Global Civil Society Movements
Dynamics in International Campaigns and National Implementation
This Philippine country study is part of a larger project of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, entitled “Global Civil Society Movements: Dynamics in International Campaigns and National Implementation,” which seeks to understand two key aspects of contemporary global civil society movements: (1) their structure, institutional values, and practices and how these affected the emergence of robust transnational movements of citizens and civil society organizations; and (2) their outcomes and impact in national and local contexts. The project’s interest is not merely to illustrate the success or failure of the global movements in question. It also seeks to explain why different trajectories lead to different results, despite the fact that many of these movements enjoy considerable popular legitimacy. Another key area of interest is the economic and political implications of their proposals.
While numerous events have already shown the potency of global civil society movements in influencing transnational political processes, critical issues and questions relating to their sustainability, organizational qualities, and effectiveness need to be urgently addressed.
In this project, five contemporary civil society movements are examined:
1. CAMPAIGNS FOR DEBT RELIEF
Joel F. Ariate
Though interrelated, local and transnational civil society actors that engage in debt relief in the Philippines have different locus of engagement: local initiatives take a critical stance towards state policies on debt and external initiatives target in their campaigns the lending countries where they are situated and that has a voice in the decisions being taken by multilateral financial institutions. In 1987, amidst the debate on what to do with the national debt accumulated during Ferdinand Marcos’s kleptocratic administration, a handful of concerned individuals and organizations formed the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC).
At first, it campaigned for the following objectives: (1) to implement a moratorium on foreign debt service payments until acceptable terms based on the country’s capacity to pay are won in a new agreement, (2) to disengage from loans that did not benefit the people particularly those tainted with fraud, and (3) to limit foreign debt service payments to no more than 10 per cent of export earnings to enable the country to finance its economic recovery. As succeeding administrations borrowed more and ill-conceived fiscal policies piled up more debt for the public to bear, FDC did not lose its relevance. At present, FDC is a nationwide coalition made up of 79 organizations ranging from nongovernmental organizations and people’s organization’s, academic research centers, and faith-based organizations conducting advocacy work on the national, local and international arena with active advocacy efforts on fiscal, monetary, debt issues and multilateral financial institutions.
2. MOVEMENT TO CHANGE INTERNATIONAL TRADE RULES & BARRIERS
Sharon M. Quinsaat
In the Philippines, social movements and civil society became deeply entangled with the issue of international trade during the government’s ratification of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-Uruguay Round in 1994. Social movements were at the vanguard in derailing the country’s membership to the Word Trade Organization. After the country’s accession, some of the coalitions disintegrated. Although most of them considered it necessary to continue the struggle, members of these formations were caught in a bind as to the future directions of their campaigns, given the fact that they were unified only for a sole and definite purpose—deferment or rejection of the GATT-WTO. In spite of this, virtually all organizations, which belonged to these coalitions, have included trade in their areas of concern.
In 2003, seasoned activists led by Walden Bello and Focus on the Global South-Philippine Programme founded the Stop the New Round! Coalition-Philippines (SNR), a broad grouping of farmers, workers, interest groups, and public intellectuals. The organization of SNR was attributed to the necessity of building a campaign that would force the Philippine government to break consensus in the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO and to complement the initiatives of the global alliance, Our World Is Not For Sale. The central unities of the coalition revolved around opposition to the following: (1) new round of WTO trade negotiations, (2) further WTO and trade and trade-related liberalization, and (3) incorporation of the “new issues” of investment, competition policy, government procurement and trade facilitation into the WTO agenda. Strategies of the campaign include the popularization of discussion on the critical issues on the agenda in Cancun, government engagement, capacity and constituency building, media advocacy, and internatinal linkage. The case study posits that the “political entrepreneurs” of SNR—whose understanding of the multilateral trading system and organizational strategies had been conditioned by previous waves of mobilization and contentious episodes both domestically and internationally—took advantage of opportunities posed by the realization of developing country governments, including the Philippines, on the institutional defects of the WTO, which have led them to cast doubt on its power and legitimacy in the governance of international trade.
3. GLOBAL TAXATION INITIATIVE
Ronald C. Molmisa
The Tobin Tax, also known as currency transaction tax, is a percentage of the quantity of domestic currency converted into foreign currency. The tax, originally proposed by Nobel Economics Laureate James Tobin in 1972, has regained attention due to events of last few years. Several transnational social movement organizations have been advancing the tax proposal. At the forefront is the ATTAC (Association for Taxation of Transactions to Aid Citizens), founded in France in June 1998 and currently has 38 affiliated country organizations, mostly from Europe.
