Photo courtesy of: UST-SIMBAHAYAN Community Development Office

“Community organizing shows that organizing communities for power is possible and effective. The oppressors liberate themselves from oppression and in the process free the oppressors from the sin of oppression.” 

– Tatak CO, a book by the Committee of Elders of the Order of Lapu Lapu

The Philippines has a rich history of community organizing (CO). For several decades, development NGOs have used CO as an approach to mobilize community-based organizations (CBOs) and people’s organizations (POs) to reach intended objectives. As Philippine society evolved, it is important to question and reflect on how we development NGOs have evolved our community organizing practices as well – or if we have even evolved at all in the first place. With the rise of digital technology, proliferation of disinformation and misinformation, polarization of the CSO sector, and increasing red-tagging, it is important to reorganize the way we organize. How can we make CO work still relevant and useful in this day and age?

For the first e-Talk session of its Social Development (SocDev) Week 2022, the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), together with the Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA) held a session entitled “Community Reorganizing.” The session aimed to discuss emerging challenges for NGOs in doing community organizing work and identify strategies for enhancing CO work in light of emerging challenges. 

The session started with a presentation from Arch. Sarah Redoblado of the Alternative Planning Initiatives (ALTERPLAN) who shared insights from a panel research conducted by PHILSSA, with support from INCITEGov, CODE-NGO, the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues, and ALTERPLAN. 

Their research, entitled “Voices Outside The Echo Chambers (VOTE): A Post-2022 Elections Research” sought to understand individuals’ electoral exercise observations and identify entry points for translating community development efforts into informing/influencing people’s political decisions. Through interviews with community members in 13 target areas, they found that the highest online and traditional media information sources are Facebook and television, respectively. When asked about considerations for voting for a candidate, they found that while certain qualities of a particular candidate may work for one, they may not necessarily work for another. However, once people have made up their mind, facts and evidence may have little bearing on their views. Given these challenges, Arch. Sarah urged CSOs to strengthen representative politics by analyzing effective communication in a mis/disinformation environment and strategically build on our relationships with communities to advance active civic engagement.

The second resource speaker was Dr. Froilan “Ka Puroy” Alipao of the University of Sto. Tomas Simbahayan Community Development Office. Ka Puroy presented how the university shifted its community development activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ka Puroy shared some of the mind mapping of service-learning activities geared towards pandemic response in communities, such as telemedicine initiatives, online COVID and vaccination education sessions, family and household development, among others. Ka Puroy said the pandemic served as an opportunity for rethinking strategic service learning, community development, and advocacy.

Mr. Bimbo Fernandez of the Pagtambayayong Foundation then shared his insights in his presentation entitled, “Quo Vadis CO?” Bimbo reminded the audience that when doing community organizing, we must make a distinction of the objective reality and how this objective reality is perceived by the community. He gave the example of how his neighborhood reacted when a neighbor was killed for involvement in drugs – everyone did not see it as an act of injustice; they were happy that he was killed. On the question, “Where did we go wrong?”, Bimbo said that perhaps we [civil society organizations] failed because COs stopped being COs. Bimbo described CO as “bleak,” and “gasping for breath,” but with hope for recovery if we revisit the CO process, repackage and recalibrate CO to attract donors, and attract and train more COs.

The last resource speaker was Dr. Benjy Bagadion, Chairperson of the Foundation for the Philippine Environment. Dr. Benjy talked about how CO can be used against development aggression. Through CO, people can mobilize and negotiate to stop or minimize environmental damage and to implement strategies and tactics as well. In addition, CO can be used to build community-based efforts on environmental protection and sustainable utilization of natural resources for poverty alleviation and wealth generation, such as Bantay Gubat and Bantay Dagat initiatives. Lastly, CO can also be used to help improve law enforcement and enhance government programs that are pro-people and pro-earth. The challenge now, according to Dr. Benjy, is the need for a fundamental paradigmatic change in the concept of scientific revolution in order to meet the protection and conservation of the environment. These include: (1) revolutionizing the training of COs from issue-based organizing towards opportunity organizing and developing strategies for wealth creation and environmental protection; and (2) shifting in philosophical view of CO from an anthropocentric to biocentric point of view. In this sense, Dr. Benjy said we must learn to expand our concept of neighbor and include other living beings as our neighbors and to acknowledge that we are all interrelated.

PHILSSA National Coordinator Benedict Balderrama then synthesized the discussions, emphasizing that community organizing is still highly relevant in today’s generation. Nonetheless, its relevance comes from the need to continuously adapt and improve its methods. The session was an opportunity to look back at the core principles which enabled us to understand and enhance the application and ways of community organizing. The practice of looking back is important because victories are emphasized and points for improvement are identified. 

To watch the recording of this session, click here. 

Arch Sarah Redoblado – 29:43

Dr. Froilan “Ka Puroy” Alipao – 1:11:24

Mr. Bimbo Fernandez – 1:37:08

Dr. Benjy Bagadion – 2:03:14

Benedict Balderrama (Moderator/Synthesis) – 2:21:40

Know more about the Social Development Week! 

Visit https://code-ngo.org/socialdevelopmentweek