CCHOPE ELECTION 2001

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CITIZENSHIP BUILDING FOR PARTICIPATORY POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
Module II for Political Education

Prepared by Education Research Development and Promotion Unit 
NASSA-JP Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines


Contents:

Introduction


Part 1
Human Rights Violation Under an elite system of
Politics and Governance 

Part 2
Basic Individuals and Collective Human Rights


Part 3
Duties and Responsibilities of every Citizen

Part 4
Bases and Potential Areas for People's Active Engagement in Participatory
Politics and Governance

CITIZEN BUILDING FOR PARTICIPATRORY POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
Module II - Political Education


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INTRODUCTION

Politics as it has been practiced in the country is invasive and deconstructive. It hinders economic development and violates people's rights. The existing political system, dominated by the elite, leads to abuse of power and corruptions. It is prejudiced to the interest and aspirations of the poor. Already, a third of the Filipinos lives below poverty line.

But just as politics is the problem, it could also be the means to bring about the democratic freedom, economic reforms and social change. This kind of politics is participatory politics and it yields power to the people.

When people take part in politics, interesting things happen. Like a dictator was ousted and democracy restored in People Power I. Like a corrupt president was driven out of Malacañang in People Power II. But while we laud People Power, it takes more than that to bring about reforms. The key to change is educating and empowering people to actively participate in government deliberations and ensure that their interest is reflected in policies.

Module II focuses on how to build citizenship for participatory politics and governance. It presents the legal and moral bases of citizens' rights and duties as bases to demand and assert participation in governance.

Objectives:

1. To inform and educates the people on their rights and duties as citizens, particularly their rights to participate in 
     decision-making processes towards their development.

2. To facilitate people's consciousness on how their basic and political rights have been denied and curtailed, and how these have
     been effectively perpetuated under the system of elite politics and governance.

3. To inform and educate the people about the duties of the state or government to secure and guarantee the promotion, protection
     and fulfillment of their rights.

4. To inspire the people to persistently dispose their rights and duties in the perspective of faith.

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Part 1
Human Rights Violation Under an Elite System of Politics and Governance

While government recognizes that human rights should be respected, grave violations continue. An elitist system of politics and governance has given a privileged few obscenely huge gains at public expense. Public policies are formulated and implemented without thought to their effects on the human rights, particularly the right to development, to the poor. Part one attempts to show how elite politics and governance erode human rights.


A. Objectives

1. To have the participants assess government policies and how these impact on human lives.

2. To awaken participants' consciousness concerning the impact of such policies on their human rights, whether these have been
     protected or violated.

B. Suggested Exercise

1. Let the participants identify at least two or three laws or public policies and their purpose. Have the participants played any part
     in the creation of such laws or public policies? How are these laws and public policies enforced or implemented by the
     government? Do these laws or policies contribute to people's development or difficulties? Why?

2. Collate and categorize the answers and facilitate how laws or public policies have excluded the poor from decision-making and
     development processes. Matrix 1 may be used for easy collation.


Matrix 1

C. Input

The systemic violation of human rights in the Philippines is rooted in elite politics, which keeps a privileged few in control while ensuring the marginalization of the majority to extreme poverty. Wielding control of the government, which possess and implements the powers of the State, the elite able to legitimize the protection of their interest, and in the process deny the rights of the majority poor they are supposed to represent.

Government function and authority revolves along the three inherent powers of the State.

1. Eminent Domain - The State owns all lands of the public and all other natural resources of the country, found either in public or in private lands. It has the power to control the exploration, development and used of natural resources. The State or those whom power has been lawfully delegated to take or expropriate private property for public use. (Article XII, Section 18).

2. Taxation - The State has an inherent power to impose taxes or charges on persons on property for public purposes. This power is vested on the legislative branch, which ensures that the tax system is uniform, equitable and progressive. (Art. VI, Sec. 28).

3. Police Power - The State has the duty to serve and protect the people, and to maintain peace and order. It is trusted with the protection of life, liberty, and property and the promotion of general welfare. This police power is vested on the executive branch. (Art. VI Sec. 17).

The three inherent powers of the State practically control the life of the people. And these vast powers have been granted to a privileged few, who have further entrenched elite politics. We offer as proof the laws or public policies in Table 1.1 to show that indeed the practice of the state powers has been prejudiced against the poor for the benefit of the elite.


Table 1.1: State powers used against the poor

The State is mandated to formulate policies that promote social justice and value the dignity of every human person and guarantee full respect for human rights. Through government agencies and instrumentalities, it is duty bound to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of its people, primarily the rights to determine their own development through participation in government.

Under the system of elite politics, the government has allowed and even perpetrated the violation of the individuals and collective rights, interest welfare, and aspirations of its citizens, especially the poor. Table 1.2 shows how the constitutional rights of the citizens (Article III. Bill of Rights) are violated by no less than the government.

The 1987 Constitution also declares and sets state policies prescribing and mandating the State through the government instrumentalities to guarantee and secure the protection, preservation of the country's national sovereignty, integrity, interest, and patrimony. The intent of such policies is to deter authorities to use such powers, which emanate from the people, against the people and national interest.

