CSOs and State 21, Another round of Books for the Barrios

Inspired by the continuing advocacy of #booksforthebarrios by my Pinoy friend in California, Monchit Arellano, I would occasionally bring some old books to a rice farming village in Brgy. Laguit Padilla, Bugallon, Pangasinan.

Here, my friend from UP, Jun Realica, delivered and donated many books from his house, for the barrio kids. We had few rounds of beer after stocking the books in our house.

A public school teacher friend in Lingayen asked if she could get some books for her elementary students inside the classroom (not at the school library), I said yes. Jun is donating the books for free. But not all of these books to that school.

I plan to have a small community library someday at our farm caretaker's house in that barrio, kids and adults can borrow and read the books for free, provided they don't tear the pages or lose the book.



My 6 1/2 years old daughter checked the books donated by Jun, she liked some of them so she set them aside as "hers" temporarily, to be given away someday after she's done looking and reading at them. These four books at the top are among her chosen ones.

Early this month, one of our neighbors donated his old encylopedia collection because he wanted the space occupied by the books, I said I can give them to the barrio kids in Pangasinan. So first weekend of March I brought the 20+ volumes, the barrio kids were happy. Here, just some of the kids in the immediate neighborhood.

I turned over the books to the wife of our farm caretaker. She said that if the books are given to the public school, the kids will be shy to borrow. In their house, the kids, the neighbors can borrow anytime. Only one condition -- no pages will be torn or cut, keep the books clean so that more kids can borrow and read.

Initiatives like this, people donating books they do not need anymore, and there will be young and old minds in rural areas who will be more than willing to see and read them. Civil society in action, zero need for extra government offices and taxes to make these things work.
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See also:
CSOs and State 6: Stichting Kapatiran and Books for the Barrios, December 07, 2008
CSOs and State 7: Public School Library with Minimal Government, BftB, June 29, 2009

CSOs and State 18: Civil Society as Lobbyists for More Government? Cigarette Warning Bill, March 02, 2014 

CSOs and State 19: UP Maroons and UP Alumni, March 24, 2014 

CSOs and State 20, Gawad Kalinga and Housing for the Poor, June 08, 2015

CSOs and State 8: Gawad Kalinga, Health NGOs and Taxes

There was a good article two months ago at the Inquirer on the dramatic growth of Gawad Kalinga (GK) in the Philippines. Now there are 2,300+ GK villages in 400 towns in the Philippines according to prime GK advocate. The news report also narrated how some local politicians ride on the GK bandwagon, whether for serious or opportunist reason.

http://newsinfo. inquirer. net/inquirerhead lines/nation/ view/20090719- 216139/Local- execs-into- politics- of-caring- GK-way

I am not sure if those local and national politicians that hitch with the GK bandwagon understand that there is something in GK that is not present in government service: instant accountability.

GK lives off on pure donation, voluntary contribution. Once the donations are gone, GK is gone.

Government on the other hand, lives off on taxation, mandatory and forcibly collected taxation. Such revenues can never go dry, so the bureaucracies can never fade away.

GK people are driven by pure customer satisfaction. Their "customers" are the thousands of private donors who have extra money to give away if they are assured that their donations are well spent and not stolen or wasted. If those donors sense something is wrong, there is the instant result of donation reduction or evaporation. Whereas in government, there is rigid and looongg process of finding out accountability and wrong-doing, if ever.

I know a Pinoy friend from LA, who has been helping GK for the past 6 to 10 years now. He's on the lookout how the projects that he's supporting is going. A single news that he can confirm that the money is wasted in a par ticular GK project, he stops donating to that community, rechannels his contributions to other GK communities or other humanitarian projects. He even tells his other friends who give the same donation, so the news of wrong-doing can easily spread. Although so far, instances of wasteful GK projects are very few and isolated.

It's like Rotary, Lions, Masons, other private charity and civic groups, other civil society organizations (CSOs). They live off on pure voluntary support, membership and contributions. The moment a club or a district misbehaves, the "punishment" in the form of reduced membership may not be instant but can build a momentum.

