SOVEREIGN COMMUNITIES

NO HOLDS BARRED (047) December 29, 2009
By Ike Señeres

SOVEREIGN COMMUNITIES

According to Wikipedia, Athenian democracy was developed in the Greek city-state of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. This type of democracy was characterized by the direct participation of all citizens in the affairs of the city-state. Instead of electing representatives to speak on their behalf, the citizens voted on their own right, thus eliminating the need for a congress or a senate.

Believe it or not, the technology is now here to enable cities and states to go back to the Athenian democracy model. I would guess that the senates of the city-states cam about when the size of the population made it impractical to resort to direct voting, considering how unmanageable that would be. Fast forward to the present times, the technology is now here to manage the direct participation of an infinite number of voters on any question of law or governance. Are we ready to go back to this model?

This idea may sound preposterous on first hearing, but in a manner of speaking, any form of election whether it is manual or automated is actually an exercise in direct voting. The only difference in this comparison is that the elections are held only every four years or so, because of the complexity of the process, and because of the impracticality of asking all citizens about referendum issues on a daily basis, at least in theory.

When I chaired the modernization committee of the COMELEC many years ago, I recommended in my final report to the Commission and the Senate that the best and most ideal way of modernizing the elections is to enable the people to vote in the same way as they do business with the bank. In simple language, this would mean voting through a teller, through an automated teller machine (ATM), via a cell phone (mobile banking), via a call center (phone banking) and via the internet (online banking).

To go even further, I also said in my report that the existing infrastructure of the banks could be used for election purposes, highlighting the fact that if this approach is taken, there would be no need to spend on new infra. I said that there should be no problem about security, because it is even more challenging to secure money than to secure the votes.

It may take a long time before Athenian democracy comes back, or it may never happen at all. With or without it however, the technologies to give or send feedback to the elected representatives about how or what the people feel or think already exist, so why don’t we use these technologies to improve or upgrade our existing democracy?

At the risk of sounding sarcastic, I would say that the people get what they deserve. True enough, democracy is the voice of the majority, so there is nothing that we could do if the majority of the people would choose to remain silent about the poor quality of governance that they are getting, or if they choose to elect candidates who are popular but are unable to make good laws or deliver good public services.

The fact that the Greek city-states existed and functioned very well before the broader Greek nation state emerged is solid proof enough that even in these present times, our local cities and municipalities could operate and survive on their own without depending so much on the broader national government. Indeed, sovereignty is a political term, but that not mean that the local communities could not become economically independent.

Is it possible to bring about sovereign communities in the Philippine setting? I think so, but I also think that the key to this is the direct participation of all citizens in day to day governance, in a way that would make them take their own destiny in their own hands. How do we make this happen?

As it is now, many cities and municipalities have already put up their own websites, and some have activated their own online feedback boards. I just do not know how many mayors are reading the feedbacks sent in, but this is already a good start. But how about using mobile messaging also?

Considering the fact that there are more cell phone users than Internet users, I think that it is about time that the cities and municipalities should put up their own short messaging service (SMS) servers, and this is not a very difficult thing to do. I have been using Text Genie, locally developed software for eight years now, and it works perfectly for me.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

INTEGRATING LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

NO HOLDS BARRED (046) December 21, 2009
By Ike Señeres

INTEGRATING LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

The Copenhagen summit for global warming and climate change might have failed, but that is only as far as the national governments are concerned. As we wait for the next summit in Mexico, we should not pin our hopes in that future date and instead we should act now, in the level of our own local governments.

It will perhaps take a long time before the national governments could come to terms when it comes to global warming, because the prescribed solutions could possibly threaten the economic survival of the industrialized nations. On the other hand, the lack of solutions is also a threat to the ecologic survival of the industrializing nations. This is essentially where the conflict lies.

Back at the level of the local governments, the conflict is between the interests of the industrialized companies and their host communities. By this, I do not just mean local manufacturing waste, but also post-consumer waste in the form of non-biodegradable packaging and run-off materials. The problems are humungous, but solutions could be found if cooperation is put into place.