However, these state policies are consistently distorted and violated by authorities. In the guise of economic recovery and national security, authorities have manipulated the public policies for their own gains as shown in Table 1.3.

The violations and negligence of authorities of their duty to protect and promote citizens' rights are not unconsciously thought of. The constitution provides venues for meaningful participation of the citizens in decision-making processes so that they can protect their interest and aspirations and can deter and prevent abuses and excesses of the holders of the state powers.

Still, in the practice of elite politics in the Philippines, these constitutional provisions and guarantees are either violated or disregarded. Table 1.4 shows some constitutional and legal provisions on people's participation in governance that have been violated by government.


D. Reflection

The majority poor remains powerless, their voices unheard because they are under represented and marginalized. The denial or violations of the citizens' rights and the negligence of the holders of state powers or government to dispose its duty to protect and promote the interests, welfare, and aspirations of the people result in the difficulties of the citizens to perform their duties effectively.

In truth, the State exists for the development of its citizens. The State through its delegated holders of the State powers must ensure that personal rights are acknowledged, respected, harmonized with other rights, depended and promoted, so that each citizen may be able to carry out his duties.

In its 1997 Pastoral Exhortation on Philippine Politics, The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines says that the practice in our country "has degenerated into in arena where the interest of the powerful and rich few are pitted against those of the weak and poor many". Politics has been the most hurtful to us as people and has been the most pernicious obstacle to our desire to full human development. 

To transform politics and governance requires a shift in social attitudes away from the passive acceptance of elite politics as a result of ignorance and apathy. There is a need to bring to the consciousness of the people the crucial issues why our individual ad collective rights are violated or denied.

The importance of being well informed cannot be emphasized enough. With out such knowledge and information, dominant social groups succeed in their systematic exclusion of the poor in decision-making and social public policy making processes. They also succeed in allowing marginal representation of the poor majority in the government bodies.

E. Evaluation Exercise.

1. The government is pushing for the privatization of the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR). According to the organization of government employees COURAGE, there were more than 1,000 workers in 1998 alone who have been retired by the management. The number of this missed workers is expected to rise once the privatizations process is completed especially when Congress enacts the Omnibus Electric Power Industry Bill. Accordingly, 4,000 employees will be retrenched upon the completion of the privatization.

Is the government correct in pursuing the privatization of NAPOCOR? What specific provision of the Constitution does it violated?.


Table 1.2: Constitutional rights violations by government

Table 1.3: State policies in the Constitution violated by authorities

Table 1.4: Constitutional or Legal Provisions on People's Participation in Governance violated by government

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Part 2
Basic Individuals and Collective Rights of the Citizens

The concept of human rights is an essential element in policy making to avoid the exclusion of the majority of Filipinos marginalized by extreme poverty. At the same time, knowledge of one's rights is also important for one to participation. Part Two introduces human rights both individual and collective. It discusses the bases, characteristics and principles that govern it.


A. Objectives

1. To raise the awareness of the participants on their human rights as bases to demand and assert participation in governance.

2. T facilitate an appreciation of human rights as an essential element in policy making to ensure that those same rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.

B. Suggested Exercise

1. Let the participants list at least five human rights.

2. Ask the participants how knowledge of these human rights aid in participation in governance.

3. Ask the participants how these human rights, their absence or presence, obstruct or enhance laws or policies.

C. Input

Human rights are the supreme, inherent and inalienable rights to life, to dignity and to develop one's self.

Our "being human" is the fundamental basis of human rights. Human rights are means to protect, affirm, promote and realize the value of being human. These are necessary conditions and situations for the unfolding and fuller development of life of being human as an individual and as a people.


Basic Characteristics of Human Rights.

1. Human rights are inherent to or part of the human person.
2. Human rights are in alienable, thus, they cannot be taken away from any body.
4. Human rights are universal; they are not limited by boundaries but are recognized by all humankind.

Human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. These rights and fundamental freedoms are the birthright of all human beings. It is the prime responsibility of the government to protect and promote these rights.

Human rights are also laws or rules that bind citizens in a particular country or members of the international community that have consented to be bound to global treaties such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Covenants on Civil and Political, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

In the Philippines, the legal framework for the protection of human rights is established, among others, by the Constitution, the Civil Code, the Revised Penal Code and the Child and Youth Welfare Code. The Commission on Human Rights has also established protective legal measures, the ombudsman, meanwhile, functions to prevent the abuse of power by government officials and employees.


Basic Principle of Human Rights

1. Equality - Human persons are equal regardless of sex, religion, race, creed, political beliefs, etc.
2. Collective Rights - Human rights are enjoyed by the whole society. 
3. State Guarantee - The government has the responsibility of protecting and depending human rights.


