Development policymaking is hard enough as it is \u2013 the Philippines after so many decades of so many development plans is a case in point. Now the military wants to take that over as well? The government\u2019s whole-of-nation approach where the military hijacks governance will just make the country\u2019s maldevelopment worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authoritarian\ncreep<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pres. Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s authoritarianism of course started with a big bloody bang \u2013 the thousands of urban poor the government killed in a show of intimidating force. The militarist takeover of government took a little bit longer but is well underway. The transformation has a thin veil of legality but the nation is as far away from real democracy as it has ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Duterte\nadministration\u2019s brand of militarism started with the National\nSecurity Policy (NSP) 2017-2022 it released in April 2017.\nConspicuously, national security was defined broadly to \u201c[encompass]\nvirtually every aspect of national life and nation-building\u201d where\n\u201ceconomic development and security are inextricably linked\u201d. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n While conceptually\nvalid, in retrospect these were less a sign of vision than gross and\ninsidious ambition. It is difficult to credit a military\nestablishment notorious for human rights violations, unwarranted\nviolence, lying and deceit with having positive long-term\naspirations. On the other hand, the appetite for dictatorship is\neasier to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The National\nSecurity Council (NSC) prepared the NSP. This collegial body includes\nmany Cabinet members and legislators but is really dominated by the\nsecurity sector \u2013 especially by the Armed Forces of the Philippines\n(AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The broad definition\nof national security was immediately used to give the military and\npolice an entry point into everywhere else in government. Executive\nOrder (EO) No. 16 was released simultaneously with the NSP. This\ndirected that \u201call government departments and agencies, including\ngovernment owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) and local\ngovernment units (LGUs), shall adopt the NSP 2017-2022 in the\nformulation and implementation of all their plans and programs which\nhave national security implications\u201d. This is a far-reaching\nmandate because, according to the NSP, virtually everything has\nnational security implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was followed by\nthe National Security Strategy (NSS) in 2018. The NSS was prepared by\nNational Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon and presented as a\n\u201cblueprint [to] foster better coordination, synchronization and\ncohesion of government functions\u201d. Its sweeping strategy included\n\u201cthe combined, balanced and effective use of the instruments of\nnational power, namely: political and legal, diplomatic,\ninformational, intelligence, economic, and military and law\nenforcement\u201d. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ominously, Pres.\nDuterte called for Filipinos to \u201cstand behind our national security\napparatus\u201d and \u201cstrengthen the foundations of a secure, peaceful,\nmodern and prosperous Philippines\u201d. Towards this, the president\ngradually appointed 73 military and police officials to civilian\npositions in at least 46 agencies. There are now more military and\npolice officials in government than at any time since the Marcos\ndictatorship nearly 50 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were made heads\nin 38 of these as Cabinet secretaries, director generals,\nchairpersons, executive directors, administrators or presidents. As\nit is, former military and police officials account for 11 of 50\ncabinet and cabinet-level officials or one-fifth of the Cabinet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Authoritarianism\nnow<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n All this fell into\nplace when Pres. Duterte issued EO No. 70 in December 2018 creating\nthe so-called National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed\nConflict (NTF-ELCAC). The EO invoked the armed conflict to justify\ncreating the task force and institutionalizing a \u201cwhole-of-nation\napproach\u201d that will \u201cintegrate and harmonize the various efforts\nof the whole of government and of all sectors of society\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pres. Duterte is\nNational Task Force Commander and chairperson with Esperon as vice\nchairperson. This places Esperon second only to the president at the\ntop of an expansive organizational structure encroaching on virtually\nevery government agency that matters, reaching from the regional to\nthe barangay level nationwide. They preside over 18 Cabinet officials\nand two private sector representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The high-level task\nforce includes the secretaries of national defense, interior and\nlocal government, and justice as well as the AFP chief of staff, PNP\ndirector general, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA)\ndirector general, and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.