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News
February 12, 2010
Social Watch Philippines Supports Leonor
Magtolis Briones For Kaakbay Partylist
MEMBERS of the Social Watch
Philippines (SWP) network supported
the candidacy of its lead convenor,
former national treasurer Leonor
Magtolis Briones, under the Kaakbay
Partylist.
“This country needs people like
Briones in Congress,” said Jessica
Reyes-Cantos, co-convenor of SWP.
“She leads over a hundred citizens’
organizations on a campaign for
increased spending for social
services and has been at the helm of
civil society and legislator
partnership efforts on formulating
and lobbying for alternative budget
proposals for increased allocation
for education, health, agriculture
and the environment,” said Cantos.
Briones leads SWP in its campaign
for increased financing for social
development, particularly the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
since 2001. The MDGs are the set of
eight goals embodying the countries’
commitment to end the worst forms of
human deprivation by 2015.
“The Congress holds the people’s
power of the purse. We need
representatives who are dedicated to
ensuring that the most vulnerable
sectors benefit from public funds
which are their hard earned money.
We need people who can courageously
tell rich nations to live up to
their promises of helping the
poorest countries and to be fair in
providing aid. We need someone who
leads civil society across the globe
in fighting for fair economic
policies,” said Rene Raya of Action
for Economic Reforms (AER) who is
also a convenor of SWP.
With Briones’ leadership, SWP has
been actively involved in
international global campaigns on
the MDGs, and has been monitoring
and analyzing public expenditures
for social development, particularly
the MDGs for already nine years. SWP
is recognized globally for having
tested and developed poverty
measurements that are more sensitive
at the local level. It has also
established leadership in localizing
the MDGs, and has led CSO-legislator
partnerships in formulating
alternative budget proposals for
increased allocation for key MDG
targets.
Briones is also the Philippine
ambassador to the W8 which is a
group of women leaders from eight
nations organized by Oxfam to talk
to heads of the richest countries to
remind them to live up to their
promises to help poor nations
finance social development programs.
“We have been aiming and calling for
reform and good governance for so
many years. How to achieve reforms
in government is what Briones has
been teaching to our future leaders
at the National College of Public
Administration and Good Governance
at the University of the
Philippines. Young and new
Congressmen and Senators need
Briones’ wisdom and principles,”
said Isagani Serrano, SWP convenor
and president of the country’s
oldest nongovernment organization,
the Philippine Rural Reconstruction
Movement.
“We feel that Briones’ victory in
Congress would be a victory for all
citizens’ groups who have been
untiringly lobbying inside the halls
of Congress and holding mass actions
outside the gates of Congress so
that people’s voice may be finally
heard and be translated into
national policies”, said Marivic
Raquiza, SWP convenor and former
national coordinator of Global Call
to Action Against Poverty (GCAP).
Briones was chosen by Kaakbay
Partylist as one of their candidates
because of her longstanding
dedication and leadership role in
efforts to achieve the country’s
commitment to end the worst forms of
human deprivation through the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG)
such as the eradication of extreme
poverty, achieving quality
education, realizing universal
healthcare services and ensuring
environmental sustainability.
.
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