Author Archives: Densacop

I graduated from West Point in 1983. Served in the Philippine Constabulary and Philippine Army until Colonel. Worked in the security, pharmaceutical, and nutrition industries. Am also a teacher, published author, and writer. I serve God as a lay liturgical minister. My greatest achievement is loving a wife and raising three responsible children.

How Effective Governance Works

How Effective Governance Works

Dr Dencio Acop

Public administration is one body of knowledge I truly enjoyed studying. For one, I took it at the University of the Philippines which is really among the world’s best. Second, I went through the course while with government which validated the theories I learned. In fact, I was assigned in Malacañang at the time, the Philippines’ center of public administration and governance. While I intellectualized public policy, organization, and finance, I also experienced first-hand the actual practice of each theory through the presidential engagements I witnessed. FVR was a great public leader and I did learn much from him both as a military and civilian leader. I also had great public administration mentors among them Jose Endriga, Alex Brillantes, Prospero de Vera, and Leonor Briones. What did I learn? What should voters know about the art and science of public administration and governance?

Without being too engulfed by any specific brand of public practice, I therefore navigate through the generic basics of public administration and governance. First, it must be understood that the government organization has two main components: political and bureaucratic. On the one hand, elected and appointed officials with finite terms of office comprise the temporal leadership of government which advances advocacies addressing the current public concerns of the governed. On the other hand, there is the more permanent bureaucracy composed of professional public servants who administer the day to day affairs of government and are not co-terminus with the sitting administration.

Whatever form a government adopts, there is always some semblance of check and balance for without one, that government will eventually fall. A kingdom which marches only to the tune of an autocratic ruler devoid of wisdom from the sages and experts is bound to tumble upon its own shadow and echo chamber. That is why the executive ruler is usually challenged by sharp minds steeped in the wisdom of the arts and sciences. And by professional magistrates who are masters of the moral and legal codes. Combined together, such trio of wisdom, temperance, and power can deliver the utmost good for the utmost number through the kingdom it rules.

The contemporary model of effective governance is one that is bottom-up rather than top-down. The latter type of governance is bound to fail because its end-goal is not the governed but the governor. Such a set-up is win-lose and will always have the makers and recipients of policy pitted against each other. The former type, however, is a win-win formula which aligns both governed and governor along the former’s public policy concerns. In this set-up, public policy formulation and execution is based on the most current and urgent concerns of the governed public or the citizenry if you will. Such amicable and symbiotic partnership between government and people makes for a longer lasting relationship.

The obsession for resolving public problems is the very essence of governance and public service. That is why there are elected or appointed officials covering all provinces and cities because the concern is to make sure that all public problems of peoples across the land are addressed. On a wider scope, state officials are likewise elected or appointed to ensure that the collective or national interest is advanced among the interests of other states in the community of nations. The end-goal of effective governance today is to attain the greatest good for the greatest number. In fact, the definition of greatest good has been expanding over the years to more and more tangible as well as intangible indices of human development.

Before a nation can live in peace and aspire for the greatest quality of life for its citizens, such a state must first be protected and defended from so-called enemies of state whether foreign or domestic. The history of mankind is replete with tribes and nations subduing other tribes and nations for life-sustaining goods and territories they lack. Entire nations and the world have gone into bloodbaths because of natural resources, survival, or sheer pride. But only after the aftermaths of conflict are nations and kingdoms able to create, share, and develop their quality of life. It is almost imperative therefore that every nation should maintain a credible armed force for its own protection, defense, and peace and order. The armed services are an essential part of the permanent bureaucracy.

Through all these, honesty is the best policy. It highlights the critical role of virtue in the art and science of public administration and governance. The quality of public service is also key and in fact, central. The age of corruption and narco-politics notwithstanding, the dirt that blemishes public service does not mean that it is permanent or unbeatable. The only antidote to these ills in public service is back-to-basics virtuous leadership and governance. The only effective answer to corruption and narco-politics is to have none of it. There can be no rewarding democracy without righteous justice. There can be no righteous justice without the objective and firm application and practice of the rule of law. There is no in-between. The gray area is what led us to our present wilderness where the rule of law is trampled upon in the altar of compromised politics. There can be no real peace and order without rightful justice. There can be no national progress and development without peace and order. None of these can be without virtuous leadership in public administration and governance.

