Rethinking Democratization in the Philippines 197 significant progress in achieving minimum outcomes that make possible the exercise and sustainability of democracy: the rule of law and improved quality of life indices, to mention just two of these critical factors. We have failed to develop effective institutions to ensure the “horizontal accountability” of public officials and agencies. At another level of public accountability, civil society organizations have done an invaluable job of monitoring the exercise of power and initiating reform advocacies but these same groups continue to be repressed and harassed by powerful political clans and oligarchic blocs.8 In the same vein, the full potential of the decentralization process to empower and democratize local government constituencies continues to be blocked by the resilience of oligarchic and clan families in many local areas. And yet all these daunting conditions do not signal despair or defeat. We have come to understand much better the forces that impede democratization processes. When this knowledge is harnessed by democratization movements and struggles in our own country, we are hopeful that we will be brought closer to the birthing of a truly democratic order.