Through the Political Lens of the Philippine

Social Realities and Social Welfare

In Partial Fulfilment in the Requirements for Philippine

Social Realities and Social Welfare

Submitted to:

Mrs. Estrella D. Brigole, RSW, MSW

Submitted by:

Tawny Claire A. Labos

Alliah T. Mindalano

Beatrice Aurea M. Salvani

Sittie Shaina S. Sarail

Ceadel Riz S. Sepulvida

November 8, 2018
 From existing historical accounts, people can infer that activities
approximating the nature of social welfare existed in various social realities
during the pre-colonial period in the Philippine history. This encompasses the
development of social welfare from the pre-historic period when Filipinos lived
in barangays and practiced mutual aid to the period at the turn of the new
century when social welfare is already an established response to varied
human needs and problems requiring a vast and organized system of services.

Social welfare, in its broadest sense, covers practically everything that

people do for the betterment of their society and the well-being of the
population. It is an organized system of social services and institutions,
designed to aid individual persons and groups to attain satisfying standards of
life and health. Thus, social welfare history gives accounts of what society has
done and continues to do, to respond to the various needs of its members. The
political realities in the Philippines not only involves in the context of the regional
situation but also in its global condition, and their effects on the people’s
welfare.

In the olden times, Filipinos lived in small scattered communities that

were independent social units, each generally consisting of only fifty families,
called as “barangays.” The “barangay” was often ruled by a headman known
as the “datu”, usually the oldest member of the community. One of his
responsibilities was to oversee the welfare of the members of his barangay.
Social Welfare work in those times centered around mutual protection and
economic survival. This caused groups to band together and communities to
link with each other through the marriage among their members.

Many changes took place in the Philippine social and economic life with
the coming of the Spaniards. Communities were grouped to form pueblos,
creating large concentrations of people in an area which resulted in health and
sanitation problems, personal maladjustments, and economic dislocation.
There was also the problem of poverty or indigency, resulting from the
disciplinary methods of the Spanish conquerors towards the defiant “natives.”
Pious “encomenderos” (landlords who collect taxes or rents from the residents
of their lands) provided them aid, together with other residents who responded
to the sick and the poor. The motive was religious, that is, to do good to others
for the salvation of their souls. This was the teaching of the church which the
Spaniards brought with them and which for many years was the underlying
philosophy behind all social welfare activities in the country. The early Spanish
missionaries not only taught religion to the Filipinos but also administered
hospitals and orphanages. The first hospital established in the Philippines was
the one founded by Don Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in Cebu in 1565 to attend to
the wounded resulting from the occupation campaigns, as well as to the victims
of diseases due to the long voyage at sea or the peculiar conditions in the
country. To complete their colonization campaign, the Spaniards embarked on
the establishment of schools in which Christianity, Spanish culture and
language, music, writing, reading and arithmetic, and some vocational courses
were taught.

The hospitals, asylums, orphanages, and schools were maintained

using subsidies and grants from the Spanish government. However, these were
not sufficient, and donations from philanthropic individuals were solicited. The
outbreak of the revolution against the Spanish government in the country led to
efforts that were directed mainly at the sick and wounded Filipino soldiers who
needed medical care. The National Association of the Red Cross was
organized in 1899, to provide medical supplies and food to the revolutionaries
in the provinces of Luzon.

By 1899, the Americans occupied the country and introduced a new

educational system, new health methods, and religious freedom. In 1902,
following an epidemic of bubonic plague, cholera, and smallpox, the Civil
government created an agency, the Insular Board, to coordinate and supervise
private institutions engaged in welfare work. This agency was composed of
government health officials and therefore effected essential programs in the
health field, such as the regulation of the practice of medicine and the
establishment of provincial and health boards to oversee the health programs
of the government. The Philippine General Hospital was established in 1908.
 On February 5, 1915, the American government created the Public
Welfare Board with the passage of Legislative Act No. 2510, primarily to
coordinate the welfare activities of various existing charitable organizations.