The universality of the human does not mean the absoluteness of its application. Human rights are not absolute that can be upheld under all conditions simultaneously and for all eternity. They are limited by other human rights. They cannot be used as an excuse to violate others rights. They are relative in the sense that these are evolutionary and developmental. This means that as society advancies and as human consciousness develops, new rights are recognized, old rights acquire new meanings, and fulfilled rights are institutionalized.


Classification of Human Rights

1. Civil and Political Rights consist of specific obligations of conduct, thus, have very definite, measurable standards and could be precisely defined. These are traditional rights stated mostly in Article III (The Bill of Rights) of the 1987 Constitution
2. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that cannot be measured readily and are based on largely subjective judgments. Some of these Rights are stated in Article XIV and XV of the 1987 Constitution.

Our Civil Rights

Civil Rights are those granted to private individuals for the purpose of securing the enjoyment of their means to happiness. These rights include the following:

1. Right to privacy, communications or correspondence (Section 3, 1)
2. Right against involuntary servitude (Section 18, 2)
3. Right against unreasonable searches and seizures (Section 2)
4. Free access to court (Section 11)
5. Right against imprisonment for debt (Section 20)
6. Non-impairment of contracts (Section 10)
7. Liberty of abode and travel (Section 6)

Our Social and Cultural Rights

Social and Cultural Rights pertain to a person's freedom to benefits from his capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. These include the following:

1. Right to dignity (Article XIII, Section 1)
2. Right to property (Article XIII, Section 2)
3. Right to identity
4. Right to self-determination (Article II, Section 7)
5. Right to education (Article XIV, Section 1)
6. Right to health and health services (Article XIII on Health)
7. Right to decent standard of living (Article XIII on Labor)
8. Right to be with one's family (Article XV on the Family)
9. Right to thought, conscience and religion (Article III, Section 5)
10. Right to an autonomous socio-cultural development (Article XIV on Arts and Culture)


Our Economic Rights

These are rights intended to ensure the well being and economic security of the individual. These rights include the following:

1. Freedom from hunger
2. Rights to employment with decent living wages (Article XIII on Labor)
3. Right to autonomous economic development (Article XIII, Section 2)
4. Right to just compensation for private property taken for public use (Article III, Section 8)
5. Right to form unions and associations (Section 8)


Our Political Rights

1. Right to citizenship (Article IV)
2. Right to suffrage (Art V, Section 1)
3. Right to informed on matters of public records and documents (Section 7)
4. Freedom of speech, the press and expression (Section 4)
5. Right to petition the government for redress of grievances (Section 4)
6. Right to participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision-making (Article XIII, Section 1)
7. Right to sectoral representation shall be included in legislative bodies as may be prescribed by law (Article VI, Sections 5,1 and 2; and Article X, Section 9)
8. Right of people to propose amendments to the constitution through people's initiative (Article XVII, Section 2)


Collective Rights

Besides our rights as persons, we also have our rights as a society, rights which belong to each of us individually but which we can exercise collectively. These are what we call the rights of the people, which are analogous to the rights of the person and which consists of three basic rights to survive, to self-determination, and to develop as a people. Table 2.1 shows our individual and collective rights.

The relationship between individual and collective rights needs careful analysis of the objective conditions that exist within societies. Like in the time of war, collective rights should be the basis of a united struggle since individual right are limited due to the subjugations of one society by another.

Individual rights largely result from the enjoyment of collective rights. In turn, the enjoyment of collective guarantees the continued recognition and practice of individual rights. Individual rights are means for every person to be human and that collective or people's rights are conditions for our humanity to develop or unfold.


D. Reflection

Every person has the right to life, to bodily integrity, and to the means suitable for the proper development of life. Every person is also entitled to a juridical protection of his rights, a protection that should be efficacious, impartial, and inspired by the true norms of justice. "That Perpetual privileged proper to man, by which every individual has a claim to the protection of his rights, and by which there is assigned to each a definite and particular sphere of rights immune form all arbitrary attacks, is the logical consequence of the order of justice willed by God." (Pius XII, Christmas Eve Radio Message, 1942)

Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a child of God. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it . They are the basis of moral legitimacy over every authority; by flaunting them, or refusing to recognize, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. (Pacem in Terris, #65)



Table 2.1: Individual Rights and Collective Rights

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS COLLECTIVE RIGHTS

E. Evaluation Exercise

1. A militant peasant group held a series of protest rallies against a Department of Agrarian Reform order, which allows the conversion of agricultural land into real estate subdivision. In one of their rallies in front of the DAR office , the police gave the group an ultimatum that they should disperse by 6 p.m. The peasants, who intended to stay the whole night for a vigil and not recognizing the police warning, continued holding their programs, chanting slogans against DAR officials and denouncing the memorandum order . At exactly 6 p.m.., after repeated warnings, the police violently dispersed the peasants by clubbing some of them and willfully firing their guns towards the protesters.

In the dispersal justifiable given the warning? If not, what is the right being denied by the law enforcers and what should be done to them?

