RETHINKING THE DEVELOPMENT BEYOND THE STATE: THE CASE OF GAWAD KALINGA IN THE PHILIPPINES PDF

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The Public Administration and the Gawad Kalingan in the Philippines....

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Fulo, Ivanne Alecxyz G. IR-256

2019-1-01134

RETHINKING THE DEVELOPMENT BEYOND THE STATE: THE CASE OF GAWAD KALINGA IN THE PHILIPPINES When you look at Public Administration, it impacts everyone. It touches a lot of subjects including education, government, and planning for communities. Since before, there’s been a steady decline in the perception of majority on how well the government of a country is doing. These days, it has become very popular to blame government for the problems on why society is not always working at its optimal efficiency and its best condition. And this concludes that you are going to come into Public Administration and deal with levels of authorities, and rules and regulations, whether you are in a sustainable community, north, or urban environment. According to Frederickson’s essay “Towards a New Public Administration”, it sought to answer questions on efficiency and effectiveness like: how can the government offer better services with available resources (efficiency) or how can we maintain our level of services while spending less money (economy)? People talk about sustainable development but as what we see is sustainable poverty. As a student, I believe that some major social policy areas, such as health care, education, and social welfare, reflects how the government has adopted different principles over time. The model of “good governance” as cited by Cariño (2000: 1-6), contains the following elements: (1) people’s participation in policy and decision-making, made possible by a decentralized government; (2) responsiveness to the will of the people, who are empowered and enabled; (3) transparency and accountability of public servants in response to the citizens’ right to know (“the truth”) as the sovereign in a democracy; (4) efficiency and effectiveness in the exercise of power and authority to preserve scarce resources for the provision of public services, solving problems, and fulfilling goals; (5) the promotion and fulfillment of social justice and human rights; and (6) achieving ecological integrity and sustainable development.1 For whom is Public Administration? Education policy was a political priority in the pre-reform period, which had a direct influence on urban and rural children's educational opportunities (Hannum, 1999). Relating to this, the decentralization reform and policy design of the higher education system create multiple venues for social inequity. Some attempts of reform of public administration have not succeeded. In this case, if there is a need to expand 1

Cariňo, L. 2000. “Re-engineering the Bureaucracy: Translating Principles into Performance Indicators.” pp. 261–282 in Measuring Good Governance in the Philippines

when it comes to political decentralization takes place.

participation,

in

democratic

processes,

Gawad Kalinga (meaning ‘to give care’) is one of the movements that has a successful cooperation between government. This movement makes us realize that we should not give the poor charity, but instead dignity, which involves decent shelter with quality education. On a talk, Mr. Antonio Meloto, the founder of GK, mentioned about subsistence economy wherein we called it “Isang kahig, Isang tuka”. Or one scratch, one peck. That’s when he began to build this movement because he went to the biggest slum in the country, Bagong Silang, Caloocan City. It was born out of the desire to rehabilitate juvenile gang members and out-of-school youth there way back in 1994. And it was formally established in 2003 as the Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, Inc. (Gawad Kalinga). Gawad Kalinga emerged as a ‘social ministry’ of the Catholic lay organization Couples for Christ (CFC) in 2000 (Cherry, 2014).2 A more conservative branch continued under the banner of ANCOP, or ‘Answering the Cry of the Poor’, which had been the original name of GK’s North American fundraising foundation. Its priority is on anti-poverty, livelihood and housing services, and its flagship projects include several newly constructed villages. From the perspective of GK, the enormity of poverty cannot be solved by government alone (Gawad Kalinga, 2019). That made this movement connect to governance because the state agency tasked to provide housing for the poor and GK is a critical ally in relocating informal settler families (Gawad Kalinga, 2010; National Housing Authority, 2015). On the other hand, GK has also enjoyed state support across multiple levels of government. Majority of GK’s projects have received political and financial support from it, starting from the efforts up to promoting volunteerism among the youth to community-oriented workshops to appease relocated slum dwellers. Moreover, GK was one of the active nongovernmental organizations that provided housing by partnering with several local government units and the NHA. Through their Oplan Walang Iwanan (‘No Leaving Behind’) program, GK provided a total of 2,923 houses in thirty-three towns affected by Typhoon Haiyan3. As cited by Morgen Johansen (2019), there is a normative dimension of public administration and governance in the Philippines.4 The classic three pillars of it were economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. Because of the ‘public’ nature of public administration, and because of the fact that despite the rhetoric 2

Cherry, Stephen (2014). “The Gawad Kalinga Movement: Charismatic Catholicism.” In Global Religious Movements Across Borders 3 Philip F. Kelly & Arnisson Andre C. Ortega (2020). Diaspora and development beyond the state: the case of Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines 4 Morgen Johansen (2019). Social Equity in the Asia-Pacific Region Conceptualizations and Realities

and numerous measures produced and introduced by government over the years, the poor have continued to be left behind in the such-called ‘development process’. It takes a clear framework that restores the dignity of the poor, enables them to benefit from the cooperation of different stakeholders, and to capitalize on the inherent innovation and values of the Filipinos, such as Bayanihan or community service, faith, warmth, volunteerism and hospitality (Brillantes and Fernandez, 2008). To sum it up, the people are the ‘public’ in public administration. Indeed, we cannot deny GK’s importance when it comes to highlighting the issues of poverty, landlessness and housing in our country in which all of it have been neglected for too long. It is obvious that the said movement has earned not only local but also international recognition due to its initiatives in the fields of poverty reduction and the promotion of social equity. Many initiatives and projects for public administration and governance have been planned and built for the poor, supposedly, as the aim to improve their lives. Public administration should concentrate on serving sectors of the society that are disadvantaged, disenfranchised, and oppressed. With this, the New Public Administration (NPA) can be traced to its origins. It was also proven by Frederickson (1971) saying that Gawad Kalinga highlights three important characteristics are New Public Administration, Reinventing Government, and Governance: enhancement of social equity as a key question; effective delivery of services as a core concept (Osborne and Gaebler 1992); and cooperation between government, business, and civil society as a key principle of governance (ADB 2005, 1995; UNDP 1997; Cariño 2000). In additional, it is not a matter of divisive proselytizing or selective nationalism, but of local citizenship and justice. As stated by Antonio Meloto, the GK founder, "GK is a global poverty reduction movement that has created enormous generosity and massive volunteerism." (Meloto, 2009).5 Given the prevalence of poverty in the county, as shown by the many deprived and marginalized sectors that can be found among the urban and rural poor, and among others, it has found importance in the Philippines6.

5

Meloto, A. (2009). Builder of Dreams. Mandaluyong City: Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation Brillantes, A., & Fernandez, M. (2008). Is There a Philippine Public Administration? Or Better Still, for Whom Is Philippine Public Administration?

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