Long before global warming entered the vocabulary, the concept of integrated area development (IAD) was already a buzz word in the development circles. Unfortunately, IAD was dismissed along with Martial Law, perhaps because of the mistaken notion that it was an invention of the Marcos government.

The same is true in the case of the human settlements concept. It was also dismissed along with Martial Law, having been identified with the Marcos government. The sad thing is, the succeeding governments did not have anything to replace the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), and have not done anything about IAD either.

On top of the apparent failures of the Regional Development Councils (RDCs), the government is now gearing up to convene the Local Development Councils (LDCs), appearing to be the same banana with another name. Just as the RDCs have ignored the IAD concept, there is little hope that it will get the attention of the LDCs.

Going straight to the point before I run out of space, it should be made a policy that the RDCs or the LDCs as the case may be should have a direct hand in the utilization of both the internal revenue allocations (IRAs) and the countryside development funds (CDF). This is just common sense, because with no money to boot, these local councils could hardly do anything.

Last week, I attended a forum where two British Members of Parliament (MPs) spoke about the status of their politics and governance. In the course of the discussion, they mentioned the British system of having a shadow government, which in a way serves as a watchdog to the party in power. This is a good practice that should also be implemented here.

Considering the possibility that the local governments here could fail in the politics and governance of climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR), I think that the private sector should put up their own shadow government to watchdog the local parties in power, and throw in as well the IAD concept into the agenda.

In pursuit of the local watchdog concept, I am offering the resources of the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) as the national secretariat or coordinator as the case may be. Conceptually, UNIDA is an alliance of organizations that are supporting IAD in general, and human development index (HDI) in particular.

Looking at the overall picture, CCA and DRR are directly connected to IAD and HDI, because the environment affects the expansion of the economy in the larger scale, and the reduction of poverty in the smaller scale. In line with HDI, the environment also affects reductions in illiteracy and mortality.

In connection with these initiatives, I am now inviting all international and local organizations development organizations to join UNIDA in organizing local committees that would take on the role of shadowing the local governments in implementing their CCA, DRR, IAD and HDI tasks.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

A NEW FUTURE FOR COOPERATIVES

NO HOLDS BARRED (045) December 15, 2009
By Ike Señeres

A NEW FUTURE FOR COOPERATIVES

My son asked me what a cooperative is, and I told him in simple terms that a cooperative is just like a corporation, except that in the former, it is one vote per member and in the latter, it is one vote per share. One way or the other, some people tend to look down on cooperatives on one hand. On the other hand, if we start looking at cooperatives as the co-equal of corporations except for the voting method, we can start looking at them with more respect.

Dr. Virginia Teodosio, a UP professor who was formerly the head of the Cooperatives Development Authority (CDA) told me that out of the 30,000 or so cooperatives in the country, about 10,000 of them are already considered as multi-millionaires in terms of assets. There are many ways to gain respect, but if it is only measured in terms of company income, then these rich cooperatives would truly merit our respect.

Admittedly, I was one of those who tended to look down on cooperatives, not out of disrespect, but out of disappointment. Out of the two coops that I joined, I had bad experiences, not being able to collect my dividends on one, and not being able to receive my stock certificates from the other one, despite many attempts. Thanks to Dr. Teodosio, I have now revived my interest in the cooperatives, and I am now looking at them as a source of hope that this country could still move on towards something better.

Dr. Teodosio or “Benji” to his friends is now my co-host in “Bears & Bulls”, our daily business show in the Global News Network (GNN). She is the now the host of the “Coop Hour” every Tuesday from 10:30 to 11:30 AM. The response from the cooperative community has been tremendous. Since then, we have attracted many community leaders, in a way forming a new solid alliance to move the movement forward.

In a manner of speaking, cooperative companies (yes, they are in effect companies too) could be considered as democratic institutions, because the open window for people to invest in small amounts has a democratizing effect, giving a chance for small investors who are in effect shut out or excluded from big investments in the corporate companies.

