Aquino stresses importance of open government in ‘age of flux’

NEW YORK CITY—President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday underscored the importance of a government that is open and engages its people especially in what he said was the “age of flux” and advanced communication technology.

The President gave this message in a keynote speech at the Open Government Partnership forum “The Power of Open: Global Discussion” held at Google’s office here. He was the only head of state invited to address the forum.

The Philippines is a member of the so far eight-member Steering Committee of the OGP now currently co-chaired by the United States and Brazil.

In his speech, President Aquino said there was now a “profound reexamination of the relationship between governments and their citizens” as the world economic system was being “reordered.”

He said the “world is in a flux” as shown in the “Arab spring” or political turbulence in the Middle East and in the economic turbulence in the US and in Europe.

The President said before communication technologies modernized, governments “could lull themselves into thinking that even if they lacked popular consent, they had the luxury of time to play deaf and dumb to their people’s needs.”

Mr. Aquino cited as example how Filipinos was able to replace the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos after 14 long years. He said that with the advanced communication technologies now, this kind of people’s struggle against a government “can today, happen much quicker” as he noted how social media “can expose corruption and other abuses, and arouse public opinion to mobilize and reclaim their government.”

“The ever-quickening pace of communications and ever-increasing opportunities for engaging in conversations across sectors and borders is both a boon and a bane,” the President said, noting that anyone with access to the Internet “can now reach millions of people and dispense pearls of wisdom, or perversely, misinform and mislead in pursuit of a selfish agenda.”

And that was why President Aquino said governments should engage its citizens in dialogue so as to reinforce openness and likewise make it less tempting for those in power to engage in crimes and reduce mistrust of government.

President Aquino said the partnership between government and people make governments “better equipped to navigate the turbulent waters in our age of flux.”

In the Philippines, he said his administration has been engaging the people to take part in governance through asking them to report cases of corruption in a government website known as “Pera ng Bayan” which has so far led to the filing of 127 cases since the site was launched in November of 2010.