From the Bottom Up (2): The MTPDP and the SONA

Friday, 08 July 2011 02:19

Written by Louie C. Montemar

The Medium Term Philippine Development Plan or MTPDP, our plan for Philippine progress, is crafted at the start of a Presidential term with the National Economic Development Authority or NEDA, the country’s main planning agency, leading the crafting process.

President Ramos had the MTPDP for Philippines 2000, promoted by his ‘thumbs up sign’ and the "Kaya natin ito!" (Yes, we can!) slogan.

President Erap had his “Angat Pinoy!” (Rise, Pinoy!), which was never given the chance to rise.

Gloria’s team had the “BEAT THE ODDS” acronym as a mnemonic device to signify the top goals of her administration’s MTPDP, to wit: B - balanced budget; E - education for all; A - automated elections; T - transportation and digital infrastructure; T - terminate hostilities with the MILF and NPA; H - heal the wounds of EDSAs I, II and III; E - electricity and water for all; O - opportunities for livelihood and ten million jobs; D - decongestion of Metro Manila; and, DS - develop Subic and Clark.

So there. Gloria beat up all his detractors and stayed in power against almost all political odds.

All these national plans ostensibly aimed at addressing widespread hunger and poverty. Yet these problems remain. So what’s on for the next term?

The Next MTPDP: Where to, Sir? In PNoy’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) a hazy “plan” was suggested by the "Matuwid na Daan” (Straight Path) proposition. But a straight path to where? Ultimately, the straight path is but a metaphor for battling corruption. It is a metaphor for doing things right.

There is, however, an even more basic concern: What about doing the right things? What, in the first place, are these right things which we should do right. Mr. President?

It is but proper to talk of a straight path in governance. But a path to where? For what? For whom? For whose interests? Considering these, the President’s claim reverberates even more: “Kayo ang boss ko!" (You are my boss!), referring to us all.

How nice to hear. But, at the end of the day, nebulous still.

Given the current dispensation’s emphasis on the sins of the past regime, it comes to my mind, if corruption were the key problem with the last administration, should things just go business as usual now therefore? There shouldn’t be any real, significant or essential deviations in assumptions, approaches, plans, targets for development. This “Straight Path” discourse suggests that our country’s development problem redounds to the mere lack of implementation of programs and enforcement of policies—a weak political will! Is that all there is? Well, to borrow from Facebook, “It’s complicated.”

PPP and the MTPDP. Let’s consider what PNoy has been emphasizing as an approach to fueling development: these “Public-Private Partneships” (PPP). PPP are engagements between a public sector authority and a private party, where “the private party provides a public service or project and assumes substantial risks in the project.” This approach copies from the experience of other countries, and has already been employed in earlier MTPDPs, with the barest of impact.

So what concerns will this PPP approach target and prioritize now? Will the lynchpin national development issues of agrarian reform and agricultural modernization be among them, for instance?

Which brings us back to the MTPDP as it is supposed to specify the government’s priority areas of concern — the Where Tos, What Fors, or For Whoms of development in the next five years.

Tracing the MTPDP From the Ground Up. The MTPDP is a key public document that is ideally derived from a critical analysis of the "state of the nation" — not the annual Presidential SONA speech, but yes, it should be related to that.

The MTPDP should be based on the dynamism of our barangays. We can only move forward as a people, premised on the complex developmental relations between the local and national governments. Let me explain.

All barangays are mandated to craft their so-called "Barangay Development Plans" or BDPs. A BDP, in turn, is supposed to be based on a "Barangay Profile" — a narrative that describes in summary fashion the issues and resources of a barangay. This profile is supposed to be a diligent and objective assessment of the situation of the barangay.

In turn, cities and municipalities should be synthesizing these BDPs to craft their respective city or municipal development plans. It is in light of this that the reports and inputs from the barangays, the BDPs especially, are crucial and indispensable.

The city or municipal development plans are, ideally, synthesized and synergized for the crafting of a provincial development plan or a special (autonomous) regional plan like in the case of Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras.

From strands that are the reports-cum-development plans of the provinces and special administrative regions, NEDA weaves the Medium Term Development Plan at the national level.

Only quite recently was the latest MTPDP released and this is what I, as a student of development studies, have been waiting for. It took almost a year. But we need this MTPDP to pose a serious critique of the Pnoy Presidency. "The devil is in the details," as one friend told me in relation to the Matuwid na Daan. Indeed. And the Jin is in the generalities.

The SONA-MTPDP Nexus. I eagerly waited for details of PNoy’s development plan. In the final reckoning, these details, ideally, come from us in our Barangays. The MTPDP and the SONA can and should ultimately draw from local governance dynamics. This cannot be overemphasized. (So, to digress, did you participate in the last barangay assemblies that should have provided inputs to this nation’s development planning process?)

A year ago, PNoy’s oathtaking speech and his first SONA left many of us discomfited and thirsting for more details and a clearer direction for development. His subsequent actions and pronouncements have only made the hope in some of us dry up.

The next SONA should be more thirst quenching. But I reckon that it can only be so if, like a natural well, it provides water—in this case, policies and views—from the ground up.