Mindanaoans want bigger say in loans
By Germelina Lacorte
Mindanao Bureau
First Posted 20:56:00 07/05/2008
MINDANAO CIVIC GROUPS are batting for a more direct hand, and a greater voice, in the use of Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds being poured out by rich donor countries into the island.
Although ODA funds in support for the peace and development efforts in Mindanao have been increasing in the last three years, civic groups directly working in the grassroots have been largely left out and deprived access to these funds, said Lyda Canson, of the AidsWatch Mindanao.
AidsWatch is a network of civic groups currently reviewing the impact of ODA projects in Mindanao.
Canson said that a total of $9.2 billion in ODAs has been poured into the Philippines last year, of which $709 million was in Mindanao. She said most of the funds, however, are coursed through government mechanism that are open for corruption, and carried out by government agencies whose framework does not necessarily address the needs felt by grassroots communities.
Her claims jibed with the observations of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco) executive who said that although a lot of foreign aid has been pouring to support the peace agenda, Mindanao has been left out in the decision making process in the implementation of this aid.
“A lot of foreign aid has been poured in to support the peace agenda in Mindanao but are these initiatives and decisions coming from Mindanao?” Janet Lopoz, Medco executive director asked during the AidsWatch forum. “Or are they coming from foreign donors and other outsiders?”
“We can’t allow discussions and forum on Mindanao without including us in those forum,” said Lopoz.
Canson noted that most of the foreign aid coming to Mindanao in the last three years has been concentrated mostly in conflict areas linked with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“While we are convinced that Muslim communities deserve this attention and even more, we believe that this should not prejudice efforts to cover areas affected by other conflicts,” she said.
Canson said there are other armed conflicts in Mindanao that also deserved equal attention. Aside from the political wars waged by the Communist New Peoples’ Army, the MILF and MNLF, more local conflicts like clan wars and ridos also displace people from their communities.
“We are concerned that aid, by not paying attention to these conflicts and to the factors that drive them, could be inadvertently setting up the stage for even more conflicts in the future,” Canson said.
Lopoz said, however, that Mindanao only gets 30 percent of the ODA funds compared to Luzon which gets 59 percent.
“Mindanao’s share in the ODA is so dismal because most of the mega projects are in Luzon,” Lopoz said, adding that areas with the highest poverty incidence, poor human development index and which are most vulnerable to conflict are in Mindanao; which include the provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Zamboanga, Sarangani, Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga and Surigao del Norte.
Sonny Africa, research head of the research think tank Ibon Philippines, said that foreign aid pouring into the country in the last five decades failed to address poverty because they are carried out based on the agenda of donor countries instead of the actual needs of the communities.
He cited, for instance, that 75 percent of the US aid is in Mindanao, in support of US Army presence, like the Balikatan exercises.
“They’re not implemented in the country based on the context of genuine needs of the communities but based on the donor agency’s agenda.
Percinita Sanchez, executive director of the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (Misfi), also noted that ODA-funded infrastructure projects are concentrated in areas targeted for mining, which only showed how ODA is being used to pave the way for the entry of big companies at the expense of the communities.
“We are not just concerned about the continuing reliance of the country on ODAs but where and how is aid spent and not spent? Who benefits from this aid? How does aid impact on Mindanao and the rest of the country?” asked Canson.
She cited that in the 1950s and 1960s, Mindanao has been receiving “development assistance” that turned Mindanao into a “food and raw materials suppliers” to other industrialized economies.
Later, those aids opened up Mindanao to migrants, which only robbed its original settlers ownership of the land.
Canson expressed concern that ODAs are becoming an important source of funds to promote peace and address conflicts in Mindanao but these ODA projects are being carried out without a representation of the CSOs.
“Although Mindanao is way ahead of Luzon in terms of donor and government efforts, CSOs are not represented in the Mindanao Working Group,” she said. “This is unfortunate because CSOs provided the expertise and experience in the delivery of services to the communities long before the devolution program of the government.”
AidsWatch is asking big foreign donors to comply with their commitment in the Paris declaration, to make aid more effective in addressing poverty by involving recipient communities in decision-making and implementation of those aids, Canson said.
Lopoz said infrastructure make up about half of the ODA projects in Mindanao and only a smaller portion going to the social sector.
She said Medco ensures that development projects in Mindanao do not overlap each other. Medco is coming up with an ODA database to make information on ODAs in the country more transparent. The database will allow people to track down the program down to the barangay level.
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