AT LEAST 70 participants from the Philippine Consortium on Social Protection gathered in Palo, Leyte, on Tuesday, May 22, to present the results of their citizen-led social protection monitoring in Masbate and Samar Island provinces.
The activity, dubbed “Bridging Government and Civil Society: Advancing Local Social Protection Mechanisms in the Philippines,” aimed to “establish urgency of bridging the national government, local civil society organizations, and grassroots communities to discuss crucial measures for social protection policy and program reforms.”
“We did a model on program monitoring and identified government programs like Pantawid Pamilya Program, social pension, sustainable livelihood program, PhilHealth, and crop insurance. We have to strengthen social protection through government and civil society working together for them to access these programs,” Shigemi Muramatsu, Plan International communications and advocacy officer, told SunStar in an interview.
Plan International, along with the International Center for Innovation, Transformation, and Excellence in Governance (INCITEGov) and the Eastern Visayas Network of Non-governmental organizations and Peoples’ organizations (Evnet), is part of the consortium.
The social protection monitoring project, which started in 2016 through the funding support of the European Union, has led to the creation of community-based advocacy and monitoring groups (CBAMGs) that looked into the “inclusiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency, and participation” of the various government social protection programs to its intended recipients like the senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
“With our project, we have seen an increasing number of elderly in far-flung villages who are able to get their identification cards, which means they are now recognized. The same with those PWDs and those others in marginalized sectors like the women, farmers, and fisherfolk,” Muramatsu said.
“This is the third year of the project. The past two years, we’re more on capacitating them, training, and registering them as legitimate organizations to be sustained and recognized by their local government units,” she added.
The project covers 20 towns in the provinces of Samar, Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Masbate.
“It’s a common gap that government is challenged in letting people know that they are doing something. We’re here to help, improve, and advocate the programs,” said Muramatsu, adding that both the government and the citizens have a role in the successful delivery of the country’s social protection programs.
According to the Plan International officer, they are also recognizing “champions” in the government sector, specifically local council members and officials who passed resolutions to replicate their testing models and who allocate budget in their internal revenue allotments (IRAs) for PWDs and senior citizens.
"We hope that the models will create a 'ripple effects' to other LGUs," she added.
According to Muramatsu, there is a need for the marginalized sectors in the country to be organized so that their social protection will move forward.
“The world is changing and we need to adapt to it. Part of adapting to it is changing the mindset, but we’re not just here to demand the government, but also to supply, to help government through constructive engagements,” she added.
While saying that civil society and government are usually in “opposable thumbs,” Muramatsu said this is not all the time.
“There are many areas that the two need to collaborate. In the end, we’re the same, we’re after the protection of their life, like when calamity strikes,” added Muramatsu while appealing to the government that they would take their recommendations to improve social protections.
The consortium reported that their project has already covered 409 adult CBAMG members, 225 children and youth CBAMG members, 233 citizen groups registered, 115 citizen groups accredited, 20 CBAMGs representing 80 communities, 7,990 adults oriented in social protection, 797 children oriented on social protection, and 3,850 women participated in project activities. (SunStar Philippines)