Citizens’ groups rejoice as participatory budgeting receives global recognition



Stories



September 25, 2014



CODE-NGO

Citizens’ groups rejoice as participatory budgeting receives global recognition

The Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) hailed the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process, formerly known as Bottom Up Budgeting or BUB, for grabbing the 3rd place at the 2014 Open Government Awards. The Open Government Awards is an initiative of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a global effort that seeks to promote transparency and citizen empowerment while fighting corruption in government.

Despite the negative impact created by the pork barrel scandal on the reputation of legitimate non-government organizations (NGOs) in the Philippines, various civil society organizations (CSOs) are unfazed in constructively engaging with government. As part of this engagement, CSOs acknowledge gains in citizen empowerment in various reforms introduced by the Aquino administration. Among these initiatives is the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB) where democratically elected representatives of local CSOs participate in the identification of priority poverty reduction projects in their localities for inclusion in the budgets of national government agencies.

“We believe that meaningful community participation makes GPB funds less prone to abuse and corruption. It is the exact opposite of the pork barrel which is discretionary in nature”, said Patricia Sarenas, Chairperson of CODE-NGO. Sarenas is in New York City to attend the Open Government Awards Ceremony 2014. In this inaugural year, the OGP Awards Ceremony celebrates the theme Citizen Engagement, and will recognize initiatives around the world that expand and sustain citizen engagement to improve government policies and services. Of the 63 participating countries of the OGP, 33 submitted their innovations for consideration for the awards. Denmark bagged the first place for “Statutory Elected Senior Citizens’ Council” while Montenegro’s public engagement campaign called “Be Responsible” earned the second place.

“Participatory budgeting is People Power at work”

“The recognition from the Open Government Awards is an affirmation of the global impact of Philippine initiatives towards democratization”, said Sarenas. “In 1986, we introduced People Power as a peaceful revolution to oust a dictator. Today, we are showing how People Power is manifested in citizens’ direct participation in governance through the GPB”, she added.

“Since 2012, our experience with the GPB in many municipalities and cities shows that GPB puts together the important elements of people empowerment, decentralization and poverty reduction”, said Sarenas.”

In the municipality of Hilongos in the province of Leyte, for example, one of the projects implemented through GPB is a farm to market road. With an allocated budget of 11.5 million pesos, the project seeks to address transportation and accessibility problems in the area. “Before, farmers could not easily bring their harvest to the town centers because there are no good roads. With the farm to market road now in place, the cost for transporting goods is significantly reduced ensuring better income for farming communities,” narrates Sarenas.

Access to safe potable drinking water has also been identified in Hilongos, and citizen engagement through GPB gave rise to a two-million-peso water system which will be also be operational soon. “When we talked to Roland Lora, the President of the Campina Farmers Association and Co-Chair of the Local Poverty Reduction Action Team (LPRAT), he could not get any more excited, stating that water has always been a problem in the community,“ narrates, Sarenas. “Roland shares that in far-flung areas, communities do not have access to water even for bathing.”, she adds.

This week in the Philippines, both houses of Congress is set to approve the 2015 National Budget which contains a 20.9B Peso allocation for the GPB. “This is also historic for the Philippines. From the pilot 569 municipalities and cities in the 2013 budget, the 2015 budget will cover all of the 1590 cities and municipalities in the country. “Our inspiration for participatory budgeting may be the city of Porto Alegre in Brazil, but now we have dared to use participatory budgeting not only in a few selected areas but in all of the cities and municipalities throughout the country. That in itself is also worth celebrating”, said Sarenas.

Allaying fears that the GPB funds are prone to corruption, Sarenas explained, “Citizen participation in the identification of the projects ensures that citizens themselves will also take up the task of ensuring that public funds for those projects are spent well.”