If I were the President, this is how I will solve the current problems of the Philippines:

• Peace and order. The Philippines has been troubled by secessionist movements, rebels, terrorists, and various forms of crimes for many decades. These undesirable elements have caused undetermined losses of lives, properties, business opportunities, investments, etc. that have eroded the economy and stunt the progress of the Philippines.

Perhaps, the first step that the government should do is to boost the strength of the armed forces of the Philippines in order to make them adequately capable of maintaining peace and order on land, on sea, and in the air. After achieving this, the government should enact a law that would make mere possession, safekeeping, and ownership of a firearm(s), with the exception of members of the armed forces and national police, is a crime punishable by 20 years imprisonment. Then after said law is in place, a vigorous campaign against illegal firearms shall be launch jointly by the armed forces and the national police nationwide. Without any loose firearm in the country, no heinous crime could be committed and people can pursue their livelihood and enjoy life any time of the day or night. Moreover, the peaceful atmosphere in the country will lure foreign investors to put up businesses that will provide jobs for our countrymen.

• Food sufficiency. Ever since I can remember, our country has been importing rice from the very countries we taught how to grow good varieties of rice. Our importation has grown through the years as the population grew, and a large portion of the government resources is spent for the importation of rice bloated by incidental kick backs and commissions of people involved in this operation. In spite of these importations, the number of hungry Filipinos increased every year because the cost of imported rice is no longer affordable to the poor.

Before anything else, we need to replace the agrarian reform law with another law that would limit the ownership of arable lands to three hectares per family or association and would ban the conversion of arable lands for industrial, residential, or recreational purposes such as housing subdivisions, golf courses, parks, etc. When this is done, the government will acquire all privately owned arable lands in excess of such limitation from their owners through expropriation by paying them the price prevailing at such locations. Then the government will distribute all the acquired lands, including those arable lands owned by the government and public domains, to landless families throughout the country (including the families of criminals that have surrendered and pledged allegiance to the government of the Philippines) at the rate of two hectares per family for free on condition that the grantee will cultivate the land to yield sufficient rice and vegetables. Failure to produce sufficient yield without justifiable reason, as will be determined by the Department of Agriculture, the grant of the land to the nonperforming grantee will be recalled and awarded to another family whoever is willing and able to meet such condition.

Based on available data, the land area of the Philippines is 300,000 square kilometers and 70 percent of those lands are arable. It is also a known fact that current population of the Philippines is 90,000,000, more or less, and that the average members of a family is five persons. It is also known that a hectare planted with rice can yield 60 cavans of palay, and a milled cavan of palay will give 25 kilograms of rice. Based on these assumptions, it can be deduced that the total area of arable lands is 21,000,000 hectares, to be distributed among 10,500,000 families composed of 52,500,000 people or about 58 percent of the current population. Each harvest will yield l,260,000,000 sacks of palay equivalent to 31,500,000 metric tons of rice. In 2003, the annual consumption of rice in the Philippines was 9,105,000 metric tons. Assuming that the current consumption has doubled since that time, this would amount to 18,210,000 metric tons, therefore we can still have a surplus of 13,300,000 metric tons which we can export to other countries.

The whole impact of this proposal on the economy is that we can achieve self sufficiency in rice so that we can maintain the price thereof within the reach of the poor, apply the dollars normally intended for rice imports to payment of foreign debts, and provide livelihood (farming and husbandry) and eradicate the poverty of 58 percent of the population.

• Budget Deficit. Traditionally, the government’s budget is overshot annually simply because government expenditures are not properly regulated. Other causes may be attributed to corruption and the clamoring of influential officials of the government to increase their allocations for personal gains. A large chunk of the budget is wasted on corruption through the conspiracy between officials and suppliers resulting in inferior infrastructures or unfinished projects.

To correct these prevalent irregularities concerning the budget, certain reforms need to be implemented.

First, we should overhaul the structure of the national government, from the Office of the President to the smallest bureau, in order to minimize expenditures on personnel, supplies, utilities, communications, etc. and to improve the efficiency of services to the people. This would entail the streamlining of functions and conversion of procedures into automation.

Second, we should abolish the House of Representatives completely and do away with traditional huge budget for salaries and pork barrels for that office. After all, we have already enough laws in the land and all we need to do to achieve fair justice for all Filipinos is to enforce those laws properly. Furthermore, the lower house is the seat of corruptions that drains the government’s resources to waste.

In its place, we shall increase the number of senators so that each province will be represented by at least one senator depending on it’s population. The senators, in addition to their primary duty of enacting, repealing, or amending laws, shall serve as liaison between the province and the national government with respect to infrastructures and social services.

Third, we shall abolish the pork barrel system and in its place a commission made up of cabinet members as commissioners will meet at least twice a week to discuss and decide which of the infrastructures requested by the provincial government, with the concurrence of the senators representing such province, will be implemented and for how much. The commission will then forward the said approval, together with all supporting documents required by law, to the Budget Commission for allocation of funds.

Fourth, according to the SWS’s survey of business managers in 2009, corruption in the public sector is happening in the national level and progressively decreasing in severity at the provincial, city, and barangay levels. Sixty-one percent of business managers surveyed admitted that their companies were solicited by someone in the government for bribes.

Agencies graded “poor” by the managers are the Department of Budget and Management, Philippine National Police, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Presidential Commission on Good Government.

Agencies graded “bad” are the Department of Transportation and Communications, Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, House of Representatives, Land Transportation Office, and the Office of the President.

Agencies graded “very bad or worst” are the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Public Works and Highways, and the Bureau of Customs.

The President should appoint National Marshals from people with reputable competence and integrity who shall oversee these agencies and to report any anomaly directly to the President of the Philippines. The laws against bribery should be stiffened to include 20 year imprisonment for both giver and recipient of bribes in whatever form.

• Allegiance. Filipinos are, by nature, beholden to the person who has done him something good or favor. For this reason, the recipient of such a favor believes that he/she has a bounden obligation to do something to benefit or please the giver in return. This is the root cause of all injustices happening in all the branches of the government.

To remove this bad tradition or practice in the governance of our political divisions, every position in the government that carries with it enough power to subvert the laws and moral values of the people shall not be appointed by any higher official or office but instead must be elected by the people during national elections. These positions shall include commissioners, presidents of government corporations, justices, judges, prosecutors, fiscals, chiefs of police, etc.