\nPropaganda is handled by the Presidential Communications Operations\nOffice (PCOO) Secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To cover\nsocioeconomic development concerns, the group also includes the\nsecretaries of economic planning, finance, budget and management,\npublic works and highways, agrarian reform, education, and social\nwelfare and development, as well as the Presidential Adviser for\nIndigenous People\u2019s Concerns, National Commission on Indigenous\nPeoples (NCIP) chairperson, and Technical Education and Skills\nDevelopment Authority director general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 17 regional task\nforces (RTFs) under the NTF-ELCAC are each chaired by a Cabinet\nOfficer for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) designated by\nthe president. The military and police officials in the Cabinet are\nhandy for this — eight (8) of the 17 Cabinet members appointed as\nCORDS are former military officers: Esperon (NSA), Carlito\nGalvez (Presidential Peace Adviser), Eduardo A\u00f1o (DILG), Gregorio\nHonasan II (DICT), Roy Cimatu (DENR), Eduardo del Rosario (HUDCC),\nand Delfin Lorenzana (DND).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The RTFs supplant\nregional structures in place and merge the existing Regional\nDevelopment Councils (RDCs) and Regional Peace and Order Councils\n(RPOC). RDCs are the highest policy-making and direction-setting\nbodies for overall socioeconomic development in the regions. The RDC\nis composed of all governors, mayors, and development-related line\nagency regional directors. Upon EO No. 70, RDCs are also adding\nactive military and police officials as special non-voting members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n RPOCs take up major\nissues and problems affecting peace and order. RPOCs are also\ncomposed of all governors, mayors, peace and order-related line\nagency regional directors, plus AFP commanders. Similar task forces\nare organized at the provincial, city\/municipal, and barangay level.\nIn effect, all these far-reaching multi-stakeholder bodies are put in\na direct chain of command under the NTF-ELCAC and the national\nsecurity adviser. This cumulatively amounts to hundreds of task\nforces nationwide and potentially even thousands if barangay efforts\nare counted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NTF-ELCAC\u2019s\nseemingly disproportionate budget of just Php522 million belies its\ninfluence. All the memorandum circulars implementing EO No. 70 are\nclear that \u201cthe budgetary requirements for the implementation of EO\nNo. 70 may be authorized chargeable against the respective LGUs and\nagencies in accordance with EO 70\u201d. Regular agency budgets are put\nat the service of the NTF-ELCAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The NTF-ELCAC is\nfully up and running. The first RTF-ELCAC was organized in CALABARZON\nin February 2019 and the first provincial PTF-ELCAC in Cavite in\nMarch soon after. The national task force approved its National Plan\nin its first meeting in April 2019, held in Malaca\u00f1ang. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other regions and\nprovinces followed suit to organize their respective task forces.\nOne-day island group summits of regional task forces were held in\nLuzon, Visayas and Mindanao in October to all culminate in a national\nsummit with Pres. Duterte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year has\nalready seen a frenzied surge of EO No. 70 implementation-related\nactivity at every level of government across the country. This has\ngone far beyond armed conflict areas and the government\u2019s\nmilitarism has intruded into schools, urban poor communities,\noffices, media, embassies, international agencies, and elsewhere. A\nNational Capital Region (NCR) task force was even created in\nSeptember 2019 even if there are no signs of armed conflict or\ninsurgents in Metro Manila. The NCRTF-ELCAC is a hammer and\nactivists, critics and political opposition are the nails it will be\nused on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hijacking\ndevelopment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n EO No. 70\nimplementation includes weaponizing the law and criminalizing\ndissent. But it also in effect enables the military to hijack\nsocioeconomic development policy for its militarist ends. Having\nconstrued national security and addressing the roots of armed\nconflict expansively, the national task force is broadly \u201cauthorized\nto evaluate, modify or integrate policies and programs\u201d of\ngovernment according to its plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The recent midterm\nupdate of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 is a case\nin point. This is regularly done for PDPs but there was something new\nthis time around. Supplementary guidelines were issued to RDCs to\n\u201cintegrate\u201d the NTF-ELCAC\u2019s Cluster Implementation Plans in the\nupdated regional development plans (RDPs) and regional development\ninvestment programs (RDIPs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Accustomed processes\nwere overridden and the NTF-ELCAC gave the RDCs plans to \u201cmainstream\u201d\nin the update. Regional planning committees were assigned to clusters\nas defined by the NTF-ELCAC, all of which had military officials from\nthe defense department and AFP as members. