Christi Marie V.

Yu Vega PoSc 137 9:00-10:30am TTh

AB PoSc LPS 3 Lens: New Institutionalism

“Kung Walang
Corrupt ,

Walang Mahirap.”
- President Noynoy Aquino (2010)

I. Background/Situationaire
 Transparency International defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power
for private gain. It hurts everyone who depends on the integrity of people in a position of
authority. In the case of the Philippines, corruption is nothing new. As early as the 1 st
Republic, there have been reports of corruption cases. Sadly, as time evolves, it now
takes place at all levels of the government, and is more rampant among high-level civil
servants.1

The country now suffers from a widespread corruption. It develops from just
being an illness to a disease and now it has been deeply ingrained into the system.
Sustainable growth is in disarray since it hinders economic exchanges, free trade, and
development. Furthermore, corruption in the Philippines is characterized by a
combination of various factors such as societal factors, institutional factors and
incentives system. Many dwell into the blaming game. They blame the present
administration as to why the Philippines is suffering from economic instability, but then
again, it goes back to the people who made those politicians handle this country.

The “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” is a very simple yet appealing five-
word campaign slogan of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III that brought him to the
presidency last 2010. The Anti-corruption movement that includes several reforms and
prosecution of corrupt officials has been a high political priority under PNoy’s
administration.

Fast forward to 2015, it is the right of every Filipino to know the current corruption
level of this country. Did the number of people who belong in the poverty line
decreased? Are there any contributions coming from different institutions (e.g. Church,
Media, Academic Institutions, etc.) on this movement? Or, does this phenomenon left as
it is? This paper will pursue to give light to the aforementioned questions by looking into
the largest corruption scandal in the Philippines, the Pork Barrel Scam through the
analytical perspective of New Institutionalism.

II. Issue/s Involved

1 Retrieved from http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/east-asia-the-

pacific/philippines/snapshot.aspx
 The Aquino administration faces a great amount of pressure from the citizens for
its promise of fighting or ending corruption in the country. Every move for the anti-
corruption mission is being watched and eventually, scrutinized. In result, the largest
corruption case in the country came to light, the Pork Barrel Scam.

The country’s grandest corruption scandal happened in 2013 which results in the
detention of a wealthy woman, in the name of Janet Lim-Napoles, whose influence
covers the executive, legislative, judicial branches of government. The pork barrel scam
involved the alleged misuse of at least P6 billion worth of lawmakers’ discretionary
funds. The scandal involved ghost projects, fake NGOs, complicit government agencies,
and non-existent beneficiaries which became the means to collect kickbacks. The
corruption scandal sparked massive protests all over the country to abolish the system
– the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The first of an ongoing series of
protests is the so-called Million People March. This protest calls for the abolition of the
Pork Barrel fund, and for political transparency and accountability that was held
nationwide between August 22-26. Particularly in Cebu, the Anti-Pork Barrel rally was
led by notable institutions such as the church, non-government organizations, party
lists, and was supported by top colleges and universities of the province as well as the
media. Families, as the basic unit in the society, have shown their support and
enthusiasm for the goal of the rally. Following the public upheaval over the scandal,
petitioners went to the High Court to question the legal basis of the Priority
Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). By November 19, the Supreme Court declared
that legislators’ controversial pork barrel fund is unconstitutional.

Up to this day, this issue remains unresolved, as Senate investigations into

unexplained wealth, a conspiracy among lawmakers, government officials and private
individuals to pocket funds supposed to go to development projects, remain
uncompleted.

