Persuasive powers of the pervasive Agile

The furor over AGILE (for Accelerating Growth for Investment and Liberalization with Equity) has died down but not after having done much damage to the reputation of the group and its representatives in the country.

Spawned by the Asian financial crisis in 1997, this five-year $25-million assistance program to the Philippines that professes to "accelerate economic policy reforms, generate growth, help create jobs, and reduce poverty" is now seen as a sinister organization with death-gripping tentacles rather than a knight in shining armor.

AGILE is a project jointly established by the Philippine government and the United States which, according to a statement issued by the US Embassy in the Philippines, provides technical services for such initiatives as "training, consultancies, production of information materials and study tours to provide Filipino counterparts with information to help their decision making."

Now five years old, its presence in the bureaucracy has extended to a wide range of key influential government agencies including the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Department of Finance, the Department of Budget and Management, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, and even the Supreme Court.

AGILE funds come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and are coursed through a US company called Development Alternatives Inc. based in Maryland working in the Philippines through several subcontractors including Cesar Virata and Associations, Inc.

The Senator who protests

AGILE’s notoriety was brought to fore during the just-concluded emotionally laden Senate deliberations on the amended Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA). If there were forces that reportedly tried to malign AGILE in a bid to water down or kill any amendments to AMLA, these apparently failed.

AMLA amendments were enacted and the final version seemed to have pleased all interests, including that of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), thereby averting the imposition of crippling economic sanctions.

Whatever animosity our lawmakers felt for AGILE apparently died almost immediately after AMLA was signed into law last March 10. No wonder corridor gossip linked the campaign against AGILE as a smokescreen to notorious interests.

AGILE, after all, is known to have taken very unpopular positions on a number of policies including the initiatives for open skies, trade liberalization, taxation reform, revenue generation, money laundering and even procurement.

For our lawmakers to cry rape when they knew and have dealt with AGILE for almost half a decade is surprising. When they portray the USAID project as a beast trampling on Filipino’s sovereignty, the situation becomes ridiculous.

Worse, an image of our feisty Senators gesturing in the hallowed halls of government and accusing that AGILE had arm-twisted them into passing laws becomes a downright comical, if not ironical, scene.

Stepping on too many toes

But of course, it is not just our lawmakers from the Upper House who find one or another reason to dislike whatever research, spreadsheet files, survey results or draft positions that the omnipresent AGILE has done.

Employees of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) incidentally supported by a few members of the legislature for example assailed AGILE for helping piece together a bill that would restructure the old tax collection agency into a supposedly more efficient and transparent system.

The perils of going against powerful bureaucratic machinery known for its corruption and inept employees are vividly illustrated by the very recent memories of a BIR chief who lost his job.

There are also rumors of huge sums of funds from business interests to finance the negative publicity about AGILE. These are vested interests threatened by the relentless attention given by AGILE to remove barriers to competition in infrastructure and trade, and to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights.

Not without fault

The demolition crew against AGILE, of course, cannot be faulted entirely especially when the object of its hate shows a conceit that threatens to even eclipse that of Philippine lawmakers’ swagger. Even Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin was known to have frowned at AGILE’s arrogance and braggadocio.

In its previous website before the Senate initiated its highly publicized inquiry, AGILE was known to have flaunted its "accomplishments" in the Philippines and other countries. It even took pride in the fact that it held offices in key government offices, boldly creating an impression that it indeed was deeply entrenched in the government machinery.

Much ado over nothing?

But come to think of it, no lobby group no matter how influential, for that matter, could force our highly spirited Congress to pass a law it did not want to enact.

Which brings us back to the basic reality that whatever is being attributed to AGILE might be just a lot of hot air. Are we not giving it too much credit for achievements that do not wholly belong to them? Or even blaming it for what really are our follies and failings?

For a country with limited resources, let us take AGILE for the resources offered, albeit at no cost to our government, in terms of research and technical work. Most of all, let us help our policy-makers who are making judicious use of AGILE’s assistance.

We must trust that there are still public servants who are able to discard the grain from the chaff, the extraneous data from the precious information, and to polish such into a piece of brilliant legislative act or policy statement.

‘Nasaan ang murang gamot na ipinangako ni Gloria?’

"Isyung Kalakalan at Iba Pa" on IBC-13 News (4:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Monday to Friday) concludes today the presentation of contending issues regarding the presence of the oil depots at Pandacan. Watch it.

Starting Monday, "Isyung Kalakalan at Iba Pa" on IBC-13 News (4:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., Monday to Friday) highlights the high cost of medicines in the Philippines and what steps the current administration is taking to lessen the impact to the lower strata of our society.

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