Dean Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza, Prof. Danilo Reyes, Prof. Ebinezer R. Florano, Prof. Jocelyn Cuaresma and Prof. Wilhelmina L. Cabo presented their research findings in the 2014 annual conference of the Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration (EROPA) at the National Convention Center, Hanoi, Vietnam last 19-24 October 2014.
This year’s conference theme is on “Public Administration and Governance in the Context of Regional and Global Integration.” The Prime Minister of Vietnam, His Excellency Nguyen Tan Dung, was the keynote speaker in the said event.
In the first plenary session, Prof. Mendoza, delivered her presentation on “Private Sector Engagement in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in the Philippines (and Other Countries): Implications in Regional Governance.” Dr. Mendoza pointed out that, with effective engagement by the public sector, through the framework of collaborative governance, the private sector has the capacity to support climate change mitigation and adaptation programs of the government.
During the simultaneous workshop sessions, Prof. Reyes discussed in his paper on “Dynamics of Supranational Institutions and Nation States: Issues and Challenges for Public Administration,” the emerging concerns for public administration academics and practitioners in coping with the workings of supranational institutions and their impact on domestic policies and administrative systems in developing countries.
Prof. Florano presented a paper on “Compliance with, and Effective Implementation of a Multilateral Environmental Agreement: Looking Back at the Transboundary Haze Pollution Problem in the ASEAN Region.” In his presentation, he discussed the effectiveness and different levels of compliance to the 1997 Regional Haze Action Plan (RHAP), and recommended different combinations of RHAP enforcement mechanisms for selected ASEAN countries.
Prof. Cuaresma, explained the impacts of the adoption of Geographic Information System (GIS) by selected local governments in the Philippines on their performance in revenue collection. Her paper, “Geographic Information System (GIS) Adoption in Revenue System: Raising the Quality of Service Delivery of Philippine Local Governments,” featured improvements in revenue generation of local governments with the support of GIS. She asserted that by enhancing the quality of public service delivery at the local level, GIS can help prepare local governments for regional integration.
Meanwhile, Prof. Cabo presented “Youth and Political Participation in the Philippines: Voices from a Democracy Project.” The said democracy project engaged students from different universities in the Philippines in monitoring campaign funds of candidates in the 2013 national and local elections. Prof. Cabo suggested that with greater motivation and support, the Filipino youth is able to actively participate in, and contribute to political activities such as elections.
The conference, which is organized yearly by EROPA, was hosted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Vietnam, through the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA). More than 300 delegates from 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond participated in the event.
–Eula Marie Mangaoang