ANC Face to Face Forum transcripts

FACE TO FACE: 100 Local Government Champion vs. 4 Presidential Contenders October 5-6, 2009 SGV Hall, 3rd Floor, AIM Conference Center Manila (ACCM), Makati City Face to Face was a two-day conference organized by the Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD) together with Synergeia Foundation, Galing Pook Foundation, Ateneo School of Government, and Local Governance Support Program in ARMM (LGSPA). It was held to identify bottom line reforms needed for local-central government relations. A hundred local government officials, mainly mayors and governors with a track record on political reform, discussed and came up with the reforms on topics such as the pork barrel, devolution of responsibilities, and the internal revenue allotments (IRA). The second day found four presidential aspirants discussing these reforms with the local government officials. The four presidential aspirants were Senator Noynoy Aquino, Senator Manny Villar, Senator Chiz Escudero, and Sec. Gilbert Teodoro. However, instead of using the standard debate format where all the candidates are together, participants met each candidate separately for at least an hour.