In the same manner that corporations could invest in any business of their choice, cooperatives too could invest in any business and could provide any service, as long as they are licensed to do so, just like the corporations. It is because of this reason that many cooperatives have graduated from the usual model of operating grocery stores and canteen concessions, and are now into more profitable and more respectable businesses, so to speak.

How could the cooperative movement become a force in national development? Looking at the broad side, cooperatives are somehow in the middle of the corporations that are offering high priced services with high value but are beyond the reach of the mainstream market, and the government agencies that are offering services that are free, but have low value. In other words, cooperatives have a built-in niche market for services with low prices but have high values.

For example, some cooperatives are now operating primary and secondary schools that have better quality than the public schools, but are charging lower than the other private schools. And of course, the parents who are also the members could have the added benefit of earning patronage rebates from the expenses, aside from the dividends that they would get.

Basing it on the good experiences of the cooperatives in the education business so far, it would be a good idea for cooperatives to run clinics and hospitals as well, following the same idea of providing high value services with low prices, and with rebates and dividends to boot. Would this not totally bring down the costs of health care? Of course, they could also run their own drugstores, thereby bringing down the costs of medicines too.

Being in the technical field, I am now making it my mission to provide affordable technologies to the cooperatives that would enhance their business one way or the other. We are starting with the provision of direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV services, and we are now lining up other technologies such as wireless point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The sum total of technologies that we will deliver will hopefully spell a new future not only for the cooperatives, but also for the whole country as well.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

MODERNIZING THE COOPERATIVES

NO HOLDS BARRED (044) December 08, 2009
By Ike Señeres

MODERNIZING THE COOPERATIVES

The technology gap in the Philippines, meaning the time it takes for a foreign technology to be adopted here would probably range from one year to a hundred years or more, depending on the factors surrounding the adoption. This is also true in the case of information & communications technology (ICT), a set of technologies that is basically foreign in origin.

In some cases, there are several local attempts to adopt a foreign technology early on, but for some reason or another, there is a failure of adoption. This is true in the case of e-commerce in general, and in the case of business-to-business (B2B) web portals in particular. This would also include other types of portals, such as business-to-consumer (B2C) and government-to-government (G2G).

In a manner of speaking, the emergence of e-commerce web portals is supposed to have a democratizing effect, in the sense that it would have given small & medium enterprises (SMEs) the opportunities to sell their products and services without incurring the high costs of advertising and promotions.

As of now, there are about 30,000 cooperatives of all types in the Philippines, more or less. By themselves, all the cooperatives taken as a whole would be like a micro economy on their own, capable of selling to each other (B2B) or to their own member-customers (B2C), totally independent of the bigger and broader economy.

As I see it, there are three levels of ICT adoption, namely personal, local and global. The personal level is self-explanatory. The local level on the other hand would mean inter-personal communications at a local setting like an office such as a local area network (LAN) or in a community such as a wide area network (WAN). The global level would mean no other than the Internet, a network of computers around the world bound together by Internet Protocol (IP).

Speaking of the Internet, it is not just one technology because it is a giant set of technologies, also bound together by IP. Going back to the subject of technology adoption, several Internet technologies may already have been adopted in the Philippines, but there are many other such technologies that have yet to be used here. Just to emphasize the technology gap, Internet 2 is already being used in the United States for a long time now.

When I was the Director of Science & Technology and also in-charge of technology transfer at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), I brought in a foreign consultant who is an expert in economic intelligence. I assigned him to Davao City where he was tasked to look into the marketing problems of cut flower producers there. In his final report, the consultant said that the reason why the five star hotels in Metro Manila are not buying cut flowers from Davao, is because they do not know what is available there.

In several meetings that I conducted with leaders of the cooperative movement in attendance, we concluded that cooperatives of all types could actually go into the ICT business, providing all kinds of ICT related services such as telephony, mobile messaging, cable television, Internet Service Provider (ISP) and distance education, among others.

