Philip Emmanuel C. Peñaflor
Tell us something about yourself
I am a freethinker. My mind is not bound by tradition or conventional religious beliefs. When it comes to principles I am not easily swayed by numbers or the majority if I believe my position is right and just. I don’t compromise my values for the sake of personal gain. I am one of those who tend to follow the unpopular view and I can die for it. I am a man of my word, I don’t usually back out from commitments. I’m usually quick to defend somebody whom I think was wronged unjustly. A psychic warned me not to get involved into another’s war or quarrel as it would put me into trouble. In relating with people I am usually friendly. I can be a good speaker and can get along well in a crowd, but inside I’m actually an introvert. I prefer solitude than applause or noise.
Share with us your journey in the M&E field – when and how you started, your influences in M&E, your happy and challenging experiences, the life lessons you learned from being an M&E practitioner, etc.
There was this World Bank-funded project at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) sometime ago called the “Land Administration and Management Project” (LAMP), with technical assistance from AusAID. I applied as Project Director, but the Australian Team leader told me the post was already filled up by an Assistant Secretary, oh boy! He told me to apply for the position of National M&E Adviser instead, and so I did, without really having a formal training on M&E. I met Ms Agnes Navera at the LAMP as the project’s M&E officer and we worked together well as we exchanged ideas on monitoring and evaluation and that started my M&E career. I used to say during M&E trainings that as M&E officers sometimes we cannot avoid stepping on people’s toes, but if don’t step on toes we are not doing our jobs. I think I stepped on some people’s toes at LAMP and I was kicked out (well actually my Team Leader advised me to resign). This was the first lesson I learned in doing M&E, but a very good one. Then the more I involve myself in M&E the more I realize that there is no standard formula for doing M&E. Every situation, from simple to complicated, to complex or to chaotic has no single magic formula except for the creativity of making sense of the situation. So we need to share our experiences, practices and lessons to better enrich this developing field we call M&E.
What is your view on the current state of M&E in the Philippines?
M&E in the Philippines is actually a recent experience. Early development initiatives until the late 90s did not have a conscious effort to include M&E in their plans and budgets, probably even until now, until it became a requirement by the donors because of the value-for-money principle. As a developing field in the country, there’s a lot of opportunities for capacity building on M&E for both government agencies and non-state actors. There should be a levelling off among development players in the country on the purpose of M&E, definition of the terms and other nomenclature it uses, and especially understanding the meaning of results and link them to the budget. M&E should complement the audit system which is concerned only with procedures in spending the money, but M&E looks into how much have we achieved our objectives given the amount of money spent for plans and activities. We may be able to spend the money properly according to the procedures set by the Commission on Audit (COA), but without a proper understanding of results we may not necessarily be achieving our objectives, or at least not effectively.
What are your aspirations for yourself and for the M&E field for the next 10- years?
Every government agency should have a robust M&E system and M&E framework, run by competent people whose plantilla positions are for M&E. Every government annual plan (including the LGUs), should have a monitoring and evaluation plan with realistic indicators. In the case of LGUs where monitoring is mandated by the Local Government Code but which function is limited only to monitoring infrastructures, the M&E system assesses all accomplishments against plans and targets. The M&E people should not be intrinsic to their agencies or LGUs but are appointed from a national commission (e.g. Presidential Commission for Monitoring and Evaluation), similar to the Commission on Audit (COA) and are re-assigned periodically so as not to develop affinity with the bosses so that they could step on their toes without fear of being kicked out. I think I would love to be a member of that national M&E Commission.
What can you share with those who are thinking of starting, or have just started their journey in the M&E field?
Be brave. If you think you have a weak commitment for what is right, then M&E is not your field. M&E people should be advocates of truth. One reason why we have difficulties in achieving the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals), or poverty alleviation goals, is because government agencies are not always telling the truth. The heads of government agencies are competing for praise from the President and so sometimes the wrong information is fed to the President that he is unable to respond properly and accordingly to what is really happening on the ground. For example, former President Benigno Aquino in his last State-of-the-Nation address mentioned that a lot of classrooms have already been built so that he believed that the government has already addressed the issue of the lack of classrooms, but the reality was that many of these classrooms were left unfinished by the contractors for some reasons, and, therefore, children are unable to use them. But who would dare tell the truth? However if we withhold the truth, then we would not be able to achieve our goals and we permit “untruth” to persist.
We understand that you have just published a book. What can you tell us about it and how is it influenced by your background in M&E?
The book is entitled “Rethinking Hope and Peace, Social Change in the Philippines”. It’s a book on social change, and social change in the Philippines has a backdrop of patronage politics where traditional politicians (even if they are new politicians) enter politics not really to serve the interest of the people but their own vested interests. Leadership is one big factor to achieve social change, or governance, good governance for that matter. It can happen for example at the local level where local leaders who are genuinely seeking change, or even at least 50% of their hearts are genuinely seeking for change while the other 50% of their hearts are thinking of winning the next elections, can begin with a simple situation analysis involving the people, looking at their needs or what are already working from which they can build upon, then they can plan together, identify objectives and results, put indicators, and institute mechanisms to measure the results. Then they report to the people annually on what have been achieved from what they have agreed to achieve. That’s M&E. A simple employment of an M&E system can contribute to social change. But there’s more in the book than M&E. In the book there are stories and insights on how we can get out of our predicament of poverty and achieve change in our society.
Kindly answer the following as truthfully and candidly as you can:
a. What is your favorite dish?
Corned stingray cooked with moringa leaves in coconut cream and filled with siling labuyo.
b. What is your favorite color?
Light yellow
c. What sports do you play?
Basketball, badminton
d. What type of music do you most enjoy listening to?
Classical and Ballad
e. What musical instrument do you, play if any?
Guitar
f. Who is your favorite author?
Anthony de Mello
g. What is your favorite book?
The Song of the Bird
h. What is your favorite movie?
The Mission
i. Who is your favorite actor/actress?
Jeremy Irons
j. Where do you go when you want to relax?
If at home, in the garden, or the roof deck. If abroad, in a simple but nice restaurant.
Thank you very much. Is there anything else you want to add?
Lastly I’d like to say that M&E is a serious job, but we don’t have to step too hard on people’s toes if we need to so that they don’t kick us out. It also entails the art of diplomacy. We need to learn how to say the bad news in a good way so that stakeholders, bosses and government leaders come to actually accept the bad news wholeheartedly and are motivated to respond accordingly. We can only do as much, but we cannot solve the problems of the world. So after having done our part, let us learn to laugh, drink beer, or sing with the videoke!