SLB’s Current and Upcoming Projects
Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan (SLB) is a non-partisan, church-based organization that is concerned primarily with socio-political and economic affairs of the country. SLB aims for a Filipino nation that celebrates love of country and genuine democracy in the spirit of faith that does justice. As such, we create ways to foster participation and vigilance among Filipino citizens.
The intention of SLB was conceived in 1986, in a little room in the Loyola House of Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, where a number of priests where discussing the political and socio-economic situation of the country at that time. From there, SLB traces its beginning to the historical presidential snap elections of 1986. What started as a small organization of religious priests, seminarians and nuns known as the Namfrel Marines has now evolved into a non-profit organization known as Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan. From this came the intention of reviving and strengthening the spirit of democracy in the country and from there, the hope of progress and development with the faith of justice.
Guided by the Gospel values, SLB, in the more current times, is committed to promote responsible citizenship through various advocacies, values-education, socio-spiritual integration, the awakening of popular conscience, and bridge-building among the various sectors of society. SLB also strives in the pursuit of truth through research, information dissemination, social analysis, discernment and dialogue, and vigilant action respectful of democratic institutions. Lastly, SLB aims to evangelize the Filipino culture through the revitalization of hope and empowerment.
To concretize these vision and mission, SLB is currently having numerous projects to foster the continuing maturity among the Filipino people and to provide them the arena where they can share and live their passion and skills for the country to progress.
Now that the 2007 mid-term National Elections is drawing near, SLB has been able to create programs that cultivate awareness, projects that suppress the existing apathy and plans that will drive and motivate our fellow Filipinos to strive towards a better country.
First on the list is SLB’s Pinoy Voters Academy (PVA): Ang Drama sa Likod ng Halalan. This seminar is a participative process of political education where people are asked to reflect upon themselves their situation while they are provided with researched-based information about the current situation of the country. After which, PVA conducts action-planning by local communities which is geared towards authentic people empowerment and citizen participation through effective monitoring of elected public servants. A number of PVA has been given to different sectors of the country – communities, schools, congregations, etc. The success of the PVA can be seen from the continuous requests received by SLB from all over the country. SLB continues to conduct PVA on a nationwide scale with Jesuit scholastics strategically assigned in various regions.
Effective monitoring of elected public servants is more concretized in SLB’s Bantay Pangako, literally translated as “Looking after Promises”. Bantay Pangako is a community-organizing program, which is a mechanism for communities to set their own agenda, choose their candidates and hold politicians accountable after the elections. Through Bantay Pangako, campaign promises of candidates are duly noted by the communities and monitored throughout the duration of the candidates’ stay in office, to see whether or not those promises would be carried out. This project was initially inspired by Silingan Ka experience in Ipil Prelature, Zamboanga – Sibugay and builds on the covenant signing process of the Pinoy Voters’ Academy. Bantay Pangako is being carried out by Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan with the aid of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and the Ateneo School of Government. Pilot areas of Bantay Pangako are communities from Payatas,
Furthermore, SLB, together with various sectors of the Ateneo Jesuit Community and other committed Church-related groups answered to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) for active involvement of the citizenry in this year’s elections to ensure credible and peaceful proceedings by launching the flagship program called V-ForCE, also known as One Million Volunteers for Clean Elections. V-ForCE is “a call to political engagement in the coming elections, in the face of widespread social distrust among the citizenry of electoral processes and national politics”. V-ForCE utilizes volunteerism by gathering one million volunteers and coordinated action from the people to alleviate prevalent problems of social distrust on political processes. It also provided necessary short and long term planning for developing democratic institutions focusing on the coming May elections and future political activities. V-ForCE “recognizes that political involvement in the May 2007 elections will only be meaningful if put in the perspective of a longer term project to develop leaders, constituencies, and networks for building genuine democracy towards 2010 and beyond.” Lastly, V-ForCE presents a menu of options for non-partisan involvement as a way to recruit volunteers, as well as to show a clear picture of the significance and cooperation by different social and Church-related groups (PPCRV, CBCP-NASSA, NAMFREL, parishes and schools). Plans for electoral monitoring come in three main projects namely, Poll Watch 2007 (Bantay Presinto); Citizens Parallel Vote Count (Bantay Bilang); and the monitoring of canvassing process to be led by the Legal Network for Truthful Elections (Lente / Bantay Canvass). SLB is currently serving as Secretariat for V-ForCE.