Much as I see the potential of cooperatives going into all kinds of ICT related businesses, I see the need for their members and leaders to graduate from the personal level of computerization all the way up to the local and global levels. It would even be good if they could graduate from the LAN and WAN experiences as they discover the Internet.

In consultation with Dr. Benjie Teodosio who is a long time leader of cooperative organizations, we realized that cooperatives could actually provide distance education to about 3 million out-of-school youth all over the country using satellite television and actually earn decent revenues from the service, potentially turning the service into a social enterprise as well.

Also in consultation with Mr. Rodolof Cañeda, another leader of cooperatives, we also concluded that a B2B portal would be a great help in modernizing their global marketing efforts, thereby increasing their revenues by broadening their markets. It does not take much effort to help in the modernization of these cooperatives. Let us work together to help them.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com

CONVERGENCE OF ACTIONS

NO HOLDS BARRED (043) December 02, 2009
By Ike Señeres

CONVERGENCE OF ACTIONS

Elections are coming up next year, and the electorate will again be asked to re-elect incumbent executives or elect new ones. As usual, there will be a mad scramble of paid ads trying to tell the people what the candidates have done or what they could do. The tendency to use ads a means to tell the people about accomplishments or promises is an indication that these candidates do not really have apparent programs of actions that are already publicly known in the first place.

How can we tell whether a local official is a good executive or not? For the lack of a better reference, we should just base our judgment on the compliance of their jurisdictions to the mandated national development programs, which are supposed to have localized translations in the first place.

Take the case of the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for instance. As far as I know, the release of Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) is supposed to be tied in to the planning and delivery of local development plans, in theory that is. Another related measure is the compliance of local government units (LGUs) to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As we try to measure how good the performance of a local executive is, we should bear in mind that they may be at liberty to come up with their own ideas as to what public service delivery programs they like, but that does not mean that they are free to disregard or depart from the context of the national plans, more so in the case of the MDGs, because this has international implications, given the fact that these measures are officially reported to the United Nations (UN).

Generally speaking, it seems to be the practice of LGUs to come up with bits and pieces of development projects that are the products of their own imaginations, but these projects are seldom converged to take on the form of cohesive programs that would all add up to the outcome of meeting the basic needs of the people in their jurisdictions, in relation to the MTPDP and the MDGs.

Let us use the issue of access to water as an example. The UN measures access to potable water as an MDG. This means water that people could drink from the faucet, and not just for bathing or washing. How many LGUs are targeting 100% access? As it is now, many upper class and middle class households gain access by buying bottled water, but that does not count. There is even a discrimination issue here, because the poor could not afford to sustain this. The fact is, bottled water in jugs is more expensive the interior areas where the poor households reside.

Using water as an example, we could consider a local public official as a good executive if he is targeting increases to water in the first place, and is able to meet his targets in the second place, aside from the need to sustain the supply. Come election time, the people should vote only for the candidates that have real and visible water access plans and projects.

It is good to see that civic groups and nonprofit organizations have their own projects that deliver one form of access to local communities or the other, but they should all attempt to coordinate their projects with each other, so that convergence will happen. In doing this, it would be good if they could work closely with the local authorities, but that is just an option for them.

As the time targets for achieving MDGs are already set, all local authorities should report how far they are from their targets. As a matter of fact, this should become the real election issues, the issue of who is doing best or doing most in increasing access to the basic services that are targeted by the MDGs. The noise should be in the extent of results, not the intensity of the political ads.

If you are looking for a clue whether your local officials are actively pursuing MTPDP and MDG goals or not, look into the calendars of the local Municipal Development Councils (MDCs), Provincial Development Councils (PDCs) and the Regional Development Councils (RDCs). These local councils are supposed to be meeting regularly. If you do not see a calendar, it means that your local officials are not active. If you see a calendar, look into the minutes to find out who is active and who is not.

Watch my business show 9:00 am to 1:00 pm in Global News Network (GNN), Channel 21 in Destiny Cable. Email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639293605140 for local cable listings. Visit senseneres@blogspot.com