Our political system after 365 days

Every new administration in this country is generally welcomed by Filipinos for its potential as the harbinger of change and reform.

That holds true whether in the customary 100-day “honeymoon period” or even up to the end of the first year.

So how does the Marcos Jr. administration stack up after its 365 days in office?

In our latest Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, we asked a political analyst from the Department of Political Science of the University of Santo Tomas to give us a fair assessment of political developments since Mr. Marcos assumed office a year ago.

At the outset, Prof. Froilan Calilung pointed out that the current administration’s strongest suit is its “very definite, very clear and specific direction when it comes to foreign policy.”

“And I think this is one thing that will really put the President in a very good position” because this represents a markedly different foreign policy stance from that of the Duterte administration.

“Filipinos are seeing a pivot as the country shifts toward the United States,” he said.

This “shows the President’s decisiveness to actually craft or carve his own direction in foreign policy.”

But it is in domestic policy that the university professor finds room for improvement.

He believes the President should be “more assertive” and “more aggressive” in convincing legislators to pass key legislative measures. After all, he has the supermajority in Congress.

Even as congressional support for the President’s priority bills appears to be proceeding at a less-than-ideal pace, the political analyst emphasized the administration’s programs, such as putting up the Kadiwa rolling stores to sell basic goods to the public at lower market prices and implementing the eGovPH to digitize government services, more than make up for the lack of adequate support from the legislative branch for his pet bills.

Professor Calilung also believes that despite challenges, the rule of law is actually being upheld and given due importance by the current dispensation.

The rule of law is important, he emphasized, because if the Philippines wants to invite foreign investments to come in droves into the country, this can never materialize if there is a perception of a breakdown in law and order.

Yet another area where Marcos Jr. appears to have had some success, he said, is in building good relations with mass media.

This, again, stands in marked contrast to the position of the previous administration, whose relations with the press had been characterized by “animosity.”

In short, “we are seeing a lot more freer media than before.” Calilung emphasized.

After all is said and done, what grade would he give the president, someone from media asked.

Well, he suggested, maybe 85 percent?

Mapua rises in university rankings

The good news for our institutions of higher learning is that the University of the Philippines has climbed from 412th to 404th in the World University Rankings for 2024 by global education specialists Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

Four other Philippine universities made it to the list, with Ateneo de Manila ascending from 651-700th to 563rd and De La Salle rising from 801-1000th to 681-690th.

The University of Santo Tomas remained in 801-850th place, while the Cebu-based University of San Carlos entered the QS rankings for the first time in 1201-1400th place.

Now in its 20th year, the QS World University Rankings is the world’s most consulted international university rankings on employability and sustainability factors.

Its rankings were based on metrics including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, sustainability, employment outcomes, and an international research network.

Among Philippine schools, UP and Ateneo, among those in the global top 200 universities, received high scores in employer reputation.

UP got the highest regard among international employers at 136th, followed by Ateneo at 141st.

But the QS survey result did not mention the rise of another institution of higher learning in academic excellence, namely Mapua University.

We read about this development in another recent news report, but couldn’t recall in which broadsheet.

In any event, Mapua University appears to have adequately proven itself over the past decades in the various fields of engineering, with many of its graduates making a name for themselves in civil and mechanical engineering.

Mapua University, which was taken over by the Yuchengco family from the original owners, is now headed by Reynaldo Vea as its president.

Vea graduated summa cum laude from UP in 1971 and later pursued masteral and doctoral degrees in Naval Architecture, I think, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before returning to UP as Dean of the College of Engineering.

Now he has successfully steered Mapua to the honor roll of best universities in the world—maybe not at the same level as of now with UP and Ateneo—but now poised to excel even more in the years ahead under his tutelage.

But more on this later.

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