In January 2021, the virtual launch of the publication “Populism and Philippine Civil Society: Views from Labor, Urban Poor, and Development NGOs” (Lopa-Perez, 2020) provided an opportune time for CODE-NGO to begin a process of self-reflection.

The publication is set amid the earlier years when populist regimes and democratic backsliding began to trend in different parts of the world. In our country, President Rodrigo Duterte’s strongman brand and populist tactics remained consistently popular to Filipinos since his administration began in 2016, but it polarized the once-united CSO sector. The publication studies the phenomenon of populism, describes the CSO sector’s engagement with the Duterte administration, documents the growth of a resistance movement, and prescribes ways moving forward.

To reflect and to act on the five outlined prescriptions into action is worthwhile: internal stock-taking, revitalizing the organizing process, identifying new spaces for engagement, developing an effective communication strategy, and bridging gaps and encouraging synergies.

The prescriptions underscore organizing communities and creating different environments to foster human connections where people, hopefully, are able to distinguish between fact and fiction, and between true and false. For CODE-NGO, these are the “greatest acts of courage and resistance in the face of oppression.” But direct conversations had to be first organized between and among CSOs whose friendships and partnerships might have become strained and distanced during the past five years.

With support from the International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov), CODE-NGO organized a series of “Generative Conversations” – discussions designed to bring about a better understanding of and healthy respect for differing perspectives, and to re-establish connections within groups.

Generative Conversations: Our Basis of Unity, Our Sources of Hope

In the two Generative Conversations held last July and August 2021, the CODE-NGO Board of Directors, member networks, committees, and commissions agreed to:

• Refer always to the CODE-NGO Basis of Unity, our Covenant for Philippine Development. Review the time-honored principles and values that our coalition stands for and subscribes to. Hold on to that Covenant and we hold on to our truth. Personalities and issues can be polarizing, but if we always deepen our conversations around what binds us, then consensus-building and decision-making can happen better.
• Enhance the CODE-NGO Basis of Unity so it reflects and responds to changing contexts and present realities, i.e. 30 years after it was written
• Review the operationalization of the CODE-NGO Basis of Unity (“Let us live it”) in our membership. Identify new tools to use in order to better perform our roles in changing contexts.
• Create a holding space for regular generative conversations at the national and community levels “so that our voices will truly be united, a national voice, and we can speak for the CSO sector”. In these deeper conversations, we can look at current realities, and continuously reflect on our identity, passion and sense of hope and build trust on each other.
• Build CODE-NGO as a place to source truthful, factual, balanced information to help NGOs and communities analyze national events and how these impact Filipinos and communities.

What are their sources of hope?

• The immediate and medium-term actions that CODE-NGO needs to work on
• A strong Board that can stand up for the CODE-NGO Basis of Unity.
• Our young people, working with the youth, and working with “the indigenous peoples’ elders who share their indigenous knowledge, practices, and hope, the fire in their belly, to the young”
• The presence and company of CSO leaders (“We are still here”)
• Civil servants or allies in government who support social development work
• Generative conversations which entail being open, courageous, and vulnerable

With the above, CODE-NGO aims to explore more possibilities for working together for the sectors it serves and for moving forward as an effective countervailing force to government.

Reference:
Lopa-Perez, M. (2020). “Populism and Philippine Civil Society: Views from Labor, Urban Poor, and Development NGOs.” INCITEGov.

This article is part of the CODE-NGO Annual Report 2021.