More serious politicians who strongly believe in the GK spirit should consider drastically cutting the taxes and fees (local or national) that they impose, encourage investor confidence that results in more investments, more entrepreneurship, more job creation in the local community or the country as a whole.
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Civil Society Leaders Embracing High Taxes

In relation to my earlier discussion on taxes on medicines, I posted in our CHAT googlegroups that our think tank, Minimal Government Thinkers, does not solicit or receive any government money (local, national, foreign aid). A think tank or NGO that does not receive any tax money can be a tax activist anytime.

When the WB Philippines proposed -- and reported in the newspapers -- that the excise tax on gasoline (currently around P4.50/liter) should be hiked in order to help reduce the budget deficit, I posted a commentary in this blog and sent it to my various ygroups, cc'd my friends working or used to work in WB Manila. I said that the WB is a parasite for proposing such measure to further raise gasoline prices when many sectors are already debating or fighting each other how to bring down gasoline prices, how to bring down the fares in public transpo, etc. I think the Department of Finance (DOF) also did not entertain their proposal. 

If MG Thinkers receive funding from the WB, IMF, ADB, UN, USAID, AusAid, etc., it's difficult to become a tax activist because ALL of those institutions live off on tax money. Or difficult to attack international bureaucrats because ALL of them are international bureaucracies. 

One NGO leader narrated their experience. Early this decade, they campaigned for the removal of the tax for one anti-cancer (leukemia) drug. They succeeded, but he added that it did not result in price reduction, rather the prices of such drug kept rising. So he concluded that only the pharma company, not the patients, benefited from the removal of taxes on medicines.

I narrated my other observation. One of my Filipino friends in California (Monchit Arellano) is helping the Books for the Barrios (BftB, www.booksforthebarriors.com). He, his family, some Filipino officemates and friends, solicit and collect hundreds, thousands, of books, even toys, for elementary-level students in the US, pack them in boxes, which are later loaded in shipping containers, transport to the Philippines. BftB Manila receives those containers, and here's the catch:

Those books from America were donated FREE.
Those books will be distributed to public elementary schools in rural areas of the Philippines for FREE.

But when those containers of books from the US reach the Philippine ports, BftB Manila pays for the following:
1. Customs duties around P65,000 -- yes there are taxes for donated and used books!
2. Customs broker around P60,000 -- an agency that deals everything with the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

The BftB Manila staff who narrated me that story last year, said that what's worse, donated medicines and vaccines by volunteer medical missions from abroad, many of them are parked at the Customs area and allowed to deteriorate. Why? Those medical missions and volunteers have money for the airfare of the volunteers and shipment of free drugs and vaccines. But they never expected there are high taxes and Customs brokerage to pay for those donated medicines, so they did not bring money for such. Those vaccines are on refrigerated containers that run on electricity, of course. Since they cannot pay the taxes, and the medicines require continued electricity while the papers and payment are being processed, the BOC personnel disconnect the electricity as electricity charges are being borne by the Bureau. Within hours, those useful, essential, life-saving medicines become useless as they need to be kept at a particular temperature (say 0 or 10 Celsius). When the temperature goes up or down significantly, the medicines become ineffective for their intended patients.

For the imported anti-cancer drugs that the NGO leader above was talking, I think only the import tax (5%) was waived. This tax is collected by the BOC. On top of the import tax, there is the 12% VAT, also collected by the BOC in behalf of the BIR. This bigger tax has to be paid to the BIR even if the import tax or customs duties is waived.

For the pricing of whoever is the pharma company that sold that medicine, when it is the single seller or distributor of that medicine in any country, that is tantamount to a monopoly. A monopolist would tend to abuse its position and price its product at any level it wants to, considering demand elasticity (or responsiveness of consumers to changes in prices), size of the market, and purchasing power of that market. Government is an example of a monopoly. It can set its price at any level (personal income tax at 32%, corporate income tax at 35, down to 30%, travel tax at P1,620, with or without any service to the Pinoy traveler, etc.).

