Another call to Padayon

A couple of weeks before  2012 ended,  I received an appointment from the national president of the Convention Baptist Ministers Association  to chair and subsequently revive the Padayon Welfare Fund for Pastors Project.  The project is an attempt towards a comprehensive and sustained approach to meet the perennial needs of  our pastors. This is a combination of mutual aid, revolving fund and cooperative concept. It was during my term as president when the project was conceptualized and launched. But it was not given priority by my successor  due to other urgent needs of the association. The recent call to  Padayon (continue)   has inspired other past presidents and officers to get involved. While in the process of  finalizing the mechanics , we have already received almost P200, 000 donations and  pledges from people who are excited about the project.

POSE FOR POSTERITY. (R-L) Victor Salmon,  Atty. Ma. Dolores 

Nalumen and the author pose after the awarding ceremony during

the PASWI Golden Anniversary and Convention in 1998.  

Mr. Salmon (CPU BSSW '73) was one of  the Ten Outstanding
Social Workers of the Philippines. The author  displays the Most 
Outstanding Chapter award for  PASWI-Iloilo

Last Friday,  I got another call to Padayon. Yes, a call to continue  the good things  that we have started.  This time from the former national president of the Philippine Association of Social Workers, Inc. (PASWI).  Atty. Ma.  Dolores Nalumen  unexpectedly visited our office at Central Philippine University  and after some  sort of reunion and recollections,  she made a special request- my active participation in PASWI and the possibility of  reviving our regional group/ fellowship in Western Visayas. I could not say no to her  because of our good working relationship in the past. I succeeded her as president in our local chapter  15 years ago.  We were together in the national board  in 1999-2002.

I suggested to her that we meet again on March 19, 2013 in time for the celebration of World Social Work Day. Our Department has been observing the celebration since 2007  with  a forum and planning session for the annual celebration of the Social Work Week in Iloilo every June 13-19.  We will maximize the occasion for consultation, related to the aforementioned agenda, with the PASWI chapter presidents and  representatives of the National Association for Social Work Education, Inc. (NASWEI), Association of  Local Social Welfare and Development Officers  (ALSWDOPI) , Association of Medical Social Workers of the Philippines (AMSWPI), Department of Social Welfare and Development, and the Provincial/City Social Welfare and Development Officers and non government organizations (NGOs).

After our meeting, I could not  help but  feel  nostalgic about our PASWI regional association. Although the thought of reactivating it  excites me.  Probably, we were the first one to establish a regional association to formalize the tradition of involving  other chapters when conducting  activities in Iloilo. It was in 1998 when we decided to organize the PASWI Western Visayas while  celebrating PASWI's Golden Year. Thereafter, we were able to sustain the organization for nearly  a decade  in line with the national thrust to strengthen regional clusters after the  assembly decided to break the tradition with the ratification of the constitutional amendment for holding  biennial conventions. The association was led by the Regional Coordinating Council/Board composed of chapter presidents and representatives from NASWEI, ALSWDOPI, AMSWPI, DSWD, NGOs and other social work organizations. We conducted quarterly regional updating, assisted in organizing  and strengthening local chapters and other initiatives.

Through our regional association, we have sustained  our unity in the region even during the critical time in the history of social workers when there was schism among various social work-related associations in the national level and some regions. Our move had been supported by the national leadership. I should know having served PASWI in the national board from 1999-2002. It was only in  2006  when some national officers  started to question our initiatives and reportedly conducted consultation sometime in 2007 in Iloilo City related to our regional association (without involving us). We were informed later on that the national leadership discouraged the formation of  regional groupings as  it would  deal only with local chapters.

Some of us  considered the decision surprising and ironic. In the sense, that earlier our regional association hosted the regional convention for Bicol and Visayas cluster with a very interesting theme i.e.  “Building Regional Strength: The Social Work Advantage.” The  Convention  was supposed to focus on the  importance of strengthening the local base and regional organizations in serving the vision of the national association. We thought that the theme would further strengthen our initiatives. But it did not. Instead of building the regional strength, the decision had curtailed regional initiatives. Since we were not given the chance to present our side to the national officers, we abided  with the decision and deactivated our regional body with reservations. As expected, it had affected the dynamism of local chapters especially the flow of communication and coordination of activities.

