The Accountability Deficit in the Philippines: Implications and Prospects for Democratic Consolidation

Abstract

One of the major challenges that consolidating democracies such as the Philippines needs to address is how to combat and control the problems of corruption, abuse of power, and other forms of particularism. The absence of effective institutions and mechanisms to counter them would result in one major democratic deficit — the lack or weakness of accountability. This article attempts to expose the manifestations of the “accountability deficit” in the Philippines by looking at the problems, limitations, and inadequacies of elections and horizontal state agencies of restraint as institutions of accountability. It also probes into the emergence of an alternative means known as “societal accountability”, using the resignation, impeachment, and ouster (RIO) campaign against then President Joseph Estrada as a case study. This article concludes with some thoughts on the implications of the accountability deficit to the prospects for democratic consolidation in the Philippines.