Poverty and Governance in Bicol: An Analysis

Commentary:

Poverty and Governance in Bicol: An Analysis

Carl Ala, political economist from the University of the Philippines-Manila

The recently released survey of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) in collaboration with the Human Development Network, measured the good governance index (GGI) of 79 provinces all over the country which includes aspects of economic, political and administrative governance has listed four provinces in Bicol as among the 10 worst in governance in 2005.

Though it is almost 5 years old the GGI aims to provide a “voter’s index to assess whether good governance principles are advocated not only on paper but in fact are put into actual practice and using the results of the 2007 elections, whether the voters used performance as basis in the choice of their leaders.” Dr. Romulo Virola, secretary general of the NSCB, explained.

He further added that “the statistics on the chartered cities which are financially and administratively independent from the provinces had also been excluded from the computations of the GGI for the province to enhance the validity of the GGI as a measure of the performance of the governor.”

The most recent survey of the NSCB on GGI, after the first survey in 2003, ranked Camarines Sur as second, Masbate as third, Albay as sixth and Camarines Norte as eighth in the 10 worst provinces in GGI. Likewise, the provinces of Maguindanao (1st), Lanao del Norte (4th), Zamboanga del Sur (5th), Surigao de Sur (7th), Zamboanga Sibugay (9th) and Romblon (10th) were among the worst governed provinces.

Ranked in the 10 best governed provinces in the country based on the GGI of 2005 are the provinces of Batanes, Rizal, Benguet, Siquijor, Bulacan, Apayao, Laguna, Cavite, Nueva Vizcaya and Pampanga.

Comparing the provinces’ GGI of 2005 with the results of the 2007 elections, it showed that three of the governors of the 10 best governed provinces in the Philippines lost in the gubernatorial race while “eight of the worst still won.”

On one hand, the governors of Batanes, Benguet and Pampanga whose provinces were classified in the 10 best governed in 2005 lost in the 2007 elections, according to the comparative data of the NSCB.

On the other hand the governors of Maguindanao, Camarines Sur, Masbate, Camarines Norte, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay and Lanao del Norte, whose provinces were classified in the 10 worst governed provinces in 2005, were re-elected in the 2007 elections.

Now compare this with the poverty incidence in the said Bicol provinces then we can see a significant correlation between poverty and governance. According to the NSCB in 2007 Masbate had the highest poverty incidence in the region at 59.5%, while Camarines Sur is third at 49.9%, Camarines Norte at fourth with 49.3% and Albay supposedly the least poor with 46.2%. It can be seen that the level of misgovernance is almost directly proportional to the poverty incidence. Simply put, majority of the people in these provinces are poor and one of the primary reasons behind it are the incompetence and corruption of their governors.

Still, there are a number of factors why most of the worst run provinces still have the same governors and chief among them is the concentration of wealth and/or lands to the governor and his family, political dynasties, patronage politics and the use of private armies. Just look at Maguindanao and Masbate and one can easily grasp the reasons behind the problem. How can farmers who comprise most of the voters in these provinces not vote for the owner of the land they are tilling or someone who will kill them and their family if they did not vote for him? This type of politics is one of the banes of Philippines society, the solution to this of course is to reverse the above reasons but the question is it does the present or even the coming administration is up to the task. # # #

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