The Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO), an organization of some eighty men and women who served under different administrations from Diosdado Macapagal to the present, has today proposed do-able reforms for the country’s next President.
On October 1, FSGO sent letters of invitation to all persons who have announced their intention to seek the presidency in the 2010 elections. We offered to brief them on the reform proposals.
FSGO’s Do-Ables Blueprint outlines certain critical reforms to be undertaken by the new President and his/her cabinet within their first year. The specific reforms proposed in the Blueprint take an open bias for issues that provide the base for other reforms, have a direct beneficial impact on the poor, and aim to strengthen basic democratic institutions.
FSGO offers the Do-Ables Blueprint as a set of directions that candidates may covenant with the electorate. The Blueprint does not include changes in economic policy, foreign relations or national security. We suggest the next President's creation of task forces to critically assess options for meaningful change in these strategic areas.
FSGO was born in February 2008 out of moral outrage over abuses and mal-governance of the present regime. We have since spoken out on various issues of national import, and presented proposals for reform. We take some pride in these efforts to help improve national governance and restrain further misdeeds of government leaders. We are particularly gratified by the positive response and support we have received from media and other groups during the past 20 months.
Since many FSGO members will actively participate in partisan activities for the crucial elections in 2010, we have reached a collective decision to go into a hiatus from public expressions from now until a new leadership shall have emerged.
During this period up to the elections in May 2010, FSGO will limit its public pronouncements to two main matters:
- Issues affecting or that can be answered by the proposed do-able reforms, and
- Arising serious threats to Philippines' democracy that we may identify at our periodic meetings.
FSGO will use this period of hiatus to prepare for a longer-term role as a think tank of select former senior government officials who will pool their collective experience and expertise to propose administrative policies, directions and processes for sustained democratic reform and development in the country during the next and succeeding administrations.
.png)
