The Never Ending Democratization of the Philippines 125 study focuses on the actual executive-legislative-judicial interactions that show how the executive hegemony dominates the other branches of government. This dominance weakened horizontal accountability making the employment of delegative authority virtually unchecked. Moreover, the study emphasizes the transparency and controllability aspects of accountability rather than the answerability aspect which is very challenging because of the strict procedural requirements of due process. This study believes that horizontal transparency and controllability would help attain answerability or to exact accountability. It is to be hoped, therefore, that this study will contribute to the policy thrusts of the Human Development Network. In regard to the perennial problem of poverty, the National Economic and Development Authority recommends that “the government's anti-poverty strategy must focus on agriculture and rural development through asset reforms (agrarian reform, urban land reform and ancestral domain reform) accompanied by reforms in the agricultural sector, such as investments in productivity improvements and supporting infrastructure. The government also should address; (a) poor governance of support services, e.g., lack of accountability (Fertilizer scandal)” (Philippine Mid-Term MDG Report 2007: 2122). The largely discouraging policy outcomes and the scandals that wracked the post-EDSA administrations could be seen as the main reason why their public satisfaction ratings declined from the hopeful expectation of the people at the start of their terms of office. Indeed, there are time-specific contexts for each of the administrations, but their inability to improve significantly the economy and the quality of life of the people, tend to be the common factors that help explain their ratings. The trend for the Aquino, Ramos and Estrada administrations is to begin with a satisfaction rating of about 75 percentage points and decline to around 10 points by the end of their term. The Arroyo administration is the least satisfactory which started with 25 percentage points satisfaction rating and declined to -38 points by December, 2009. The SWS comparison of the satisfaction ratings of the Aquino, Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo (1986-2009) is in Appendix D. It should be noted that Philippine Star columnist William Esposo observed that there is double counting of the dissatisfied responses. He made this observation in connection with the declining net satisfaction of President Aquino III. Towards a Stronger Horizontal Accountability through Transparency The revisions made by the 1986 Constitutional Commission which limited the military powers of the President are very instructive. These revisions

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