Social Watch Philippines (SWP) has called on President Aquino to make good on his pledge to liberate Filipinos from hunger and misery.

SWP, which unites groups from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao representing indigenous peoples, Muslims, women’s groups, farmers, fishermen, teachers, and local non-government organizations (NGOs), asked the President to start redeeming his promises as he delivers his first State of the Nation Address (SoNA).

“Our bottomline is those at the bottom. These are millions of absolutely poor and absolutely hungry Filipinos who will be left behind even if we achieve the development targets as embodied in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” said former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, SWP lead convenor.

“The magnitude of poor Filipinos is staggering. There would still be millions of hungry people here even if we achieve the target of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015.

Ending poverty of half of the 27.6 million poor Filipinos will still leave us with millions who are still hungry and neglected,” added Isagani Serrano, president of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM).

“Those who will be left behind are the most vulnerable Filipinos like indigenous peoples, women, small farmers and fishers. They are those living in the poorest towns which are mostly in Mindanao,” he stressed.

“P-Noy, in his SoNA, should promise not to sacrifice social development for deficit reduction. There are still untapped resources of revenue such as the perks, exemptions and benefits granted by Congress to the private sector and income of government-owned and controlled corporations,” Briones said. “All that is needed is P-Noy’s political will and commitment,” she added.

"P-noy’s administration has announced that there will be austerity measures. Let there be austerity in foreign trips, overpriced projects, and overlapping programs. But there should be more spending for education, health, agriculture, and the environment," Briones said. Lasconia Enoch, chairman of the

Mamata, Malumdeni, Makilala Tribal Association, based in North Cotabato, said that government’s big projects for social development do not usually reach the indigenous peoples (IPs).

“We hope that P-Noy would talk of genuine empowerment for IPs in his first SoNA. We IPs have always felt that we are invisible to the eyes of the national government — often not consulted and sidelined in matters of setting priorities and governance,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Batil, treasurer of the Mamata tribe association, said that P-Noy could prove that he is pro-poor by talking of budget for IPs during his SoNA.

“Through SWP, we learned that bigger budgets for social programs for the IPs would prove that P-Noy has a heart for the IPs; and that we can and should participate in determining financing priorities for our own sector” she added.

Similarly, Manuel R. Badon, chapter president of the Unity for the Advancement of Sustainable Development and Good Governance (USWAG) in Baao, Camarines Sur, stressed that P-Noy should take the SoNA as an opportunity to command local governments to institutionalize people’s participation in governance. “We are more than willing to help the President ensure that his programs reach the poorest of the poor by serving as watchdogs of government projects in our community simply because we do not want to be left behind,” Badon said.

In Negros Oriental, Silliman University (SU) history professor Renante Lingkong said that one key strategy is for President Aquino to change priorities for education. “It should be quality of education and teachers’ training above infrastructure,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mario Limocon, director-general of the local non-government organization Process-Bohol, said “P-Noy’s SoNA should also be a promise that the Philippines will be self-reliant on rice, that there will be more subsidies for small fishers, that he will fund the laws that protect small fishermen from commercial fishers and that there would be support for and national recognition of the important roles of women’s groups at the community level.”