In 1917, the Associated Charities of Manila was founded by a group of

civic-spirited Americans and Filipinos, having in mind the concept of a
Community Chest. The initial idea was to centralize the receipt and distribution
of donations to different charitable organizations, although it expanded its
objectives to include the provision of material relief and employment to the
deserving, based on a study of the conditions and needs of applicants.

In 1921, the Office of the Public Welfare Commissioner was created

under the supervision of the Department of Interior. It absorbed the functions of
the Public Welfare Board which, while charged with coordinating and
intensifying the activities of child welfare organizations and agencies, was
unable to cope with the mounting problems in the health field, which was
manifested in the high infant mortality rate in the second decade of the century.

The economic depression in the 1930s created severe financial

problems. The Associated Charities was unable to cope with the number of
applicants for relief and other social services, despite the appropriations made
by the Office of the Public Welfare Commissioner, under its director, Dr. Jose
Fabella. However, the organization received a boost when Frank Murphy, the
last American Governor-General in the Philippines, approved a large
appropriation to the Associated Charities, designating it as the Insular Relief
Agency to provide material assistance to the needy, elementary education and
handicrafts training to those who would otherwise be out of school, and training
in social work with the help of Josefa Jara Martinez. Working for the Public
Welfare Board, Martinez has started to introduce the scientific approach in
Social Work and then was detailed to the Associated Charities. The Murphy
administration’s social welfare programs marked for the first time the
government assumed full responsibility for the relief of the distressed due to
any cause.
 Major changes in Philippine political and social life took place as a result
of Filipinos taking over the reins of the government during the Commonwealth
period. Specifically, in the fields of health and welfare, programs were
expanded and improved, and new services were organized, such as rural
charity clinics (in places where no hospitals or private practicing physicians
were available), a quarantine service, and a home for mentally defective
children. In 1940, the Office of the Commissioner of Health and Public Welfare
(the office which took charge of health and welfare services between 1930 and
1940) was abolished and replaced by a Department of Health and Public
Welfare.

The Second World War which brought death and immeasurable

suffering to the country’s population was to last for three years, from 1942 to
1944. Social Welfare activities during the period consisted mainly of giving
medical care and treatment, as well as food and clothing, to the wounded
soldiers, prisoners and civilians. The Bureau of Public Welfare which was
closed when the war broke out was reorganized by the Executive Commission
and instructed to attend to the general welfare of the residents and to give food
and comfort to released prisoners from concentration camps. By 1943, when
food shortage became acute in Manila, the Bureau had to cease operations.
Relief Work during the Japanese Occupation was undertaken primarily by
volunteer organizations. Prominent among these were the Philippine Red
Cross, the Young Women’s Christian Association, and the National Federation
of Women’s Leagues. In many instances, churches and convents were used as
centers of operations with members of religious organizations doing their share
of volunteer work.

A year after the end of World War II, the Bureau of Public Welfare re-
opened but lack of funds significantly limited its operations. On October 4, 1947,
recognizing the need for a more centralized and better integrated social welfare
program, the Bureau became the Social Welfare Commission and was placed
under the Office of the President. This signified the formal recognition of social
welfare as a responsibility of the state. The War Relief Office was set under the
control of the Social Welfare Commission, providing it with additional sources
of funds which enabled the Commission to increase the number of provincial
branches which carried out not only outright relief but also family and child
welfare, and rehabilitation services.

The late forties saw the upsurge of new socio-economic and political
problems. The feudalistic tenancy system (a social and economic arrangement
that envisages a “lord and vassal” or “master and slave” kind of relationship
between persons in a community) created a nonconforming movement which
threatened the stability of the government under President Elpidio Quirino. This
kind of system is primarily founded or based upon an agricultural economy
where the control of the land is in the hands of a small aristocratic group, and
where the organization of society and government is fundamentally local.
Encounters between the armed forces and the nonconformists created rural
unrest and more poverty.

