Issue# 10

IT FEELS RIGHT BECAUSE IT WORKS

Cynthia Ambe

IT FEELS RIGHT BECAUSE IT WORKS

Tarcila “Ka Tessie” Lopez, leader of the Pederasyon ng Anak-BALAYAN, admits that she does not fully understand the mandate and agenda of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), not having participated in the agency's activities before. Nevertheless, she encourages other organizations to become active in the commission.

Pederasyon ng Anak-BALAYAN is the organization of the fisher folk in the town of Balayan, Batangas committed to the conservation and protection Balayan municipal waters and Balayan Bay. It also works to raise the productivity of the seas and improve the economic welfare of the fishery sector and coastal communities.

Ka Tessie says she has seen the invitations and announcements from the government agency. She thinks NAPC can greatly help in pushing for policies and projects aligned with their organization's advocacies. They want to join in the activities of NAPC, but not knowing the actual “how to's” prevents them from doing so.

When people like Ka Tessie seek to be included in a government agency process even when the mandate of the agency is not clear to them, that agency must be doing something right.

Mechanism for people's participation

NAPC has been in the bureaucracy for 18 years now. Ironically, even some government agencies are not familiar with the mandate of NAPC and its importance in the government's poverty reduction efforts. Many say its functions are redundant and even overlap with those of other government agencies. Little do they know that NAPC, though a small agency, is unique among the other agencies because people's participation is inherent in the institution that gives voice to the marginalized and poor.

NAPC engages the marginalized sectors of society through various mechanisms that support their participation in the bureaucracy. These include organizing and building their strengths, skills and knowledge to empower them to find solutions to their problems. Through NAPC, they gain confidence in participating in governance processes. The United Nations recognizes the human rights approach in poverty reduction through the active and informed participation of the poor.

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IT FEELS RIGHT BECAUSE IT WORKS

In the NSA, the organizations set the sectoral agenda they want prioritized by the Sectoral Council. The outputs of the Sectoral Councils and the Sectoral Representatives Council are then given to the Basic Sector Coordinating and Advocacy Service Unit of the NAPC Secretariat. The agenda are consolidated by the Policy Monitoring and Social Technology Service into poverty-reduction strategies. These are integrated into policy development and analyses/assessments for poverty reduction in cooperation with other government agencies.

The agenda are also presented to the Localization Advocacy Coordinating and Monitoring Service for proper coordination and action with government units and sectors at the local level. The last step in the process is the presentation of the agenda to the President through the NAPC en banc. The President, who chairs the en banc, then provides instructions to the heads of the implementing agencies that in turn will

According to NAPC Secretary Jose Eliseo M. Rocamora, the participation of the sectors and identification of their official representatives in the decision-making process of the government make the Philippines unique in Asia. There are several NAPC mechanisms that ensures the participation of the sector in the governance cycle. It can be categorized into two paths: formal and the informal.

The formal

The formal process of sector participation in NAPC starts in the National Sectoral Assembly (NSA). The NSA gathers 50-100 duly recognized organizations to select their representatives to the National Sectoral Council. The National Sectoral Council members nominate three of their number and the President appoints one of those as the Sectoral Representative of their respective sector. Ruperto “Ka Uper” Aleroza was appointed in 2015 as the NAPC's Sectoral Representative. Ka Uper has long been familiar with the NAPC processes, having first represented the Pambansang Katipunan ng mga Samahan sa Kanayunan (PKSK) in the NAPC Artisanal Fisherfolk Sector way back 2004.

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IT FEELS RIGHT BECAUSE IT WORKS

allocate resources for implementing the sectors' agenda.

The informal

The informal process of sectors' participation takes the form of bilateral negotiations with the partner agencies. In this process, the NAPC provides a venue for the sectors to air their sentiments and present their recommendations through negotiations and dialogue with the concerned partner agency.

In 2011, the NAPC Fisherfolk Sector identified settlement as one of their priority proposals. Through NAPC and in partnership with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the fisher folk's recommendations were implemented. Currently, NAPC has a partnership with BFAR to build 252 fish landing sites, with accompanying social preparations and appropriate budget allocations. BFAR and NAPC came up with a work plan for the project that sees BFAR hiring 100 new municipal fisher folk development staff. NAPC prepared the module for training the staff.

Enriching the process

Even though NAPC has budget constraints since it is not an implementing agency, Ka Uper says it is only through NAPC that their dreams of fisher folk settlement and fish landing sites—that they have been pushing for so many years—are being realized now. He added that NAPC has significantly helped the fisher folk sector in the implementing the law on municipal water delineation. During the last National Sectoral Assembly in 2015, NAPC conducted interviews and focus group discussions among the members of fisher folk organizations who attended the assembly. The observations in this paper were culled from the interviews and from the review of NAPC documents from the past and current administrations.

For the sectoral partners, NAPC provides the government instrumentality allowing the basic sectors to participate in the government decision-making process. Continuous capacity-building activities imbue the sectors with the right skill sets to engage the government as they air their issues and recommendations.

Lastly, it is a platform the poor and marginalized to push for government allocation of resources to ensure their sectoral agenda are realized. They have become empowered people who have confidence that they can move out of poverty through effective governance participation.

The successful outcomes of these processes have attracted more organizations more than ever before to become involved in NAPC initiatives, Ka Uper observes. The proof of the pudding, after all, is always in the eating.

About the Author:

Cynthia Ambe is a staff of the Policy, Monitoring and Social Technology Service Unit (PMSTS) of NAPC. She recently earned her Master's degree in Community Development at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Her research interests include local and international development studies, A mother of two beautiful children, she maintains a well-balanced career and family life.

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