The Economics of Amartya Sen
“Social Choice and Welfare Economics” (NPWES, 2008)
And as related to Philippine Economy: National Budget Cycle

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Science in Hotel and Restaurant

By:

Binalingbing, Jhan Ray N. February 2014

INTRODUCTION
“…a budget is a useful tool to help ensure that what limited money is available will be spent for the family’s most important needs, like food, clothing and shelter.”

-Florencio Abad
Secretary, Department of Budget and Management
Every household knows that their budget is indispensable, important and has the capability to turn and mobilize their life around. Every day, millions of Filipinos work just for a meager share to eat, drink, and live, and tomorrow, work again to live for a day.
Yet reality, tells us that many still suffer and live in difficult conditions. The National Statistics Coordination Board (NCSB) reported that in 2012, 4.2 million Filipino families experienced or lived in poverty or that is 19.2% percent. The same report also stated that a family of five needed a budget of PhP 5,513 to meet basic food needs every month and Php 7,890 to stay above the poverty threshold (basic food and non-food needs) every month. Such can be attributed to the inflation rise to 4.1 % from the year 2009-2012.

What could have caused this statistic to be constant and rise up even more? Is there lack in financial stewardship and accountability on the part of Filipinos? Or even greater, does this statistic reflect the financial situation of our national government? This report aims to discuss the Philippine National Budget: preparation, habits and system and relate it to The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1998 Winner: Amartya Sen, and his study on Social Choice and Welfare Economics. To better guide us, the report aims to answer the following questions:

1. How is the Philippine National Budget prepared, appropriated, and accounted for? 2. What is the study of Amartya Sen’ Social Choice and Welfare Economics? 3. How can the principles of Sen’s be applied to the Philippine National Budget cycle, to the betterment of the Philippine society?

I. THE PHILIPPINE NATIONAL BUDGET
Legal Foundations As early as 1902, provisions already existed and were already made to the current process of appropriating national budget for the country. The Philippine Bill of 1902 of the United States and the Philippine Commission were set to govern and temporarily provide administration to the then colonized islands of the Philippines. Section 5 clearly states that, “That no money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law.” These provisions set the initial foundations of our current National Budget Cycle, now overseen by the Department of Budget and Management with its present Secretary, Florencio Abad. The 1935 Philippine Constitution established both budget policy and procedure, which were supported with acts and laws the succeeding years. The Budget Commission (now, the Department of Budget and Management) were established in 1936 by Executive Order 25 and the first Budget Law was passed on December 17, 1937 as Commonwealth Act (CA) No. 246 and effective January 1, 1938. It provided a line-item budget as the framework of the government’s budgeting system. The Presidential Decree No. 1177, during the Marcos Administration, sets out several reforms in the budget process and organization of the Budget Commission. The 1973 Constitution, following the EDSA People Power Revolution were suspended in 1986, and superseded by the Provisional “Freedom” Constitution under Proclamation No. 3 by the then President Cory Aquino. The legislative power and approval was temporarily reposed on the President.

Finally, Executive Order 292, issued pursuant to the 1987 Constitution, provided for major organizational subdivisions to the Department of Budget and Management.

The Budget Cycle The National Budget allocation, process and appropriation, is known as the Budget Cycle. The yearly Budget Cycle is composed of four parts, which may overlap one another, Preparation, Legislation, Execution, and Accountability.

Budget Preparation This starts with the Budget Call and ends with the President’s submission of the proposed budget to Congress.
Department of Budget and Management issues the National Budget Call to all agencies (including State Universities and Colleges or SUC’s) and a Corporate Budget Call to GOCC’s and GFI’s. The Budget Call is a call to submit budget proposals within the parameters of Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC). Under the new Budget Preparation Calendar, the Budget Call is issued in December (versus around April in the past); and the submission of the President’s budget a day after the State of the Nation Address (in contrast to earlier practice where it is submitted during the late in the 30-day window that the Constitution prescribes).

