The Philippines' current $4,000 or so per citizen gross domestic yearly production is far short of 1st World equivalents at $10,000-up. Two major causes apart from the past factors discussed in previous posts help explain such stumbling block against mass progress. One is the near-total separation of State and private sector economic activities. Another is Justice System inefficiency and corruption. To address the said issues, two additional I-Congress laws have to be passed and implemented:
1.0 Century Business Planning Law: Trillions of pesos in State tax proceeds as well as billions of dollars in foreign exchange receipts and loans are currently managed by State thru yearly budgeting by Congress, the Executive branch and local governments. From Philippine independence year 1946 to present, the leaderships of such State components have been dominated by lawyers. As everyone knows, lawyers' training and nature of work focus on regulation of business and citizen activities, not on how to manage the economy and make it productive to 1st World levels. Worse, corporate sector experts in business and macro-economics are hardly consulted by lawyer-politicians who believe that they already know the law, which is 'the ultimate guide on how to rule'. To lawyers, economic management and everything else is subservient to the rule of law, which is expectantly formulated largely by lawyers. Thus, too many politician-lawyers have stated that government is for service, not for profit nor even for balancing the budget. Overspending can always be addressed by taxing businesses and the people. Consequently, economists' sound advise too often get ignored when they run counter to lawyer-politicians' ideas of 'development', which usually targets advancement of the self, the family and clan, party, and re-election, in that order. The public good is considered only if it does not run counter to such hierarchy of interests.
Furthermore, the Philippine election system separates State and business in terms of budgeting for development, for political parties invariably budget for vote-attraction and dialect-based regionalism. The 'standard' 40-50% kickback sliced off State project costs further help explain the anemic production activities countrywide. Roads to nowhere, mass housing, public works and infrastructures, supply contracts, etc., all of them over-budgeted to allow for 40-50% 'facilitation' commissions are projects planned and implemented by politician-appointed people, whose qualifications are based largely on ability to win votes. The business sector is never part of planning, for corporate consultants' developmental remedies are largely based on economic logic, not on politics. Additionally, cash management projections beyond every regime's six-year rule sum up to near-zero, as each regime is expected to drain off almost all available cash before election time, leaving next to nothing for the next elected regime. National productivity and its continuity has never been a serious mantra for Philippine political parties and regimes. To most political parties, national productivity is a function of the business sector, and regulating everything 'for the people's good' is a responsibility of State. Many politicians even consider elites and their businesses as 'exploiters of the masses' that should be regulated to the fullest, especially in the areas of taxation, grant of privileges, permits, franchises, workers' benefits, political yield, etc.
The remedy? Since our 60,000-strong I-Congress would be composed largely of top retired corporate and sectoral brains, it should be expected to set up century-business plans that involve both State and corporate sectors, especially mega co-ops. First plan may be based on principles and tactics presented in this work. Targets: a) raise national productivity to 1st World levels thru synergies among mega co-ops, State agencies and private companies; b) enable all Philippine businesses to sell to world markets, small ones as consortia or as suppliers to mega co-ops that sell worldwide; c) avoid cut-throat competition among local businesses by forming inter-business plans for world-scale marketing; d) manage combined State and business resources to maximum efficiency thru planning at century level, with adjustments every five years; e) avoid past regimes' habit of changing plans and policies each regime change. I-Congress members voted in batches of 10,000 for six-year terms will ensure perpetuation of desirable programs; f) develop the ASEAN Festival Malls worldwide and expat sideline businesses in over 100 countries into permanent programs to help establish perpetual and constantly expanding world markets for most Philippine products and services; g) keep constant focus on creating and maintaining economic democracy thru the Mega Co-op Movement and its work-study programs, since economic democracy is a prerequisite for true political democracy.
