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Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy, Second Edition
(JELACC 2008). The council also aims to “identify issues pertaining to the
primacy of the rule of law and formulate and undertake solutions to strengthen
due process and the institutions of justice, and implement our laws better”
(JELACC 2008). The Council can focus on how their collaboration could
strengthen the transparency and controllability aspects of accountability as
crucial rst steps in establishing a more effective punitive accountability. The
Council can also address the issue of the scal autonomy of the Supreme Court,
and work out rules regarding custody of the ling fees and other related issues.
In fact a recent Memorandum of Agreement implemented the salary increases
for the judiciary. The scal autonomy of the Supreme Court would help insure
its independence in interpreting the Constitution, executive orders and
statutes.
The long-term approach to strengthen horizontal accountability should be a
partnership between the government and civil society, a public-private
partnership (See Holmes 2011). This partnership should concentrate in
institutionalizing transparency, controllability and answerability. While there
are existing civil society groups that are engaging the government in areas of
transparency to prevent corruption, and participation in policy-making, these
groups have not marshaled the support of the so-called silent majority. Leaders
of civil society, political parties, religious organizations and private individuals
should be more resolute in their efforts to expand the membership and support
for civil society groups.
Beyond the broader and deeper participation of civil society, there is a more
pressing task of organizing and mobilizing the public or government
component of this partnership. A coalition of government ofcials and
functionaries who support the agenda of reform is needed. Leaders of Congress
and the judiciary should lead this public component of the partnership. There
are also the constitutional bodies like the Ombudsman, Commission on Audit,
Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Human Rights which are the
natural allies of civil society in the private-public partnership for institutional
reform towards the attainment of our country's substantive democracy. The
active leadership of reform-oriented political leaders and civil servants are
imperative. The decisive steps taken by the heads of the Ofce of the
Ombudsman, Department of Justice and the Commission on Audit in the ght
against delegative authority could hopefully start the long process of
institutionalizing horizontal accountability.
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