Quo Vadis NGOs? ( Whither goest thou?)

I am preparing to cross over to politics and governance and so I thought I would share some snapshots of my work that I have been doing for a quarter of a century. Non government organization (NGO) work is about social development work and it is midway between state and the market or midway between the public and the private sector engaged in pure profit. It is about working to create mechanisms and institutions or changing structures to bring about development and people’s empowerment. Although, it is related to social work, emergency relief work and the like, NGO work is a much more sustained work across time and so the impact of our work is not immediately discernable. Examples of work to create or change structures is NGO work in the policy arena. Results come after engagement with a lot of groups and agencies in a very engaged advocacy or lobby process. Successes are few and far between but long lasting. Examples of these are: efforts of the women’s movement to enshrine a gender equality movement in the Philippine constitution, rewriting the rape law, passage of the Sexual Harassment Law, passage of the Anti- Violence Against Women And Their Children Act, the Davao City Women Development Code, the Urban Development & Housing Act (UDHA) by NGOs and networks working with the urban poor sector - to name a few landmark legislations.

I am also part of the older generation which must work consciously to increase our tribe and more importantly to nurture a successor generation. One of our efforts to develop a successor generation is to bring NGO work to the level of theory and academia and as well to bring the academic community ( mentor and students) to our development sites in the hope that students will be introduced towards a career in social development work.
Another track is influencing curriculum development and education in general to be relevant and responsive to the Philippine problematique.

In recent times, many NGOs have folded up to due to drying up of donor funds or due to changing priorities of funding agencies. Ideally, donor agencies must work with the NGO community and other stakeholders in defining the Philippine problematique and then call for projects addressing the identified problems. This way, NGOs can position themselves strategically in influencing or identifying sharply and incisively the development issues, themes or sites.

Funds are also created to respond to global issues and events. For example, after 9/11, there was focus on social justice development themes which was fine because most NGO work in the Philippines are under this development area. After all, poverty reduction, human rights ( social, cultural, economic, political rights) work, judicial reform, good governance projects can be packaged under this theme.

Then came, the world financial crisis of 2008 which is now affecting the prognosis of NGO work. NGOs have responded to this development by, among others, setting up social enterprises such as scaling up of micro finance enterprises in the hope of weaning from donor agencies at some point in time.

Anyway, amidst a changing economic landscape and amidst a not so glowing future in NGO work, my message to the younger generation who must be harnessed to make this world a better place is : Social development work will always be relevant for as long as there is poverty, social inequality, human rights violations, environment degradation, or corruption in government.

Particularly at this unspeakable horror in Mindanao, when a heinous crime against humanity has just been commited against more than fifty Mindanaoans who were massacred on their way to filing an election certificate of candidacy, there is urgent work to address violence related to elections, land conflict, unresponsive justice system, insurgency, clan wars or rido and warlordism. We have civilians arming themselves much like a private army in the service of powerful political dynasties. And for a long time now, we have tolerated abusive civilian voluntary groups (CVOs and paramilitary elements) who are doing police and military roles. There are so much arms in Mindanao used to sow terror in order to gain or maintain political hegemony. All these have been allowed with impunity.

As we women say, work never ends. The task is gigantic and NGOs could use a lot of help.

Boxing & the Pacman

Boxing as a violent contact sport has not changed basically since the Greek and Roman times 4,000 years ago : hand-to-hand, one-on-one contact pitting a boxer against another of relative strength and size to amuse a crowd or millions of spectators. Boxing is as archaic and uncivilized as violence itself. Perhaps, the safety measures have improved over time such as the form – fitted mouthpiece, the headgear in the Olympics, the presence of skilled referees who may stop a bout when one or both boxers are injured and ringside physicians who may stop a fight or bout at their own professional discretion and determination at any point in time. It is true, we are awed at a rare boxing gift. Not anybody can be a Manny Pacquiao, fondly called the PACMAN, the only Filipino boxer who has won seven world titles in seven different weight classes. Millions of Filipinos covet the fame and glory of an ordinary Manny Pacquiao. We admire all the discipline that goes with the preparation for this sport, as we saw in our own Manny Pacquiao : fitness endurance, pain endurance, strength, mental stamina, skill and speed. It is true that most sports like horse racing, fencing, football, basketball, martial arts, hockey, soccer, etc are most likely to result in injury or disability and thus banning boxing as a violent sport will not prevent or limit the incidence of sports related injury. But, I would classify injuries to these sports as sport related accidents.

