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PRESS RELEASES
Group welcomes Congress’ willingness to engage CSOs in budget deliberations
SOCIALWATCH PHILS·SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 Public budget watchdog Social Watch Philippines (SWP) thanks House of Representatives of the Philippines Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano for his pronouncement to allow the active participation of people’s or civil society organizations (CSOs) in the deliberations of the national budget. They hope that the same can be done in the Senate of the Philippines.
“CSOs can actually provide expertise and unique perspective in formulating people-centered budgeting for the lawmakers,” the group said in a statement. A network of more than a hundred CSOs organized in early 1997 to monitor the implementation of government commitments to social development, the SWP has long been on the forefront of calling for transparency, accountability, and people’s participation in the national budget process. The group convened the Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) network in 2006, jointly conceptualized with leaders of the opposition in the House of Representatives, in which then-Congressman Alan Peter S. Cayetano was a member of the House Minority. DOH wants to institutionalize smoke free campaign
SOCIALWATCH PHILS, Thursay, August 6, 2020 The Department of Health (Philippines) (DOH) has expressed full support to (SWP) Social Watch Philippines’ Smoke Free is the New Normal campaign.
Dr. Beverly Lorraine C. Ho, DOH OIC Director for Health Promotion Bureau said that problems triggered by Covid19 is an opportunity to enact and enforce better laws and policies and more proactive campaign for better health, saying that “different government officials are of the same attitude,” right now. During a webinar organized and hosted by SWP early this weeky, Ho said that there are several facts about Covid19 that are already known, citing older people and those with underlying health conditions more vulnerable to the respiratory disease as one. DepEd to parents and adults: counsel children to veer away from smoking
SOCIALWATCH PHIL·Friday, July 31, 2020 While there are plenty of other vices which can lure young people, cigarette smoking threatens families’ health and smoking can be easily picked up by succeeding generation, the Department of Education (DepEd) said in a statement.
Addressing a webinar on the dangers of tobacco smoking among the youth organized by the Social Watch Philippines (SWP) recently, DepEd Secretary Leonor M. Briones said that the public needs to know that risk of cigarette smoking to learners remains. SWP smoke free campaign gains ground as DILG pledges support, with barangays as frontliners
SOCIALWATCH PHILS TUESDAY, JULY 10, 2020 The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is fully supporting the Smoke Free is the New Normal campaign of Social Watch Philippines (SWP).
During a webinar organized and hosted by SWP, DILG Philippines Undersecretary for Barangay Affairs Martin Diño said his agency is committing all barangays to help in the campaign against smoking, and barangay offices can be used both for information campaign and implementing the anti-smoking laws. He noted that there are many laws against smoking and related environmental laws that were not being strictly implemented previously Local Watchdog Expresses Concern as UPHS Health frontliners Contract COVID-19
SOCIALWATCH PHILS·MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 Social Watch Philippines (SWP) calls for urgent implementation of support mechanism for health care frontliners as seven UP Diliman Health Service workers tested positive for COVID-19 recently.
On Tuesday, the DZUP Balita tweeted that seven University of the Philippines Health Service (UPHS) was tested positive of the corona virus. The UPHS promptly replied that all of the infected workers have been isolated and their close contacts have been traced by the UPHS Public Health Unit, assuring the public that services will continue at the said facilities. According to the SWP, this development is important because “when prevention at homes and at the community level fail, patients are transferred to health facilities or hospitals, the third and final arena for treating COVID-19.” “The health sector as a whole, the technical experts, and health workers are working round the clock to prevent health facilities from becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients at the expense of those who are also sick with non-related COVID-19 diseases,” the group said. |
FEATURES
SOCIAL WATCH PHILIPPINES POSITION PAPERA Proposal to Simplify and Fast-Track the Social Amelioration Program and Other Social Protection Measures
SOCIALWATCH PHILS·MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2020 We are a network of civil society and community-based organizations that has consistently advocated for people-centered sustainable development.
We acknowledge and appreciate the hard work of the government, civic groups and other stakeholders, especially the front-liners, who are doing their best to serve our people in spite of the physical and mental dangers posed by the #COVID19PH crisis, and the constraints on various fronts. We note the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on grassroots communities. There is a pressing need to equalize life’s opportunities and conditions for all, not as an act of charity but as matter of rights and entitlement. We are concerned about the growing lack of food and other essential needs among the most vulnerable – especially the informally employed who comprise over 80 percent of Filipino workers - who now have lost their sources of incomes due to the pandemic and enhanced quarantine. The delayed delivery of public assistance is raising the level of frustration among the impoverished communities. read more...
SPOTLIGHT REPORT
Social Watch has made its statement on how the Philippines could end poverty and achieve sustainable development through its Spotlight Report three years ago. The report wanted to change everything—from a proposed vision of prosperity without growth, to changing the strategy and indicators.
Many good things are happening within society as a whole. But there is really need to engage government more not only to make a “whole government approach” but a “whole of society approach” to work towards bringing us closer to our dream of fairness in a fragile world. read more...
Towards Coherent Policies for Sustainable Development
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Social Watch Philippines (SWP) turn over 200,000 signatures to Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito in support of the passage of the Universal Health Care bill and Tobacco Tax Increase bill on Thursday, September 20 during a Manila Youth Leader’s Assembly held at Polytechnic University of the Philippines Sta Mesa.
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