With partner organizations, CODE-NGO filed a petition at the Supreme Court against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020
The Philippines, lauded as the “oldest democracy in Asia”, boasts of historically having the strongest civil society in the region. Referring to the politically active sector of the general public, the country’s civil society is composed of a wide range of non-government organizations, people’s organizations, faith-based charities, social movements, and individual professionals and volunteers. Working with the marginalized sectors, a robust and thriving civil society helps drive a country’s development programs, advocates for policy changes, and seeks state accountability.
During the Duterte administration, a variety of threats challenged the Philippine civil society. From 2016 to 2020, the Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index (CSOSI) research conducted by the Caucus of Development NGO Networks, Inc. (CODE-NGO) reveals deteriorating sustainability of the sector.
Advocacy, legal environment, and public image
Year after year, local CSOs generally encountered less access to legal support, difficulty in advocating for issues, and less public visibility and trust.
Advocacy and the legal environment declined after the May 2016 elections, and consistently deteriorated, as both intensified state harassment and pandemic restrictions made it difficult for CSOs to mobilize and engage on multiple issues.
Certain CSOs perceived to be associated with the Aquino administration encountered challenges in coordinating with the new heads of government agencies. Government security forces continued to label specific CSOs as communist terrorist groups, a method of blacklisting known in the Philippines as “red-tagging.” Global Witness has ranked the Philippines “the deadliest country for environmental defenders” in 2019. The crackdown on independent media in 2018 and the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 added to the chilling effect, discouraging advocates from expressing their dissent. Most campaigns therefore focused on upholding basic human rights and protecting democratic institutions and processes, rather than concrete policy changes.
In 2020, the pandemic also greatly affected regular government functions, including the annual renewal and release of registration documents by the Securities Exchange Commission. This negatively impacted the operations of CSOs. The need for legal services remains high due to difficulties in registration and increasing state harassment.
Given the above, local voices and public outreach diminished. Advocacy groups conducted fewer press conferences and forums, and many local organizations tried to stay under the radar to avoid being targeted. Following Duterte’s attack on major media companies in 2018, CSOs received even less national media attention, though they continued to access local media more easily.
ABC+ Project – Advancing Basic Curriculum in the Philippines of the Coalition for Bicol Development
At the height of the pandemic, however, CSO activities gained greater visibility and community support. The Philippine Trust Index 2021 reported that the public is increasingly aware of the work of CSOs in responding to the pandemic at local levels, and that that awareness often translates to an increase in trust.
What can CSOs do to improve its sustainability?
In light of the distinct challenges expounded above, it is crucial to explore active ways in which we CSOs can improve our long term sustainability and revert the threats we have collectively endured in the past years.
Face-to-face legal missions of the Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS)
First of all, in ”Protecting and Promoting Civic Space in the Philippines in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic”, Benedict Balderrama, National Coordinator of the Partnership of Philippine Support (PHILSSA) network, outlines how we can employ risk mitigation and preparedness measures; ensure continuing dialogues, advocacies, and engagement activities; and setup contingency measures in cases of surveillance, arrest and detention.
Secondly, political scientist Dr. Segundo E. Romero pointed out in his analysis of the CSOSI that sectoral infrastructure – intermediary support organizations, resource centers, local grantmaking organizations, and CSO coalitions – is the one dimension of sustainability that remained consistently “stable” and present. It could be strengthened in order for our sector to further take root and weather the storms. “CSOs must help increase coordination and cooperation within the sector, and enable it to ‘bolt-in’ and move as one in crucial initiatives and issues,” he said.
To strengthen the existing sectoral infrastructure, our CSO sector can build or expand the following, and do these better or differently should a populist authoritarian regime continue after our May 2022 elections:
- Building technical and organizational capacities
- Growing community philanthropy and local resource mobilization
- Advocating for participation in national/local governance
- Creating force multipliers for advocacy and service provision
- Networking, synergizing, and scaling up
CODE-NGO, optimizing this sectoral infrastructure, embarks on setting a COVID-19 Recovery Agenda for the Philippine CSO Sector which we will advocate to government, businesses, and academe this 2022. Likewise, its Development and Reform Agenda 2022-2028 serves to raise awareness and to drum up support for vital and critical actions that the next President and Administration of the Philippines should implement in order to address the multiple challenges facing our country today.
Vegetable farmers become suppliers for Bayanihan Musikahan event of Philippine Business for Social Progress
Thirdly, the CSO sector should build a unifying narrative around the treasured, traditional values of people-centered development, community organizing, and social capital building. We CSOs have been at the frontline of these values, the building blocks that supported an active Philippine civil society for decades.
Dr. Ronald U. Mendoza, economist and former dean of the Ateneo de Manila University – School of Government, clarified that these values were undermined by the current administration’s very divisive rhetoric and policies, and a penchant for othering that completely undermines unity. CSOs need to recuperate and rebuild what populist authoritarianism through social media has begun to destroy.
This alternative narrative can help people understand our role and the public value of our work. It can also help expand the civic space and reinforce our sense of shared belonging and identity, which the pandemic might have already made us realize. It can speak about the stark reality that while reducing poverty may be in tow, reducing inequality has barely improved. Our narrative can bring about a stronger commitment to overcome the exclusion of marginalized communities and to dissipate this source of populist anger.
Lastly, let us rebuild the CSO sector’s Democracy Agenda. Our sustainability and the kind of development we espouse can thrive and bear fruit only on fertile, democratic ground.
Czarina Medina-Guce and Ana Martha Galindes posit in “Problematizing the Strengthening of Democratic Institutions” (Working paper, 2018) that democratic backsliding, characterized by shrinking civic spaces, exists in our country, and we have reached a democratic plateau. These did not happen overnight, nor is only one administration or regime to be blamed. They ask civil society to analyze and reflect on how to “renew civil society and leverage from lessons learned, reclaim and create new civic spaces, and shift popular sentiment from grievance to unity,” among others.
If active involvement in the 2022 elections is a key democratic exercise for us, what major roles should we play in creating the long-term political and democratic settings post-elections?
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References:
CSOSI 2016 – https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1868/2016-Asia-CSOSI-Report.pdf
CSOSI 2017 – https://www.fhi360.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/resource-civil-society-organization-2017-asia-regional-report.pdf
CSOSI 2018 – https://code-ngo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2018-CSOSI-Philippine-Report.pdf
CSOSI 2019 – https://code-ngo.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CSOSI-The-Philippines-Report.pdf
CSOSI 2020 – https://code-ngo.org/sustainability-of-philippine-cso-sector-further-declined-in-2019/