posted October 24, 2015 at 11:40 pm by Roderick T. dela Cruz [ manilastandardtoday.com]
Architect Felino Palafox has broadened his field of interest, from urban planning to nation-building, in search of fresh insights into the situation of the Philippines, which will celebrate its 500th year as a country by 2021.
Today, he is now more interested in discussing corruption,
criminality, climate change, poverty, pollution, traffic congestion and
incompetence, instead of just designing buildings.
Palafox, one of the panelists during the recent launch of the fourth
Philippine Trust Index by public relations firm EON The Stakeholders
Relations Group at Makati Shangri La Hotel, expressed his frustration
over government’s inefficiency, such as the fact that the Philippines
missed the boat in regional efforts to build a new economic bloc.
The Philippines, this year’s host of the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation meetings, was left out of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific
Partnership, which recently signed an agreement to redefine global
trade.
Palafox described this as an embarrassing situation for the country, a
known ally of the United States which is leading the TPP, a new
powerful group within Apec.
“The government is suffering not just from corruption, but also from
analysis paralysis. Like in the case of TPP or Trans-Pacific
Partnership, how come Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore went into the 12 while
the Philippines, which is an ally of the US, is still analyzing whether
to join or not,” Palafox says.
The Philippines is still in talks to join TPP, according to the Trade
Department. TPP’s member countries cover about 40 percent of the world
economy and include Australia, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Singapore and Vietnam in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the United
States, Canada, Mexico, Peru and Chile.
The pact includes provisions to bring down barriers to trade in
services and remove foreign investment restrictions, in addition to
lowering tariffs on goods, according to Fitch Ratings.
Palafox says the Philippines missing the boat to TPP illustrates the
lack of foresight among leaders, a reason why Filipinos have little
trust in the government. He says nobody in the government thinks about
traffic congestion, which translates into P2.2 billion worth of man-hour
losses a day.
Palafox, who went to Harvard University for graduate courses, says a
study done by the US Ivy League school as early as 2000, showed that
Metro Manila was the fastest growing metropolis in the world.
“A projection showed there would be 54 million more Filipinos by
2050. Computing it at 250,000 per city, we need more than 200 new
cities. Who among the government is thinking about that? Most of the
government programs and policies are short-term and opportunistic,” he
says.
Palafox, who dislikes walls separating homes and buildings in the
Philippines and whose company designed the Rockwell Center in Makati
City and Camp John Hay in Baguio City, says if the next leaders will
only be able to address the issues of corruption, criminality and
climate change, the Philippines is bound to join the top 20 economies in
the world over the next decades.
Other panelists during the launch of the fourth Philippine Trust
Index are Far Easter University president Michael Alba; former Interior
secretary Rafael Alunan III; Rock Ed Philippines founder Therese Badoy
Capati; Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research
executive director Rommel Banlaoi, Philippine Council on Islam and
Democracy lead convenor Amina Rasul-Bernardo; and Philippine Center for
Civic Education and Democracy executive director Reynald Trillana.
The Philippine Trust Index is EON’s proprietary research that was
launched in 2011 to examine trust levels and drivers across the
government, church, non-government organizations, business and media.
The nationwide survey shows that Filipinos prefer government leaders
who are willing to listen to their constituents. Other important
qualities of a government leader, according to the study, are being
concerned for the people and having a strong political will.
Similar to government leaders, the most valued quality of a business
leader is the willingness to listen to employees’ feedback. “Our
findings on the most valued leadership qualities further underlines the
importance of conversation and communication in building trust for
public and private institutions,” says EON Group chairman and chief
executive Junie del Mundo.
The 2015 PTI survey saw no movement in terms of the ranking of
institutions based on trust rating. Church remains the most trusted
institution in the country, with an overwhelming 73 percent of the
general public and 68 percent of the informed public claiming to trust
the church very much.
The academe garnered the second highest trust rating (51 percent),
followed by media (32 percent). At the bottom are government (12
percent), business (9 percent) and NGOs (9 percent).
For government, the trust driver with the highest percentage has
something to do with national peace and security, followed by housing
food, and education; economy; going after corrupt politicians;
preparation for calamities; and generating jobs.
For business, the top trust drivers are good salaries and benefits;
fair labor; quality of products/service; right taxes; non-discrimination
in the work place; treatment of customers; and environment-friendly
policies and programs.
Within the business sector, health, telecommunication and water
emerged as the most trusted. The least trusted industries are legal
services, advertising and public relations, alcohol and tobacco and
mining.
While television remains the most trusted source of information, this year’s survey shows that trust on online media improves.
“Results of the 2015 PTI Survey show how important it is now to
utilize all channels – from traditional media, to online news sites, and
even social media,” says Malyn Molina, managing director of Engage, the
newly launched public affairs and government relations business of EON
Group.
“The communication landscape today means that organizations and
companies have to listen more to their stakeholders, even consider
stakeholders beyond the usual groups it engages, and truly understand
their position or concerns,” says Molina.
“Increasing trust on digital platforms definitely makes the
communication landscape more complicated. However, it also means that
more Filipinos now can express their opinion in a bigger, more public
space and participate in important national and regional discussions,”
she says.,
The 4th Philippine Trust Index had 1,620 respondents nationwide.
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