Not so with boxing where the goal is to deliver the violent punches that is sure to cause injury. For me, boxing is a legalized way of attacking another person, a bloodthirsty sport, uncivilized, a money-driven scheme and all these for amusement. Millions of people cheer for the punches of a potential killer, or pay to watch the maiming and injuring and all in the name of sports and entertainment. Someone described a strong punch to one’s head as akin to “ one’s soft brain being rammed into a rigid skull much like an egg yolk slammed into the side of an egg shell.’’ Time magazine has, accordingly, reported that in the last decade, over 70 boxers have died from boxing related causes. All these are so relevant as we witnessed our own boxer, Z Gorres, a rising boxer who is reportedly in critical condition and in medical induced coma to relieve a brain swelling or even the boxing star himself, Manny Pacquiao, who is suffering from an ear injury. It was sad to see Manny Pacquiao, soon after he defeated Miguel Cotto, feeling powerless to freely turn his head because of his ear injury. As expected of ever protective mothers, Aling Dionisia, Pacquiao’s mother, was heard as saying that she has had some clairvoyant feelings that something will happen to his son in the next bout and so if it her up to her, she will not let her son fight in the ring anymore.

Kaye, my only daughter who is very much into sports ( tennis, surfing and skimboarding) says of the recent Manny Pacquiao – Miguel Cotto ( Puerto Rican boxer) boxing “my views about boxing is different now, and it is a reaction to people’s comments on various social networking sites saying that the fight should not have been stopped prematurely at that round yet because people wanted to see a total knockout. Boxing is barbaric and the people who enjoy it are no different from the Roman masses who enjoyed the Gladiator fights.” This sounds to me like the centuries’ old discrimination and violence against women that is still with us in this day and age.

Non Partisan Creative Politics

When the election campaign period starts come February 2010 ( national campaign) and March 2010 ( local campaign), our non partisan politics now will ripen into non partisan political campaign lest we be accused of premature campaigning now. Non partisan politics is, of course, a reaction to traditional partisan politics. The connotation of traditional politics is that these are all about patronage politics, political dynasties and powerful political parties serving the interests of big business who are funding their campaign. Patronage politics are all about the disbursement of largesse in exchange for political favors like votes or the behest of political support to promote the hegemony of those in position of power and authority. This is very unfortunate actually because, ideally, big business and those in power and authority should be serving the interests of all and promoting development for all citizens. But, realpolitik is what it is. Non partisan people’s campaign is campaign by basic sectors and ordinary citizens. It is a citizen campaign for changes towards good governance and social development. Examples of non partisan creative politics include those by the Change Politics Movement, NoyNoy Aquino People Power Movement ( NAPM: and yes, that should be the meaning of the P for now), and the new People’s Politics of presidential aspirant Chiz Escudero as he describes it after bolting out of the Nationalists’ People Coalition (NPC) political party.

My sense, though, is that a non partisan campaign, as a stand alone campaign strategy, is not yet enough to win a national candidate. A coordinated national and local machinery and organization are crucial ingredients. Thus, a national political party is needed to win a president. Which is why, only parties with a national constituency can be registered in the Comelec as a national party. Perhaps, there is wisdom in the proposed bill that political parties should have state funding so that those without access to large funding can join a national or local election political campaign. But, then again, party list groups have registered an objection to this kind of state support to mainstream political parties which have already access to funding from many powerful sectors. Still, genuine political parties with clear political vision and platforms still need to be improved in our country.

As part of our advocacy, I am sharing here an abstract of a Development and Reform Agenda which was drafted under the auspices of our national network, the Caucus of Development NGO Networks ( CODE NGO), after a nation wide consultation among members of the Change Politics Movement and other civil society groups. We are using this reform and development agenda in our voters’ education program and we will use this for later, too, as basis to monitor compliance by elected candidates. The main points of this reform agenda are about transparency and good governance, empowerment of basic sectors, reformed system of civil service bureaucracy, constitutional reform through elected constitutional convention delegates, federalism, asset reform, social safety nets for the poor, health, population policy, education, building peace by pursuing and sustaining the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Communist Party of the Philippines/New People’s Army/National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF), and the Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa-Mindanao (RPMM), promoting sustainable economic development through reforms in the management of our natural resources and agricultural sector, strengthening the local economy by supporting micro, small, and medium ]enterprises (MSMEs), promoting fiscal and tax reforms by directing the lump sum allocations and “discretionary funds,” i.e. Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF, President's Social Fund, etc. ( pork barrel) to local governments, supporting measures that propose the inclusion of magnitude and incidence of poverty in the determination of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), increasing government revenues and conducting a debt audit by forming a Congressional Debt Audit Commission that will scrutinize all public debt and contingent liabilities, among others.