Starting 2012, a new feature of Budget Preparation was introduced, department and agencies were tasked to have Stakeholder Engagements and partner with Civil Service Organizations (CSO) and other citizen-stakeholders as they prepare their agency budget proposals. This “Bottom-Up” Budgeting involves grassroots and communities in the budget preparation.

Five more steps remain, the Technical Budget Hearings were conducted by the DBM to finalize budget proposals. Then an Executive Review, discusses the recommendations and deliberations of the details of priority programs before Consolidation, Validation, and Confirmation. These inputs are consolidated into a National Expenditure Program and a Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF). DBM spearheads the Presentation to the President and the Cabinet of the proposed budget and finalizes the documents needed by the President for submission to the Congress. The President’s Budget is now submitted to the Congress after the State of the Nation Address, the last Tuesday of July. The budget documents include:

* President’s Budget Message (PBM)
This is where the President explains the policy framework and priorities in the budget. * Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF)
Mandated by the Constitution, this contains the macroeconomic assumptions, public sector context (including overviews of LGU and GOCC financial positions), breakdown of the expenditures and funding sources for the fiscal year and the two previous years. * National Expenditure Program (NEP)
This contains the details of spending for each department and agency by program, activity or project, and is submitted in the form of a proposed General Appropriations Act. * Details of Selected Programs and Projects
This contains a more detailed disaggregation of key programs, projects and activities in the NEP, especially those in line with the national government’s development plan. * Staffing Summary
This contains a summary of the staffing complement of each department and agency, including number of positions and amounts allocated for the same.
Budget Legislation
Alternatively called the “budget authorization phase”, this starts upon the House Speaker’s receipt of the President’s Budget and ends with the President’s enactment of the General Appropriations Act.

The House of Representatives begin their hearings and deliberations as they assign the President’s budget to the House Appropriations Committee, and crafts the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The Senate may also hold simultaneous hearings, but formally start after the House submits the GAB. The Committee submits its proposed amendments to the GAB to be finalized at the end of their deliberations for the Bi-Cameral Conference Committee for their deliberations. A harmonized GAB is produced. The Harmonized or “Bicam” Version is then submitted to both Houses, which will then vote to ratify the final GAB for submission to the President. Once submitted to the President for his approval, the GAB is considered Ratified and Enrolled. The Veto Message is hence prepared by the President and DBM, where budget items are identified and set before the Congress.

The Veto Message also signs into law and enacts the General Appropriations Act of the following fiscal year, however, if the GAA is not enacted on time, before the fiscal year starts, the previous year’s GAA is automatically enacted. This means that agency budgets for programs, activities and projects remain the same. Funding for programs or projects that have already been terminated is realigned for other expenditures. Because reenactments are tedious and prone to abuse, the Aquino Administration—with the support of Congress—has committed to ensure the timely enactment of a new GAA every year.
Budget Execution
This is where the people’s money is actually spent. As soon as the GAA is enacted, the government can implement its priority programs and projects.

The budget execution phase begins with DBM’s issuance of Guidelines on the Release and Utilization of Funds. Agencies submit their Budget Execution Documents which include technical information on plans, projects, deliverables, and list of obligations not yet due and demandable. DBM also prepares Allotment Release Program (ARP) to set a limit for allotments issued to an agency and on the aggregate. The ARP of each agency corresponds to the total amount of the agency-specific budget under the GAA, as well as Automatic Appropriations. A Cash Release Program (CRP) is also formulated alongside that to set a guide for disbursement levels for the year and for every month and quarter.

Allotments, which authorize an agency to enter into an obligation, are either released by DBM to all agencies comprehensively through the Agency Budget Matrix (ABM) and individually via Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs). To authorize an agency to pay the obligations it incurs, DBM issues a disbursement authority. Most of the time, it takes the form of a Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA); and in special cases, the Non-Cash Availment Authority (NCAA) and Cash Disbursement Ceiling (CDC).

Disbursment is the final step of the budget execution phase, where government monies are actually spent. The Modified Disbursement Scheme is mostly used, where disbursements of national government agencies chargeable against the Treasury are made through government servicing banks, such as the Land Bank of the Philippines.

