Assessing the Performance of an Administration

If one has to assess the performance or non-performance of a government or administration, what is the better parameter, how much it has done, subsidized, regulated, etc. or how little it has done or intervened?

This is corollary to my friend Ethel's question in her fb wall, "Sige. Let's be fair. Give me something Noynoy has done in the past five years that is actually good for the Filipinos."

Some  of the "pro" comments:

1. He took out wangwangs on the road. he curbed corruption.

2. He brought peace to Mindanao?

3. The creation of the GOCC Commission tasked to privatize, abolish, merge, the duplicating, non-performing corporations, offices of the huge bureaucracy.

4. Jailing of three senators and former lawmakers.. never done before

5. The PERCEPTION of an honest and transparent government in the international community,

6. Napaalis niya si Corona.

And the “anti” comments:

1. He curbed corruption because he wants all corruption to go straight to the palace. See what happens to LTO plates.

2. He gave each congessman and senator so much in lump sum appropriations under PDAF and DAP

3. He was able to avert an armed confrontation in the West Philippine Sea against an armed invader.

4. He gave the bird to the Catholic Church by getting congress to pass the RH Bill.

5. I see wangwangs everywhere

6. Zero infrastructure in 5 years/ LRT/ MRT in ruins.

Most people would use how much subsidies and welfarism, how much regulation and interventionism, how much taxation of the rich or top 1%, etc as their parameter. So less welfarism and subsidies means bad government.

I take the 2nd parameter. The worst thing that a government or administration can do to its people is that it does and intervenes so much. So a government that does not intervene too much, which "does little" is actually a good thing. When a government requires you need a permit to renovate your CR or change the color of your roof before you move, even if there is zero corruption involved, you will hate that government.

My beef is that PNoy Aquino is not liberal enough, he is not non-interventionist enough. Lots of past interventionism and bureaucratism are not removed yet.

In a free, (classical) liberal society, everything is allowed except for a few prohibitions. LIke no killing/murder, no stealing or destruction of others' property, no abduction/kidnapping, no rape/trafficking, etc. The rest is allowed. Have alcohol and drugs, sex, open shops left and right, etc. so long as no one is hurt or harmed.

In an unfree society, everything is NOT allowed, prohibited, unless one gets a permit from the government. Thus, one cannot drive his own car, cannot open and start a business, cannot repair his house or office, cannot sell something, etc. unless he/she gets a permit.

It is not so much the degree of welfarism and subsidies given away, but the degree of freedom that people enjoy, including the freedom to be hard working and freedom to be lazy, that should be given more weight in assessing a government.

So if one is a lover of huge welfare, beautiful infrastructures, then he/she can love China and its communist government, love PM Xi Jinping. They give lots of free housing, free university education, beautiful roads and airports, etc.

But if one is a lover of freedom, he will hate China and any commie or one-party government. No fb and youtube, no twitter and gmail, etc.

How about Singapore? It allows fb and youtube, twitter and gmail, etc., have lots of beautiful infra like roads and huge airport. Nice, except that you can never ever criticize the government with those social media. Their government gives heaven on earth, it should not be criticized.

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See also: 
Fat Free Econ 55: The President's 5th SONA and Market-Oriented Reforms, August 01, 2014
Citizen Watch 3: Political and Economic Reforms After SONA 2014, September 06, 2014

Pol. Ideology 60: Lecture in Nepal on Liberalism, Rule of Law, Civil Society, January 13, 2015
Pol. Ideology 61: Raison d 'Etre of Government, January 30, 2015

PNoy Government, Pork Barrel and Parliamentarism

Chilling here in my hotel in Hong Kong, arrived today to attend a full day round table discussion tomorrow on “Democracy – Past, Present and Future”, sponsored by the Lion Rock Institute, HK’s first and only free market think tank. Then on Sunday, some of us participants here will fly to Bangkok  to attend the Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia 2013 Conference on “Asia, Middle Income Trap and Economic Freedom”, Monday-Tuesday. I will post articles about these two events in the coming days.

Then checking my facebook, my article, Pork Barrel 8: Forum at DLSU Manila has attracted the attention of some guys hurting over my non-singing “halleluiah” to parliamentary form of government, in the “Kilos Pinoy” fb group. Some guys there dislike it too much, even if I am not singing “halleluiah” to a presidential form of government either. 

