1
Anti-Poverty Programs
Pia C. Bennagen
Introduction
Poverty is one of the perennial problems that all administrations in the Philippines had to deal with. Many a president has attempted to lower the poverty incidence and lessen the gap between rich and poor. While there have been gains along the way, these have been few and far between. In the 1990s, poverty alleviation became one of the buzzwords of the Ramos and Estrada administrations. The key anti-poverty program was articulated through the Social Reform Agenda (SRA), which brought about the creation of the Social Reform Council (SRC). In 1998, the SRA was institutionalized through the signing into law of Republic Act 8425 or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act. Among other things, this law abolished the SRC and created in its stead the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC).
The basic concern of this case study is to examine the nature, extent, and impact of civil society participation in both the SRC and NAPC. The end in view is to generate lessons from experiences of various basic sector groups which may be useful to both government and non-government entities. It is hoped that by looking into the government-basic sector engagement within the context of these two poverty alleviation bodies, a better understanding of the dynamics between government on the one hand and civil society on the other hand can be gained. While this case study focuses on the SRC and NAPC, its basic unit of analysis is civil society or, more specifically, the basic sectors.[1] Therefore, this is not an attempt to evaluate the performance of the SRC and NAPC. Also, while mention will be made of the various programs undertaken by these two bodies, it is not the concern of this paper to assess the effectiveness and viability of these programs. More particularly, this study seeks to address the following questions:
(1)What are the Social Reform Agenda, Social Reform Council, R.A. 8425, and National Anti-Poverty Commission, and where does civil society figure in all these?
(2)What is the nature and extent of civil society participation in the SRC and NAPC?
(3)What is the impact of civil society participation in the SRC and NAPC?
(4)What is the nature of government-basic sector relations within the SRC and NAPC?
(5)What lessons about civil society and government-civil society relations can be drawn from the experiences of the SRC and NAPC?
Data for this case study were obtained from various sources. A survey of related literature was done. Official and non-governmental sources were examined. Key sources of information were interviews with government officials and civil society individuals who were involved in the SRC and are involved in the NAPC. Data was also obtained from three roundtable discussions organized in part by the author for the Social Development (SDA) Program of the Center for Integrative and Development Studies (CIDS) of the University of the Philippines.
This case study argues that while the SRC and NAPC provided opportunities for basic sector participation in the governance of poverty at the national and local levels, the impact of such participation has been quite limited. Due to some constraints and challenges arising from the inclusion of civil society actors in the process of governance, the impact of civil society participation in the SRC and NAPC has not been maximized. Nevertheless, in the case of the NAPC, despite the frustrations expressed by basic sector representatives, they do recognize that the NAPC is one of the mechanisms by which the basic sectors can significantly contribute to poverty alleviation in the Philippines. And because the NAPC was an institution that the basic sectors struggled for, they have indicated their willingness to continue this struggle to realize their goal of alleviating the plight of the marginalized sectors of society.
The Social Reform Agenda (SRA) and the Social Reform Council (SRC)
During the Ramos administration, several consultations were conducted, primarily by the National Unification Commission (NUC), at the provincial, regional, and national levels as part of the peace process. One of the recurring themes in these consultations was the direct link between the high incidence of poverty and the presence of conflict. As such, real peace was viewed as not merely the absence of war. In the Philippine context, peace cannot be achieved without dealing with the problem of poverty.
The SRA, adopted on 17 June 1994, was one of the products of these consultations. Access to quality services, asset reform, and institution-building and participation in governance were the three pillars of the SRA. With this three-point agenda, the SRA was to serve as the Ramos administration’s platform policy towards the goal of alleviating the plight of the country’s poor and marginalized sectors. More particularly, the SRA identified nine flagship programs geared towards meeting the needs of the basic sectors. The flagship programs were: (1) agricultural development: (2) fisheries and aquatic resources conservation, management, and development; (3) protection of ancestral domains; (4) workers’ welfare and protection; (5) socialized housing; (6) comprehensive integrated delivery of social services; (7) institution-building and effective participation in governance; (8) credit; and (9) livelihood programs. In turn, these programs were to be implemented using several key strategies that include the following: (1) energizing and reorienting the bureaucracy to effectively address the social reform concerns of the basic sectors; (2) encouraging, developing, and institutionalizing concrete mechanisms for basic sector, non-government and peoples’ organization (NGO-PO), church, and business sector participation, on both local and national levels, in the whole process of governance; (3) synchronizing, systematizing, and integrating all social reform policy and program initiatives of government to optimize the use of limited resources and benefits; (4) mobilizing all possible internal and external resources to sustain the gains derived from these reforms; and (5) assistance by local governments in the implementation, institutionalization, and localization of the SRA.[2]
To ensure the proper implementation of the various SRA commitments, the SRC was established through Executive Order 203, issued by former President Ramos in September 1994.[3] Aside from this key responsibility, the SRA was also tasked to approve a master plan to operationalize the SRA framework, ensure compliance and consistency by all government entities in the operationalization of the SRA, review and resolve issues and concerns related to the SRA, and determine all necessary interventions to ensure the successful implementation of the SRA. A secretariat was also created to provide administrative and staff support needed for the effective implementation of the SRA.[4]
Aside from involving the whole gamut of government departments and agencies, the SRA and SRC also saw the active participation of the basic sectors. In the context of the SRA, the basic sectors referred to are the farmers and landless rural workers, fisherfolks, urban poor, indigenous cultural communities, workers in the formal labor sectors, women, children, persons with disabilities, and youth. One of the implementing guidelines of the SRA mandated the participation and representation of these sectors in the SRC.