2. On 20 September 2000, 12 members of a cause-oriented group, who were preparing for the September 21 rally to mark the 28th year of the declaration of Martial Law, were arrested by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces in an alleged safehouse Quezon City. The arrest was made on the strength of the search warrant issued by the Quezon City Judge. Allegedly seized during the raid were firearms, grenades and rounds of firearms, ammunition and explosives were prepared against the 12.

The arrested denied the charges. They filed countercharges on the raid. They said it was illegal since the arresting team had no nametags. They questioned the manner by which the raid was conducted and accused the ISAF agents of planting the firearms. They said the ISAF agents barged into the said office, handcuffed the 12, and told them to lie down on the floor. They were not allowed phone calls, were blindfolded and shouted at whenever they complained. Accordingly, two people listed in the warrant were not in the office during the raid.

If you were one of those arrested what argument would you use to be freed from the charges? What legal basis would you use to support your argument? What should be done to the arresting team?

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Part 4

Bases and Potential Areas for People's Active Engagement in Participatory Politics and Governance

The 1987 Constitution states, "The Philippines is a democratic and republican State. Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them. " (Article II, Section 1)

People at large elect their representatives to the government whose mandate is to promote the welfare of the people. Thus, government authorities are servants not masters; it is the people who are the ultimate source of political; power and authority.

The eventual downfall of elite politics may be brought about by participation in decision-making processes out of an awakened consciousness. Part Four examines the policy-making structures of government to determine how and where ordinary citizens can intervene to ensure the passage of pro-people and pro-poor policies geared towards greater democratic freedoms, economic reforms and social changes.


A. Objectives 

1. To inform the participants about some of the dynamics and processes of the government in formulating policies.
2. To provide the participants/people windows of engagement in the presently political system and governance.


B. Suggested Exercise

1. Ask the participants how the government enacts and implements laws and policies?
2. Ask them to identify their participation or engagement in the conceptualization of the law to its implementation.
3. What other activities have they participated in to ensure that a law or policy is for the common good.


C. Input

We often hear the word "policy" such as house policy , office or organizational policy, or a policy enacted by the government or provided for in the Constitution. A house policy maybe include curfew hours, chores, etc. An office policy may include work time, rules on hiring and firing, and promotions and incentives. Government policy may include laws passed by Congress, Executive Orders. Or more specific provisions of existing laws and regulations.

Those action taken by the individuals and the private sector to attain their goal are what we call [private policies. Meanwhile, those courses of action taken and adopted by the government or its instrumentalities, presumably to address a given problem or set of interrelated problems in the society, are what we call public policies. Ideally, these policies are intended for the common good and welfare of the people. We refer to these as government actions and decisions.

Public policy is a guide or norm of action. It is the essence of governance and service. The government uses this as means to control and regulate people's activities. It is an important means for State and government intervention into private actions, either to encourage, regulate inspire or direct.

The 1987 Constitution is the basic and paramount law to which other laws must conform and to which all persons, including the highest officials of the land must defer. Statutes are laws enacted by Congress and approved by the president, e, g., Republic Acts and Batas Pambansa. Ordinances are special laws passed by the local Sanggunian. Rules and Regulations are implementing guidelines promulgated by the president, crafted by authorized officials, or both.

Some examples of public policies are RA 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform law, RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical for Public Officials and Employee, RA 7042 or the Foreign Investment Act of 1991, RA 7160 or the Local; Government Code of 1991, the Mining Act of 1995, the Indigenous People's Act of 1997, the Angat Pinoy 2004, etc.

Public policy is coercive, distributive and systematic. It is coercive because it commands the loyalty of the citizens or gives power to government to bring on to the citizens the full force of political authority, including the imposition of sanctions, e, g., death penalty for heinous crimes. It is distributive as it entails the capacity of government, directly or indirectly, to allocate goods and services, rights and privileges in socio-economic affairs and of equal importance, to arrange the offices and positions of authority in the political system itself. It is systematic as it entails the exercise of political affairs.

Traditionally, the functions of policy making are separated in the three branches of government, namely, the executive, the legislative and the Judiciary. The Executive branch is the most powerful and central component of the government that implements policies. The legislative branch has the power to make laws, alter, and repeal them, and to check the execution of such laws. The Judiciary interprets the laws and policies.

Policy decisions are practically centralize with the State and in the branches of government. But there are provisions in the 1987 Constitution that provide windows for participation in the policy-making process. The citizenry, however, have failed to actively maximize these venues resulting in the continuous passage of anti-poor and repressive policies.


ENGAGING IN POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE

In the pursuit of instituting political reforms and promoting participatory politics, the people through their collective efforts need to actively engage in participatory governance. People must not be content with merely voting in electoral processes that do not sufficiently provide by the government are responsive to their needs.

There are many potential areas where people may actively participate in politics. People can change either the compositions of the government, expand people's representation, or influence the shape and orientation of decision and policy making. Here are some of those areas:


Engaging in the legislative process

People's engagement in the legislative process is what we call legislative advocacy. It is a strategy of influencing legislators or lawmakers to ensure that the welfare and interest of the basic sectors are stipulated in the proposed bills. Following are steps how you can participate in the legislative process.

