2.  Self-help at the barangay level encourages
initiative and group decisions
 Multiplicity of NGO’s and PO’s encourages
people to posit an abstract tran skin good
 Hegemony of liberal democratic ideas gives
democratic freedoms legitimacy.
 Many centers of power prevent power from
being concentrated in a small group to the
exclusion of the majority.

3.  “Self-help” refers to a group of individuals
or families who undertake an activity in
response to a problem affecting all, with little
or no intervention by the government. There
are activities that are spontaneous and involve
little planning. It is activities that involve
several households, especially those not related
by kinship, and are institutionalized in varying
degrees that strengthen the nation that all of us
are ultimately equal to each other as human
being and should therefore work together for a
common goal.

4.  Private developmental organizations have
multiplied since the return of liberal democracy
under Corazon Aquino. Their concerns are
various: providing legal aid, training in
citizens’ rights, assisting street children and so
on. They thus liberate people from thinking
only of their family or of their own particular
locality. The emphasis of NGOs on consensus-
building through “proseso” is praise worthy.
But their weakness is there is that they may be
difficult to sustain, for many NGOs rely on
foreign grants.

5.  The Philippines has long stood out in the
region for its adherence to the formal political
freedoms of liberal democracy, expect during
the Marcos dictatorship. Thus the Philippines
take pride in being able to openly criticize key
public figures without fear punishment. Rallies
opposing positions taken by the government
and strikes on behalf of workers’ right take
place. The freedom to vote is dearly held right
and was defended heroically in February 1986.

6.  For democracy to exist as system, economic
and political power should be dispersed, so
that no one individual or group of individuals
can exercise undue influence over the decisions
of others. This is the rationale underlying
universal suffrage; the classic separation of the
three powers (legislative, executive, and
judicial); and decentralization and devolution
of power. In the economic sphere, wealth is
concentrated in the hands of landowning and
capital owning families.

7.  However what need stressing are two
things: First, these families do not
present a united front. They compete
with each other, too, and this creates
space for democratic initiatives. Second,
the sources of wealth have become
increasingly diversified. Land as a factor
of wealth is no longer as important as
before.