Budget Accountability
This phase happens alongside the Budget Execution phase. Through Budget Accountability, the DBM monitors the efficiency of fund utilization, assesses agency performance and provides a vital basis for reforms and new policies.

Agencies are assessed on how they use public funds ethically and how they attain Performance Targets and Outcomes using the OPIF Book of Outputs. Prior to the enactment of National Budget, these Performance Targets and Outcomes are firmed up during the preparation of the BED’s or Budget Execution Documents. Budget Accountability Reports are also submitted on a monthly, and quarterly basis to identify physical accomplishments and how they used their funds against their targets. Beginning with the present Aquino administration, the DBM has implemented a “No Report, No Release” policy to oblige agencies to submit reports as part of public accountability. Then the DBM submits the physical and financial Review of Agency Performance, regularly to the President.

Auditing is also done as a counter-checking measure by the Commission of Audit (COA) to ensure accountability in use of public funds. The DBM uses COA reports to confirm Agency performance, determining budgetary levels and issues in fund usage.

Performance- Based Incentive System, is also introduced to further motivate and encourage high performance by the government agencies and institutions. PBI will recognize and reward good performance among government employees — to help improve the efficiency of service delivery across all government institutions.

2014 National Budget

The National Expenditure Program or the National budget for this year 2014 is
PhP 2.265 trillion. After undergoing the long process of budget preparation, and legislation, it has been approved last December 20, 2013. But the process of the Budget Cycle is not over; it has only begun, because we, the Filipino people must remain vigilant, holding public officials accountable for the use of public funds.

Analysis:

1. The government has set an exemplary system of preparing, allocating, and appropriate public funds for public cause. The present administration remained steadfast in its Social Contract to the Filipino people, the Philippines “with an organized and widely-shared rapid expansion of our economy through a government dedicated to honing and mobilizing our people’s skills and energies as well as the responsible harnessing of our natural resources.” President Aquino has done well in making sure the bureaucracy works and will work, removing loopholes in the government, ensuring proper allocation of funds. 2. But since the Philippine Government is composed of 5 major units, excluding the National, we have:

A. the Regional Government (14 regional governments and 3 special regions and offices) comprising of several provinces or cities having more or less homogenous characteristics, such as ethnic origin of inhabitants, dialect spoken, agricultural produce, etc.

B. The Provincial Government, the largest unit in the political structure of the Philippines. It consists, in varying numbers, of municipalities and, in some cases, of component cities. Its functions and duties in relation to its component cities and municipalities are generally coordinative and supervisory.

C. The City Government, which has three classifications: the highly urbanized, the independent component cities which are independent of the province, and the component cities which are part of the provinces where they are located and subject to their administrative supervision.

D. The Municipal Government, which is a subsidiary of the province which consists of a number of barangays within its territorial boundaries.

E. And Barangay, the smallest political unit into which cities and municipalities in the Philippines are divided.

There is a seemingly great divide and difficulty in checking-and-balancing the funds and administration of each government unit. There are different personal interests, perspectives and conclusions on government and usage of national resources, and unless there is a deep understanding and commitment to public service and accountability- the very thing that unites public servants, we cannot move as one. The next chapter will talk about the Social Choice and Welfare Economics and its power to strengthen the reforms started by the present Administration.

II. THE ECONOMICS OF AMARTYA SEN:
SOCIAL CHOICE AND WELFARE ECONOMICS

Who is Amartya Sen?

| Born | 3 November 1933 (age 80)
Santiniketan, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day West Bengal,India) | Nationality | Indian | Institution | * Harvard University
University of Cambridge
London School of Economics
Jadavpur University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cornell University
University of Oxford
Delhi School of Economics
University of Calcutta
University of California, Berkeley
Stanford University | Field | Welfare economics, development economics, ethics | Alma Mater | Presidency College of the University of Calcutta (B.A.),
Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) | Influences | * Rabindranath Tagore
B. R. Ambedkar
John Maynard Keynes
John Rawls
Peter Bauer
John Stuart Mill
Mary Wollstonecraft
Kenneth Arrow
Piero Sraffa
Adam Smith
Karl Marx
Martha Nussbaum | Influenced | * Mahbub ul Haq
Kaushik Basu
Jean Drèze
Martha Nussbaum
Kotaro Suzumura
Robin Hahnel
Ben Fine
Esther Duflo
Tony Atkinson
Nancy Folbre | Awards | * Noble Prize in Economics (1998)
Bharat Ratna (1999)
National Humanities Medal (2012) |

