The PATAMABA Experience Towards Representation and Advocacy    Presented by Lourdes Gula*

Grassroots Women on the Lead
PATAMABA is a people’s organization led by grassroots women who sought to empower themselves by founding and running their own organization. Founded in 1989 as the first organization formed by Filipino homebased workers, PATAMABA started out as the Pambansang Tagapag-ugnay ng mga Manggagagwa sa Bahay (National Network of Homeworkers). In its May 2003 National Congress, its expanded name was changed to the Pambansang Kalipunan ng mga Manggagawang Impormal (National Network of Informal Workers) to reflect fundamental changes in its targeted membership which now includes, in addition to homebased workers, vendors, small transport operators, construction workers, and young workers. From being primarily a women’s organization (98 percent of the members are women between the ages 18 to 75), it has started its evolution into an organization that seeks to address the concerns and uplift the plight of both female and male workers belonging to the informal economy.

PATAMABA’s  expanding influence among the informal workers has been manifested in orientation activities for new members and organizing in other subsectors.  The latest count (2007) of PATAMABA  membership has reached 16,295 in 276 chapters covering 34 provinces nationwide.  Of these numbers, 2567 are in subcontracted work, 12,069 are self-employed and 1,524 are combinations of both. The subcontracted workers  are in garments, handicraft, papier mache,  bags, Christmas balls, sawali, fashion accessories, embroidery . The self employed members  are into  livestock, agri-based products, garments, bags, slippers, fashion accessories, novelty items, food, woodcraft, and weaving.
Relevance in the Context of Globalization
As an organization, PATAMABA continues to be relevant in the current context of globalization, with an increasing number of workers finding refuge in informal employment. There is conscious effort among PATAMABA leaders in seeking for practical solutions regarding the management of homeworkers’ and informal workers’ time particularly those in the local communities who can hardly cope juggling  organizational  and livelihood. activities. One solution forwarded to sustain membership was to find ways of balancing  organizational work and economic activities without sacrificing organizational commitment.
Since globalization has caused deepening poverty  where jobs are lost due to the entry of cheaper imports, homebased workers, as well as other informal workers, who are fully aware of this development, are expectedly critical about it.  As a network of homebased and informal workers, PATAMABA  is tasked to lead in setting up mechanisms that will ensure the collective participation of all its members and to establish linkages, both local and international, with various government, non-government and people’s organizations. The members themselves work collectively in the determination of appropriate solutions to their needs and problems,  concentrating on resource mobilization, planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation of various development projects for sustainability and self-reliance. To attain its goals, PATAMABA engages in a variety of programs and activities that encompass organizing; networking and advocacy; capability building through education and training; and socio-economic assistance.
Management and Organization
PATAMABA remains cohesive as an organization while it continues  to grow and increase membership, thereby expanding some degree of influence towards attaining advocacy goals.  This can be attributed to the four Organizational Principles/Ethics embodied in its Constitution and By-laws (1989), which officers and members respect and adhere to:

•   Accountability, which makes any officer or member answerable for any action or inaction);
• Democratic and Collective Leadership, which recognizes  the role and initiative of a leader, who in turn must be open to suggestions and submits to  process- oriented aand group-based forms of decision making as opposed to individual, unilateral decision making;
• Transparency, whereby every transaction is open to scrutiny, specially financial matters;
• Self-Criticism, or the ability to reflect on one’s shortcomings, indecision, etc.; the outcome  of which redounds to group intimacy, improved human relations and open communication with co-members).

In 2002, PATAMABA saw the finalization of its Manual of Operations, in Filipino and English versions. To this day, the Manual serves the purpose of guiding the organization’s   day to day operations.
As a people’s organization (meaning it is membership-based)  its leaders are elected at every level – from the barangay or village, to the municipal, provincial, regional, and national. In terms of organizational management and administration, PATAMABA has eight National Executive Committee members.  It has a National Council elected every three years during a national congress, and an Executive Committee based in Metro Manila which manages its day-to-day operations. Through its coordinator for organizing, PATAMABA regularly monitors  local chapters throughout the country  on a quarterly basis. The PATAMABA youth sector has been actively recruiting from among their ranks and has reported a membership of 3167. Training of youth and local leaders is ongoing to facilitate later accession to national leadership positions, but resources for this are still very inadequate.
A National Congress is held every three years, attended by provincial and regional leaders, who are expected to come up with a three-year plan. Meetings of provincial and regional leaders are undertaken annually, usually scheduled towards end of the year, for assessment, evaluation and planning for next year’s activities.