The solution to a monopolistic industry structure is more competition. Allow other players and producers to come in. As I have posted before here, there are hundreds of other multinational innovator pharmas, and tens of thousands of generic pharmas, that are not in the Philippines yet. India alone has more than 22,000 pharma companies. Its biggest pharma company, Ranbaxy -- like Unilab, the biggest pharma co. in the Philippines -- is not even here when Ranbaxy can put up stiff competition to anybody here, both local or multinational pharma.

I opined that the posting by said NGO leader was not to discourage the pursuance of abolishing taxes -- both import tax and VAT -- on medicines. This government hypocrisy need to be stopped. We all want cheaper medicines, so taxes that hike medicine prices, and regulations that kill competition, should be scrapped.

The guy replied, that even if the 5 percent import tax was waived, the anti-cancer drug price did not go down by a corresponding 5 percent. So he reasoned out that if the 12 percent VAT will be removed, then the profit of the pharma company/ies will become even bigger. 

He further argued that when government tax revenues fall, it's the public who will suffer because the government will have lesser money to develop the country.

Typical statist, if not socialist, argument. This logic says that government should tax and tax as much as possible on everything. Anyway the money will be used by the government for the public.

This is actually one perspective being embraced by many civil society leaders who hate free markets and competitive capitalism, they want more government intervention, regulation and taxation. More government responsibility to assume a big Nanny role. So those civil society leaders come to the defense of the State for ever higher taxes, including high taxes on medicines even if the same NGO leaders are supposedly campaigning for "cheaper medicines".

It will not be far that these NGOs receive lots of funding from the government -- national or foreign aid. As I posted earlier in this blog, such NGOs are NOT exactly "non-government". They are more of government-funded organizations (GFOs) although the funding is not direct. Usually through an international NGO that gets foreign aid funding, then channeled to national NGOs.


* See also:
CSOs and State 4: Local Government and Civil Society, August 12, 2008
CSOs and State 5: Subsidiarity, Decentralization and Privatization, September 04, 2008
CSOs and State 6: Stichting Kapatiran and Books for the Barrios, December 07, 2008
CSOs and State 7: Public School Library with Minimal Government, BftB, June 29, 2009

CSOs and State 7: Public School Library with Minimal Government, BftB

In classic statist and welfarist philosophy, education, from primary to tertiary levels, should be government responsibility, not personal or parental responsibility. Thus, everything from school buildings to library to school tuition, etc. should be handled and funded by the State or by local governments.

But there are plenty of initiatives around the world where individuals, corporations, private foundations,  civic groups and other civil society organizations (CSOs) are involved in helping the poor have access to good quality education. One of such groups or projects is the Books for the Barrios (BftB, http://www.booksforthebarrios.org/home.php) project.

My good friend, Ramon "Monchit" Arellano, a Filipino working at AT&T in northern California, has been helping this project for several years now. Not only himself, but also his entire family, wife and 2 kids; then some of his fellow Filipino employees of AT&T. They bring their old books, solicit used books from their friends, bring those to the BftB office, help pack the books into big boxes, to be shipped to the Philippines, and BftB staff here distribute the books to various barangays or villages, in public elementary schools which have no or very small library. Monchit below, being intereviewed by the local media.

Monchit also helped raise funds for the project about 2 or 3 years ago, when he heard that BftB was lacking money for its various projects, Monchit ran the San Francisco marathon, with an awareness-raising campaign to raise money. His target of raising $3,500 from his friends and other people was short by only about $100, to which he turned over the entire amount to the BftB.

BftB leaders were so impressed by his action and support. It later decided to return the favor by naming a library in his name. The place will be in a public elementary school in Brgy. Sapang Bato, Angeles City. This school has several hundred students, about 95 percent are Aetas, one of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines.

Last June 18, 2009, the library was officially opened. It's called "Ramon L. Arellano II Library". In the picture, Monchit, assisted by his wife Mimi, cutting the ribbon.