Amaryta Sen was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal, India, to Ashutosh Sen and his wife Amita. Rabindranath Tagore is said to have given Amartya Sen his name (Bengali অমর্ত্য ômorto, lit. "immortal"). Sen's family was originally from Wari, Dhaka, in present-day Bangladesh, and both of his parents were born in Manikganj, Dhaka. His father Ashutosh Sen was a professor of chemistry at Dhaka University who moved with his family to West Bengal during the Partition of India and worked at various educational institutions, eventually becoming Chairman of the West Bengal Public Service Commission. Sen's mother Amita Sen was the daughter of Kshiti Mohan Sen, a scholar and close associate of Rabindranath Tagore who became the second Vice Chancellor of Visva-Bharati University. She was also first cousin (through her father) of Sukumar Sen, ICS the First-Chief Election Commissioner of India, Ashoke Kumar Sen, M.P. and sometime Union Law Minister, and Amiya Sen, a distinguished Barrister.

Sen's interest in famine, and poverty stemmed from his personal experience. As a nine-year-old boy, he witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943, in which three million people perished. This staggering loss of life was unnecessary, Sen later concluded. He presents data that there was an adequate food supply in Bengal at the time, but particular groups of people including rural landless laborers and urban service providers like haircutters did not have the monetary means to acquire food as its price rose rapidly due to factors that include British military acquisition, panic buying, hoarding, and price gouging, all connected to the war in the region. In Poverty and Famines, Sen revealed that in many cases of famine, food supplies were not significantly reduced. In Bengal, for example, food production, while down on the previous year, was higher than in previous non-famine years. Thus, Sen points to a number of social and economic factors, such as declining wages, unemployment, rising food prices, and poor food-distribution systems. These issues led to starvation among certain groups in society. His capabilities approach focuses on positive freedom, a person's actual ability to be or do something, rather than on negative freedom approaches, which are common in economics and simply focuses on non-interference. In the Bengal famine, rural laborers' negative freedom to buy food was not affected. However, they still starved because they were not positively free to do anything, they did not have the functioning of nourishment, nor the capability to escape morbidity.

This paves the way for his 1998 Study on Social Choice, which was first introduced by Kenneth Arrow, and his development of Welfare Economics.

Definition of Terms

Before we truly understand the concepts of Amartya Sen, we must define the key ideas needed to further understand his proposal “The Possibility of Social Choice”.

A. Social Choice Theory - is the study of collective decision processes and procedures. It is not a single theory, but a cluster of models and results concerning the aggregation of individual inputs (e.g., votes, preferences, judgments, welfare) into collective outputs (e.g., collective decisions, preferences, judgments, welfare). Central questions are: How can a group of individuals choose a winning outcome (e.g., policy, electoral candidate) from a given set of options? What are the properties of different voting systems? When is a voting system democratic? How can a collective (e.g., electorate, legislature, collegial court, expert panel, or committee) arrive at coherent collective preferences or judgments on some issues, on the basis of its members' individual preferences or judgments? How can we rank different social alternatives in an order of social welfare? Social choice theorists study these questions not just by looking at examples, but by developing general models and proving theorems.

Pioneered in the 18th century by Nicolas de Condorcet and Jean-Charles de Borda and in the 19th century by Charles Dodgson (also known as Lewis Carroll), social choice theory took off in the 20th century with the works of Kenneth Arrow, Amartya Sen, and Duncan Black. Its influence extends across economics, political science, philosophy, mathematics, and recently computer science and biology. Apart from contributing to our understanding of collective decision procedures, social choice theory has applications in the areas of institutional design, welfare economics, and social epistemology.

