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And will we deepen it? Yes and No, because the whole discourse of
decentralization should not focus or should focus on strengthening accountability,
strengthening people’s participation. Like I said, one reason, in fact, I wanted the
assist from our Indian colleague yesterday. Because, one basic complaint, if you may,
against decentralization and even our proposal to come up with federalism is, are we
not just strengthening our kings? Is that what you are saying? The local kings, as
Professor Agus mentioned. I guess that’s possible, but that also happened under
decentralization. For me, in the Philippines, if we are talking about, they will have just
more dynasties. That’s fine, you know? Because… not that fine… but it’s really part
of political administrative system. Anybody can run for public office, even a clown.
Anybody can run, but the problem is, why do we vote them? So, for me, the
problem is not in the surprise side. The problem is the man side. That’s why in our
paradigm, we say we should educate our people. We have to conscientize our people,
and that’s where capacity building is concerned. Question, in our session earlier,
we talk about why decentralization will bring about equity and not equality. So, point
is the people. We should know that, if there is more decentralization, we’ll focus on
those who needed more and not those who have already. And, that’s the paradigm.
That’s the perspective. I think that we should and that’s the job of us, being the
academics. That’s the job of us in government. Like I said, if we’re in the minister of
local government and I think we can do that. It’s the evidence, yes, because, as I
said earlier. And, I like the appreciation of the… I appreciate the comment of our
first person, who asked the question earlier, that he said I’m a member of the
parliament. I’m the practitioner. That’s so true. Listen to the practitioners. Listen to
the local officials. And we have many local officials, who are good and best
practicers. And, like I said, I was in the local government academy. Our training
programs, it’s not me of course, I talk as academic. But, I also bring in mayors.
I bring in local officials and they will teach other mayors. And, as, I’m sure you know
this, and the mayors will listen to another mayor. That is the strategy of capacity
building, good and best practices. And, this is working out and pushing the envelope
even further. What we did is, we started the program in 1994. We call Galing Pook,
which means excellence in local governance. What we do is we recognize outstanding
local governments, and one will be very, very inspired. We just have, in fact, our last
awarding. It’s already 25 years, our last awarding the other day, I mean the other
week, and we are so inspired. I’ll give you an example. I’ll keep quiet. There’s this
city in Valenzuela. This is a real example, this is a real example. There’s this city in
Valenzuela, but it used to be a small municipality. My mother-in-law, who got married
in 1951, long time ago, needed a certificate. But, she said if you go to the local
government, I wonder if we will be able to get it. You know what, I did it myself.
I went there. I was incognito. I did not, I couldn’t, say I’m an official. I went there.
I filed for the application form. This is a small municipality, ha? I got the form
certifying that they were married in 1951. I got the form in 10 minutes. And, I was
flabbergasted because this is a local official that used information technology. They
are wonderful excellent governments. Of course, not all of them are like that. But my ª£¸²£ª±¡¡²¥¸h¡¢h¢µÈ
point is, it can be done. So, there is evidence out there. Like I said, I am not
