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National College of Public Administration and Governance,
University of the Philippines, Republic of the Philippines
Thank you very much, Professor. It’s really an honor to be here and I’d like to
thank, of course, Doctor of KPI, Dr. Woothisarn, Dr. Orathai, friends from sometime.
I would like make my presentation talk about decentralization. May be, I would like to
take off from the discussions earlier, where Dr. Sombat spoke about democracy
something that we should fight for if it not be given to us. In the Philippines, we
know that.
No. 2, the second presenter this morning also talked about the importance of
institutions that we should have strong institutions, including the judiciary, including
the media, and I think it’s very important.
The third speaker, who’s very young speaker today talking about the importance
of equity and not equality. I think that’s very important in our discussion of
democracy. I think these, all paradigm, talk about equality which is really, I think has
not been responsive. Perhaps, we should shift our discussion to equity, meaning to
say, those who have less in life should have more in law. In other words, our
discussion on democracy, our discussion on decentralization should focus on those
who are disadvantage, the poor, and the less advantage in the sector. So, I don’t
know Dr. Woothisarn, perhaps, I was talking to him. Inside the discussion, perhaps,
there could be something that we could explore continually. When you talk about
democracy, it’s not equality. It’s really about equity, meaning we give to those who
have less. It’s within the context that I would talk about decentralization and as
I point it out by our moderator, Professor Wasant, mentioned that. You know we
have had decentralization in the Philippines since 1991. We’re celebrating our
decentralization for about 25 years now, 26 years. It was ok, but we have had many
lessons learned and we also have to strengthen it. As I tell my colleagues from
Indonesia and even in Thailand, we made a lot of mistakes and we also made a lot
of good points. But the more important things which I will share with you today are
some of the lessons learned.
One reason why we talk about federalism in our paradigm is that federalism, will
further deepen decentralization. Federalism will further deepen devolution, at least in
the Philippines context. Let me underscore that, at least in the Philippine context.
And as we said earlier, there is no one size fits all. What might be rightful in the
Philippines, certainly might not be appropriate to others. And I think that it’s the value
of comparative studies, comparative conferences such as this, because we learn from
you, and perhaps, you might learn from us. And I’d like to thank you again, though,
Dr. Woothisarn and Dr. Orathai from KPI for this opportunity to share the Philippine
experience on decentralization. ª£¸²£ª±¡¡²¥¸h¡¢h¢µÈ