1. Before the formulation of the proposed bill, you may contact and establish connections with the staff of legislator who conducts research on the topic of the bill. You may give input or promote your stand on it. 

2. You may draft a bill and look for an ally legislator to sponsor or own your bill. Only a legislator can file a bill.

3. Although in the first reading only the proposed bill is read and can be taken up for deliberation, the privilege speech, which is one of the exemptions to the rule, can be maximized for promoting people's concern. You may look for an ally legislator who will introduce or promote your issue and concern by incorporating it through his/her privilege speech. Once the speech is referred to and discussed in the committee, you need to provide your ally legislator with a draft of your proposed bill.

4. Once a bill is referred to a particular committee, public hearings are conducted. It is an opportunity for the people to submit their position paper to convince or influence findings of the committee. The position paper also forms part of the official document. It is advisable to establish linkage and constant communication with open-minded committee chair and/or committee secretariat.



Chart 1 illustrates how Congress, both Senate and the House , uses its function to enact policies

In your intervention in the legislative process or in your legislative advocacy, being informed is paramount. Know the contending parties I Congress on per issue basis instead of categorizing them as progressive or traditional. Consult, tao or ask assistance from people who are expert in the political and technical dynamics of Congress. Establish linkages through the committee or secretariat staff in both Houses and Congress. And always prepare your mass base.



Chart 1: Legislative Mill

A bill in the House of the Representatives labeled "H" And assigned a number A bill introduced in the Senate is labeled "S" and assigned a number

ACTION ON BILL 

First Reading Reading of Title/Author(s) Referring to appropriate Standing Committee First reading

Committee studies and recommends, If action is favorable, the report is Submitted through the Committee on Rules. If unfavorable, the Bill is laid on the table and the author(s) are informed 

Committee on Rules calendars Bill for floor deliberation 

Second Reading Floor discussions/debates Period of amendments Voting Second Reading

Third Reading Distribution of Bill in final form Roll call vote Third Reading

In case of conflict provisions, An Adhoc Conference/Bicameral Committee is constituted to reconcile differences 

Floor deliberation on the Conference Committee Report Voting 

PRESIDENTIAL ACTION 

Approves Failure to act within 30 days after receipt, Bill lapses into law  Approves

Law Return to originating house with explanation 

Legislative accepts or overrides by 2/3 vote in both houses 







Engaging in local governance

Participation of non governmental organizations (NGO's), people's organization (Pos) and private sector (PS) in local governance Through membership in local specials bodies is one of the features stipulated in the Local Government Code of 1991 (LGC). It provides local constituents a venue to define and mange the directions of the development of their community through the following mechanisms.

1. Representation in the Local Special Bodies 
2. Mandatory Consultation and Public hearings
3. System of local initiative and Referendum
4. Local Sectoral Representation in the Sanggunian

The LGC serves as a means of monitoring and evaluating the government's performance. It also provides power to the people to limit authoritarianism, strengthen popular empowerment, enforce political accountability and improve the quality and inclusiveness of local governance.

The LDC allows more fruitful cooperation between NGs/Pos/PS and local government units (LGUs are allowed to establish linkages with Pos and NGOs through joint ventures or other cooperative arrangement for specified services and facilities such as delivery of certain basic services, capability-building and livelihood projects, or local enterprises purposely to improve productivity and income, diversify agriculture, spur rural industrialization, promote ecological balance and enhance the people's well-being.

LGUs may, upon the concurrence of the  Sanggunian, provide NGOs and Pos with financial assistance for economic, socially-oriented, environmental or cultural projects.


Engaging in monitoring and collective actions against graft and corruption

Graft and corruption cases committed by public officers and employees are tried before the Sandiganbayan or before regular courts of justice. In the prosecution of such cases, the Office of the Ombudsman acts as Special Prosecutor in cases under the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan and in cases falling within the regular courts, it deputizes the regular prosecutors to handle the prosecution.

The Office of the Ombudsman is mandated to protect the people from abuse of power, in the form of injustice and graft and corruption by government, its agencies or functionaries. Its cases involving criminal offenses may be divided into those under the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan, and those falling under the jurisdiction of the regular courts.

In relation to graft cases to be filed to the Sandiganbayan, the Office of the Ombudsman has direct supervision and control of the Office of the Special Prosecutor to prosecute the case in the Sandiganbayan.


Following are the procedures of petition or filing of criminal cases:

1. File verbal and written complaints, preferably in writing and under oath, in the Office of the Ombudsman.
2. Evaluation of the complaint by an investigating officer who shall make recommendation, e.g., outright dismissal, subjected to a preliminary investigation, etc.
3. Preliminary Investigation by Special Prosecuting Officers.

