1 IS THERE A PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION? OR BETTER STILL, FOR WHOM IS PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?1

Is there a Philippine public administration? A number of our colleagues asked us why we are asking that question again as we were planning this colloquium. Indeed that question had been asked 20 years ago, and answers have been provided us by eminent scholars of Public Administration such as Raul de Guzman and Onofre Corpuz. After two decades, we think it is worthwhile to revisit the issue and ask our colleagues once again to answer the question, “Is there a Philippine Public Administration? ” This time around, we take the question a little further and ask an equally important second question, “If there is a Philippine Public Administration, then for whom does Philippine Public Administration exist?” Among the basic references we have been using in the general introductory course in Public Administration at both the graduate (PA 201) and undergraduate (PA 11) levels are essays by the aforementioned eminent scholars of Philippine Public Administration (Dr de Guzman and Dr Corpuz). These essays were published in a special issue of the Philippine Journal of Public Administration in 1986 (PJPA). 3 While de Guzman and Corpuz both assert that there is a Philippine Public Administration, both also suggest that the question be properly contextualized. There is a Philippine Public Administration as far as there is an American, French and Tha