BEST PRACTICES SHARING

BEST PRACTICES SHARING

My dear countrymen, many years ago, I was talking to an OFW who told me that in Japan, road repair is done after midnight up to early dawn, and by doing so, vehicle traffic is not affected during the busier hours. The first thing that came to my mind then was, why did we not think of that? It was not really a brilliant idea that needed a genius to come up with. But why did the Japanese think of that, and we did not? After so many bright people running the DPWH with so many consultants working for them? Is that not simply common sense? And if that is indeed common sense, why did nobody in the government think of that, all these years?

Many years ago, I also went to Japan as a JICA scholar. When I was there, I was told that Japan Railways was required to lay down fiber optic cables everywhere they would build new railroads, regardless of whether these were built underground or above ground. My Japanese government hosts also showed me complete fiber optic map of Japan, where I saw that most of the fiber installed were built along the railways. I recalled then that the United States also did the same thing, and that is the reason why they did not have right of way problems in building their broadband infrastructure.

According to reliable sources, there are now about 15 million who are living and working abroad. They are a mix of OFWs, expatriates and immigrants. Just think for a minute that their total remittances amounting to about 33.5 billion US dollars per year is the one that is practically keeping our economy afloat, noting that that amount represents about 9% of our GDP. But no, I am not going to ask them to remit more money back to the Philippines, more than what they are already sending. I am simply going ask me to get information about best practices in good governance that they could easily gather from their own local government where they live abroad. These could be in the form of state laws, municipal ordinances or board resolutions.

Because of existing laws in many countries, anyone could easily request for copies of these documents, more so if they are already permanent residents or naturalized citizens of those countries. Do not be surprised if some of them have already been elected to serve in their own local governments. Either that, or some of them would already wield some influence over their own Mayors, Governors or lawmakers. And, they do not have to spend anything to transmit these documents to us, because they could send these via email or Facebook Messenger.

Generally, I would like them to get copies of local laws that could improve local governance in any way. However, I would like specific laws that could give us the legal basis to solve our local problems such as poverty, hunger, crime, corruption, traffic, pollution and disease, among others. My plan is to edit these local laws, and then distribute them for free to any local government official who wants to get copies. My own common sense tells me that many of these officials will adopt these laws if these are applicable for them. Besides, it does not cost them anything, and these draft laws are ready do go. Does anyone of you know anybody abroad who wants to start the ball rolling? Your friend, IKE SENERES/11-24-24/visit my blog senseneres.blogspot.com