III. Analysis
 New Institutionalism refers to the interplay of the different institutions within
society, and how their dynamics, rules and norms determine the behavior and actions of
individuals. It focuses on the way in which institutions embody values and power
relationships. Furthermore, it defines institutions as an essential variable to political
outcomes. In the book of Political Analysis by Colin Hay, this analytical perspective has
emerged since the early 1980s as a conscious response to the ‘behavioral revolution’ of
the 1960s and to the growing ascendancy of rational choice theory in subsequent
decades. New Institutionalism departs from the mainstream of the 1980s in two aspects.
One, it rejects simplifying assumptions which make possible rational choice theory’s
modelling of political behavior. Second, it challenges the assumed regularity in human
behavior on which rests behaviouralism’s reliance on a logic of extrapolation and
generalization.

In the issue presented in Section II of the paper, the Pork Barrel Scam remains
unresolved because of several underlying factors. One of which is the involvement of
institutions in the process. The institutions may be represented in the form of media,
religious affiliations, government, family, and educational institutions. The behavior of
these institutions are influenced or shaped by the context. The context at this point is
that the majority of Filipinos call for the complete abolishment of the pork barrel system.
People are weary to the fact that the Philippines is led by very corrupt individuals. This
call was then realized by institutions like the Catholic community. At this point in time,
there is now an ongoing national signature campaign against the said system. The
Catholic community which includes Catholic schools and universities urged their
members to participate in this mission. In an interview, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Pabillo
emphasized that this signature campaign is part of the effort to institute reforms in the
government against corruption.

In this manner, by the lens of new institutionalism, contexts clearly matters and
that contexts influence the structures or the behaviours of institutions. It became a part
of their agenda the moment the Pork Barrel Scam agitated the interests of the elites as
well as the middle class. Hence, these institutions as the most influential figures in our
society were steered to lead a move and defeat this evil before it will become our very
own demise.

The main critique against the analytical perspective is coming from its ancestor,
old institutionalism. From the point of view of the older institutionalism, new
institutionalism tries to explain institutional change as merely another instance of utility
maximization. And on the contrary, old institutionalism seeks to articulate reasons for
institutional change in terms of social and political volition (Zucker, 1977). What new
institutionalism is trying to pursue is the fact that it rejects any assumptions that will
strengthen the political model of rational choice theory. In the case of Pork Barrel, a lot
of self-interests are involved coming from different parties (politicians, lawyers, non-
government affiliates, etc.) however, the context eventually matters the most in the
issue. The masa cries for political reforms, most especially in the Pork Barrel System
that our government observed.

New institutionalism

IV. Conclusion and Recommendation

V. References

 Colin Hay (new institutionalism)

 Corruption in the Philippines. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.business-anti-
corruption.com/country-profiles/east-asia-the-pacific/philippines/snapshot.aspx
 JDS. (2014, October 26). Church starts gathering signatures for people's initiative
vs. pork barrel. GMA News Online. Retrieved from
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/385277/news/nation/church-starts-
gathering-signatures-for-people-s-initiative-vs-pork-barrel
 Legaspi, A. O. (2013, November 1). Calls for prosecution of corrupt govt officials
grow louder after PNoy's speech. GMA News Online. Retrieved from
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/333573/news/nation/calls-for-
prosecution-of-corrupt-govt-officials-grow-louder-after-pnoy-s-speech
 Lynee G. Zucker, “The Role of Institutionalism in Cultural Persistence,” in Powell
and DiMaggio, eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, 83-107
 New Institutionalism. (2012, December 12). Retrieved from
http://www.slideshare.net/roi00890/new-institutionalism
 Punay, E. (2015, January 10). SC ruling vs lawmakers' PDAF final. ABS-CBN
News. Retrieved from http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/10/15/sc-ruling-vs-
lawmakers-pdaf-final
 Rappler.com. (2013, November 19). SC junks PDAF as unconstitutional. Rappler.
Retrieved from http://www.rappler.com/nation/44076-sc-junks-pork-barrel-
unconstitutional
 Santos, T. G. (2014, October 25). Bishops call for support for anti-pork barrel
signature campaign. Inquirer.net. Retrieved from
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/646871/bishops-call-for-support-for-anti-pork-barrel-
signature-campaign