Is There a Pa in the Philippines
Norkhalila Mae B. Mambuay-Campong August 3, 2013
Assignment No. 2
Is there a Philippine Public Administration: A Critique
This paper is a critique to the articles of Raul P. de Guzman and Onofre D. Corpus which were both published in 1986, at the height of the People Power and at the time when there was still no concrete system of public administration to talk about. The two authors wrote about the same thing but presented different and independent justification whether or not there is a Philippine public administration. The Philippine Constitution and Philippine Administrative Code came a year after the two articles were published. Hence, my critique will focus on the relevance of the main theme “is there a Philippine public administration?” after more than two decades, five Presidents, seven congresses and having the population size of the country double from 48M in 1980 to 97M in 2013. Most importantly, is the Philippine public administration, if there is any, responsive and relevant to the changing times?
Is there a Philippine public administration? Categorically speaking, yes, there is. But what we have does not conform to the standards on the kind of public administration needed to improve the quality of government. What we have does not effectively and efficiently strengthen the recruitment and promotion based on merit and competence. What we have may be traces or remains of the kind of system that was established at the time when we were still colonized by Spain or under the American government – the kind of system that is supposed to be obsolete today but still embraced and tolerated by many.
I agree with de Guzman’s presentation of the four organizational features common to all public bureaucracies, namely: (1) hierarchal structure of authority, (2) creation of subunits based on differentiation of functions or specialization, (3) recruitment and promotion based on merit and competence and (4) s system of rules and procedures to
Assignment No. 2
Is there a Philippine Public Administration: A Critique
This paper is a critique to the articles of Raul P. de Guzman and Onofre D. Corpus which were both published in 1986, at the height of the People Power and at the time when there was still no concrete system of public administration to talk about. The two authors wrote about the same thing but presented different and independent justification whether or not there is a Philippine public administration. The Philippine Constitution and Philippine Administrative Code came a year after the two articles were published. Hence, my critique will focus on the relevance of the main theme “is there a Philippine public administration?” after more than two decades, five Presidents, seven congresses and having the population size of the country double from 48M in 1980 to 97M in 2013. Most importantly, is the Philippine public administration, if there is any, responsive and relevant to the changing times?
Is there a Philippine public administration? Categorically speaking, yes, there is. But what we have does not conform to the standards on the kind of public administration needed to improve the quality of government. What we have does not effectively and efficiently strengthen the recruitment and promotion based on merit and competence. What we have may be traces or remains of the kind of system that was established at the time when we were still colonized by Spain or under the American government – the kind of system that is supposed to be obsolete today but still embraced and tolerated by many.
I agree with de Guzman’s presentation of the four organizational features common to all public bureaucracies, namely: (1) hierarchal structure of authority, (2) creation of subunits based on differentiation of functions or specialization, (3) recruitment and promotion based on merit and competence and (4) s system of rules and procedures to