YPS

A month ago, or October 21 to be exact, the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB), the Ateneo de Manila School of Government (ASoG), the Institutional Network for Social Action of Miriam College, and the Ateneo Student Catholic Action, organized a seminar called ‘Bantay Pangako' for barangay leaders in Quezon City. The aim of the Bantay Pangako is to assist community organizations develop their own socio-economic and political agenda which they can they present to candidates running for public office; these candidates would then react to and pledge to implement part of or the whole of the agenda if they are voted into office. A meeting and covenant signing was also held last October 25 among barangay chairperson and kagawad and selected barangay representatives.

The October 21 workshop helped the community representatives from Barangay Loyola Heights, Pansol, Kaingin and UP articulate the problems and needs which they have not been able to do; these leaders live in the marginalized areas in their respective barangays. They said that their needs include the resolution of their long-standing issue of land security (they live in areas that are owned by private individuals or in by the government), the provision of basic health and education services, and the implementation of programs oriented to women and the youth and employment facilitation projects.

The seminar also helped raise the consciousness of community representatives about political leadership and accountability. During the seminar, an elderly woman from Barangay Pansol, for example, decried the fact that many local politicians has subverted the notion of leadership by paying off the urban poor in order to buy their votes; she said that this has caused disunity in their community. Thus the leaders discussed informally how they would be able to monitor their winning candidates once elected; some of the suggestions in past seminars included the construction of a ‘monitoring board' that would review whether the candidates have implemented their promises. As one of the facilitators of the workshop, I was touched by sincerity of the urban poor leaders in their pledge to become more active in the political system.

I think that the seminars have started to help start raise the awareness of communities about how they can be made more active in the political process and make better choices of their political representatives. Bantay Pangako, which was started last January by Ateneo-based groups (not only in Quezon City, but also in Naga and Cagayan de Oro, and which has also been undertaken by regional non-government networks in Western and Eastern Visayas) is in fact inspired by the work in Zamboanga de Sibugay by the Catholic laity under their ‘Silingan Ka!' (You are my Neighbor!) campaign under Jesuit Bishop (now Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro) Tony Ledesma. Before the May 2004 ballot, several lay workers in the Prelature of Ipil (which covers the whole of the province) recognized their role as Church leaders to make partisan- or even ‘transpartisan' (i.e., beyond partisan, as communities are looking for leaders that would answer their issues) choices of political candidates. After some of the candidates they supported won in the elections, regular dialogue-fora activities were undertaken to discuss issues and concerns and to establish a support system for the elected officials and to monitor the activities of the local government.

The International Center for Innovation, Transformation and Excellence in Governance (INCITE-GOV), which is the mother institute supporting this site, also plans to embark on its own Bantay Pangako based on the principles of politics-governance-development outcomes (PGD) framework. The PGD framework, from my understanding, tries to ensure that while communities and groups develop their own political agendas, as in the Bantay Pangako, but also to make them more aware of the political dynamics within their own area so that they forward their agenda.

The INCITE-GOV will be working, not with specific area-based communities, but with groups working on reforms on specific issues such as water and the environment, public education, Muslim Mindanao and land and shelter. The hope is that these issues become important in the 2010 presidential elections that politicians would be willing to undertake and would be willing to be accountable for the reforms that would be implemented. These initiative will be undertaken in the next few months and this blog will hope to update you on the progress of activities.

Undertaking these two initiatives in the current political system where politicians do not feel any accountability for their actions- one can recall the acceptance, without any scruples, of large amounts of cash by members of Congress and provincial governance in Malacanang- is quite laudable. I hope that this is a first step in ensuring that politicians should be answerable not only to their pockets but to their electors.

(For more information on the Bantay Pangako initiative, contact Jess Paul Pasibe, Project Officer for Political Affairs, of the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan and the Pugadlawin network, at 426-6101 local 4331.)