Moreover, SLB, in cooperation with Life Academy and PLDT also initiated Gabay Halalan 101-49, an election call center which aims to provide free, accessible, relevant, and unbiased information regarding the upcoming elections to Filipino voters in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao and OFWs on demand from friendly tele-educators. The information provided by Gabay Halalan describes how to vote – what to bring to the polls, where are the precincts, voting time, and the actual voting processes, national and local candidates’ profiles – their stands on issues, platforms, and issues linked to said candidates, information for OFWs, party-list information, local election information, guidelines on how to volunteer for the elections, where election materials are available for browsing by the public, and election-related legal assistance. Significantly, Gabay Halalan also dreams to promote active citizenship by providing Filipinos an opportunity to be involved in the national elections by stating the means and ways where they can volunteer.
Elections or not, and in its emphasis on the search for truth, SLB continuously disseminate political information that updates our fellow Filipinos regarding socio-political issues happening in the country. SLB has put forth various projects such as Kwentong Bayan (National Situationer) which is a social weather report that comes out bi-annually; the Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan official website www.slb.ph where SLB Newsbriefs are released twice a day; SiLBi, the official publication of SLB featuring socio-political and economic analysis of the country that comes out every quarter-year; May Kwenta ba ang Kwento?, which is a series of discernment and dialogue sessions concerning the socio-political state of the nation; and lastly, the Tutok Karapatan Exhibit, an art exhibit with the focus on human rights conducted in partnership with a network of Filipino artists, which is to be conducted June 12 of the same year. SLB also updates its multiply site www.simbahanglingkod.multiply.com which features reports, articles, laws, and election-related materials which can be freely accessed by anyone.
SLB is also currently conducting its very own election survey, The Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan’s 2007 National Elections Online Survey, which aims to identify the growing voters’ maturity, their preferences when voting for a candidate and their own Top 12 and Worst 12 Senatorial Candidates. SLB is also receiving comments regarding the current political events and candidates.
Another project that SLB has initiated is the disaster management and relief operations in Bicol,
Driven by our desire towards the evangelization of Filipino culture, SLB initiated Citizenship by Good Example (CGE) which aims to develop good citizenship among Filipinos by volunteering and continually updating and making them aware regarding the current status of our country. Several projects were also initiated such as Indie-Rock Advocacy for Responsible Citizenship, Movement of Good Example Networks, SLB Citizen by Good Example formation plan, Audio CDs consisting of politically-aware album set for release on June 12, 2007, and lastly, a weekly SLB-Radio Veritas 846 Program every Saturday 11:00 AM to 12 PM which tackles important, essential and controversial issues regarding the current political status of the country. SLB has also begun SUKI: Susi ng ating Kinabukasan, a campaign to buy Filipino products that will be launched in sync with CGE in mid-June of 2007, and Asin at Ilaw, which are catholic social teachings which were already conducted for the big network of the Archdiocesan Youth Organization of Manila.
The growing network and the continuous success of SLB is also apparent through several features and interviews in the PROBE team (http://www.probeteam.com/episodes/archive.html), the PCIJ (http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=1646), ANC Debates, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Radio Veritas, RPN 9, SAKSI (http://www.gmanews.tv/video/6372/Saksi-Call-center-for-voting-advice-swamped-with-inquiries), GMANews.tv (http://www.gmanews.tv/story/41239/Call-center-put-up-for-queries-about-bets-parties), Intersect, and DZBB to name a few.