2.0 Multiple-member Juries (MMJ) Law: The main reason for the unbelievable inefficiency and corruption in the Philippine Justice system is its reliance on a few judges to decide on Court cases. An MMJ law should hence require referendum-style decision-making for all Court cases whereby groups of 500 to several thousand 'few cases handled' lawyers, depending on gravity of cases, vote on case rulings in the comfort of their homes thru internet videos and DVDs (digital video discs) of the proceedings. Targets: a) eliminate old-style 'justice to the highest bidder' culture because under the MMJ system, no litigant can possibly bribe hundreds or thousands of decision-makers; b) speed up court cases to free thousands of over-jailed minor offenders who cannot afford lawyers; c) de-clog the courts and jails of thousands of cases that normally take 20-40 years to resolve; d) enable hundreds or thousands of legal skills instead of just one overworked, politically-appointed judge or panel of judges to study, conduct debates and decide on cases; e) stop murders of judges and threats to their families (one reason why certain cases drag on for years), since no litigant can effectively threaten hundreds or thousands of 'cyber' jury members who decide thru websites. f) ensure that mega co-ops and all other businesses do not get embroiled in decades-long civil cases, especially on such issues as land use and titling, multiple titling of land plots, permits, licenses, franchises, import and export regulations, collection of debts, corruption complaints, etc. Furthermore, the abusive 'temporary restraining order' which can last for years as lawyers argue the finest technicalities publicly while privately playing the 'highest bidder' bribery game has to end.
As herein indicated, a Multiple Member Juries Law will end local and foreign investors' dread of the Philippines' old-style justice system whereby money, political connections, judges' self-interest, great patience, 'musclemen' threats and elite power (not raw, unadulterated justice) determine court decisions. The consequent leveled playing field should help attract the world's investors to the Philippines with its new hassle-free business and judicial cultures.
How to finance the 'referendum juries'? Ten percent of cost may be loaded upon all State contracts to provide the funds. Since the mere existence of I-Congress will end the traditional politician-signatories' 'facilitation fee' at 40-50% off all contracts, said 10% fee for 'Referendum Justice' should be an ultra-light load upon general State budgets. The Philippine Bar should assign lawyers who have no current case obligations to become members of the 'super juries'. Bar members should vote (thru Justice website) on number of jury members depending on gravity of case and monetary amounts involved in the case. Remuneration for jury members may be based on a fixed fee per case decision, after Court attorneys and the judge (as referee) have presented their case thru CCTV and DVDs. All jury members must post the bases of their decisions on their personal read-only websites for litigant parties to view in order to allay suspicions of 'case railroading' or 'minimal attention to the case'. Lawyers are ever-vigilant of their reputations (which bring them more cases), so Jury members should be forced by public judgement to render their best arguments and decisions, since such rulings will be open for interested parties to review thru said juries' blogs or websites. Litigants' appeals to higher courts and regional supreme courts should be resolved thru the same computer-aided, multiple juries procedure. Higher courts may thus end their current thousand-level backlogs of cases that have not been resolved due to 20-30 years of failed 'highest bidder dealings', or a single judge handling hundreds of cases, or excessive hearing postponements, or certain litigants' inability to afford lawyers, or insufficient funding for Public Attorneys' offices.
How will State replace the billions of tax pesos 'lost' incident to operation of all the pro-people laws and judicial schemes described in this and past posts? Logically, the State should earn some 50-100 times its current income levels due to the following: a) value added tax proceeds will rise to stratospheric levels due to trillion-dollar local and export sales by over a million mega co-op corporate groups selling to world markets. Local upstream and downstream industries created by the giant mega co-ops' supply and sales needs should further raise VAT incomes; b) quadrillions of pesos should arise out of proceeds from mega co-op forests' harvest shares payable to State, plus taxes on imported vehicles, machinery and consumer goods, export fees, 50% corporate income tax, franchise shares and fees, business permits, mining and quarrying permits, road users' tax, entertainment tax, taxes on imports of farm and factory machines, taxes on dividends and bank accounts, specific tax on liquors and other consumer items, travel taxes, real estate taxes, taxes on transfer of rights to real estate, rental of State lands and buildings, foreigners' work and residence permits, dividends and service fees remitted by hundreds of public corporations and agencies, interest and dividends from State banks, commissions from casinos and lotteries, and scores of other impositions. Tax income should hence shoot to the heavens not because of more impositions but due to the ballooning of Philippine business activities on worldwide basis. Ten percent of all such taxes going to a referendum-style justice system will yield enormous sums to defray juries' allowances (on per decided case basis) and related expenditures. The sums will even afford more confinement facilities to de-clog local jails, which hold 20 to 50 times their designed capacities. 'Farm jails' for minor offenders should help in inmate rehabilitation by allocating farm harvests to inmates' victims and to each inmate's post-jail fund for setup of a micro-business.
What's the carbon mitigation signature? A referendum-style Philippine justice system will ensure the efficient and hassle-free set up and operation of mega co-op agro-forests and related clean and green industries. Consequent perpetual profitability of all mega co-op corporate groups will ensure perpetual care for the greeneries and CO2 sequestering industries. Third World justice system conditions are often akin to those of the Philippines, so copycats throughout the 3rd World will multiply the Philippines' routine carbon mitigation efforts a thousand times or so.
