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February 12, 2010

Social Watch Philippines Supports Leonor Magtolis Briones For Kaakbay Partylist

MEMBERS of the Social Watch Philippines (SWP) network supported the candidacy of its lead convenor, former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, under the Kaakbay Partylist.

“This country needs people like Briones in Congress,” said Jessica Reyes-Cantos, co-convenor of SWP. “She leads over a hundred citizens’ organizations on a campaign for increased spending for social services and has been at the helm of civil society and legislator partnership efforts on formulating and lobbying for alternative budget proposals for increased allocation for education, health, agriculture and the environment,” said Cantos.

Briones leads SWP in its campaign for increased financing for social development, particularly the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) since 2001. The MDGs are the set of eight goals embodying the countries’ commitment to end the worst forms of human deprivation by 2015.

“The Congress holds the people’s power of the purse. We need representatives who are dedicated to ensuring that the most vulnerable sectors benefit from public funds which are their hard earned money. We need people who can courageously tell rich nations to live up to their promises of helping the poorest countries and to be fair in providing aid. We need someone who leads civil society across the globe in fighting for fair economic policies,” said Rene Raya of Action for Economic Reforms (AER) who is also a convenor of SWP.

With Briones’ leadership, SWP has been actively involved in international global campaigns on the MDGs, and has been monitoring and analyzing public expenditures for social development, particularly the MDGs for already nine years. SWP is recognized globally for having tested and developed poverty measurements that are more sensitive at the local level. It has also established leadership in localizing the MDGs, and has led CSO-legislator partnerships in formulating alternative budget proposals for increased allocation for key MDG targets.
Briones is also the Philippine ambassador to the W8 which is a group of women leaders from eight nations organized by Oxfam to talk to heads of the richest countries to remind them to live up to their promises to help poor nations finance social development programs.

“We have been aiming and calling for reform and good governance for so many years. How to achieve reforms in government is what Briones has been teaching to our future leaders at the National College of Public Administration and Good Governance at the University of the Philippines. Young and new Congressmen and Senators need Briones’ wisdom and principles,” said Isagani Serrano, SWP convenor and president of the country’s oldest nongovernment organization, the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

“We feel that Briones’ victory in Congress would be a victory for all citizens’ groups who have been untiringly lobbying inside the halls of Congress and holding mass actions outside the gates of Congress so that people’s voice may be finally heard and be translated into national policies”, said Marivic Raquiza, SWP convenor and former national coordinator of Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP).

Briones was chosen by Kaakbay Partylist as one of their candidates because of her longstanding dedication and leadership role in efforts to achieve the country’s commitment to end the worst forms of human deprivation through the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) such as the eradication of extreme poverty, achieving quality education, realizing universal healthcare services and ensuring environmental sustainability.

 

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