No information may be filed and no complaint may be dismissed in cases under the jurisdiction of Sandiganbayan without the written authority or approval of the Ombudsman. But to prevent and fight graft and corruption itself, the following may be done:

1. Conduct values education to form and develop responsible citizens with social consciousness rooted in and inspired by the Gospel values
2. Monitor and undertake documentation of government projects and activities to provide the people with update and information and facilitate filing of petitions in the event of graft practices.
3. Organize a Community Prevention Unit (CPU). Apply as an accredited eyes and arms of the office of the ombudsman through the CPU which will closely monitor critical and substantially funded government projects.
4. Participate in governance through local special bodies, e.g., local development council to ensure graft-free implementation of projects.


Engaging in monitoring and collective action against social aggressive development projects.

Development aggression refers to the destructive effects on people and their environment arising from the imposition of development plans that stress rapid economic development. To prevent or stop development aggression, the citizens should monitor the imposition of development projects. First and foremost, the people must know that any development project in the community needs Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) before it can operate. In addition, consultation with the people in the community is compulsory.

In monitoring development project, the people must demand for its ECC and try to know and understand the guidelines and conditionalities set for the operation and implementation of the project.

Any civil or criminal case in violations of the Philippine Environmental Laws could be tried in the regular courts.

Any individual and or communities can file a letter complaint or petition on any violation on the environment to the Community Invironment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO), Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO), Regional Office, or to the National Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) for administrative action.

Rules and procedures in filing complaint to DENR:

1. Letter of complaint addressed to the regional office (If the case is beyond the jurisdiction of the regional office, it shall submit such case to the national office.)
2. Investigation to validate complaint.
3. Report of investigation is submitted to the Regional Adjudication Board chaired by regional officer (If the case falls under the jurisdiction of the the national office, it shall be submitted to the National Adjudication Board which is chaired by the DENR Secretary.
4. Decides/orders to impose penalty such as closure, stoppage of operation unless requirements are met or dismissal of complaint.
5. Decisions/orders of regional office can be appealed to the office of DENR Secretary within 15 days upon receipt of the decisions/orders. A partly adversely affected by the decisions/orders file a notice of appeal to the Regional Office, serve copies to the prevailing/winning party and the Office of the DENR Secretary.
6. Complainant shall pay the required fees.
7. If appeal or motion for reconsideration is denied, complaint may have the right to file another motion for appeal during the remainder of the period of appeal (15 days), reckoned from the receipt of the resolution of denial. (If appeal is reconsidered, the aggreived party shall have fifteen (15) days from receipt of the resolution to perfect his/her appeal).

Engaging in monitoring and collective action against human rights violations by local government units and other state instrumentalities

Human rights violation is the denial of the enjoyment of the basic rights of the people. To combat human rights violations, the following are possible areas for people's participation:

1. Education - People should be made aware of their constitutional and legal rights and that they have the right to assert and demand the protections of said rights.
2. Participation in the Local Special Bodies, particularly in the Local Development Council to monitor and promote human rights agenda.
3. Fielding in representatives or participation in the legislative processes through Local Sectoral Representatives and Party-list Representatives.
4. Advocacy or legislative action on local ordinances and national laws that respect integrate, and implement human rights.
5. Provisions of legal services programs to victims or referral on cases of human rights violations.
6. Monitoring and documentation of human rights violations as evidence for a case.
7. Coordination with human rights groups and the Commission on Human Rights on violations for prosecutions of such cases.
8. Filing of Petition for Recall on local officials who commit human rights violations.
9. Filling complaints for violation of human rights.

Any person may file a complaint against violator(s) of civil and political rights before the Commission on Human Rights, either personally or through a counsel.



Engaging on Electoral Activities

Election is a procedure by which qualified members or voters of communities choose persons to hold office for a definite or fixed period. It is an expression of democracy as the electorates exercise their rights to choose their representatives who will represent and promote their cause and aspirations in life in government policies and programs.

Based on Philippine experience, how ever, elections have become venues for the elite to determine among themselves who will govern or who will sit in the different key positions in the government. But we cannot simply boycott the elections. They still open venues for change so long as there are worthy candidates aspiring and the electorates elect them to office.

Elections are held every year. The Sanggunian Barangay election is held every three years, the election of Local Government Officials every three (3) years, the Sangguniang Kabataan election every three (3) years, the election of National Government Officials every six (6) years, and the autonomous region elections are held alternately.

Election may be an opportunity to strengthen our democracy. We can achieve this if we make a concerted effort to ensure elections are clean and honest.. It is not enough that we vote. It is essential that we choose the right candidates and vote not on the basis of fame, power or wealth.

We want people who seek public office to be pro-God (maka-Diyos) rather than materialistic; pro-poor and pro-people (maka-tao) rather than self-serving and subservient to the elite, pro-nation (maka-bayan) preserve and protect the Sovereignty and self-determination rather than embracing colonial dictates; and pro-environment (maka-kalikasan) protect the integrity of God's creation rather than ecological depletions and destruction in exchange of profit, (See Annex 1 for Guidelines in Choosing Candidates)

The citizens or the people can make electoral process clean and perhaps authentic and responsible when they engage in the following:

1. Conducting voters' education to inform the public on the qualities of the candidates and the issues and concerns to be underscored in the elections.