1.0 Century Business Planning Law: Trillions of pesos in State tax proceeds as well as billions of dollars in foreign exchange receipts and loans are currently managed by State thru yearly budgeting by Congress, the Executive branch and local governments. From Philippine independence year 1946 to present, the leaderships of such State components have been dominated by lawyers. As everyone knows, lawyers' training and nature of work focus on regulation of business and citizen activities, not on how to manage the economy and make it productive to 1st World levels. Worse, corporate sector experts in business and macro-economics are hardly consulted by lawyer-politicians who believe that they already know the law, which is 'the ultimate guide on how to rule'. To lawyers, economic management and everything else is subservient to the rule of law, which is expectantly formulated largely by lawyers. Thus, too many politician-lawyers have stated that government is for service, not for profit nor even for balancing the budget. Overspending can always be addressed by taxing businesses and the people. Consequently, economists' sound advise too often get ignored when they run counter to lawyer-politicians' ideas of 'development', which usually targets advancement of the self, the family and clan, party, and re-election, in that order. The public good is considered only if it does not run counter to such hierarchy of interests.
Furthermore, the Philippine election system separates State and business in terms of budgeting for development, for political parties invariably budget for vote-attraction and dialect-based regionalism. The 'standard' 40-50% kickback sliced off State project costs further help explain the anemic production activities countrywide. Roads to nowhere, mass housing, public works and infrastructures, supply contracts, etc., all of them over-budgeted to allow for 40-50% 'facilitation' commissions are projects planned and implemented by politician-appointed people, whose qualifications are based largely on ability to win votes. The business sector is never part of planning, for corporate consultants' developmental remedies are largely based on economic logic, not on politics. Additionally, cash management projections beyond every regime's six-year rule sum up to near-zero, as each regime is expected to drain off almost all available cash before election time, leaving next to nothing for the next elected regime. National productivity and its continuity has never been a serious mantra for Philippine political parties and regimes. To most political parties, national productivity is a function of the business sector, and regulating everything 'for the people's good' is a responsibility of State. Many politicians even consider elites and their businesses as 'exploiters of the masses' that should be regulated to the fullest, especially in the areas of taxation, grant of privileges, permits, franchises, workers' benefits, political yield, etc.
The remedy? Since our 60,000-strong I-Congress would be composed largely of top retired corporate and sectoral brains, it should be expected to set up century-business plans that involve both State and corporate sectors, especially mega co-ops. First plan may be based on principles and tactics presented in this work. Targets: a) raise national productivity to 1st World levels thru synergies among mega co-ops, State agencies and private companies; b) enable all Philippine businesses to sell to world markets, small ones as consortia or as suppliers to mega co-ops that sell worldwide; c) avoid cut-throat competition among local businesses by forming inter-business plans for world-scale marketing; d) manage combined State and business resources to maximum efficiency thru planning at century level, with adjustments every five years; e) avoid past regimes' habit of changing plans and policies each regime change. I-Congress members voted in batches of 10,000 for six-year terms will ensure perpetuation of desirable programs; f) develop the ASEAN Festival Malls worldwide and expat sideline businesses in over 100 countries into permanent programs to help establish perpetual and constantly expanding world markets for most Philippine products and services; g) keep constant focus on creating and maintaining economic democracy thru the Mega Co-op Movement and its work-study programs, since economic democracy is a prerequisite for true political democracy.
2.0 Multiple-member Juries (MMJ) Law: The main reason for the unbelievable inefficiency and corruption in the Philippine Justice system is its reliance on a few judges to decide on Court cases. An MMJ law should hence require referendum-style decision-making for all Court cases whereby groups of 500 to several thousand 'few cases handled' lawyers, depending on gravity of cases, vote on case rulings in the comfort of their homes thru internet videos and DVDs (digital video discs) of the proceedings. Targets: a) eliminate old-style 'justice to the highest bidder' culture because under the MMJ system, no litigant can possibly bribe hundreds or thousands of decision-makers; b) speed up court cases to free thousands of over-jailed minor offenders who cannot afford lawyers; c) de-clog the courts and jails of thousands of cases that normally take 20-40 years to resolve; d) enable hundreds or thousands of legal skills instead of just one overworked, politically-appointed judge or panel of judges to study, conduct debates and decide on cases; e) stop murders of judges and threats to their families (one reason why certain cases drag on for years), since no litigant can effectively threaten hundreds or thousands of 'cyber' jury members who decide thru websites. f) ensure that mega co-ops and all other businesses do not get embroiled in decades-long civil cases, especially on such issues as land use and titling, multiple titling of land plots, permits, licenses, franchises, import and export regulations, collection of debts, corruption complaints, etc. Furthermore, the abusive 'temporary restraining order' which can last for years as lawyers argue the finest technicalities publicly while privately playing the 'highest bidder' bribery game has to end.
