An INCITEGov Opinion Piece

LIVELY AND OFTENTIMES heated debates on whether the election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should be postponed have the unintended consequence of focusing our attention on the political motivation and legal ramifications of the issue. Though these are important, the substantive reasoning (or the reform agendas needed to be pursued in ARMM) behind the move is more significant to discuss because of the unique manner by which ARMM governance has evolved.

ARMM has been in existence for more than two decades now and its establishment was in response to the two core demands of the Muslim struggle: the creation of a specific geographical area where Muslims can freely practice their faith and govern themselves and the upliftment of the socio-economic well being of the Muslim community. Unfortunately, ARMM failed to meet expectations in both measures.

Instead of improving the socio-economic conditions of the Muslim community, poverty in the region actually doubled from around 18.6% in 1991 to 38.1% in 2009. Not surprisingly, ARMM has the poorest human development outcomes among the 16 regions in the country. Poverty incidence is twice that of the nation as a whole. Life expectancies for men and women are more than 10 years below the national rates. Infant and maternal mortality are 30 percent and 80 percent higher than the national rates, respectively. And net primary and secondary enrollment rates are 14 and 33 percentage points lower than the national rates, respectively. As a result, many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will not likely be met in the region.

Like in other economically backward countries, these disappointing results could be attributed to the poor quality of governance in ARMM which has spawned greater division, conflict and further underdevelopment. The mantle of leadership in the region has passed on from one person attached to a clan or group whose survival depended not so much on the support of the people but on the patronage of the national leadership combined with the use and threat of violence. Thus, rather than being accountable to the electorate, these leaders tended to pursue goals according to the interests of their national patron and their clan. This has led to the corruption of institutions to ensure their perpetuation in power and their sponsors at the national level. Worse, it has the effect of exacerbating deep divisions among the Muslims themselves, and between the Muslims, Christians and Lumads, oftentimes leading to conflict.

Holding the ARMM election this coming August without addressing some of the fundamental structural problems of the region will only perpetuate the situation with all its deleterious consequences. This is primarily why postponing the ARMM election is necessary – so that fundamental reforms can be instituted to break the vicious cycle of poor governance leading to conflict and resulting to further underdevelopment, and transform it into a virtuous cycle of good governance leading to unity fostering growth and development.

Numerous and simultaneously implemented reform measures will have to be done to reverse this situation. Some of the reform measures that will create positive multiplier effects in other governance and development concerns in ARMM include 1) security sector reform; 2) cleaning the electoral process; 3) enhancing fiscal responsibility; 4) promoting effective delivery of basic services; 5) professionalizing the ARMM bureaucracy; and 6) promoting greater transparency and participation in ARMM governance.

While some of these reform agendas can be undertaken either way, the chance of successfully implementing them is greater if the heavy burden of past governance mismanagement is lifted with the appointment of interim officials who will ensure the implementation of reform measures, given limited time and resources, during the 22-month interlude.

Reforming the security sector. The tacit sponsorship of previous national leadership to local political warlords in ARMM resulted in the proliferation of private armies and paramilitary groups. More insidious is that it forced police and military authorities to cooperate and extend support to these warlords despite their mandated role of protecting our democratic institutions and the interest of the people. A stark perversion of our security institutions is the alleged participation of police authorities in the Maguindanao Massacre. Moreover, the existence of semi-anarchic situation in some ARMM areas because of the presence of rebel groups co-mingling with criminal lawless elements engaged in kidnap-for-ransom and illegal drug trade activities again glaringly manifest the urgency of reforming the security sector in the region. In the short-run, democratic institutions will have no chance of succeeding effectively in ARMM without drastically reforming its security sector. In the medium and long-run, economic growth and development cannot be promoted because of the high risk not only to the investment but also to the physical safety of potential investors.

