My Father's Gifts

His political agenda

If Quirino’s 1953 speech provides a vision and context to my father’s life work, his proposed constitutional reforms and policies, articulated in 1972, gives us a glimpse on what my father considered as important issues  in the national agenda. There are 6 items in the agenda, of which proposals  1/2/6 support economic development goals and proposals 3/4/5 reaffirm the need for a political and judicial environment to enable fair and equitable development.

The first proposal on a “realistic, long range program of industrialisation” continues the themes of the Quirino presidency.  Key to this proposal is the role of the private sector and the importance of incentives for dispersal and distribution in the country.

While recognising the importance of the private sector in the development effort, he clearly understood the excesses of unplanned growth and development. I think this is the reason for proposing an independent economic and planning authority, Only through such independence would it be possible to have the balanced growth of industry and agriculture and the leverage to  intervene against  monopolistic trends in industry, i.e. private business. The agenda also had a strong worker protection dimension.  Support for  gainful employment, decent wages and adequate retirement pensions — all these are key elements of social protection of workers and their families.

Family planning  as a component of national policy,  the 6th proposal, would have been controversial then as it still is.  He saw this as an important pre-condition for an improved quality of life. This proposal would have surely been shut down in the 1971 Convention.

My father advocated for a Presidential system of government, though with limitations on executive power and the autonomy of local governments.  His suggestion for a strengthened role for the Vice President continues to be relevant in current times. He was clearly a believer in governmental checks and balances, with separate and very specific proposals for  the independence of the judiciary and Congress, and of course, the necessity for a strengthened and autonomous civil service commission.

I am quite proud of these proposals for reform, I am glad I campaigned for my Dad.  All three weeks of it!

This entry was posted on May 9, 2020 at 2:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.