News

July 27, 2010

Civil Society group challenges P-Noy, ‘Will you be the President to accomplish the MDGs under your watch or will it be business as usual?

Members of the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI)-Social Watch, a broad civil society network, expressed concern that President Noynoy Aquino made no mention of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) during his State of the Nation Address (SONA), considering that it will be under his watch that the program deadline takes place. The MDGs are a set of eight goals agreed by governments in the United Nations in 2000 and which comprise the country’s commitments to end the worst forms of human deprivation by 2015.

The ABI-Social Watch network observed, ‘ with five years left to meeting our MDG targets, P-Noy is at a crossroad or ‘sangandaan’: will he be the president to fulfill the MDGs and go beyond so that no one is left behind, or will it be business as usual? Listening to the SONA, except for the anti-corruption statements, it seems that he is veering to towards the latter scenario. ‘

“The MDGs were a low bar to begin with. There is really no excuse why middle income countries like the Philippines would fail to deliver. In fact, the government should have achieved the MDGs a long time ago and should now be ensuring that no one will be left
behind in its poverty eradication efforts,” said Isagani Serrano, president of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM).

“P-Noy could keep these promises and ensure that no Pinoy is left behind by hearing what the citizens’ are saying abut the MDGs. Listen to the citizens’ groups, who are working closely with the grassroots so that the poorest may be given the power to participate in deciding this country’s priorities,” Serrano added.

“For already four years, Social Watch Philippines and ABI has been telling government that it has to allocate more funding for health, education, agriculture and environment in order to attain the MDGs by 2015. Unfortunately, during the past administration that managed the MDGs for ten years, social development expenditures were severely reduced to decrease the deficit,” said former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, lead convenor of Social Watch Philippines that organized the ABI. “Now, we cannot help but worry that in the effort to contain the very huge deficit, the P-Noy administration will do the same as its predecessor,” she added.

Marivic Raquiza, an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance, said that to achieve the MDG goals on ending poverty and extreme hunger, P-Noy should prioritize asset reform such as through genuine
implementation of agrarian reform starting with the Hacienda Luisita.

“About 70 percent of the poorest Filipinos are the landless rural poor. The impact of programs on farming methods, irrigation, extension services and market facilities will be enhanced if farmers have decisive control and ownership of the land they till. The silence of Pres. Aquino on this issue, given his haciendero background, is deafening,” said Raquiza.

Raquiza said that the main obstacle to achieving the goals on poverty and hunger eradication is an official development strategy that is not pro-poor. “It does not address the high levels of inequality in incomes, assets and opportunities. Government’s anti-poverty programs are a
patchwork, piecemeal in its approach and only provides ‘pantawid’ or short-term relief,” she said, ‘unfortunately, the SONA yesterday does not inspire confidence that this will change.’

“It is ironic that in the first decade of the MDGs, environment degradation in the Philippines has in fact worsened. The country’s vulnerability to climate change, particularly of the resource poor communities, was exposed,” said Jonathan Ronquillo of the La Liga Policy Institute. “The last ten years under President Gloria Arroyo was a lost decade for the MDGs on the environment, with inconsistent plans and programs, weak implementation bordering on inaction and the lack of public financing,” he added.

“We call on P-Noy to make a decisive and clear shift to a low-carbon, climate sensitive development backed up by programs and public financing for climate adaptation and mitigation. This should be reflected within the new Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP), the General Appropriations Act and the local government units,” Ronquillo said.

Meanwhile, Rene Raya of Action for Economic Reforms said that the country is off-track in the MDGs on education with the 1.4 million Filipino children dropping out of elementary and secondary school yearly and the 5.2 million Filipino children who are out of school.
“P-Noy’s administration should prioritize education programs and resources for the disadvantaged sectors and the out-of-school,” he said.

Mae Buenaventura, a women’s rights activist, said that the gains in having more female enrolling and staying in schools were not translated into meeting other targets set towards empowering women. “Women are disproportionately represented in unpaid work, which means much of the work they do is priced zero,” she said.

“The P-Noy administration can address through policies that address biases in schools, business government policies and programs that foster norms discriminatory to women,” Buenaventura added.

Mercy Fabros of Women Health Philippines added that maternal mortality rate is still one of the highest in Asia. “P-Noy should support the Reproductive Health Bill and implement the Magna Carta of Women which includes the State’s responsibility to provide sex education,” she said.

Jolly Lais of the Assalam Bangsa Moro people’s organization said that for a truly humane and genuine development to succeed, it should be the policy of the government to allocate 25 percent of the annual national budget to Mindanao. “Three-fold worth of this amount should be used to fund MDG programs in Moro areas so that the people here will no longer suffer the exclusion in programs and legislations that they have suffered during the ten years of the previous regime,” Lais said.

Meanwhile, Jessica Cantos of Rice Watch and Action Network said that greater liberalization in Philippine trade caused disintegrated development in the agriculture and industrial sector.

“The country was transformed into a net agricultural importer as it exercise greater openness with the global trading system,” she said

“There should be a moratorium on the implementation of all trading agreements until a comprehensive review of all these agreements are done. We are also willing to help P-Noy craft a ten-year development plan within a comprehensive national development plan that is anchored on greater food security,” she said.

Cantos added that the government should now veer away from trade facilitation tied to Official Development Assistance (ODA) or the so called “aid for trade” arrangements until the country has put in place a comprehensive national and trade development agenda.

Cantos also called on the administration to review the Cheaper Medicine Bill which is supposed to respond to the eighth MDG. “Cheaper but quality drugs remain unavailable in rural and even urban areas. Even with the passage of the Cheaper Medicine Law, monopolies and oligopolies in the pharmaceutical industry prevent the development of real competition,” she said, ‘we challenge P-Noy to break up these monopolies to give the poor a chance to buy the medicines they need.’

ABI-Social Watch is the hundred-strong consortium of civil society groups that is globally acknowledged for initiating partnership among legislators and citizens in proposing increased budgetary allocation for MDG-related programs like health, education, agriculture and environment.  ^ Back to top

Whistleblowers advise P-Noy to hone new Government workers as army against corruption
 

Groups show strong support to Congress’ Bills on People’s Participation in Budgeting, February 22, 2011
 

Congress urged to Act Fast on People’s Participation in Budget Deliberations Act, February 20, 2011
 

Extreme vigilance over lump sums urgent in 2011, January 20, 2011
 

Study reveals scant Filipino people power on public funds, January 20, 2011
 

Budget activists hit signing of 2011 budget law, December 28, 2010
 

House Speaker and Senate President pledged more funds for the MDGs,  September 15, 2010

Citizens’ groups offer Shadow Report to help Gov’t catch up on MDGs, September 15, 2010

Civil Society group challenges P-Noy, ‘Will you be the President to accomplish the MDGs under your watch or will it be business as usual?, July 27, 2010

Reveal and use invisible budgets to achieve poverty eradication goals – budget watchers urged P-Noy, July 26, 2010

Ensure no pinoy left behind – social watchers tell P-Noy, July 25, 2010

Cong. Tanada gets two thumbs up for P10 M pork barrel slash – July 8, 2010

The first thing P.Noy should do is to release the impounded funds for basic services – budget advocates, June 29, 2010

Noy told: ‘Don’t do a Gloria’;
Release budget on time - Group

UN Millennium Campaign urges decisive actions from new administration

Probe Launches Search for the Philippines’ MDG Warriors

Kaakbay Nominee, Briones hits IMF and DOF for the VAT Increase Proposal

LGU-Civil Society Partnership for the MDGs - set off in Negros Oriental

More news on Archive