The centrality of pork amidst weak institutions: Presidents and the persistence of particularism in Post-Marcos Philippines (1986-2016)

Pork barrelling, the common term for targeted spending driven by electoral incentives, is practiced across many countries. Prior studies have focused on projects directed to constituencies whose support is critical for incumbent parties or politicians to secure electoral victory. Other studies have examined the demand side, arguing that the pork barrel results from the expectation of voters that politicians should 'bring home the bacon'. This dissertation departs from most previous studies by focusing on the motivations of the president, who in the Philippine context is the primary dispenser of pork barrel resources. Unlike most countries in the world, the practice of pork barrelling in the Philippines has been long and continuous. Starting from the early 1920s, when pork was distributed exclusively as a collective good, there has been significant evolution as well as variation in the components of the pork barrel, the modes by which it has been distributed and the motivations behind its deployment. At one level, this study provides a typology of the practice of pork barrelling as it has evolved over time: cursorily from 1922 until 1986, and, in greater depth, across five administrations from the fall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 through the end of the presidency of Benigno S. Aquino in 2015. It finds that congressional pork barrel involves very significant monetary resources in the Philippines, viewed in comparative terms, and a powerful means by which presidents (with their potent array of budget powers) can exert leverage over legislators. More surprisingly, however, the study reveals that congressional pork is generally the least substantial of three major types of pork--the other two of which are directly controlled and dispensed by presidents. The study then proceeds to challenge major presumptions within the comparative politics literature. Matthew Shugart argues that in systems where a president is bestowed with strong constitutional powers, amidst weak parties and pervasive inequality, the Chief Executive can likely be expected to curb the particularistic orientation and pork-barrelling of other politicians, specifically legislators, and instead promote collective or national goals. This assertion does not explain the persistence of pork barrelling in the Philippines, where a constitutionally strong Philippine president employs very significant budgetary powers to distribute pork to members of the legislature. This enables them to build and sustain a coalition that is essential to push a legislative agenda and/or enhance prospects for political survival. Additional resources are disbursed to politicians at subnational levels, thus providing the president with additional means of exchanging favours with governors and mayors throughout the archipelago. Within the context of weak parties and a generally ineffective bureaucracy, they have often found the diverse mechanisms of pork barrel spending critical to achieving their goals. Contra Shugart, therefore, Philippine presidents lack strong incentives to curb particularism in favour of collective or national goals. Even more telling is just how they actually depend upon the dispensing of particularism as the most important part of their toolkit of presidential power

The dark side of electoralism: opinion polls and voting in the 2016 Philippine presidential election

Despite the limits of elections as a mechanism to secure accountability and ensure substantive representation, the 2016 elections drew the highest turnout across elections held since the political transition in 1986, a clear indication of electoralism. The high turnout may be a result of a relatively tightly contested race, with each of the main contenders appealing to constituencies that they symbolically represent. Nonetheless, the 2016 Presidential elections remained personality-oriented, media driven and political clan dominated. The eventual winner, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, garnered the presidency given a combination of factors: the clarity of his campaign message - focused on curbing a single problem (criminality, in general, and the illegal drug trade, in particular) that he elevated as the most serious concern that the next president should address; significant support from a geographic area (Mindanao) and associated ethno-linguistic groups (i.e., Bisaya); and, serious questions of character and competence raised against his opponents (i.e. Binay, Poe and Roxas)

Overview of the Tevatron Collider Complex: Goals, Operations and Performance

For more than two decades the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider was the centerpiece of the world's high energy physics program. The collider was arguably one of the most complex research instruments ever to reach the operation stage and is widely recognized for numerous physics discoveries and for many technological breakthroughs. In this article we outline the historical background that led to the construction of the Tevatron Collider, the strategy applied to evolution of performance goals over the Tevatron's operational history, and briefly describe operations of each accelerator in the chain and achieved performance.Comment: Includes modifications suggested by reviewer

Product Development Processes, Three Vectors Of Improvement

Improving product development processes along three key vectors leads to greatly improved business performance.Product Development Processes have achieved a state of some maturity in recent years, but have focused primarily on structuring technical activities from the initiation of development to launch. We advocate major advances on three fronts; first, implementing an end-to-end process from the front end through field operations, second, integrating business considerations much better into the end-to-end process, and third, incorporating a performance improvement closed loop into the process. We call the resulting process a Product Development Business Process. Three initial applications are summarized.Center for Innovation in Product Developmen

