Public Administration in the
Philippines: History, Heritage and Hubris
Danilo R. Reyes
Report for PA 201
5 May 2018
1 An “assembled product”
of the colonial era
Philippine 2 Customized gradually to the
Public idiosyncrasies of the Filipino
culture
Administration (PA)
3 Disconnected rhetoric and
dynamics
4 Heady: Combines “ the
institutional and behavioral
characteristics of both Western
and non-Western administrative
systems”
FORCES THAT SHAPED THE PRESENT PHILIPPINE
ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM
Pre-colonial Spanish Colonial The First American Colonial
Times Regime Philippine Republic Regime
Forces That Shaped the Present Philippine
Administrative System
Philippine Japanese Independence Formal entry of PA
Commonwealth Occupation Period discipline
PRE-COLONIAL
TIMES
¤ Tribal states
¤ Barangays headed by a “datu”
¤ Characterized by patterns of
familial relationships of
personalized loyalties and
leadership-centered
community activities
SPANISH COLONIAL
REGIME
¤ Tradition of centralization
¤ Superimposed religious organization
¤ System of public revenues and public
expenditures
¤ Special and privileged class of bureaucrats and
the merceds
à Patronage system
¤ “Bidding” of public offices
à as private investment
àTyranny and corruption
¤ Discrepancy between letter of the law and
actual practice
FIRST PHILIPPINE
REPUBLIC
¤ The Malolos Constitution
à first Republican Constitution in Asia
¤ Provided for a government that was
popular, representative and responsible,
with three distinct branches – the
executive, legislative and judicial
¤ Espoused merit and fitness, careerism and
the principles of accountability
à ADMINISTRATIVE
PROFESSIONALISM
¤ Showed aspirations of decentralization
and autonomy
AMERICAN COLONIAL
REGIME
¤ PA as a “finished product”
à The Pendleton Act of 1883
¤ Centralized but with political system of
governance
¤ Separated affairs of State and Church
¤ Civil Service: non-political, efficient and
honest, upheld merit and fitness,
careerism and security of tenure, and
“Filipinized”
à Act No. 5 of the Philippine
Commission
PHILIPPINE
COMMONWEALTH
¤ The 1935 Philippine Constitution
à government that was republican in form,
Filipino in personnel and enjoying
autonomy in domestic affairs; with full-
blown Article XI on Civil Service
¤ Civil Service covered all branches of
government
à Executive Order No. 8
¤ Strategic role for the bureaucracy
¤ State leadership in economy
JAPANESE
OCCUPATION
¤ Carried a facade of Filipino civil
administration, administrative
apparatus used as instrument of the
hated Japanese regime
¤ Collaboration as the dominant
qualification for higher positions and
for advancement in the civil service
à Filipino civil service suffered in
prestige
¤ Administrative delay and
obstruction
INDEPENDENCE AND
REHABILITATION
¤ Economic standstill, destroyed
infrastructures, and endemic poverty
¤ U.S.-assisted Philippine rehabilitation
à Tydings Act and Bell Trade
Relations Act
à Philippines as staging area for
trade and as a valuable political
and military asset in Asia
¤ Move towards professionalizing the
conduct of public affairs was part of
the objectives of the U.S.-Philippine
Commission
INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (IPA)
BELL MISSION
“That public administration be improved and
reorganized so as to insure honesty and efficiency
in the Government; that the civil service be
placed on a merit basis and civil service salaries
raised to provide a decent standard living xxx.”
YULO MISSION
Requested the American government to provide
technical assistance for projects to stabilize the
Philippine economy and strengthen the public
service.
IPA’S AREAS OF
CONCERN
• Public Administration
Library
• Two-pronged Educational
Program:
a. In-service training
program
In the meantime, the societal b. Academic program
environment that enveloped
the IPA on its birth had • Research and Publication
of Literature on PA
changed …
PHILIPPINE PA A “finished product”
AS DISCIPLINE • A theoretical and a historical stance
towards epistemological questions
• PA principles were considered “given”
and “constants”
• No hostile academic community that
challenged its validity
“Institute” of PA
• a response to the demands of
government reform to
“professionalize” the civil service
• training took precedence over
academic functions
A “self-aware” PA
THEMES IN THE STUDY
OF PHILIPPINE PA
• Administrative management design
• Decentralization and local administration
movement
• Challenge of national development and
development administration model
• Administrative reform and accountability
• Social reform movement
• International and comparative
administration studies
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Government Philippine Civil Adapt Western Multifaceted role of
reforms Service ideas and practices the academe in
to consider the to continue to on PA; integrate defining and
deeply ingrained uphold them with redefining
notions and meritocracy, indigenous Filipino Philippine PA
practices learned careerism, political culture
from our pre- neutrality and
colonial, colonial principles of
and post-colonial accountability
experiences.”