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The national task\nforce members include 18 government agencies. The various program\nclusters of the NTF-ELCAC implementation plan include most of these\nand 38 others, for 51 agencies in total. At least some of these\nagencies have created NTF-ELCAC \u201csteering committees\u201d to\nimplement EO No. 70 and operationalize the national task force within\ntheir respective departments. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem with the\nnational task force and the extensive machinery it creates is that it\nis, underneath a lot of development-speak and bureaucratese, still\njust another military scheme driven by a narrow-minded enemy-focused\nmilitary mindset. It is essentially the Duterte administration\nidentifying \u2018enemies\u2019 and using the full force of government\nagainst them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EO No. 70 is not the\nmilitary suddenly genuinely getting insights about the roots of\nunderdevelopment and, much less, suddenly having the skills set to\naddress this. The military is using the task forces to command\nresources for community programs, welfare services, and the like for\nits narrow counterinsurgency and anti-activism purposes. This muddles\ndecision-making and prioritization according to actual development\nneeds. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n EO No. 70 is also\nbeing used to justify State security forces cracking down on\ndevelopment NGOs, people\u2019s organizations, and all civil society\ngroups whose advocacies the administration deems overly critical and\nputting it in a bad light. More to the point — the government is\nusing all its political, legal, diplomatic, informational,\nintelligence, economic, military and police resources against any\nperceived domestic political opposition. In short, using all \u201cthe\ninstruments of national power\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Duterte\ngovernment is systematically going after organizations of workers,\nfarmers, urban poor, youth, teachers, indigenous peoples, environment\nadvocates, alternative media, cultural workers, disaster responders,\nand even researchers. Freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and\neven freedom of thought are under siege with the government deciding\nand enforcing what is and is not acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This gravely sets\nback prospects for real and democratic development. Curbing civil\nsociety suppresses a crucial check on government, stifles fresh\ndevelopment ideas upholding the rights of the majority, and\nconstricts people\u2019s participation in governance. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is it all\nfor?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At one level it is\nthe Duterte administration coming down hard on the strongest voices\nagainst its authoritarianism, corruption, and policies enriching\nelites at the expense of the people. It is the Duterte clique putting\ndown organized opposition to its self-serving agenda to stay in power\nand enrich itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it is also much\nmore than that. The Duterte government has come but, as with others\nbefore, it will also go. Unfortunately, what is happening is also the\nState pushing obsolete neoliberalism forward by eliminating obstacles\nto the market and to capital dominating every aspect of Philippine\nsociety. The groups being attacked have their own stresses and\nversions but nonetheless share a vision for a more just, humane and\ndemocratic Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is consequential for the country\u2019s political and economic prospects. We are in the middle of the Left and social movements violently being put down, under a thin veneer of rule of law, to increase the power of capitalists, landlords, and political elites. Activists are targeted because their clear politics, concrete organizations, and advocacies threaten the ruling class’s grip on power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ruling class\nembraces the Duterte government because it increases their wealth and\nprofits: tax cuts on the rich and big corporations; infrastructure to\nkeep the comprador economy humming and to preserve real estate\nwealth; privatization of transport, water, health and education; wage\nrepression; land monopolies; and market- and capital-friendly\npolicies all around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Philippines is in dire need of reforms and the sheer scale of the problem demands system-wide thinking and massive mass movement solutions. Yet the heavy-handed authoritarianism and military meddling in governance will just stoke even more unrest. This includes polarizing the nation and actually fueling the radicalism, and revolutionary armed struggles that the Duterte administration is so fearful of. ###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY SONNY AFRICA<\/p>\n Development policymaking is hard enough as it is \u2013 the Philippines after so many decades of so many development plans is a case in point. Now the military wants to take that over as well? <\/p>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-nosidebarbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,2050],"tags":[1230,347,302,901,2047],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8772"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8780,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions\/8780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}