CODE-NGO, the largest coalition of non-government organizations, people’s organizations, and cooperatives in the Philippines working on social development, organized its Social Development Week (SDW) 2022 and the CODE-NGO 7th Congress last October 24-28, 2023.  

At the closing plenary forum, Elvin Uy, Executive Director of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and Board Member of CODE-NGO, summarized the sessions that were held during the whole SDW 2022, and emphasized that in this time of immense fragility and vulnerability, the call to action of the CSOs remains – listen with open minds and hearts, organize inclusively, and act with passion and purpose.

The closing plenary forum’s panel of speakers – Atty. Ace Durano, CEO of the Ramon Nito Durano Family Foundation Inc., Dr. Cheryll Soriano from the Dept. of Communications-De la Salle University, and Prof. Rejene Lakibul from the Political Science Dept. of the University of San Carlos – then talked about how CSOs could avoid working in silos and echo chambers and strengthen themselves to level up democracy. 

Dr. Soriano expanded on the effect of disinformation and communication, not only on democratic practices such as elections, but more importantly on Filipinos’ political participation, appreciation of who they will vote for, and their perception of their chosen leaders. These said effects pose a challenge to CSOs and how they communicate important messages such as Truth and Justice to Filipinos at the grassroots. If not by spreading outright disinformation, propagandists would sow seeds of doubt by posing questions like “Did atrocities during the Martial Law years really happen?” “Has democracy been beneficial to the people?” that can change Filipino voters’ beliefs about the candidates they choose to elect or not elect. 

CSOs, then, are confronted with this reality – How can they communicate the facts and truth that there have been human rights violations during Martial Law? How can CSOs set their agenda amidst the overflow of propaganda? Dr. Soriano posed these reflective questions for CSOs to process and to find ways for civic engagement and organizational listening to happen. This is in the hope that democracy is strengthened by listening to each other and acting on truthful information.

Professor Rejene Lakibul walked the audience through the history of pro-democracy advocacy with civil society. He drove an important point that CSOs should be abreast of the Philippine political landscape,  especially because public opinion nowadays can be created or manipulated. He recommends that in order to legitimize the narratives that we are promoting, we should strengthen “political communication” where we have an interactive process of sharing information with the communities we serve and the holders or controllers of the information, such as politicians, media, etc.

Atty. Ace Durano related that he has witnessed the power of collaborating with communities. “For our work to have lasting and meaningful effect in the communities where we engage, collaboration, partnership, participation by communities is indispensable,” said Durano. Only then can their family foundation carry out sustainable projects.

While the platform for serving communities as a politician or as a development practitioner is different, the goal to affect change should be the same. He confirmed that there are certain ways to reach out to the communities, such as through forms of entertainment, but he sees that it is important to get their attention to eventually convince them of the message you want to get through to them. 

In his closing remarks, Aurelio Salgados, Jr., Vice-chairperson of CODE-NGO, said that the participants truly valued the intellectual and experiential inputs of colleagues and experts from other sectors, which were given with the heart of partnership and alliance building. As CSOs, It is our goal to apply the inputs and bridge the gaps brought about by misinformation.  

To watch the recording of this session, click here.

Know more about the Social Development Week! 

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