Inside this library are slightly-used books, various educational materials, even stuffed toys, for elementary students. All of those were from the US. Here are some pictures of the books and toys. Notice the painting in the wall -- they are Aeta children in a rural but clean environment. Where there is better education, a good and hopeful future is not far away.

The library building was constructed by the city government. The salaries of the teachers and librarian are also from the city government. But everything inside the library are from the BftB.

This is the main school building. Beside it by the way, is a Gawad Kalinga (GK) housing project, also for the Aeta households. But most of the students of this school live in far sitios and barrios, some students walk as far as 4 kilometers away from their house.

The main beneficiaries of this library are the Aeta children. Some of the male students here were in their traditional G-strings attire, the females were in some of their beautiful dresses, because they have a dance presentation during the launching ceremony. I noticed that they were well-behaved. Just one instruction from their teachers and they immediately follow. They are really disciplined, or they are only respectful of their guests from the cities, I don't know.

The female students, they have a song and a "fashion show" presentation during the program. Their dress could be the best they have in the house, I don't know. Their presentation was cute, funny and very entertaining. Talk about innocent and cheerful girls.

After the formal program, there was a modest "merienda" or snacks for the children. Here, some students taking their snacks. They just squat, not enough chairs, modest food but they really enjoyed it, no left over!

Monchit said that he was so honored by the presentation and the naming of the school library in his name, he promised that he will make his contribution to the BftB a "lifetime" commitment.

Yes, voluntary, charity support by individuals, corporations, foundations, NGOs, can become huge in caring for the less-privileged people. Governments do not have the monopoly of doing this work, and so the taxes and fees that they collect from the people should not be high and many.
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See also:

CSOs and State 1: AIDS and Perversion of Welfare, June 16, 2006

CSOs and State 2: NGOs and Government Clubs, November 09, 2006

CSOs and State 3: Poverty and Public Education, February 12, 2008

CSOs and State 4: Local Government and Civil Society, August 12, 2008
CSOs and State 5: Subsidiarity, Decentralization and Privatization, September 04, 2008
CSOs and State 6: Stichting Kapatiran and Books for the Barrios, December 07, 2008

CSOs and State 6: Stichting Kapatiran and Books for the Barrios

(Note:  This is my article for the online magazine,

http://www.thelobbyist.biz/column_detail.php?id_article=1028&id_category=25)

One of the biggest and longest myths ever invented in this planet is that people are not capable of sustained voluntary assistance to their underprivileged fellowmen -- that is why government must come in to provide and engineer various forms of welfare and social assistance to the poor. That is why governments invented many forms of taxes and fees to finance an ever-expanding list of “government responsibilities”.

But people are greatly capable of voluntarily helping their less privileged fellow human beings. There are thousands of charity groups and civil society organizations (CSOs) in this country, as well as charity groups based abroad that have projects in the Philippines. I will mention two such initiatives here.

Stichting Kapatiran (www.kapatiran.nl) is a Netherlands’ based charity organization whose main mission is “supporting underprivileged street children and small local communities in the Philippines”. They have a number of community projects – basic literacy, akay kalinga, income-generating and livelihood projects – from Luzon down to Mindanao. This year, it has been selected as one of the recipients of the “Lingkod sa Kapwa Filipino Award 2008”. It is an award given by the President of the Philippines to organizations that are based abroad. The awarding ceremonies will be held next week.

I have known Kapatiran through one member of its board of directors, Ms. Wads Winjberg-Tiongson, a Kapampangan married to a Dutch lawyer, Bart Wijnberg. I have known Wads and Bart since 1987 when I first went to the Netherlands and they hosted me in their house in The Hague for a few days. I visited them again in 2003 after my seminar in Sweden ended.