Cleaning the electoral process. There had also been consistent reports in the past that massive electoral frauds are committed in ARMM in exchange for pecuniary consideration. While coercion by political warlords plays a key role in electoral cheating, the process starts with a fraudulent list of eligible voters. Efforts by the Commission on Elections are underway to clean the voters list, but there are clear indications that this cannot be completed within the next few months. It is imperative that this reform be completed as soon as possible to help ensure the conduct of an honest and free election in the region and more importantly, the expression of the true will of the ARMM electorate.

Enhancing fiscal responsibility. The discovery of the unexplained wealth of the powerful Ampatuan clan validates the public’s general suspicion of the existence of widespread graft and corruption in ARMM. An accounting of the budgetary resources given to ARMM and its provinces compared to the services and infrastructure provided to the communities therein is suspect of huge leakages in the system as a result of rent-seeking activities of public officials there. There has to be proper accounting and auditing of resources given to the region to be able to provide a benchmark for the incoming ARMM administration as to what resources are available to it and if given new and additional resources, be made accountable for their use. Again, efforts are underway along this line but it cannot be satisfactorily completed in the next few months. Moreover, the government has to provide ample security details to personnel undertaking this task given previous experiences wherein government auditors were assassinated or murdered (or documents and buildings housing those documents were burned) to prevent them from doing their jobs and in the process, uncovering the truth and making those accountable face the bar of justice.

Delivering social services. In the series of needs assessment surveys conducted by the World Bank (WB), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) of poor communities in ARMM and other conflict areas in Mindanao, respondents have consistently identified the following priority needs: provision of potable water, access to livelihoods, construction of paved roads and small irrigation facilities, improving basic education and health services, etc. This list is revealing on two counts – that the facilities in the region reflects its destitute condition and that their repeated identification demonstrate the failure of local governments (which are mandated to provide for them under the Local Government Code of 1991) to meet even the basic needs of their communities. This is a reflection of the failure of governance in ARMM. Given that successive ARMM leaderships have consistently failed to meet these responsibilities, it cannot be expected that the current ones will be able to do so. But whether or not the ARMM election is postponed, putting in place a more effective mechanism or system that will ensure the delivery of basic services to ordinary Muslims should not be lost to the national government, and particularly the ARMM government. Such a move will demonstrate the sincerity of the government in its claim of genuinely caring for the people, particularly the poor.

Professionalizing the bureaucracy. The ability to effectively provide services to the public is highly contingent upon the capability of the people appointed in the bureaucracy. Nepotism is rampant in ARMM and this leads to appointing people not up to the task and the consequent deterioration in the delivery of services to the constituency. While realistically this may not be accomplished on a bureaucracy-wide basis, it will be enough for the moment to see the appointment of highly qualified people at top positions who will see to it that the necessary reforms will cascade to their respective agencies at the appropriate time, observing proper legal and administrative procedures.

Promoting transparency and participation. Fostering good governance entails addressing both the supply (i.e., better rules and regulations, adequate financial resources, good appointments to the bureaucracy) and demand (free media, access to information, enlightened citizenry, etc.) sides of the equation. The five points previously discussed fall under the supply side and they are best balanced by demand side factors, a critical element of which is the active participation of civil society organizations and the youth (particularly in the case of ARMM because it constitute the bulk of the population in the region) in governance. We have enough provisions in our laws to guarantee their participation. What we need is to ensure that institutions (e.g., baranggay assemblies, representation in the Sanggunians, community education and health boards, etc.) that allow their engagement are properly activated and their presence encouraged in these bodies.

Finally, an effective monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mechanism should be built to track down progress made in the above reform agendas, which in turn should form part of the covenant for the interim ARMM officials who will be appointed. In the private sector, company profits are used as barometer of success. The higher the profit, the more successful the enterprise is. In the public or government sector, the quality of service provided to the people takes the role of profit. But the quality of service administered can only be properly accounted for by a sound and effective M&E system. It is an indispensable instrument of democracy and without it, it would be hard to evaluate whether genuine progress were made, what lessons can be derived from both successes and failures, and how we can improve service delivery based on feedbacks. Consequently, civil society and a concerned citizenry are indispensable partners in this undertaking as they can serve as part of the external M&E body to evaluate reforms being pursued by the government.

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