Local Governments, Civil Society, Democratization, and Development 119 bound to coopt or use civil society groups and individuals for deodorizing purposes. As Reid, in examining the experiences of civil society leaders who “crossed over” to join government under the Estrada and Arroyo administrations, points out: NGOs and POs would perhaps be better served by conceptualizing themselves as part of an oppositional bloc of forces competing for state power, rather than seeking ultimately doomed coalitions of the Estrada and Arroyo type. Above all, it requires accepting a political analysis that goes beyond the model of dual political and economic transition—that almost assumes an automatic conditioning role for the associational sphere on state institutions—and recognizes that civil society overwhelmingly tends to be absorbed by and constituted on the basis of clientelist and semiclientelist relations. An outlook founded on the basis of a more structural and historical analysis of social relations entails that much clearer criteria be established for considering when entry into and support for state programs are justied. (Reid 2008) (highlighting ours) Given this prescription, the question now is how CSOs who have engaged with the Benigno S. Aquino (PNoy, for short) administration fared. While there was an episode when CSOs mobilized against the administration at the height of the pork barrel scandal through the largely spontaneous #millionpeoplemarch that called on the administration to abolish the congressional pork barrel, CSO engagement of the administration has been generally constructive. This is shown in the increasing number of CSOs that participate in the Bottom Up Budgeting (BuB) program of the Aquino administration. Implemented since 2012, the BuB aims to make the national budget more responsive to local concerns by involving local stakeholders, from the public sector and CSOs, in the formulation of projects to be funded by the national budget. From 2013-2015, the BuB involved a total of almost 15,000 projects with a total budget of PHP 21 billion.8 More specically, CSOs were increasingly involved in public nancial management programs, primarily through the Bottom Up Budgeting (BuB) program. The BuB, a reform initiative started by the Aquino administration in 2012, aims to make the budgetary process more responsive to local needs. In an assessment done on the BuB, Manasan (2015) notes that the BUB promotes a “wider, more active and participatory involvement of CSOs in local development planning”, the “CSOs' sense of self-worth is enhanced, thereby empowering them”, and the interaction with LGUs and fellow CSOs strengthen the connection between CSOs and LGUs and among CSOs. While an initial assessment done by the Institute of Philippine Culture (2013) point to the variance in political alignments or independence of CSOs involved in the BuB, the existing assessments of CSO participation in the BuB, generally highlight the positive outcomes of CSO engagement in the participatory budgeting