Report - Social Watch Philippines

Where P-Noy is taking off from
The Philippines Fourth Progress Report on the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has laid
out what the previous PGMA regime achieved in the
last ten years. It’s a mixed bag of accomplishments and
shortfalls in each of the eight MDGs.
The previous regime takes pride in having set the
economic fundamentals. It has publicly challenged the
new regime to prove that the consistent positive growth
in GNP and GDP of the last ten years can be sustained.
The balance of payments is positive.
Moreover, an environmental legacy of 26 legislations,
covering concerns like solid waste, clean air, clean
water, renewable energy, climate change, disaster risk
reduction and management, and organic agriculture,
are certainly laudable. Supreme Court Chief Justice
Reynato Puno has also added his own green imprint in
the justice system. This includes the writ of kalikasan,
green courts, and continuing mandamus to rehabilitate
Manila Bay.
Our country is said to be a ‘net carbon sink’ based
on our latest greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, given
the 700,000 hectares net increase in our forest cover.
Public awareness on environment and climate change
issues has increased greatly. All these of course would
not have been possible without the sustained efforts
of non-state actors and an environmental legacy that
traces back to Marcos time.
But ensuring environmental sustainability means
much more than laws and policies. Indeed we have
passed more than enough environmental legislation
since our participation in the UN Conference on Human
Environment in Stockholm in 1972. It is also in
the environment sector where we observe wide gaps
in policy and action. Green mandates remain poorly
funded as environment ranks low in budget priority.
Considering the fi scal crisis, additional appropriations
for the environment are not easy to come by.
Even more basic, the environment has always been
sacrifi ced in the name of growth.
Remittances of overseas Filipino workers
(OFWs)—between 16 and 18 billion US dollars annually—have
streamed in despite global economic
crises. Ours would be equivalent to the World Bank’s
historical annual lending average and about three times
that of the ADB’s. Few countries outside of China and
India have had so much fortune.
The country’s balance of trade negative is of course
consistently negative. The country is the world’s big-
6 SOCIAL WATCH PHILIPPINES
gest rice importer. Our so-called export winners, like
electronics are import-dependent.
The country continues to grapple with huge budget
defi cits and mounting debt burden. Tax collection
may be improving but the highest levels of collection
have barely made a dent on the defi cit.
The culture of impunity and privilege fostered in
the old regime had dampened and eroded the possibility
of change. It’s now up to P-Noy to lift the nation
from that feeling of hopelessness and give every citizen
a reason to believe that real change is going to happen
under his watch.
The alternative or shadow report prepared by
Social Watch Philippines, while giving due regard to
the progress made, presents a different picture. Despite
consistent positive economic growth—6 percent on average—there
are more poor Filipinos now than when we
set off on the MDG track in 2000. The high inequality
picture of 1990—expressed in income, employment,
spatial, gender, ethnic dimensions—hardly changed or
might have even worsened. These outcomes indicate
that we have not won the war on poverty as declared
by ex-PGMA on assumption to offi ce in 2001. We
may in fact be losing that war, considering the many
challenges before us.
Under a regime of stability
The previous regime came to power in a turbulent
changeover. Shortly after assumption of offi ce, it was
challenged by mass protests, called the EDSA3, which
led to tragic consequences. From then on, there was no
let up in other forms of challenges to the unpopular
regime, including military coups, Moro insurgencies,
and communist rebellion. On top of all these, the
country had to suffer the impacts of the global crises in
fi nance and economy, food and feed, fuel and energy,
and now climate change.
In contrast the P-Noy regime’s ascent happened
with a smooth transition. Most of all, we now have a
new regime whose legitimacy is beyond question.
The unprecedented mandate given to P-Noy may
be seen as a vote for what ex-PGMA was not, as a vote
for change, a vote of hope that the change will happen.
While nothing can be guaranteed, we are certain that
the ‘We can do it’ feeling pervades across the land.
And that makes for a comparatively easier building of a
nationwide consensus for ending poverty and achieving
sustainable development.
A word of caution, though, high expectations