R.A. 8425 and the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC)
R.A. 8425 was one of the flagship bills under the SRA. Although it was signed into law by former President Ramos on 11 December 1997, it took effect only during the first month of President Estrada’s term. Otherwise known as the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, R.A. 8425 provided for the adoption and integration of the SRA in the NAPC action agenda. Thus, the NAPC also uses the multi-dimensional approach to poverty by recognizing the social economic, ecological, and governance aspects of the problem. The law also identified the basic sectors that are the targets of the government’s poverty alleviation drive and these are the farmers-peasants, artisanal fisherfolks, workers in the formal sector and migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, indigenous peoples and cultural communities, women, the differently-abled, senior citizens, victims of calamities and disasters, youth and students, children, and urban poor.[5]’
In creating the NAPC, R.A. 8425 abolished the SRC, the Presidential Commission to Fight Poverty (PCFP) and the Presidential Council for Countryside Development (PCCD). This is to streamline the government’s poverty alleviation processes and mechanisms and to avoid redundancy among agencies and instrumentalities. The NAPC is tasked by law to:
(1)Coordinate with different national and local government agencies and the private sector to assure full implementation of all social reform and poverty alleviation programs;
(2)Coordinate with local government units (LGUs) in the formulation of social reform and poverty alleviation programs for their respective areas in conformity with the National Anti-Poverty Action Agenda;
(3)Recommend policy and other measures to ensure the responsive implementation of the commitments under the SRA;
(4)Ensure meaningful representation and active participation of the basic sectors;
(5)Oversee, monitor, and recommend measures to ensure the effective formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies, programs, and resource allocation and management of social reform and poverty alleviation programs;
(6)Advocate for the mobilization of funds by the national and local governments for financial social reform and poverty alleviation programs and capability-building activities of POs; and
(7)Provide financial and non-financial incentives to LGUs with counterpart resources for the implementation of social reform and poverty alleviation programs.[6]
The main program that the NAPC is pursuing is the Erap Para sa Mahihirap Program (EPMP) or the Poverty Eradication Program (PEP).[7] The key objective of this program is to eradicate absolute and relative poverty in the Philippines. In his second State of the Nation Address, President Estrada declared that:
My vision is not just the alleviation of poverty but its ultimate eradication. Alleviation is temporary. Eradication is permanent. Alleviation is limited. Eradication is total. The proper response to the problem of poverty is not superficial treatment but total structural change ... My vision is to drive poverty away from the center and into the periphery of our concerns, to make it a marginal rather than a mainstream problem.[8]
The President’s vision is to be realized through the EPMP which consists of five major components: (1) food security; (2) modernization of agriculture and fisheries within the context of sustainable development; (3) low-cost mass housing; (4) protection for the poor against crime and violence; and (5) active participation of the LGUs in the implementation of the program. The main unit with which the NAPC is concerned is the Filipino Family, which is considered as the basic indicator unit under the PEP. For instance, under the Lingap Para sa Mahihirap Program, the 100 poorest families in the country’s 78 provinces and 83 cities will be identified and used as indicators to determine whether the program is effective.[9] The success of the program is dependent on its ability to produce a multiplier effect, whereby the identification of the 100 poorest families will result not only in the upliftment of the welfare of these identified families but also in the betterment of the conditions of an estimated 10 million Filipinos.[10] As part of the PEP, the NAPC also handles the disposition of the Lingap Para sa Mahihirap Program Fund, worth 2.5 billion pesos, for 1999. This amount is broken down as follows: (1) 500 million pesos for Food, Nutrition, and Medical Assistance under the Department of Health; (2) 500 million pesos for Livelihood Development under the Cooperative Development Agency; (3) 500 million pesos for Socialized Housing under the National Housing Authority; (4) 300 million pesos for Rural Waterworks System under the Local Water Utilities Administration; (5) 300 million pesos for Protective Services for Children and Youth under the Department of Social Welfare and Development; and (6) 400 million pesos for Price Support for Rice and Corn under the National Food Authority.[11]
On Basic Sector Participation and Government-Basic Sector Relations in the SRC and the NAPC
A.The SRC Experience of the Basic Sectors