Strategies and Agenda
PATAMABA’s main strategies are:

• participation in governance and institution building through organizing, coalition building, representation in national, local and international bodies and institutionalizing programs and projects for workers in the informal economy;
•  human development services such as skills training and skills upgrading (production related), capability-building, training on gender awareness, health and reproductive rights, computer literacy and connectivity, workers’ and working children’s rights under the law, participatory research, fieldwork data collection, facilitation of linkages;
•  socio-economic assistance as exemplified by its credit facility program and microfinance, enterprise development, and marketing of homebased products through a showroom and participation in trade fairs and bazaars;
•  networking, advocacy and para-legal work for fair trade, Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, anti-poverty strategies, and other policy changes, through building partnership with GOs, NGOs. LGUs, POs, academic institutions international agencies, trade unions, cooperatives.

PATAMABA works tirelessly towards strengthening and maintaining its organized members. It  starts its organizing work at contact building. An integral part of the first phase is the process of community integration and social investigation. The organization’s main strategy in organizing focuses on the homebased workers’ conditions in the context of the global crisis.

Awareness-building comes in at almost every phase of organizing. The organizers familiarize themselves with pressing local issues that are then used for establishing core groups, motivating leaders, conducting community mobilization, community organizing, and providing programs/services.
Advocacy campaigns are geared towards lobbying and promotion of homebased workers’ rights, welfare, security and protection.

Networking entails linking with different NGOs, POs for direct or indirect assistance (technical or financial) and/or support services to homebased workers in an effort to break the barriers of access to essential social services, resources and to obtain social protection and workers’ welfare. Networking is aimed at establishing partnerships and affiliation with national and international homebased workers’ and women’s organizations.

Capability building is done through education, seminar workshops, skills training, consultation meetings and awareness raising at the local and national levels. Aside from a newsletter called Bahay Ugnayan, the organization has embarked on development and production of instructional materials called Gabay or Modules on the issues of homebasec workers and their need for social protection.

PATAMABA’s socio-economic assistance program facilitates access to financial assistance or additional capital in the form of loan with minimal interest to ongoing or existing livelihood projects, development of proposals, feasibility studies, business plans for funding, acquisition of raw materials and market niching of products. PATAMABA also encourages setting up of indigenous social protection schemes for homebased workers like “damayan” and “paluwagan” and other forms of social security.

Included in PATAMABA’s agenda are: 1) recognition and representation of informal workers; 2) access to productive resources; and 3) access to social protection and justice, the components of which are social security (SSS, Philhealth, Red Cross, community based health insurance schemes, alternative and indigeneous schemes such as  damayan and paluwagan), occupational safety and health, local ordinances on workers’ security and protection and asset reform.

Networking Progress
PATAMABA’s regional networking, advocacy and networking is channeled through Homenet Southeast Asia.  Here, common goals include greater visibility, recognition and participation of homebased workers in the ASEAN context ; access to resources and  social protection (including occupational safety and health); and better policies and programs through improved legislation and the ratification of ILO Convention 177 on Home Work.  Coordination with Homenet South Asia  and WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing) has led to an even broader global solidarity anchored on a rights-based approach.

PATAMABA’s  networking  now spans a wide range different sectors and groups - from informal ones like street and market vendors to official policy-makers and formal academic institutions. PATAMABA, with the support of Homenet Southeast Asia, spearheaded the successful launching of  Homenet Philippines in  May  2006, a broad coalition of 23 organizations comprised of homebased workers’ groups and NGOs of various persuasions with a total membership reach of about 60,000.  The formal launching of  Homenet Philippines’ advocacy agenda of Homenet Philippines helped boost the advocacy campaign on ILO Convention 177  on Home Work and the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy. 

Broad based policy advocacy for a rights-based  legislation for informal workers, who now comprise 24.6 million or 76 percent of total employed, took a significant leap with the formation of MAGCAISA (Magna Carta for the Informal Sector Alliance) in October 2OO7.  MAGCAISA is a loose coalition of POs, NGOs and academe-based institutions with a long record of  involvement in informal worker issues.  The driving forces of the coalition include Homenet Philippines,; the Association of Construction and Informal Workers (ACIW) and the National Union of Building and Construction Workers (NUBCW);  and  ASAPHIL, which includes tricycle and other small transport operators.

Advocacy Work in Progress
Through the years, PATAMABA’s policy advocacy work has occurred at various levels. It has influenced the national anti-poverty policies and programs through its presence and leadership in the Workers in the Informal Sector Council (WISC) of the National Anti Poverty Commission (NAPC). After more than a decade of trying, it has aided in persuading the Social Security System (SSS) to allow self-employed homeworkers to avail of social insurance and to facilitate this process through the automatic Debit Account (ADA) arrangement whereby self-employed SS members can use the facilities of partner banks to make their contributions. 