2. Conducting debates and public covenant signing to inform the public as well as to commit the candidates to listen or integrate the interest and aspirations of the people in their programs of government. The covenant could be used for the petition for recall once winning candidates fail to deliver their promises.

3. Setting specific guidelines in choosing candidates in terms of candidate's lifestyle, social affiliation or interest, competence, track record and performance, in case of incumbent officials.

4. Organizing volunteers for clean and peaceful elections.

5. Developing electoral reform advocates to push for reforms in the electoral processes.



Engaging in Barangay Development Planning

The BDP is implemented to ensure genuine development in the Barangay. A good BDP means the maximization or the proper use of barangay resources in addressing its problems. Necessitates that all sectors in the barangay must be part or must participate in the planning process to have an appropriate and comprehensive plan. As such, peole in the barangay are aware of the projects or activities part of enforcing the plan. The BDP is composed of the barangay captain as chairman , seven members of sangguniang barangay (mga kagawad), head of the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK), representatives of district representative and representatives of NGOs and Pos, which constitute 1/4  of the total members.

BDP has the responsibility to mobilize the participation of the local people in development work, to prepare the plan, and to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the barangay program and projects. The people and their organizations can be part of the planning through participating in the following:

1. Participatory Community Appraisal - is a systematic, semi-structured and fast process or methodology of assessment in order to know and understand the particulars and the total situation of the community.

2. Community planning - is a community endeavor that guides the people in their decision-making. It contains the needs, desire, and the priorities of the community. It also serves as guides of the community in the proper use of resources identifying, activities, targets, strategies geared towards improving quality to the people and genuine development.

3. Monitoring and Evaluation - to see the status or the implementations of the activities and to know the issues, problems, weaknesses or difficulties in order to recommend corrective on the plan.


D. Reflection

The people's rights are enshrined in the 1987 Constitution. The state and its delegated holder of state power, which is the government, has been prescribed to ensure the exercise of this rights by the people. But such rights, particularly the right to participate in policy-making under the existing system of elite politics, has been taken for granted.

Often times, the government approach to policy-deci9sion making is top down. Policy decision is practically centralized particularly in the Executive and Legislative branches. Without people's participation, policy decisions cannot truly address the people's needs and aspirations.

Indeed, elite-dominated government curtails the rights of people. In turn, people have difficulty disposing or performing their duties because their rights have been curtailed. We cannot dispose our duties to protect and help our government when in the first place it does not allow us to exercise our basic and constitutional rights to participate in policy-making. How can we say this law, policy , or program is ours when we are not a part of it? And how do we fulfill our duties to promote and obey that law when it does not guarantee the preservations and promotion of our interests, welfare, and aspirations? Hence, the real and full employment of all the rights is a prerequisite to commit the citizens to comply and carry out faithfully all their duties and responsibilities to the state and Government.

Any human society, if it is to be well ordered and productive, must recognize and respect the dignity of its citizenry. That every citizen, because of his nature as a person, has rights and obligations in an organized society. These rights and obligations are universal and inviolable.

The dignity of the human person involves the right to take an active part in public affairs and to contribute to the common good of the citizens. Pope Pius XII, pointed out: "Human individual, far from being an object and, as it were, a merely passive element in social order, is in fact, must be and must continue to be, its subject, its foundation and its ends." (Pacem in Terris # 28)

The human person is also entitled to juridical protection of his rights, a protection that should be efficacious, impartial and inspired by true norms of justice. As Pope Pius XII taught: "That perpetual privilege proper to man (human), by which every individual has a claim to the protection of his rights, and by which there ids assigned to each a definite and a particular sphere of rights, immune from all arbitrary attacts, is the logical consequence of the order of justice willed by God." (PT 3s 28 & 29)


 Evaluation Exercise

1. The government agency Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and the consortium Tuntex-Asiaworld International joined together to convert Camp John Hay in Baguio City in to a mega-tourism center. Concerned Baguio residents, people's organizations and other cause-oriented groups are economically sound, equitable, culturally, appropriate for Baguio and environmentally disruptive.

Meanwhile, members of a clan, ascendants of an Ibaloi chieftain, claim ancestral ownership of the land. The Ibaloi people, who have a long history of struggle to reclaim the land seized by the Americans, are also apposed to the project.

2. A town in Mindanao has remained one of the poorest in the country although it has vast resources. One of the reasons for its poverty is that whoever holds power, especially the local chief executive, always practice graft by pocketing a big chuck of the municipal budget intended for its programs and services.

The incumbent mayor has proposed the constructions of a municipal hospital. The national government has approved the proposal thus, released the full amount of the budget and entrusted it to the local government treasury. A concerned citizen's group is apprehensive that the construction of the hospital will not be finished during the term of the present mayor. This concerned citizen's group is not an accredited NGO or Private Sectors of the LGU. What the group to prevent the corruption should do by the local; elected officials through the constructions of hospital? What type of participations should be pursued? Is there any legal basis for this participation?