For Love of God and Country

Col Dencio Acop (Ret), PhD

The West Philippine Sea is so much in focus these days due to the presence of hundreds of Chinese maritime vessels believed to be militia adjuncts of the People’s Liberation Army. I just would like to emphasize several core issues about this development. First, the legal claim of the Philippines over its Exclusive Economic Zone upheld by the South China Sea Arbitration on July 12, 2016 is already in effect. Second, it is the duty of the Armed Forces of the Philippines led by its commander-in-chief to ‘protect the people and the State, national sovereignty, and safeguard territorial integrity’ as enshrined in the national Constitution. And third, the threat posed by domination of a foreign power whose values (even if Asian) are so alien to us cannot be underestimated or overestimated.

On the initial point, the fact that the Arbitration already ruled in favor of RP means that the Philippines has legal claims over all resources within its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone while China does not. Otherwise, it will not be exclusive. The ruling is binding on both countries because each is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Philippines ratified UNCLOS in 1984 while China ratified it in 1996. Specifically, the ruling cited that ‘China’s historic rights claims over maritime areas inside the ‘nine-dash line’ have no lawful effect if they exceed what’s entitled to under UNCLOS’. In the latest development, Whitsun Reef which is where the 200+ Chinese militia vessels are, ‘is located 175 nautical miles from the Philippine province of Palawan and 638 nautical miles off China’s southern Hainan island’. Clearly, the Chinese are out of line here and in blatant violation of its 1996 commitment to the UNCLOS. The Republic of the Philippines has every right to demand the Chinese vessels promptly leave the area as they are trespassing in the Philippines’ not even backyard but front yard. There should not even be any need for nagging or threats of war as each UN signatory is legally bound to honor its word or suffer isolation and sanctions in and from the community of nations.

The second point I wish to emphasize is the fact that the mission of the Armed Forces of the Philippines remains constant and inviolate. It is to ‘protect the Filipino people, uphold national sovereignty, and safeguard territorial integrity’. Technically, all resources (including islets and reefs) residing within the 200 nautical mile underground landmass extension out into the sea are the exclusive property of the country nearest them. This ruling is fair and square as every coastal nation, including China, enjoys these rights. National sovereignty and territorial integrity are written all over our legal maritime claims in the West Philippine Sea. These legal claims are crystal clear. To protect the livelihood rights of our fishermen from unfair and illegal foreign competition is likewise crystal clear. They fall within the exact reason for being of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. There is absolutely no need to debate the issue. It is the patriotic duty of not only the army but the people to protect their home from looters and marauders. In the annals of Philippine military history, not even lack of modern weaponry deterred the Katipuneros when they fought the occupying Spaniards and again the Americans. Then again the Japanese Imperial Army no matter how mighty and cruel. Cowardice before the enemy, even a mighty army, in military circles is not only traitorous but despicable and shameful. The only reason for being of an army is to defend its homeland against all enemies, foreign or domestic. I am not at all saying that war is the only option. As there are certainly other options. Just that when it comes to war, then the armed forces cannot not perform what they are paid and commissioned to do. Fight our nation’s battles. But before war, there is always the idealist option in international relations to consider and that is the pursuit of multilateral dialogues bringing in partner allies from the international community of nations. It need not just be a small nation’s war against a world power for the outcome is predictably bleak. But a stand by a small nation backed up by strong other nations tilts the power game to a balance.

Finally, the consequences to the threat of domination by a foreign power whose values are so alien to us cannot be both underestimated and overestimated. Why have we been fighting the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas initially then followed by the Communist Party of the Philippines for more than half a century now? You guessed it right! Because it not only presents a threat at power grab but more dangerously it wants to impose on us democratic Christians a radically different worldview and way of life. A totalitarian godless one. If people think this is not possible, think again. No one believed Churchill when he cried wolf over Hitler prior to Britain’s entry into World War II. The same can be said of other like models whose connivance with foreign ideologies and systems, even radical ones, knew no bounds for one reason or another. But I would add that it was because of the lack of moral boundaries. You see it is morality that reminds us of what’s best in the human character and spirit. The ideologies of all that are true and good are the bedrock of good governance which aims at attaining the greatest good for the greatest number. Thus the public good or common good came to be founded upon the common lot of the working class. There was supposed to be no space for the choice of greed even if capitalism was sorely needed to shore up production so there was something to distribute among those who needed it most. It is not the systems that fail humans. But the humans who fail them especially the ones that are most just. And inspired, always inspired by that boundary of morality owing to that criminal who was raised up so that he could draw all to himself. Love of God and the common tao is the bedrock of this country. Let us embrace it. Nurture it. For it will make us free and prosperous one day. Where it should have been before you and I were even born.