The SRA recognized the important contribution that the basic sectors have to make towards winning the fight against poverty. As such, it sought to institutionalize basic sector participation in the various SRA commitments and in the SRC. However, the participation of the basic sectors in the SRA was already evident even before the adoption of the SRA and creation of the SRC. It has been observed that the basic sectors played a pivotal role in pushing the government to pursue a social reform policy and were actively involved in the consultations that led to the creation of the SRA. To a certain extent, it can even be said that the SRA was government’s response to the demands of the basic sectors.[12] For its part, government also acknowledged the contributions of the basic sectors as it identified the Basic Sectors’ Agenda — a consolidation of the outcomes of several consultations organized by the non-government sector — as one of the bases of the SRA. Moreover, non-government and peoples’ organizations (NGOs and POs), along with professional groups, business, executive departments, congress, and local governments, also participated in the People’s Economic Summit of 8 September 1993 which resulted in the adoption of the Social pact for Empowered Economic Development (SPEED), one of the precursors of the SRA.[13] Hence, from the very beginning, civil society individuals and organizations participated in the processes that led to the formulation of the SRA and the creation of the SRC.
Within the SRC, basic sector representatives were appointed to sit as council members alongside executive department secretaries, presidents of leagues of local government, and other government officials. The basic sector representatives were chosen by the basic sectors themselves and were appointed by the President. (Please refer to Appendix A for a complete list of the members of the SRC.) The basic sectors established a Basic Sector Counterpart Council (BSCC) which served as the national coordinating mechanism for all the NGOs and POs involved in the SRC. The BSCC served as the arena for consolidating sectoral positions, especially in preparation with meetings with government agencies. In addition, a National Sectoral Caucus was formed as a venue for consolidating the positions of the different sectors in order to complement the efforts of the BSCC. A PO-NGO Counterpart Secretariat was also created, based at the National Peace Conference (NPC), to provide technical and administrative support for the basic sector representatives and the BSCC. Likewise, the Counterpart Secretariat was responsible for coordinating and communicating with the sectors, technical persons, and regional and provincial focal persons.[14]
The importance of civil society participation in the implementation of the SRA Convergence Policy was also recognized. According to the implementing guidelines, civil society organizations are the partners of government and are valuable because of their track record in community work, especially in working with the poor. As such, “it shall be the fundamental principles of the SRA Convergence Policy to encourage the meaningful participation of organizations in achieving the goals of this policy, in the areas of both decision-making and implementation, while respecting their autonomy as private organizations (underscoring supplied)”.[15] But beyond the Convergence Policy, the SRA, in general, is based on the recognition that the government and the basic sectors can, and must, interface at all levels. This interfacing occurred through mechanisms such as sectoral representation in various government bodies and processes at all levels, genuine consultation and coordination processes, and interfacing with the SRA PO-NGO Counterpart Council.[16] The SRA is, therefore, anchored on the active involvement of civil society and on the partnership between civil society and government.
A concrete example of civil society’s impact on the SRC and SRA was the fact that the most important of the basic sectors’ agenda — asset reform — founds its way into the final document that came out of the People Empowerment Caucus of June 1994 and which eventually led to the creation of the SRA. Asset reform has to do with the distribution of resources in an equitable manner with the aim of providing the sustainable foundation for the upliftment of the lives of the marginalized sectors of society. The importance of asset reform lies in the premise that only through the wide-ranging redistribution of assets can the poor have access to secure livelihoods and to their rightful share to the benefits of economic growth and development.[17] Asset reform was at the heart of the basic sectors’ agenda, and to see it articulated in the SRA was a victory of some sorts for the basic sectors.[18] During the 1996 National Anti-Poverty Summit (NAPS), referred to as the “mother of all summits”, there was another opportunity for government and civil society to work on a common anti-poverty agenda. NGOs and POs engaged the government both on the floor and outside the caucus halls. At the end of the summit, it was estimated that about 80% of the basic sectors’ agenda was accepted by government. In 1997, things took a turn for the worse when political, ideological, and personal differences entered the picture and resulted in strained government-civil society relations.