Report - Social Watch Philippines

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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
may mean a short honeymoon period. In light of the MDG shortfalls and the mounting economic, social and environmental problems, including outstanding political issues, like corruption, that are potentially divisive, the new regime must seize the moment to rally the nation around where it wants to go and how to get there. Can the Philippine government keep its MDG promises by 2015? Maybe. The new regime could cash in on its overwhelming mandate. If that mandate was really a vote for change, then it should not be diffi cult to rally the nation and build a nationwide MDG-consensus. It should not be diffi cult to concentrate all available resources to meet the targets. The new regime can aim to make poverty history 1 at the end of its term. To begin with, the MDGs are a very minimalist set of goals for a middle income country like the Philippines. We should have achieved them under the previous regime. Looking to 2012 and 2015 In 2015 the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be up for judgment. Derived from the Millennium Declaration of the Millennium Summit of 2000, the MDGs are a set of minimum commitments to free humanity from poverty, hunger, disease, and other forms of deprivation, to reduce inequality, promote human rights and enlarge our basic freedoms. By then, 15 years will have gone by for both the Copenhagen Social Summit and the Beijing Women’s Conference. These two UN summits vowed to end poverty, create employment, improve social cohesion, reduce gender inequality and promote women empowerment. These promises are synthesized in the MDGs which comprise 8 goals, 18 targets, and 48 indicators. Four more targets and corresponding indicators were added during the World Summit of 2005 or MDG+5 Summit. These goals, targets and indicators are measured against the 1990 baseline. By 2012 it will be the 20 year anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit. As has already been decided by the UN there will be another global summit of world leaders in 2012 to take stock of the world situation, assess progress, agree on what needs to be done, and renew commitment to achieve sustainable development within the soonest possible timeframe. Sustainable development 2 was the theme of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, more popularly known as the Rio Summit or Earth Summit of 1992. It is an all-embracing concept that integrates environment and development, defi ned as the kind of “development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. The Rio+20 summit will bring back to center stage the concept and practical operations of a green economy 3 or eco-economy 4 which was already raised but pushed to the backburner in the previous summit in 2005. The theme is critical given the stubborn persistence of poverty and the continuing rise in CO 2 emissions and dangerous human interference into the climate system. Increasing uncertainties worldwide As we look forward to a regime of stability, and are mindful of the past regime’s legacy, we have to take stock of our vulnerabilities. The fi rst decade of 2000 is notable for such events as 9/11, the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and great forest fi res, storms, earthquakes and tsunamis. In 2008 we saw the near-collapse of the fi nancial system, combined with the food and fuel crisis. Before we could fully recover from their impacts, we got one more disaster after another. All these and the great oil spill in the Mexican Gulf seem to indicate that the worst is yet to come. Increasing uncertainties make it diffi cult to tell whether we are actually headed toward sustainable development or systemic shut downs. In 1990, climate change was a side concern of sustainable development. In 2010, climate change is seen as one of the greatest threats to sustainable development. World leaders who came to the failed climate 1 A banner call used by the UN Millennium Campaign (UNMC) 2 Defi ned by the World Commission on Environment and Development (otherwise known as the Brundtland Commission) in its 1987 Report to the UN, under the publication title Our Common Future. 3 Pearce, D.W., Markandya, A. and Barbier, E.B. Blueprint for a Green Economy (London: Earthscan, 1989). Jacobs, M. The Green Economy: environment, sustainable development and the politics of the future (London: Pluto Press, 1991). 4 Brown, L. R. Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2001). Winning the Numbers, Losing the War: The Other MDG Report 2010 7
Page 3 and 4: Winning the Numbers, Losing the War
Page 5 and 6: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Many deserve our th
Page 7 and 8: CLEEP Comprehensive Livelihood and
Page 9 and 10: MOA-AD Memorandum of Agreement on A
Page 11 and 12: ABOUT THE AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS Leon
Page 13: FOREWORD By ISAGANI R. SERRANO This
Page 17 and 18: An urgent MDG message: Inadequate f
Page 19 and 20: The use of the budget instrument fo
Page 21: MDG chances: stability and vulnerab
Page 25 and 26: what we got from Annex I countries
Page 27 and 28: (Php58.6 Billion) of GDP at current
Page 29 and 30: Fourth Assessment Report provide a
Page 31 and 32: Losing the war on poverty The Other
Page 33 and 34: Table 1. Philippines’ MDG progres
Page 35 and 36: (NER) and medium on both cohort sur
Page 37 and 38: incidence of 97.46 percent. The las
Page 39 and 40: special needs; (c) 228,928 women in
Page 41 and 42: cultural structures urgently needin
Page 43: capacity to confront the dreaded cl
Page 46 and 47: MDG Goal 1 Targets 1 and 3: On erad
Page 48 and 49: Table 1. Prevalence of undernutriti
Page 50 and 51: 2007, women’s national unemployme
Page 52 and 53: in the service and production secto
Page 54 and 55: een generally positive—increased
Page 56 and 57: Table 9: Partial Listing of Big Lan
Page 58 and 59: and promote gender equality in all
Page 60 and 61: While many see this as an education
Page 62 and 63: seen in both public and private pre
Page 64 and 65: and therefore, limited coverage. Th
Page 66 and 67: Table 7. Education Expenditure as a
Page 68 and 69: Box 2. Education budget tracking (2
Page 70 and 71: This paper looks at highly vulnerab
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to education. 5 In practice, debt p
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Table 5. Distribution of Government
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Table 7. Average Daily Basic Pay by
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in the 80’s, according to Sibal,
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eports of female OFW deaths, sexual
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Table 13. Trafficked Migrants Assis
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plicating overpopulation and poor w
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CAN$318.8 billion. While they found
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. Women’s economic empowerment i.
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statistics-fs-violence-against-fi l
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New policies and programs meant to
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Table 2: Immunization Status 1998 2
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Table 4. List of Nutritionally Vuln
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percent), who gave birth at home (9
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protocol is another comprehensive s
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5. Revamping the health insurance s
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Universalizing health care As we po
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Progress of work in improving mater
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Figure 2. Use of Skilled Birth Atte
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In terms of postnatal care, 77 perc
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Abortion Worldwide abortion rates h
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went down from 9.8 percent in 2005
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longer to health care centers in co
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However, USAID, with the concurrenc
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Box 1. Safe Motherhood: a brief his
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The rising challenge of HIV/AIDS an
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Sexual transmission remains to be t
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national response. Since health was
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Figure 7. Frequency distribution of
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Table 5. Annual estimated cost for
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tion of Public-Private Mix Departme
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Not much time, but not without opti
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Questions and more questions on the
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Figure 1: Biodiversity Hotspots Bio
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MDG’s, but more importantly, on b
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8. Organic Agriculture Act of 2010;
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science Bureau (MGB) but funded by
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Problems and gaps Incoherent and cl
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must be able to provide for non-pro
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Trade, debt and aid: MDG retardants
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Table 1. Recent Trade and Investmen
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elated social spending; Three, ille
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eing proposed in Congress. But more
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Results - Developing countries and
Page 162 and 163:
Mindanao situation Mindanao is the
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Table 1.Cohort Survival Rate by Reg
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MTPDP has not gained momentum to ef
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Seven provinces in Mindanao, almost
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a. Lobby for the crafting of laws a
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Moro situation after the Treaty of
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and Palawan movement and Mindanao I
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Appendix B Are the Moros Filipinos?
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Government with respect to the Moro
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legal and political shields behind
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Goals and Targets (from the Millenn
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Report - Social Watch Philippines

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