The keeper of the purse

President Aquino referred to him as “my mentor” when he announced the appointment of Florencio “Butch” Abad as head of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Abad shares that when the President was in the process of choosing the members of his Cabinet, he purposely made himself scarce to the then incoming Chief Executive so as not to be seen as lobbying for a position in the new government.

But the President, according to some in the search committee, specifically mentioned that Abad be given a job in his administration. Abad had wanted the education portfolio but ended up with a more sensitive task – to keep tabs on the government’s coffers.

Abad admits he was hoping – even expecting – to return to the Department of Education to continue the short-lived reforms that they started when he was appointed by Arroyo in 2004. He liked it there because there was so much opportunity to help a lot of people, beginning with the teachers.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad presents a copy of the 2012 National Budget to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. Boy Santos/STAR

“But President Noy, it seemed, had Bro. Armin in mind from the start,” he says, referring to former head of De La Salle University Bro. Armin Luistro.

Abad confesses he was not expecting his appointment to the budget department. “But I was not unprepared as I was chair and vice-chair of the committee on appropriations (in the House of Representatives) for a good nine years. Now, after a year at DBM, I feel that the appointment was a strategic one: the opportunity for effecting governance reforms bureaucracy-wide is greater here at DBM,” Abad says.

It was not a surprise that the President entrusted to Abad the task of monitoring government expenditures, a position central to his anti-corruption campaign. As Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address last Monday, “Yes, the war on graft is personal.”

Over the past months, Abad has been preoccupied with the budget for 2012 and the need to increase and speed up spending to pump prime the economy. He addresses complaints that the government has been slow to spend, especially on infrastructure, by explaining that the administration had to be careful in its releases to avoid wastage and corruption. After all, their promise was to use the government’s resources judiciously. There are no more lump sum appropriations and every allocation has to be justified. This way, Abad says it would be impossible to again fund projects that had already been completed or to bloat their prices for commissions.

Taking time off from his busy schedule, the secretary enjoys gardening, which includes tending to the bonsai entrusted to him by President Aquino. Joey Mendoza/STAR

The proposed P1.816-trillion budget was submitted to Congress last Tuesday, a day after the President’s SONA, one of the earliest budget submissions in history. The budget for 2012 is 10 percent higher than this year’s P1.645 trillion, and contains a P39.5-billion allocation for the conditional cash transfer program for the poorest of the poor, a big leap from this year’s P22 billion. Despite the increase, the government hopes to keep the deficit at P286 billion or 2.6 percent of GDP, down from this year’s targeted deficit of P300 billion or 3.0 percent of GDP, an ambitious goal that Abad and the rest of the administration’s economic team nevertheless feel confident of achieving.

Abad also is confident that the budget will again be approved by Congress and signed by President Aquino before yearend, to preclude a reenacted budget.

Aquino and Abad first started working together in 1984 when the Aquino family returned from the United States after the assassination of the President’s father, Benigno “Ninoy” Jr.

“His mother Cory wanted him to experience work in the development field. So he was sent to work with Atty. Bienvenido Tan, Jr. at the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), where I was working as project officer of the Association of Foundations. That was the beginning of our friendship and collaboration,” Abad recalls.

Furniture making. Joey Mendoza/STAR

“Outside office hours, we got to know each other even more, supporting his mother as she took on the challenge of leading the campaign to dismantle the Marcos dictatorship,” he adds.

According to Abad, this was the same friendship that they nurtured when they found each other as colleagues in the House of Representatives.

“We worked together on various issues, particularly the national budget. Like his parents, Noynoy was always firm in his convictions, his moral compass never wavered and his integrity undiminished. These were the reasons why I accepted Noy’s invitation to be his campaign manager when he ran for the Senate and then later on for the presidency,” Abad shares.

The President, for his part, acknowledges Abad as the one who introduced him to the public when he decided to join politics. In one forum, Aquino candidly admitted that it was Abad who linked him to a singer-actress and that put him in the news for months even without him really talking to her. Aquino said he later learned that Abad was sending the lady flowers every now and then without his knowledge.

Aquino gets back at Abad by revealing to some members of media over a casual dinner that the now “hair challenged” Abad actually had long hair during his days as a rabid student activist. “Sa maniwala kayo’t sa hindi, oo (Whether you believe it or not, yes),” Abad conceded.

Mar-Noy or Noy-Mar?

It is thus not surprising that a turning point in our political history should happen in Abad’s picturesque home in Tierra Bella, Quezon City. It was there that Aquino and Roxas agreed on their tandem for the 2010 election. Roxas was then the Liberal Party’s standard bearer.

Abad (far right), together with his wife Dina (second from right), rallied with other anti-Marcos activists on the first day after Marcos left Malacañang.

“Yes, that very long and memorable dinner happened in my house. I had to arrange that dinner kasi nalilito na ang mga Liberal (party members were getting confused) as to who would be our standard-bearer. Of course, we were for Mar and we wanted to push through with original plans. At the same time, Tita Cory had just died, and the clamor for Noy to run was getting louder and louder – even from fellow Liberals. Matalik na magkaibigan naman yung dalawa – halos mag-‘kuya’ na nga – pero dahil sa sitwasyon, parang nagkahiyaan sila (The two were the best of friends and they are almost like brothers – but because of the situation there was an awkwardness),” Abad recounts.