See the exchanges below, made only this afternoon. Copy-pasting everything, zero alteration, not even comma or period. Judge for yourself re attitude, arrogance, civility or lack of it. Notice for instance Nigel’s calling me Noynoy repeatedly. Implying something and in the process, showing his mental state.

This is 2,200+ words, 6 pages, enjoy.

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Nigel Pope I love how Noynoy Oplas voted for and campaigned for Aquino but now, suddenly, is lecturing everyone else on corruption in government being wrong.

Seriously, Noynoy, why did you vote for  noy?

Nonoy Oplas Nanggigigil si Pope, hehehe, bakit ba. Anyway, yes I voted for PNoy, the only liberal candidate in the 2010 elections though he's far out from being a classic liberal. The other candidates were more statist, more dangerous than him. But I did not go out campaigning hard for him.

Nigel Pope More statist? More dangerous?

He's an Aquino! That family - and the Cojuangcos - have been big state, pro-oligarch, pro-protectionist for GENERATIONS.

Seriously, mate, you really need to learn a bit more about the free market and small state movement if you think voting for  noy was the best option. Did you honestly think he would be any different that his execrable mother?

Vincent Blas https://www.facebook.com/photo.php...

Timeline Photos

By: Saint Cory Aquino of Hacienda Luisita

Nonoy Oplas My vote in 2010, none of your business. You crucify PNoy, fine, I'm not his spokesman, not an LP member, not a govt bureaucrat.

Nigel Pope It's not really my business... other than the fact that you sit there lecturing me and damning CoRRECT for not being free market enough for your tastes but...

YOU
ARE
AN
AQUINO
SUPPORTER.

That's hypocrisy. That's intellectual dishonesty. That's not coming to an argument with clean hands. That's the sort of cognitive dissonance with taints every argument you make.

You're a joke, Noynoy, just like your namesake whom you frittered away your vote to.

Also, Noynoy, now that you are revealed as a big state supporter, I am interested in knowing more about your new political party.

Is this a pork barrel thing?
Does your support for Aquino mean you are hopeful of attracting more pork?

Nonoy Oplas Commenting without reading. My blog post was actually an attack on the administration without naming it. Pork as bribe by the Exec to the Legislative so that wasteful and corrupt spending by the former will be tolerated by the latter. The current PNoy admin, past Gloria, Erap, FVR, Cory admins were all guilty of such pork bribery. Hence, I did not single out any admin as all of them were guilty of such wasteful, big govt spending.

Some guys are just groggy or hurting that some people are not convinced by their pol advocacies.

Vincent Blas ^You realize that they’re all guilty, and still you want to keep the Presidency?

Nonoy Oplas If you want to put Binay as successor to Pnoy now, fine, do it, should make you happy. 

UHC 15: On DOH Plan to Recentralize Healthcare

The quest for government-initiated and centralized universal health care (UHC) can be dizzying for all sectors -- patients/public, private healthcare professionals and providers, government health agencies, the legislature and everyone else. This is because when government centralizes or almost  monopolize healthcare, competition, price differentiation, market segmentation and service innovation is often sacrificed or killed.

A famous physician, expert and consultant on UHC and NCDs, also a friend, Dr. Tony Leachon, posted this story from GMA News the other day, in his fb wall,

PNoy to push for less controversial health programs in last half of his term

In a speech during the Department of Health's (DOH) 115th anniversary celebration, Aquino said his administration is determined to attain its goal of universal healthcare for all Filipinos by 2016….

"Last year mayroon tayong Sin Tax, mayroon tayong Responsible Parenthood, ngayon naman ho ay pakikiugnayan ng mas hindi masalimuot ang ating pakay," he added. Aquino, in his speech, said his government was able to enroll some 20 million more Filipinos to the national health insurance program during his first three years in office.

He also boasted of his administration's efforts to expand benefit packages for Filipinos suffering from heart diseases, aside from those with "catastrophic diseases" such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and acute leukemia.

The president likewise pledged to build more new health facilities in far-flung regions of the country, and the rehabilitate old hospitals.

