Author Archives: Ingming Aberia, ingmingaberia.com

About Ingming Aberia, ingmingaberia.com

Ingming Aberia is a student of baby talk.

Recto’s Debt Cap Bill

Just the other day, reports came out that Senator Ralph Recto had filed a bill limiting the relative amount of national government debt at 50 percent of the gross domestic product, or GDP. This amount would include loans contracted by the private sector, such as, for example, when a private firm requires a government guarantee… Read More »

Solid work soiled by shit

Doubts on the competence of the police to conduct drug operations persist as the government’s war on drugs recently claimed the life of another innocent victim. Three-year-old Myka Ulpina, one of four persons killed in a drug-bust police operation in Rodriguez, Rizal last June 29, became one of the latest additions to a growing list… Read More »

Visualizing a People’s Congress

Two or three generations from now, public discussion on the design of a People’s Congress that will take the place of the current Senate and House of Representatives—or in whatever form they may take as a result of a possible shift to federalism—should start rolling. The need to re-model the system of representation in government… Read More »

Useless

Elsewhere I proposed that more problems can be addressed by abolishing, instead of creating more, government agencies. I also mentioned that the government of the future—emphasis on the future—can allow the people themselves to make collective decisions, bypassing elective officials who supposedly represent them. This in effect makes Congress, among other institutional contraptions, redundant, and… Read More »

Commitment Fees

Red tape, defined by Webster as “official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay or inaction,” is a form of corruption. (Ironically, the term “red tape” is believed to have originated from the bureaucratic protocol of the Roman Empire [early 16th century] where red-colored tapes were used to bind documents that… Read More »

Everybody Loves Infra

I was a local government employee in 1992 when Fidel Ramos became president, who lost no time organizing the Club of 20 (consisting of the 20 poorest provinces of the country), coordinated by one Bitay Lacson, in pursuit of the then new administration’s vision for Philippines 2000. Lacson hired consultants (led by Ed Morato, who… Read More »

Privatization and PPPs—Public Pain, Private Gain?

Whenever society faces a problem, the common response—especially from among lawmakers—is to suggest the creation of a government office whose main task is to address whatever problem that might be. The latest suggestion I heard is creation of a Department of Water. I seldom hear suggestions of abolishing government offices to get rid of problems… Read More »

Tracking Government Projects

In this digital age, information can be transmitted from one person to another in an instant, with a few presses and clicks on the screen of a gadget; that same information can be shared by practically everyone in the planet who has access to the internet. The government therefore serves the public well by uploading… Read More »

Work is resumed

That once-in-every-three-years break is behind us and, as presiding officers of legislative bodies call it after a break, “session is resumed.” For the executives, it might as well be “work is resumed.” By now, the winners of the just-concluded elections could be in the middle of preparations to assume their respective posts, staring at the… Read More »

The Average Voter

THE latest Pulse Asia survey on senatorial candidate preferences, conducted April 10 to 14 — or one month before the elections on May 13, 2019 — ranks the top 12 candidates in this order: 1. Cynthia Villar, 2. Grace Poe, 3. Lito Lapid, 4. Pia Cayetano, 5. Bong Go, 6. Sonny Angara, 7. Bong Revilla,… Read More »