The Philippines : Penal Populism and Pandemic Response

The COVID-19 outbreak has hit the Philippines hard. The main response to the crisis has been the use of lockdowns and other crude coercive measures, reminiscent of the strategies deployed in the Rodrigo Duterte administration’s infamous war on drugs. Although the effectiveness of the government’s response to the pandemic has been mixed at best, Duterte himself remains extraordinarily popular. Duterte has retained his populist image of a strong but sympathetic leader, while the failure to control the spread of the virus is attributed to local government failures and individual noncompliance. Exacerbating trends underway since the beginning of the Duterte presidency, the pandemic has seen the accumulation of even greater executive dominance within the state, leaving a worrying legacy for the future of Philippines politics

Effect of Feedlots on Water Quality

The effect of feedlot runoff on water quality was examined. Samples were collected from river feedlots and offshore from lake feedlots and compared with samples from appropriate control sites. Bacterial contamination, as measured by the total coliform test over two successive summers, exhibited significant variation between feedlot and control sites. Coliform levels at lake sites adjacent to feedlots were double the levels at control sites; while in river systems average coliform levels downstream from feedlots were approximately 17 times the upstream controls

Disaster Planning and Management

Recent events such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, power outages, and the threat of pandemics have highlighted our vulnerability to natural disasters. This vulnerability is exacerbated by many organizations\u27 increasing dependence on computer, telecommunications, and other technologies, and trends toward integrating suppliers and business partners into everyday business operations. In response many organizations are implementing disaster recovery planning processes. In this paper we discuss how to identify threats and scenarios; how to articulate the disaster recovery strategies; and four elements of the generic disaster recovery plan: Mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. We then provide examples of software that can help disaster recovery professionals in the planning and implementation process. Finally we present some trends that will reinforce the criticality of the issue

Dietary ether lipid incorporation into tissue plasmalogens of humans and rodents

Chronic feeding of 1‐O‐octadecyl‐sn‐glycerol (batyl alcohol) to patients suffering from congenital deficiency in tissue ether glycerolipids showed an increase in the plasmalogens content of their erythrocytes. However, nothing is known about the ether lipid content of other tissues in these patients. Feeding 1‐O‐heptadecyl‐sn‐glycerol to young rats showed that this uncommon ether lipid was incorporated to a high extent into the plasmalogens of all tissues except brain. Comparative studies with other precursors, such as 3‐O‐heptadecyl‐sn‐glycerol, heptadecanol and heptadecanoic acid, indicated a stereospecific incorporation of the dietary 1‐O‐alkyl‐sn‐glycerols into tissue plasmalogens without cleavage of the ether bond. Dietary ether lipids were also shown to be transferred from mothers to suckling rats, but not from pregnant rats to fetuses. The implication of these results to possible dietary ether lipid therapy for patients suffering from peroxisomal disorders is discussed.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141558/1/lipd0401.pd

Combined percutaneous coronary atherectomy and coronary angioplasty: Experience in 19 consecutive patients

AbstractAmong 82 patients undergoing coronary atherectomy, 19 (23%) underwent this procedure in combination with coronary angioplasty. The most frequently involved vessel was the left anterior descending coronary artery. In 11 patients (58%), attempted atherectomy preceded coronary angioplasty. In 6 of the 11, angioplasty was used after the atherectomy catheter could not be positioned across the lesion; 4 patients underwent “rescue” angioplasty after developing vessel occlusion related to atherectomy and 1 patient had an unsatisfactory result of atherectomy. The success rate of the combined intervention was 82% for these 11 patients.In eight patients (42%), atherectomy was performed after initial angioplasty. In four of the eight, atherectomy was a rescue procedure to manage vessel occlusion by thrombus or intimal dissection and was successful in three. In the other four, angioplasty was performed to establish an easier passage for the atherectomy catheter and was successful in three. Thus, the success rate of the combined intervention was 75% for these eight patients.The overall success rate for all 19 patients was 79%; there was one in-hospital death and one non-Q wave infarction, and one patient required immediate coronary artery surgery. Two other patients underwent coronary artery surgery before hospital discharge. Combined intervention with coronary angioplasty and atherectomy seems to be a relatively safe and effective approach in selected patients when either of these procedures alone is unsuccessful or is accompanied by acute coronary complications