"Hindi tayo titigil hangga’t may mga kababayan pa rin tayong ni hindi nakakakita ng espesyalista sa tanang-buhay nila. Kaya naman sa huling dalawang taon ng ating administrasyon—binawasan ho ako ng isang taon, siguro ‘yong writer ko po ay gusto na ring lumipat ng trabaho—target nating i-upgrade at gawing mas moderno ang 7,325 na mga ospital, klinika, at pagamutan," he said. DOH Secretary Enrique Ona, meanwhile, said his department will propose a law that will facilitate the efficient delivery of health services to distant towns in the country. 

"Kami ay nahirapan nang husto na ipaabot sa ating local health units 'yung tulong ng DOH kasi devolved ang ating health system down to the towns. Sabi namin, pag-aralan on how we can improve the devolution of healthcare," he said in an interview after the event. 

He likewise said he wants a legislation that will "improve the governance" of public hospitals under the DOH.

Among the comments raised by Doc Tony's friends were the following:

(a) Do not neglect the human resource aspect of modernizing health facilities, otherwise we willl have ghosts running our hospitals.

(b) Maldistribution and unemployment of healthcare professionals are serious issues.

(c) There is an over-supply of nurses and there is maldistribution of doctors, maybe even an under-supply of physicians.

(d) Start an Advanced Practice Nursing/ Nurse Practitioner program. Can be piloted with a very good nursing program. It will provide job security and provide additional primary care providers especially in underserved areas.

(e) "Hindi tayo titigil hangga’t may mga kababayan pa rin tayong ni hindi nakakakita ng espesyalista sa tanang-buhay nila." -- Why do the people need to see a specialist? Specialist in what? Why can't they be seen by primary care physicians or nurses? If nurses are trained to render primary care... agree ako jan.

I commented that the move now by the DOH is towards more nationalization and recentralization of public healthcare. But centralized programs often result in centralized expectations and centralized disappointment. Then I asked Doc Tony since he has worked in both private and public hospitals and other healthcare facilities, what are the efficient incentive systems that encourage HC professionals to provide really caring service to patients, so they get well and become economically productive.

Doc Tony replied that HC professionals should be compensated well to stay with a well planned career plan.

That is precisely my point. Very often in government hospitals and HC facilities, the doctors are paid flat rate, whether they see 20 or 200 patients a day, the pay is the same. So the tendency is to provide quickie prescription, little or no patient counselling, then call the next patients after 3 or 5 minutes. When government centralizes, nationalizes and monopolizes healthcare, service differentiation, market segmentation and service innovation is often sacrificed or killed. Government service is meant to uniformize, harmonize and monotonize the public, and sub-optimal health outcome is the result.

In the food sector, there is zero government carinderia or restaurant, zero government supermarket or talipapa, zero or little government farms, and yet people are eating. There are various products for various people with various budget and needs. Service innovation, price differentiation and market segmentation allows the various food producers/sellers to meet with certain food consumers.

In contrast in the health sector, (1) there are tens of thousands of government rural and barangay health centers, (2) tens of thousands of government-sponsored botika, (3)hundreds of government hospitals (DOH, LGUs, PGH, AFPMC, etc.), (4) there are free medicines and entitlement programs for the poor, (5) drug price control policy, (6) mandatory price discounts to senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs), (7) government health insurance monopoly, and health problems are not declining but rising. Expectations rise, disappointment and discontent rise. Centralization and monopolization is wrong.

In another thread, there are good experiences in private-provided healthcare like the case of Dr. Meo Santos-Cao. She said, 

when I had my practice here in Laguna (up to 2006). I did not even register as provider with PhilHealth. I always made sure that this fact was clear to my patients. They paid me directly, usually before discharge from the hospital, but sometimes upon post-hospitalization check-up in my clinic if they had difficulty raising money. And since I didn't have to wait for 3-6 months for PhilHealth to pay me, I always charged much lower than other MDs here.  

