LIGHTS & SHADOWS
AN Assessment of the Duterte Administration THROUGH the Lens of Catholic Social Principles
JANUARY - APRIL 2020
The year 2020 could be the toughest for the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. The events that unfolded in the first three and a half months of the year—from the sudden eruption of Taal Volcano in January that displaced thousands of families to the unprecedented health crisis brought by an ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has the world on edge—placed the Duterte administration in a difficult position. The government's responses to safeguarding public health, protecting the economy in the midst of various crises, and caring for the poor and vulnerable, among other responsibilities, reveal its present priorities, capacities and directions in facing the challenges that lie ahead.
Using the principles of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as framework, the policies and actions of the Duterte administration deemed most significant in the first quarter of 2020 are assessed in this release of Lights & Shadows, a collective assessment by the staff and affiliates of the John J. Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (JJCICSI). By identifying government decisions, policies, and pronouncements that are consistent with CST principles (and therefore considered "light") and those that are not in agreement with these (and thus viewed as "shadows"), we hope to offer an alternative lens for reflecting on and discussing current issues, for discerning directions for action towards solidarity, and for discovering opportunities for working for the common good.
THE THEMES
ASSESSING PUBLIC POLICY AND PROGRAMS USING THE PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING
Public policy and government programs must promote development that not only fulfils the material needs of citizens, but also affirms human dignity and freedom, integrity in governance, national sovereignty, and the spiritual dimension of human beings.
Public policy and government programs must reflect the conviction that all the goods of the earth are intended to fulfill the needs of all and to be shared fairly by all. It must recognize that private property has a social dimension, and that the rights of private ownership are limited by the urgent basic needs of others for food, safe and decent housing, and livelihood.
Public policy and government programs must correct historical injustice to groups of the marginalized and must promote equality, within the context of love for one’s fellow human beings.
Public policy and government programs must be oriented toward meeting the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized in society.
Public policy and government programs must affirm human labor as the most important element of production, establish fair compensation that allows workers to raise families within a decent standard of living, protect the rights of workers to self-organization, and create opportunities for employment and livelihood with dignity.
Public policy and government programs must promote peace not as the suppression of conflict, but as the result of constructive dialogue and holistic solutions which treat conflicting parties as human beings and address the root causes of conflict.
Public policy and government programs must safeguard and conserve natural resources and promote production that does not destroy the environment.
Public policy and government programs must enable people to become “active and responsible subjects of social life,” institutionalizing mechanisms for meaningful participation at all levels of governance and protecting the civil rights and freedoms which allow such participation. Public policy and government programs must nurture the development of strong civil society organizations and institutions and protect the autonomy of civil society from the state, recognizing the principle of subsidiarity which requires that decisions be made as much as possible at the level closest to the people.