In August 1948, President Quirino created the President’s Action

Committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA) which was charged with the duty
of giving relief assistance to the hungry, the homeless and the sick to victims of
dissident depredation and violence. It included a comprehensive program of
health, education, welfare, agriculture, public works, and financing. Marking in
the social welfare scene, the United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (UNICEF) created by the United Nations General Assembly
in 1946 to further maternal and child health in economically underdeveloped
countries, became active in the Philippines after 1948. The UNICEF (now
United Nations Children’s Fund) has served millions of Filipino mothers and
children, and today, continues to engage in programs and innovative projects
in social welfare – mainly for families and children – in the country.

On January 3, 1951, the Social Welfare Commission and the President’s

Action Committee on Social Amelioration were fused into one agency called the
Social Welfare Administration (SWA) which started to conduct more surveys
and field studies on income, housing needs, and the needs of special groups
such as the handicapped. With the establishment of the Social Welfare
Administration, the responsibility for relief was placed under the new agency’s
Division of Public Assistance, which became concerned with the need for a
more professional administration of public tax-supported welfare programs and
services to the needy and disadvantaged members of the community. This
office had two programs:

a. Assistance
This was given in the form of general assistance to dependent
minors, the aged and the handicapped, and special assistance to
clients with needs and problems of a temporary nature like the
unemployed, victims of natural disasters and victims of dissident
operations. Assistance was given in the form of material aid like food,
financial aid, transportation aid and medical aid.
b. Service

This was rendered in the form of rehabilitation service for

employable disabled, the physically and mentally handicapped, as well
as the occupationally maladjusted through diagnostic, guidance and
placement services and skills training; service to squatters evicted from
their homes through the provision of educational, health and medical
facilities and assistance with income-producing projects; services to
organizations of the handicapped; and administration and supervision of
rehabilitation projects and workshops.

The Division of Rural Welfare in the Social Welfare Administration was

created by the Administrative Order No. 7, on September 5, 1951, to deal with
the mounting social problems in the rural areas. In 1954, the Social Welfare
Administration was reorganized, and this Division developed new community
programs such as self-help centers, community kitchens and cottage
industries.

The social amelioration program of rural areas, which was a major

concern of President Ramon Magsaysay, gave impetus to the new programs in
the Division of Rural Welfare. The government’s concern for social welfare was
manifested in the distribution of land to the landless, the construction of feeder
roads to improve communication, and the construction of artesian walls.

“Self-help” became the underlying philosophy for the rural community

development projects facilitated or stimulated by the SWA’s Rural Welfare
Division. Among these projects were animal and vegetable-raising, handicrafts,
etc. The agency provided in-service-training for rural welfare workers and set
up regional and provincial branches. Concurrently, many of its workers pursued
formal education in social work.

An important development in the mid-sixties was the passage in 1965 of

Republic Act 4373, “An Act to Regulate the Practice of Social Work and the
Operation of Social Work Agencies in the Philippines.” This empowered the
Social Welfare Administration (now Department of Social Welfare and
Development) to license and accredit public and private organizations for social
welfare work. The fact that the Social Welfare Administration was placed
directly under the Office of the President was a source of budgetary and other
administrative problems which affected the systematic implementation of
programs.

In 1968, President Ferdinand Marcos signed the Republic Act 5416,

known as the Social Welfare Act, elevating the SWA into a Department that is
known today. The government declared social welfare as a matter of policy
when the law stated that “it is the responsibility of the Government to promote
a comprehensive program of social welfare services designed to ameliorate the
living conditions of distressed Filipinos particularly those who are handicapped
by reasons of poverty, youth, physical and mental disability, illness and old age,
or those who are victims of natural calamities, including giving assistance to
members of cultural minorities to facilitate their integration into the body politic.

The Department continued most of the programs and services under the
Social Welfare Administration, but improved and expanded many of them, while
developing new services and activities to respond to the ever-increasing
demands in social welfare.
References:

Alip, E. M. (1975). The Barangay Through the Ages. Manila, Philippines: Alip &
Sons Publishing, Inc.

Mendoza, T. (2008). Social Welfare and Social Work (3rd ed.). Quezon City,
Philippines: Central Book Supply, Inc.