“To be honest, our plan during that meeting was to try to convince Noy to become Mar’s vice president. I never expected that, because of that dinner, it would be the other way around. Mar told Noy that he should heed the call to run. Di naman agad na nakasagot si Noy (Noy was not able to answer right away), considering his sisters’ reservations, and siyempre (of course), yung bigat ng panawagan na iyon (the seriousness of the call). The tandem wasn’t firmed up until late September,” Abad shares.

The secretary takes part in the Open Government Partnership in Washington.

When the decision was made, the team hit the ground not just running but, in many ways, playing catch-up. They had barely eight months before the election, no war chest, no campaign machinery to speak of – just a candidate swept to the forefront of the political arena by popular acclaim, and an unwavering, solid belief in and commitment to the fight against corruption and for good governance.

“Kung walang corrupt walang mahirap” – “There will be no poor if there are no corrupt” – was the battlecry of Aquino for 2010. Abad served as his campaign manager and, to use an abused cliché, the rest is history.

But before the 2010 elections put him in the limelight again, Abad had worked with Aquino’s mother in seeking the resignation of then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was one of the “Hyatt 10” Cabinet members who stepped down simultaneously in 2005 to pressure Arroyo to quit as well. Many thought that was the end of Arroyo, what with the “Hello, Garci” election fraud controversy and the calls from various sectors for her to resign due to her questionable mandate. But the Catholic bishops decided to back Arroyo, and she held on.

In between his resignation from and return to government, Abad made artisanal furniture and joined a cause-oriented group.

Abad shares a light moment with Tita Cory (right). It was the former president who gifted him with one of her paintings (far right) after Noynoy’s successful senatorial bid.

“I went back to civil society and advocacy work. Together with my fellow Hyatt 10-ers, we formed an NGO (non-government organization) – InciteGov (International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance) – the purpose of which was to support both government agencies and CSOs (civil society organizations) in pursuing governance reforms. The problem we saw was this: we as a nation have become expert at bringing down oppressive and corrupt governments, but have we been successful in managing transitions and sustaining democratic development? That was the problem we sought to address when we formed InciteGov,” Abad explains.

Aside from InciteGov, Abad became active in the opposition against Arroyo’s moves to amend the Constitution to extend her stay in power. He also involved himself in other CSOs and development consultancy work and went back to the academe, as a lecturer at the Ateneo School of Governance.

“And of course, I resumed my long-stalled furniture making and gardening,” Abad discloses. These days, that rarely happens because “one, I had moved my workshop to Batanes, where I had planned to spend more of my time after resigning from the Cabinet in July 2005.”

“More importantly, ang dami-dami lang talagang trabaho (there is really just too much work)!” he laments.

Endemic corruption

Abad believes corruption in the country is endemic and that politics of patronage may be difficult to dismantle in the short term. But he says the Aquino government is beginning to plant the seeds to break the cycle of dependence among the people.

The painting now hangs in Abad’s dining room, where President Aquino and Mar Roxas first discussed plans as running mates.

“Most approaches to corruption involve administrative, legal, technical or technological measures. Those help, and they may even make some dent on the problem – they are good as starting points. But, to be effective, any anti-corruption campaign must recognize that corruption has deep historical and structural roots – in the very culture of patronage that is deeply embedded in our society,” Abad explains.

According to Abad, patronage thrives on dependency, which in turn breeds poverty.

“Patronage also requires an ever growing need to amass resources which in turn requires an ever growing need to influence and control sources of political power and economic wealth. The problem of regulatory capture and the weakness of legal, administrative, judicial and political institutions are direct consequences of the corrosive effect of the culture of patronage,” Abad says.

“That is why empowerment is key to combating corruption. On the one hand, it entails freeing the poor from dependency on their padrinos. That is why investments like the conditional cash transfer, basic education and public health and nutrition are critical. The other dimension of empowerment is building a countervailing force – a broad and strong constituency for reforms – that can bring about transparent and accountable governance, dramatically reduce poverty and promote rapid, sustained and inclusive economic growth,” he adds.

Having worked both in the executive and legislative branches of government, Abad now finds it more fulfilling to be an implementor rather than a lawmaker.

“The two are separate spheres of action. The legislative is focused on policy formulation and constituency service, much more of the latter, while executive work involves policy and program implementation. While I served longer in the legislative (four terms or 12 years), I find executive work more fulfilling. Apart from having a wider area of impact, you also get things done much faster. The opportunities for reform, especially those that benefit the poor, are immense, especially coming after a regime where corruption and abuse of official power were rampant,” Abad says.

Abad, who holds business management and law degrees from the Ateneo de Manila and a master’s from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, obviously thrives in his current role as the keeper of the purse. He is, however, looking forward with excitement to a new role, unrelated to politics or governance – he is soon to be a grandfather, as his daughter Julia (who was Aquino’s chief of staff at the Senate and is now head of the Presidential Management Staff) and her husband Andrew Parker, an official at AusAid, are expecting their first child.