CONCEPCION, Tarlac (Aug. 25, 2023) — Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has traded the Senate floor for rural function rooms as he embarks on a crusade to help local governments in the country formulate better policies and analyses.
About 50 government workers from this municipality attended the free seminar given by the former Philippine naval officer.
The seminar is designed to improve the public policymaking skills of local civil servants in the country and increase their awareness of the vital inclusion of the protection of human rights and the promotion of the well-being of the people as guiding principles.
Trillanes cited several bad government policies, including the implementation of motorcycle barriers and the wearing of face shields at the height of the pandemic.
“Gumagawa ng polisiya para sila ang makinabang,” Trillanes said of the face shields being sold for a huge margin.
“At worst, they (policies) are intended to pursue the personal interests of policymakers,” Trillanes said.
He also mentioned the submission of Health Declaration Forms as being “bad policies.”
“Hindi binabasa ang mga ito at diretso lang sa basurahan,” Trillanes revealed.
The former lawmaker also said that public servants should formulate good policies and avoid making bad policies that can negatively affect the well-being of the people.
“The happiness of society is the purpose of government,” the former senator said.
He also reminded this town’s public servants that the prime duty of the government is to serve and protect the people as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution.
Trillanes, after his three-term stint as a Philippine senator, became a Professor of Praxis at the Ateneo School of Government, serving as the resource person for the program which focused on the various issues in the Philippines and the relevance of studying public policy.
The vocal critic of the Duterte administration has been teaching public policy at the Ateneo de Manila University since 2016. A former Philippine Military Academy cum laude graduate with a Naval Systems Engineering degree, he later received his master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines Diliman.