I practiced general med. I did minor surgeries, checked on pregnant women and assisted normal deliveries. While it's customary for those services to be provided by specialists (surgeons and OB-Gyne), I had no qualms doing those because I was capable, had training and licensed to practice. In so doing, I gave patients an alternative to expensive services of specialists. In 2005, OBs charged 15k for a normal vaginal delivery, part was paid for by PhilHealth and the bulk out-of-pocket. Whereas, I charged only 6k for the same service, all out of patient's pocket. Malaki pa rin ang natipid ng pasyente. The important point here is that patients must know that they have options and that they cannot be held hostage by the prevailing system. Bottom line pa rin, as Marco pointed out, patient and provider must agree on the service and its cost.

I like the stories that Doc Meo shared, it's about private contract between a service provider (her as a physician) and service consumer (the patients) with no tertiary or external intervention (the state like PhilHealth, especially). The result is fine. If the patients are not happy, no need to rally or demonstrate in the streets to demand that the state should regulate Dr. Meo Cao or whoever. They simply refuse to come back, tell their friends that Dr. Cao is a lousy doctor. But this did not happen, they keep coming back, meaning they are happy with the services provided by Dr. Meo Cao.

Another physician friend also shared that "...with unjust compensation, doctors would opt not to operate lalo na kung difficult cases, the new Philhealth scheme doesnt take into account case difficulty. Di ka na properly compensated, mas malaki pa risk sa license mo, pagod ka pa. I dont think this is in the best interest of the patient. It takes forever for Philhealth to pay the MD and hospital, and only an instant to disqualify patients na may minor delinquencies sa continuity ng payment."
http://funwithgovernment.blogspot.com/2011/10/philhealth-watch-9-physicians-talk.html

On another note, I changed the subject of this thread from "Socailized Healthcare" to simply UHC. See also:

Socialized Healthcare 11: Private Health Insurance and HC Vouchers, November 16, 2012

Socialized Healthcare 12: Nurses, Doctors and Other Resources, March 03, 2013

Socialized Healthcare 13: On Inequality and Inclusive Business in HC, March 19, 2012  

Socialized Healthcare 14: Over-extending Government Role in Health, May 22, 2013

Election Watch 6: On Political Dynasty

* This is my guest post in antipinoy.com today.
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Getting voters’ support is mainly about political branding. Political parties as engines of politicians to capture political power, national and local, are originally Ideology-based. Meaning they represent unique ideologies and political philosophies that are distinguishable from each other.

This is not happening in the Philippines and many other countries. Here, almost all political parties promise or say the same things – more populism, expand welfare and subsidies, expand regulations, do not cut or reduce taxes, good governance, fight corruption – even if many of the politicians in those parties are associated with corrupt practices in the past and present.

So voters cannot distinguish one political party from the other. The only clear distinction they can make is on the personalities who lead those parties. The old political names and clans that have been there for several decades. In short, the use of clans as main political brand, not the political parties, and many voters have accepted this shift in political branding.

The major political ideologies are socialism/communism, liberalism/free market, and conservatism/authorititarity. See an earlier discourse with definitions here, Collectivism, Conservatism and Liberalism. But variants have been invented, like social democracy (soc-dem), liberal democracy (lib-dem), national democracy (nat-dem), social liberals (soc-libs), social conservatism, christian democracy, environmentalism, and so on. Their definitions can interlap and be varied, depending on who is defining what.

In the Philippine Senatorial elections this coming Monday, May 13, 2013, these family names are the front runners: Legarda, Binay, Cayetano, Aquino, Escudero, Ejercito/Estrada, Poe, Pimentel, Villar.

Nancy Binay is a never-heard lady nationally until November 2012. When she was drafted to the UNA senatorial slate last December, she suddenly belonged to the top 15. Now she is ranked 3-4. She is the eldest daughter of Vice President Jojo Binay, her sister is Makati Congresswoman Abi Binay, and her brother is Makati Mayor Junjun Binay.

Alan Cayetano is the son of former Senator Rene Cayetano, his sister is current Senator Pia Cayetano.

Bam Aquino is the first cousin of President Noynoy Aquino, who is the son of former President Cory Aquino and nephew of former Senators Butz Aquino and Tessie Aquino-Oreta.

JV Ejercito is the son with the other woman of former Vice President Erap Estrada. His half brother is current Senator Jinggoy Estrada, whose mother, Loi Estrada, was also a former Senator.