B. Welfare Economics - The branch of economic thought that deals with economic welfare, including especially various propositions relating competitive general equilibrium to the efficiency and desirability of an allocation. Welfare Economics has two general theorems:

First: The proposition of welfare economics that a competitive general equilibrium is Pareto optimal (Making no one worse off and making at least one person better off). A corollary is that free trade is Pareto optimal among countries.

Second: The proposition of welfare economics that any Pareto optimal allocation can be attained by a competitive general equilibrium.

C. Impossibility Theorem - Arrow’s impossibility theorem, the General Possibility Theorem, or Arrow’s paradox, states that, when voters have three or more distinct alternatives (options), no rank order voting system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide (complete and transitive) ranking while also meeting a specific set of criteria. These criteria are called unrestricted domain, non-dictatorship, Pareto efficiency, and independence of irrelevant alternatives. The theorem is often cited in discussions of election theory as it is further interpreted by the Gibbard–Satterthwaite theorem.

The theorem is named after economist Kenneth Arrow, who demonstrated the theorem in his Ph.D. thesis and popularized it in his 1951 book Social Choice and Individual Values. The original paper was titled "A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare".

In short, the theorem states that no rank-order voting system can be designed that satisfies these three "fairness" criteria: * If every voter prefers alternative X over alternative Y, then the group prefers X over Y. * If every voter's preference between X and Y remains unchanged, then the group's preference between X and Y will also remain unchanged (even if voters' preferences between other pairs like X and Z, Y and Z, or Z and W change). * There is no "dictator": no single voter possesses the power to always determine the group's preference.

Arrow rejected cardinal utility as a meaningful tool for expressing social welfare, and so focused his theorem on preference rankings.

Analysis on “The Possibility of Social Choice”

1. Economics, as proposed by Sen, is an economics of preference not ranked preferences or cardinal utility. He implies that the majority rule can be “thoroughly inconsistent” and can yield “pessimistic results”
2. The idea of Welfare Economics can sit side by side with Social Choice, because it is united in the concept of preference and identity, that the “sensitive(ity) in the heterogeneous interests of a diverse population.”
3. “The possibility of constructive welfare economics and social choice (and their use in making social welfare judgments and in devising practical measures with normative significance)” also suggests a positive can-do attitude, in the midst of hardship, that despite man’s differences, he can do something to benefit himself and especially others!
III. RECOMMENDATION BASED ON SEN’S STUDY:

1. The engagement in the Budget Preparation process must be improved The current system now allows stakeholders to involve themselves in the drafting of the national budget in the agency level.

Through time, it would greatly help if more people will be allowed to be heard and the budget process will not only involve the few, but the many. With the application of the Social Choice Theory and Welfare Economics together, the National Government will know the preferences of the people, so as with the 5 other units of Philippine Government, in general assemblies that is targeted to hear the voice of the people. Democracy is best defined, “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” (The Voice of the people, The Voice of God), greater social involvement is better today than never.

2. Our diversity can work for us In the process of drafting the National Budget, (so as with the regional, and local governments), people involvement begins and ends in the first step. And the Legislative branch continues the process of appropriating the next year’s National Budget, yet sometimes as in the cases in the past, the debates and the hearings have been made personal and not targeted towards the people’s needs. Thus diversity, affiliations, and personal differences have worked against the bureaucracy of our government. It would be greater if we allowed diversity to work for us. Different regions, towns, cities, and municipalities can complement one another and leaders can represent the people better. If in the process of Budget, we allowed differences to work for us, and not against us, we have considered what is for the better good of not all, but of the people we represent and others. In our case, we can push the so-called, “politics” (with its negative notion) aside and work with the previous government, or work hand-in-hand with leaders from different parties in the platform of good will and solidarity. The recent case and story of Mayor Alfred Romualdez’ from Tacloban City has been a grave example of “politicking”, and whether his testimony is true or not, it is never good to have this negative attitude of “kami-kami lang” in the present political system. The government should always be “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” (Lincoln)

3. People empowerment begins with the people A good government isn’t based on perception of people they serve, but rather how they serve well and give their best for their people. President Noynoy Aquino have done a great job in recent years in empowering the Filipino, in saying words such as, “Kayo ang boss ko!” and promoting “Daang Matuwid”. It is true that change and reform doesn’t happen overnight, there are still bad things and inherited negative attitudes from the past, like corruption, or lack of truth in society. But that fact doesn’t overwhelm the truth, the truth that a can-do attitude strengthens and empowers a man to see change. That an empowered people, empower others to do what is right, and good, and though it may take a long time, since this is only the beginning, people empowerment is always worth it.

