as those of us investigating human trafficking (both sex- and labor-trafficking) are beginning to discover. Last night, Professor Dean Yang and the second Economic Policy team presented a rich overview of the economic impacts of this migration on the country. Nested inside all of the comparative charts and causal inferences presented are the individual stories of the migrants themselves. I think all of us recognize that. However, I don't think any of us -- as we listened to last night's presentations -- were imagining a migrant experience quite This. Freaking. Crazy.

Imagine this. A man distantly related to you, who you've evidently never met (since you clearly don't recognize him), poses as a federal official to put you in handcuffs and take you to what sounds like the door of an airplane to get you out of the country. Please follow the link above to the Huffington Post and read the story.

What?

Political Violence in Mindanao Leaves 21 Dead

BBC reports that 21 politicians and journalists, who were abducted in Mindanao while trying to file nomination papers for a candidate in local elections, have been found dead. More members of the group, originally numbering between 30-40 people, are missing and feared to be dead.

Local reports state that the group was abducted by armed men while on its way to an election office in Maguindanao province to file nomination papers for a local mayor, Ismael Mangudadatu, who was reportedly planning to challenge local clan leader Datu Andal Ampatuan for the governor's office in the mainly Muslim province.

The Philippines armed forces report that of the 21 recovered bodies, 13 were female and 8 were male. There were signs of mutilation, and unconfirmed reports of beheading.

This incident reveals the problem of mounting violence during elections, particularly in the south. Registration for local and national races began earlier this month, and the country is to hold nationwide elections in May 2010.