A friend, Singapore-based Pinoy, Doods de los Reyes, made this observation about Nancy Binay and the other political clans.

Ibalik na lang ang two-party system para tigilan na din yung padding ng mga kumakandidato at piling-pili lang talaga yung lalaban.

Kumbaga sa liga ng basketball, madaming team pero konti lang yung magaling sa bawat team tapos pati yung dating nag-ballboy ng 20 years sa ibang team kinuha mo na ring player para lang mapuno yung roster mo ng 12 na pangalan.

Ikumpara mo sa All Star game, dalawa lang ang team pero lahat magagaling at deserving. Tapos huhugot ka sa dalawang naglalaban ng cream of the crop na matatawag mo nang Dream Team. Siguro naman deserving din ang Pilipino na pang-Dream Team level ang magre-represent sa atin sa politika. Tama na ang larong buko, Dream Team naman ang suportahan natin.

(Let us go back to the two-party system to stop padding of candidates and only the chosen ones can run. Like in a basketball league, there are many teams but only a few good players in each team. The former ballboys for 20 years in other teams are tapped just to complete the 12 players roster.

Compare it with the All Star game, only two teams and both are good and deserving. Then you get players from both teams and get the cream of the crop to be called the Dream Team. Filipinos deserve a Dream Team to represent Philippine politics. Enough of coconut games, let us support a Dream team)

I like Doods’ proposal to go back to the two-party system. Usually the debates in public policy can be narrowed down to public choice of more or less government. Do we need more regulations or less? More taxes or less? Are 10 signatures and permits to start and renew a business enough (and be increased) or should they be reduced? The two-party system can address that debate in a clear, direct and more explicit way. Many opportunists and thieves hide in grey areas aka 3rd or 4th or 5th opinion and political parties.

Like the basketball league example of Doods, politicians in a two-party system are forced to undergo a party convention. They have to convince their party mates first before they can convince the rest of the voters. In a multi-party system with no follow up elections for the top two parties, even the lousiest but megalomaniac and moneyed candidates can put up a party anytime and run for elections.

Doods added:

Typical Philippine scenario: a political personality is not picked up as a candidate by any existing party so he sets up his own. Checks the surveys to see what issues the voting majority care about and then bases the new party's platform on these issues while taking the popular position. Forms his team from whoever is available with the name, looks, personality, political pedigree (however long ago that was), or a last name that fits with whatever catchy acronym the party can come up with a-la Words With Friends. Launch the party and barnstorm the countryside with backup dancers and karaoke CDs, dance choreographers, and cohorts who will ask the planted questions. Wash, rinse, and repeat as necessary for the succeeding elections.

Again, I agree with Doods’ observation. One good example was former President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR). He has no political party then, so he joined Laban Party and squared with former House Speaker Ramon Mitra in the 1991 Party convention. He lost, so he put up his own political party, Lakas. With many other Presidential candidates in the 1991 elections, Ramos got only about one third of the total votes but he was number 1, so he became President.

Another example is Senator Miriam Santiago. It seemed that no major political party was interested to get her and endure her mouth, so she put up her own party, the People's Reform Party (PRP) where she ran for President also in the 1992 elections. Her party did not attract many known politicians, it was put up mainly for her candidacy.

Uf people have to finger-point "who's to blame" for the low political maturity of the Filipino voters, we can point the finger to the political parties themselves because of their failure to stick to ideology-based political branding.

The party list (PL) system has further bastardized and idiotized the ideology-based political branding. There are too many PLs that advance no unique political ideology, they only advance their sectoral, parochial, or industry interests. Thus, they only contribute to political opportunism and corruption in the country.

There is no need to enact an “anti-political dynasty” law. So long as political parties say and promise the same things, political dynasties and the politics of personalities are here to stay.

So in the next round of Constitutional change, the PL system should be abolished and we must consider a return to the two party system.

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See also:Election Watch 2: On Celebrities as Politicians, August 19, 2012
Election Watch 3: Defining Celebrities, Politicians and the State, August 30, 2012 
Election Watch 4: Senatoriables on Healthcare, March 08, 2013 
Election Watch 5: Sin Tax Law, Hospital Over-regulation and Senatoriables, May 07, 2013