As herein indicated, a Multiple Member Juries Law will end local and foreign investors' dread of the Philippines' old-style justice system whereby money, political connections, judges' self-interest, great patience, 'musclemen' threats and elite power (not raw, unadulterated justice) determine court decisions. The consequent leveled playing field should help attract the world's investors to the Philippines with its new hassle-free business and judicial cultures.
How to finance the 'referendum juries'? Ten percent of cost may be loaded upon all State contracts to provide the funds. Since the mere existence of I-Congress will end the traditional politician-signatories' 'facilitation fee' at 40-50% off all contracts, said 10% fee for 'Referendum Justice' should be an ultra-light load upon general State budgets. The Philippine Bar should assign lawyers who have no current case obligations to become members of the 'super juries'. Bar members should vote (thru Justice website) on number of jury members depending on gravity of case and monetary amounts involved in the case. Remuneration for jury members may be based on a fixed fee per case decision, after Court attorneys and the judge (as referee) have presented their case thru CCTV and DVDs. All jury members must post the bases of their decisions on their personal read-only websites for litigant parties to view in order to allay suspicions of 'case railroading' or 'minimal attention to the case'. Lawyers are ever-vigilant of their reputations (which bring them more cases), so Jury members should be forced by public judgement to render their best arguments and decisions, since such rulings will be open for interested parties to review thru said juries' blogs or websites. Litigants' appeals to higher courts and regional supreme courts should be resolved thru the same computer-aided, multiple juries procedure. Higher courts may thus end their current thousand-level backlogs of cases that have not been resolved due to 20-30 years of failed 'highest bidder dealings', or a single judge handling hundreds of cases, or excessive hearing postponements, or certain litigants' inability to afford lawyers, or insufficient funding for Public Attorneys' offices.
How will State replace the billions of tax pesos 'lost' incident to operation of all the pro-people laws and judicial schemes described in this and past posts? Logically, the State should earn some 50-100 times its current income levels due to the following: a) value added tax proceeds will rise to stratospheric levels due to trillion-dollar local and export sales by over a million mega co-op corporate groups selling to world markets. Local upstream and downstream industries created by the giant mega co-ops' supply and sales needs should further raise VAT incomes; b) quadrillions of pesos should arise out of proceeds from mega co-op forests' harvest shares payable to State, plus taxes on imported vehicles, machinery and consumer goods, export fees, 50% corporate income tax, franchise shares and fees, business permits, mining and quarrying permits, road users' tax, entertainment tax, taxes on imports of farm and factory machines, taxes on dividends and bank accounts, specific tax on liquors and other consumer items, travel taxes, real estate taxes, taxes on transfer of rights to real estate, rental of State lands and buildings, foreigners' work and residence permits, dividends and service fees remitted by hundreds of public corporations and agencies, interest and dividends from State banks, commissions from casinos and lotteries, and scores of other impositions. Tax income should hence shoot to the heavens not because of more impositions but due to the ballooning of Philippine business activities on worldwide basis. Ten percent of all such taxes going to a referendum-style justice system will yield enormous sums to defray juries' allowances (on per decided case basis) and related expenditures. The sums will even afford more confinement facilities to de-clog local jails, which hold 20 to 50 times their designed capacities. 'Farm jails' for minor offenders should help in inmate rehabilitation by allocating farm harvests to inmates' victims and to each inmate's post-jail fund for setup of a micro-business.
What's the carbon mitigation signature? A referendum-style Philippine justice system will ensure the efficient and hassle-free set up and operation of mega co-op agro-forests and related clean and green industries. Consequent perpetual profitability of all mega co-op corporate groups will ensure perpetual care for the greeneries and CO2 sequestering industries. Third World justice system conditions are often akin to those of the Philippines, so copycats throughout the 3rd World will multiply the Philippines' routine carbon mitigation efforts a thousand times or so.
(Read other posts: Press Up arrow, click 3 bars at top of page, click Labels, click your choice of topic)