Sen’s study involved his experience in the Bengal Famine, he saw that man can do something but wasn’t empowered by the society to do it. In the process of setting the National Budget, as with many Filipino households, it is good to pass on a culture of empowerment that people can do it even when It is hard or tough. The Budget Cycle should empower too the Filipino, to make decisions and that progress begins with a reformed perspective, a perspective for the good, not alone, but together. A single voter cannot dictate everybody’s preference, but a single voter can make a big difference. A single dream, a single empowered man, can change the roots of the nation, and future generations.

IV. CONCLUSION BENIGNO S. AQUINO III PLATFORM of GOVERNMENT A Social Contract with the Filipino People:

A National Leadership in Need of Transformational Change * Its legitimacy is under question; * It persecutes those who expose the truth about its illegitimacy and corruption; * It stays in power by corrupting individuals and institutions; * It confuses the people with half-truths and outright lies; * It rewards, rather than punishes, wrongdoing; * It offers no lasting solutions for the many problems of the country; * It weakens the democratic institutions that hold our leaders accountable. * It hinders our local governments from delivering basic services; * It has no vision of governance beyond political survival and self-enrichment.

A People Crying out for Change * Corruption robs our children of their protection, nutrition and education. * Corruption destroys our families and communities. * Corruption steals from our farmers and workers. * Corruption deters businessmen from investing in our economy. * This has eroded our spirit as individuals, as communities, as a people. * We have lost trust in the democratic institutions we so courageously re-established after the dictatorship. * Our proven capacity for collective outrage and righteous resistance has been weakened. * We have ceased to depend on the patriotism and civic engagement that used to animate many of our efforts. * We have become divided and alienated, focusing only on ourselves and on our individual pursuits. * Our moral faculties as a people have been paralyzed. * We have retreated into a dark world of self-absorption and cynicism. Our collective despair has reached its lowest point.

Then finally, the gift of Light
Cory Aquino passed on to the next life. From our sadness, we awakened to a shaft of light cutting through the darkness. She left the Filipinos a legacy of selfless love for country and people. Filipinos’ connection with each other was rekindled. In death, she enabled us to hope again for decent government. The millions who connected with Cory at her funeral represented something more than euphoria, sentiment or transient emotions. They represented the reverent memory of a good leader in the past and the firm hope of having a similarly good leader in the future.

A People’s Campaign of Renewed Hope… * Anchored on Ninoy’s and Cory’s legacy of change through the ways of democracy * Embraces the qualities of integrity, humility and trust-worthiness in public leadership * Recognizes the absence of these qualities in government as a major cause of widespread poverty, misery and despair.

The Vision for the Philippines:
A country with…
1. A re-awakened sense of right and wrong, through the living examples of our highest leaders;

2. An organized and widely-shared rapid expansion of our economy through a government dedicated to honing and mobilizing our people’s skills and energies as well as the responsible harnessing of our natural resources;

3. A collective belief that doing the right thing does not only make sense morally, but translates into economic value as well;

4. Public institutions rebuilt on the strong solidarity of our society and its communities.

Our Mission:
We will start to make these changes first in ourselves—by doing the right things, by giving value to excellence and integrity and rejecting mediocrity and dishonesty, and by giving priority to others over ourselves.

We will make these changes across many aspects of our national life.

A Commitment to Transformational Leadership:
1. From a President who tolerates corruption to a President who is the nation’s first and most determined fighter of corruption.

2. From a government that merely conjures economic growth statistics that our people know to be unreal to a government that prioritizes jobs that empower the people and provide them with opportunities to rise above poverty.

