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Professional “boundary crossovers” or career shifts made by
former social activists who joined the government to pursue their
reform agenda have sometimes been creative and had helped to advance
social and bureaucratic reforms.
But many “boundary crossings” oftentimes
have been met with resistance, according to a press release.
These were the impressions gathered from the
presentation of the results of the study “The Experiences of
Public-Third Sector Boundary Crossers: Implications for Policy and
Practice” presented during a workshop early this week at the Sulo
Hotel in Quezon City.
About 20 members of the government, civil
society and academe participated in the workshop. Many were
themselves “boundary crossers” at certain points during their
careers.
Among these boundary crossers were former
Education and Agrarian Reform Secretary Florencio Abad, former
Akbayan Party-list Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales and Bayan Muna
Party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo.
Those who attended the gathering also included
Akbayan Party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel; former Agrarian
Reform Undersecretary Gerry Bulatao; former Secretary Teresita
Quintos-Deles of the Ramos’ government’s National Anti-Poverty
Commission; Oscar Francisco, former chairman of the nongovernment
Kaisampalad; University of the Philippines professor, Dr. Eduardo
Tadem; and former Finance Undersecretary Sunny Sevilla.
Successive governments that followed the
administration of President Ferdinand Marcos and that have recruited
former activists to work for them met with mixed results, according
to the study that documented the experiences of people who have
crossed from civil society, or “third sector,” into the
government.
In the process, what could have been a simple
professional crossover became highly politicized. The crossovers
included in the study started right after the toppling of the Marcos
government through the so-called People Power revolt in 1986.
The study was part of a larger comparative
research undertaken in Britain, Bangladesh and the Philippines, with
funding from the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research
Council.
The gathering of former activists was jointly
organized by Dr. David Lewis from the London School of Economics and
Ria Teves of the Project Development Institute to present the
results of the study.
Lewis, who presented the findings in his
two-year research of boundary crossers, or the life histories of the
20 individuals interviewed for the study, showed how successive
governments since the 1986 uprising have recruited third-sector
leaders into such departments as agrarian reform, housing, and
social welfare, areas that are primary concerns for social
activists.
The participants concluded that there were still
important lessons to be learned from the boundary-crossing
experience. These lessons, they said, have to be fed into future
reform strategies that can be implemented among a wide range of
civil society organizations and groups.
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