GUIDELINES IN CHOOSING CANDIDATES

1. Personal background

a. Lifestyle - What kind of life do the candidates live? What are their priorities? These in formation would determine the kind of policies and programs of governance that the candidates would be promoting. Government leaders must be pro-people and pro-poor and should live a simple, not lavish, lifestyle.

b. Social Class - What is the social class of the candidates? These would determine their biases and target beneficiaries of their policies and programs. Government leaders must be able to share in the pains, joys, experiences and actions of the poor.

c. Social consciousness - What consciousness are the candidates preserving or promoting? These would determine the candidates' class-consciousness, inclination and bias. Government leaders should live and promote the consciousness of the people, not of a particular class, especially of the elite.

d. Social groupings or organizations affiliation. What organizations, affiliations do candidates belong with? These provide voters the idea of groups that they have potential influence on the decisions of the candidates. Government leaders should not favor a particular groups but must go beyond the interests of their group and reach for the underprivileged, under represented, and marginalized sectors in the society.

e. Business enterprises or interests - What are the candidates' sources of wealth?  These may determine the candidates' bias for enactment of laws and policies. Government leaders are voted to serve; not to be served: to promote the common good not top protect their own business interest. There should never be a conflict of interest.

2. Personal Ability

a) Credibility, integrity, honesty
b) Competency and capacity to listen and dialogue with people
c) Decisiveness and responsibleness
d) Commitment to genuine peace and development of people.
e) Commitment to create a simple but loving and happy family
f) Respect for politics and beliefs, plurality and tolerance

3. Promoters of Human Rights

a) Initiates or supports peace efforts, consultation and negotiation
b) Advocates against distorted development projects
c) Respects and encourages people's right to exercise their human right
d) Upholds civilian rights and introduces military reform


4. Promoter of Progressive Economic Development

a) Initiates and/or supports legislative of a progressive tax system
b) Enact policies and implements programs on food security and affordability
c) Advocates against the Port barrel. Automatic Appropriation on Foreign Debt
d) Prioritizes economic sovereignty over global integration of economy; adopts genuine sustainable development over globalizations process
e) Promoters to patronize local goods and products over from foreign made.
f) Advocates the repeal of Mining Act of 1995 and retail Trade Liberalization Law 



5. Advocate for Social Justice Agenda

a) Enforces the full implementation of agrarian reform law
b) Enacts Fisheries and Aquatic Reform Law
c) Enforces the Indigenous People's Right Act
d) Promoters socialized and affordable housing for urban poor
e) Promoters sustainable agriculture in the agricultural sector
f) Facilitates the equal access for women to employment and opportunities
g) Abrogates policies on contractualization of workers and preserves the right of workers to security of tenure, and initiate socialization of salary
h) Protects children's right.
i) Enacts laws for the care and interest of elderly and disabled people.


6. Promoter of Political Development

a) Enforces the praxis of democratic form of government
b) Allows the citizens to exercise their constitutional rights.
c) Reviews and amends the Local Government Code of 1991
d) Reviews and amends the Party-List System Law
e) Enforces the election of local sectoral representatives
f) Enact laws on absentee voting
g) Enact laws of Political Dynasty


7. Protector and Preserver of the National Patrimony/Sovereignty and Foreign Relations

a) Supports the repudiation of foreign debt
b) Files motion for reconsideration on the Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of the ratification of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the American government.
c) Repeals Mining Act of 1991 and the Retail Trade Liberalization law


8. Advocate for the Administration of the Law and Justice

a) Pushers for the speedy arrest of kidnapers, bank robbers, drug lords, etc.
b) Pushes for the speedy trial and dispensation cases
c) Respect judiciary procedures: no political appointee in the judiciary
d) Persecutes big fish corrupt government officials 
e) Enforces access to adequate legal assistance for the poor


9. Promoter of the Integrity of God's Creation

a) Protests land conversion and imposes heavy punishment on violators
b) Protests landfills and dumpsites
c) Supports the demand to US government to clean and pay social cost of toxic substance dumped in Subic and Clark
d) Imposes heavy penalty to violator of anti-dumping of toxic substances
e) Enforces the Clean Air Act
f) Bans the use of pesticide residue or the use of chemical fertilizers
g) Stops or minimizing construction of geothermal plant
h) Bans illegal fishing
i) Supports the total log ban and initiates reforestation program
j) Requires public hearing or consultation and community's approval and resource maintenance in the construction of dams and mining exploration

                                                                                                                                                                    
CITIZENSHIP BUILDING 
FOR PARTICIPATORY POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE 
Module II

This Publication is produced by the Education Research development and Promotion Unit of the National Secretariat for Social Action, justice and Peace: Ediberto Guyano, Coordinator; Mr Medina, Editor; Carlito Noneil Santos Alay Kapwa Coordinator; and Roel Andag, Researcher-Writer.

General editing by Sr. Rosanne Mallillin, SPC, NASSA executive Secretary; and Eric Zosa, Department Coordinator, Written and compiled by Guyano. Layout by Medina. Cover and artworks by Ronald Samson. 

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Last Updated: Friday, April 27, 2001 09:53:00 PM