UN Committee urges Philippine government to spend more on poverty reduction and social services
Geneva/Quezon City 2.12.08-- The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), in its Concluding Observations dated November 24, 2008 called on the Philippine government to “allocate sufficient funds for the implementations of its poverty eradication strategy” and “increase its national spending on social services such as housing, health and education.”
The Committee reviewed the government’s report last November 11-12, 2008 at Geneva, Switzerland on how it is implementing the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
In Concluding Observation 17, the CESCR “notes with concern that, in spite of a high GDP growth rate, the national spending on social services such as housing, health and education remains low and has in fact decreased over the years.” Observation 28 said, “The Committee is deeply concerned that, in spite of the high rate of economic growth in recent years, the percentage of persons living below the official poverty line has actually increased to an estimated 36% of the population in 2007…And (there are) significant inequalities in income distribution, especially between urban areas and poor rural areas.”
The Committee also underscored the “limited progress” made by the government in investigating and prosecuting the forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings of trade union activists, indigenous peoples leaders, peasant activists demanding for land reform and human rights defenders asserting the economic, social and cultural rights of the people.
Corruption, according to the CESCR, “continues to be widespread.” It recommended that the government to train the police, prosecutors and judges in applying anti-corruption laws, initiate awareness-raising campaigns and institute “transparency in the conduct of public authorities.”
FIAN Philippines, with the support of FIAN International, submitted a parallel report to the CESCR and raised these and other issues to the Committee. Many of the points that FIAN reported were mentioned in the Concluding Observations, however, there was no reference in the Concluding Observations to the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which the FIAN report highlighted.
With the release of the Concluding Observations by the CESCR, FIAN Philippines and other members of civil society are planning to have a dialogue with the various government agencies under the Office of the President, the legislature and judiciary on how these recommendations can be implemented in the short and long-term periods. FIAN calls on the Philippine government to seriously heed the recommendations made by the UN CESCR so that the economic, social and cultural rights and, in particular the right to food, of Filipinos can be progressively realized.