The Tobin tax, however, remains an unpopular agenda in the Philippines. Discussions on the subject are often anchored on the issue of capital controls which is largely perceived by many civil society organizations as the domain of economic managers and the private sector. Unlike other local taxes (e.g., value-added tax), the implications and relevance of the Tobin tax to the lives of ordinary citizens have yet to be clearly articulated and vigorously promoted. Nonetheless, there have been individuals and groups surrounding and supporting the agenda. These include the: (1) Action for Economic Reforms, an independent think-tank that conducts policy analysis and advocacy on key economic issues; (2) Freedom from Debt Coalition, which supports taxation reforms in relation to its debt agenda; (3) Alliance of Progressive Labor, a “national labor center” and an active promoter of social movement unionism; and (4) Focus on the Global South, a program of development, policy research, analysis and action. It is said that Philippine civil society is “better equipped to deal with economic issues than their counterparts in other East Asian region because they have been resisting international financial institutions (IFI) intervention for the last two decades” (Chomthongdi 2001, 52).
The paper posits that the Tobin tax movement in the country did not flourish because there is not much public interest in the issue. This can be attributed to two factors: the technical nature of the agenda and the low priority or non-urgency in the Philippine context.
4. INTERNATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION MOVEMENT
Ma. Glenda S. Lopez Wui
Public opinion surveys, the media, and anti-corruption watchdogs attest to the prevalence of corruption in the Philippines. Describing the extent of corruption in the Philippines, Joel Rocamora likens it to cancer cells that have spread (metastasized) to all offices of government. Consequently, the anti-corruption movement is very much alive in the Philippines. The existence of these civil society groups is made possible largely by the greater democratic space evident in the Philippines after the 1986 People Power Revolution. Another factor that caused their increase in number is the fact that by the 1990s, donor agencies concerned about the hemorrhaging of meager government resources due to corruption, began funding efforts of NGOs against corrupt activities.
The apparatus of civil society groups involved in anti-corruption work varies. Some engage in watchdog work. A few do research to help understand the problem and its debilitating effect on society. Others strive simply to draw attention to the issue and help correct society’s seeming powerlessness in the face of graft and corruption. There are actually four major approaches found in the anti-corruption continuum: a) conscientization and promotion, b) deterrence and prevention, c) detection and investigation, and d) prosecution and conviction.
This study aims to examine two important anti-corruption organizations in the Philippines: Transparency and Accountability Network, the biggest coalition of NGOs involved in anti-corruption work in the country, and the Philippine chapter of Transparency International. The main hypothesis of the study is that even though anti-corruption groups are present in the country, they have not been successful in substantially eradicating corruption in government because the needed reforms in the bureaucracy are not yet in place. Hence, anti-corruption campaigners link
5. MOVEMENT ON FAIR TRADE
Zuraida Mae D. Cabilo
“Fair trade” is identified primarily as a concept developed in the North. As an alternative to the predominant trading system, it is a relationship of exchange characterized by transparency that engenders trust and long-term commitment among producers, alternative trading organizations, consumers, and other fair trade organizations (FTOs). More than three decades since fair trade initiatives in the North have continuously grown either in support of people’s movements under repressive regimes or as a critique to the predominant trade and development policies of northern governments, organizations identified as “fair traders” were established in the Philippines as early as the 1970s. Since then, Philippine FTOs have flourished.
This case study focuses on the birth pains of Philippine Fair Trade Forum (PFTF), the lone umbrella network of fair trade advocates and practitioners. PFTF was created by various Philippine fair trade organizations during the 2001 meeting on the regional formation of Asia Fair Trade Forum. The forum’s mandate centers on domestic and international market access; serving as a repository of product and member information; developing a fair trade advocacy in the Philippines specifically on raising consumer awareness; and, policy advocacy on issues that have an impact on marginalized producers and other actors in the fair trade movement.
Emphasis is given to how PFTF articulates its fair trade discourse advocacy in the national and international contexts. The paper argues that while the fair trade movement enjoys a relatively broad support in its campaigns in the North and a far-reaching base of grassroots organizations in the South, the movement in the Philippines has not yet fully realized its social, political and economic power to promote fair trade principles and practices in the local context due to three factors: (1) the origins of individual organizations; (2) the absence of a coherent and cohesive advocacy; and (3) the type of fair trade products being produced, as well as the uncompetitive price of these products.