In those visits, I noticed that their house would sometimes become a “refugee” or “assistance center” for some Filipinos who encountered problems with their work and employer, their visa or passport, or simply would have no money to go back home, and so on. Not that the couple are rich to pay for the plane fare of the problematic “kababayan,” but they have a wide network of friends there -- private individuals and government officials, both in the Dutch government and the Philippine embassy, who can help the distressed Filipinos. It is a story of low profile, unpublicized and personal charity work, repeated year after year for at least two decades now. Some Filipino graduate students studying at the nearby ISS who feel terribly homesick would also come to their place sometimes and have a “Filipino home plus adobo and other Filipino food” to cure homesickness.

I do not know how many awards Stichting Kapatiran has received so far. What I know is that the desire to help fellow human beings, Filipinos especially, both in the Netherlands and in the Philippines, are always in the heart of this couple and their like-minded friends in the Netherlands.

Another initiative is the Books for the Barrios (BftB, http://www.booksforthebarrios.org/home.php) program, where thousands of used books from the US that could possibly be heading to landfill stations, are collected and donated to poor students in poor villages in the Philippines and other developing countries. I do not know anyone from BftB, but I have a friend, also originally from Pampanga, who now lives in California, Ramon “Monchit” Arellano, who was passionately supporting that project.

Last year, Monchit heard that “due to dwindling financial support in the wake of many natural disasters (Katrina, tsunami, etc.), BftB may be forced to close its operations this summer if it does not generate enough funds… after more than 25 years of providing quality education materials to remote schools in the Philippines.”

In order to help, he registered for the San Francisco Marathon and started a website -- First Giving, with just a single purpose: he would run to raise awareness among his friends and other people, get donations for the BftB program so it can continue its mission and operations. Monchit targeted a modest goal of raising $4,000 and donate the amount to BftB. His initiave was noticed by the Philippine Consulate General Office in San Francisco and posted his story on their website. ABS-CBN was also at the finish line to interview him and the news was aired at Balitang America and posted in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXGiRHHjPLY.

Monchit works at AT&T in the Bay Area. He infected some guys in his company by bringing the AT&T Fil-Am employees association as occasional volunteers for BftB. He also secured some funding from AT&T Foundation (that was before the current financial turmoil). His family (with wife and their two kids) also do volunteer work for BftB for the past six years -- they help sort and pack used books, toys and computers to be shipped to remote public schools in the Philippines.

BftB received the money raised by Monchit from his First Giving and SF marathon as well as from other sources. In recognition of his support, BftB honored him by building a library in his name in Sapang Batu, Angeles City, Pampanga. The library was constructed with the help of the local government. BftB will supply the books, computers, toys, tables, chairs, etc. from the US.

But BftB does not have used Filipino books for obvious reasons. So when I visited Monchit in his place in the Bay Area last April, he asked me if I can help him on this. When I got back to Manila, I asked some friends for their help and I got emails and text messages that they wanted me to pick up their elementary kids’ used books at their house or office for donation to Sapang Batu. I could pick up only a few of those requests, compiled them in our house, then later delivered to the BftB office in Ortigas Center.

I do not know if the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) are taxing book donations from abroad even for educational and non-commercial purposes. If they do, then that partly speaks of how “welfare-oriented” the government is. Maybe the BoC can reason out that they need to partially discourage the entry of so many donated books from abroad because this can displace, even on a limited scale, the local publishers, local bookstores, and the people employed by them. This is possible, but local publishers and local bookstores also have to grapple with high government taxes that make their local book prices more expensive, which turn off some potential buyers, especially poor ones.

Many people around the world distrust their governments, that is why their “contribution” to society have to be done by force and coercion, through taxation and mandatory fees. But the same group of people trust their friends, or friends of their friends, and so they give and support without coercion and force. In addition, people can choose which kind of charity project they will support, as well as the group of targeted beneficiaries.

This is the essence of civil society: voluntary support by people for their underprivileged fellowmen, self-reliance, and no coercion to attain certain social objectives.

* See also:
CSOs and State 3: Poverty and Public Education, February 12, 2008
CSOs and State 4: Local Government and Civil Society, August 12, 2008
CSOs and State 5: Subsidiarity, Decentralization and Privatization, September 04, 2008