3. From relegating education to just one of many concerns to making education the central strategy for investing in our people, reducing poverty and building national competitiveness.

4. From treating health as just another area for political patronage to recognizing the advancement and protection of public health, which includes responsible parenthood, as key measures of good governance.

5. From justice that money and connections can buy to a truly impartial system of institutions that deliver equal justice to rich or poor.

Economy
6. From government policies influenced by well-connected private interests to a leadership that executes all the laws of the land with impartiality and decisiveness.

7. From treating the rural economy as just a source of problems to recognizing farms and rural enterprises as vital to achieving food security and more equitable economic growth, worthy of re-investment for sustained productivity.

8. From government anti-poverty programs that instill a dole-out mentality ® to well-considered programs that build capacity and create opportunity among the poor and the marginalized in the country.

9. From a government that dampens private initiative and enterprise to a government that creates conditions conducive to the growth and competitiveness of private businesses, big, medium and small.

10. From a government that treats its people as an export commodity and a means to earn foreign exchange, disregarding the social cost to Filipino families to a government that creates jobs at home, so that working abroad will be a choice rather than a necessity; and when its citizens do choose to become OFWs, their welfare and protection will still be the government’s priority.

Government Service
11. From Presidential appointees chosen mainly out of political accommodation to discerning selection based on integrity, competence and performance in serving the public good.

12. From demoralized but dedicated civil servants, military and police personnel destined for failure and frustration due to inadequate operational support to professional, motivated and energized bureaucracies with adequate means to perform their public service missions.

Gender Equality
13. From a lack of concern for gender disparities and shortfalls, to the promotion of equal gender opportunity in all spheres of public policies and programs.

Peace & Order
14. From a disjointed, short-sighted Mindanao policy that merely reacts to events and incidents to one that seeks a broadlys upported just peace and will redress decades of neglect of the Moro and other peoples of Mindanao.

Environment
15. From allowing environmental blight to spoil our cities, where both the rich and the poor bear with congestion and urban decay to planning alternative, inclusive urban developments where people of varying income levels are integrated in productive, healthy and safe communities.

16. From a government obsessed with exploiting the country for immediate gains to the detriment of its environment to a government that will encourage sustainable use of resources to benefit the present and future generations.

This platform is a commitment to change that Filipinos can depend on.
With trust in their leaders, everyone can work and build a greater future together.

May those words take the Filipinos and the next generation to a golden era of change and prosperity, may the voice of the many be heard, and every peso be spent in order to take the country forward.
May we learn from the past, and their stories,
Amartya Sen and the great leaders who desired nothing but progress, and move past it and run to the future!

Greater things are yet to come.

V. REFERENCES

"Amartya Sen - Facts". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 28 Feb 2014. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-facts.html>

"Amartya Sen - Prize Lecture: The Possibility of Social Choice". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 28 Feb 2014. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1998/sen-lecture.html>

The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 101, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 163-172

http://budgetngbayan.com/the-budget-cycle/

http://www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty/

http://www.adbi.org/files/2013.05.08.cpp.sess4.3.poverty.reduction.philippines.pdf

http://www.nscb.gov.ph/pressreleases/2013/NSCB-PR-20131213_povertypress.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Budget_and_Management

http://www.dbm.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/PGB-B1.pdf

http://www.chanrobles.com/presidentialdecrees/presidentialdecreeno1177.html#.UxAbo-OSyaY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow's_impossibility_theorem

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_choice_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_economics

http://www.nscb.gov.ph/activestats/psgc/articles/con_lgu.asp

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-choice/

http://people.su.se/~guarr/Demokratikurs/Sen.pdf

http://mikael.cozic.free.fr/sen99.pdf

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~alandear/glossary/w.html#WelfareEconomics

http://darp.lse.ac.uk/PapersDB/Sen_(Econometrica_77).pdf

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/76529/tacloban-mayor-breaks-down-accuses-pnoy-mar-of-politicking-in-yolandas-wake

http://www.gov.ph/about/gov/exec/bsaiii/platform-of-government/