I did not hide these reservations to Atty. Nalumen during our talk. However, she assured me that she is currently serving in the national board and, as a matter of fact, has been designated as coordinator of the Visayas Cluster.  Having known her in the past, I know it would be worthwhile   to respond to another call to continue the good things we have started. Yes, another call to PADAYON.

Networking in the Philippines (Part II)

Two more posts on history of networking before we resume the Gains and Pains in Serving the Pastors which are actually by-product of networking.

Coping with Repression, Carving a Niche (1972-1978)

When the late President Marcos used a hard line stance to establish a New Society, the NGO community was included in a systematic crack down on opposition groups. All legal attempts at organizing for popular empowerment were paralyzed. NGOs responded to the situation in various ways. While some went underground to wage armed struggle, others were either coopted or forced to lie low. After an initial wave of repression, those that did not join the underground movement continued with their commitment through institutional work, which eventually came to be known as NGO work.

Three significant developments in the networking took place during this period. In 1974, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) came together and adopted a statement defining the priorities and strategies of the development work of the church and its related organization. This development resulted to the formation of a body similar to NASSA- the Commission on Development and Social Concerns. Four years after, as an offshoot of the split of PECCO, a fellowship of pastors and lay workers to assist churches in development efforts was organized into a network known as the Ecumenical Center for Development (ECD).

In 1977, a network among cooperatives came into existence as a response to the government’s attempt to regulate the cooperatives. Known as National Association of Training Center of Cooperatives (NATCCO), the network was later renamed National Confederation of Cooperatives, Inc. It was observed that these church-related networks were more political compared to the first three networks established earlier, namely: National Council of Social Development, Philippine Business for Social Progress and Association of Foundations.

As seen by Soliman (1990), this period witnessed the birth of secular NGOs established by activists who had been working within the church umbrella wanting to institutionalize social development work outside the church. Their endeavors concentrated on uplifting the conditions of the people through cooperatives and provision of start-up capital for income-generating projects. In the words of Alegre (1996), “the intersection of three efforts - the church reaching out, the growing needs of POs, and the development concerns of secular NGOs - gave birth to creative programs that showed NGOs coping amidst repression.”

The situation also became favorable to groups and organizations with political and ideological leanings directly opposing the martial law regime. With their relatively advanced coping mechanism, these groups became influential in the NGO movement. They even set up different NGOs and exerted a considerable influence in the programs and projects of existing ones to become more effective in the latter part of this period

Expansion and Innovation (1978-1983)

Learning from the past experiences, NGOs refined their strategies. This effort resulted to qualitative increase in the organized mass movement, as reflected in the formation of more alliances and federations of people organizations. The NGO movement itself experienced tremendous increase in numbers. Human rights advocacy was broadened to include other areas of concern like indigenous people’s rights, ecology/environment problems, and women rights. As a result, more NGOs were organized bannering on respective sectoral issues. This period also witnessed the utilization of new approaches and tools for development like the micromedia, participatory action research, popular education, alternative medicine, and appropriate technology.

Following the increased unpopularity and isolation of the Marcos regime in the international scene, foreign funds flowed freely in support of development work. Many Northern NGOs and funding agencies even went to the extent of setting up their Philippine desk making the country their base of operations in Asia because of the bulk of projects being supported here. Repression in various forms, however, was also intensified.

As NGOs grew in number, networking as a strategy became attractive because of its effectiveness in lobbying and advocacy work. More regional and national networks were formed during this period, e.g., Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PHILDHRRA) which was established in 1983. Moreover, the other regional and provincial NGOs were integrated into new networks. With these developments, NGOs have become “key players in the country’s sociopolitical landscape.”

Corazon Soliman is the current Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development