• Enactment of a Magna Carta for  Workers in the Informal Econoomy

Beginning as early as 1999, this initiative culminated in the issuance of Administrative Order for the formulation of the Magna Carta. Lobbying efforts from various informal sector groups and women’s organizations saw a ray of hope when legislators picked up the cudgels and filed bills in the House of Representatives for a proposed Magna Carta wich attracted public discussion and debate in mid-2006.
To date, House Bill 1955, known as the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, was filed by Rep. Dan Fernandez in the Philippine House of Representatives 2nd week of August. Resulting from  months of advocacy and critiquing spent by PATAMABA and Homenet Philippines, the revised version was filed as HB 1955 and became the subject of a press conference held August 14 at the Sulo Hotel, Quezon City. HB 1955 was based on a previous version filed earlier by Rep. Juan Angara; its main contents were presented to Rep. Fernandez by network members in a dialogue held last week of July.
PATAMABA and Homenet Philippines have been provided technical support by Homenet SEA in writing and subsequent production of the Q and A on HB 1955 for dissemination to informal workers  in the Philippines. The objective is to create awareness on the relevance and contents of the HB 1955. 

Liaison work is continuously undertaken for the conduct of advocacy workshops and dialogues with  key government agencies (DOLE, NAPC-WISC, among others) and other stakeholders through initiatives of PATAMABA and Homenet Philippines for the passage of the Magna Carta.

In October 2007, as earlier mentioned a Magna Carta for the Informal Sector Alliance (MAGCAISA) was formed, composed of various subsectoral organizations and with institutional support from the Workers in the Informal Sector Council of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the Department of Women and Development Studies, College of Social Work and Community Development (CSWCD) and School of Labor and Industrial Relations (SOLAIR), the latter two are academic institutions of the University of the Philippines. This alliance spearheads the preparation of  a policy agenda for the Magna Carta and will take charge in the conduct of advocacy training for trainors.

Homenet Philippines, has made preparatory plans to mark the coalition’s first anniversary celebration scheduled on May 6, 2008, emphasizing the unity of homebased workers, construction workers, vendors, small transport operators, farmers, fisherfolk, service and other workers in support of the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy.

• Ratification of ILO Convention 177 on Homework (1966)

As early as 1996, PATAMABA was among many  leading stakeholders joining together to collect signatures (almost 100,000) submitted to the Senate for the ratification of ILO Convention 177.  However, employers' groups objected to the Convention, citing the effects of the financial crisis in 1997.

The campaign for ratification PATAMABA picked up ten years later, with the formation of Homenet Philippines and the continued lobbying efforts of the Workers in the Informal Sector  Council in the National Anti Poverty Commission.  Various trade unions have already supported the ratification process, with the support of government bodies such as the Department of Labor and Employment as well as ILO Manila. 

• Revision and implementation of DO No 5 on Homeworkers, and its integration, together with other homebased workers’ concerns, into the Philippine Labor Code

In February 1992, homeworkers, spearheaded by PATAMABA,  succeeded in lobbying for the issuance of DOLE Department Order No 5. There are salient provisions that can be favorable to industrial homeworkers, such as: affirmation to self-organization; immediate payment for homework; registration of HWs organizations, and their employers, contractors and subcontractors; output rates based on time and motion studies, individual/collective agreement between employer and workers, or consultation in a tripartite conference; prohibition in the production of explosives and the like; and designation by DOLE of regional administrators for compliance and complaints.

The said piece of legislation developed policies that could facilitate  the implementation of ILO Convention once ratified: training on the conduct of time and motion studies; standardized remuneration; new organizing strategies and negotiation in subcontracted agreements.

• Social protection for informal workers through greater protection by the SSS and Philhealth, and support for indigenous, informal workers’ groups initiated  in the communities. 

PATAMABA has been lobbying for the amendment of the SSS Law to allow for informal sector representation in the SSS Commission, and for the expansion of the KASAPI and other Philhealth Programs for the working poor. Also important in addressing illness and maternity is greater coverage of the informal sector by SSS and Philihealth and support for indigenous social protection schemes such as damayan and paluwagan. 

The Next Steps
Reports on the ground show that PATAMABA remains cohesive as an organization while it continues  to grow and increase membership, thereby expanding some degree of influence towards attaining advocacy goals.  PATAMABA leaders also acknowledge the urgency of developing a new generation of leaders from the ranks of the youth; whose erstwhile dedication to the organization is perceived to be  pallid in comparison to that of the present breed of leaders. Financial constraints remain to be a lingering problem as well as a threat to organizational sustainability and membership commitment. In terms of how the political environment has affected access to services and resources,  experiences among the local chapters have been quite diverse.  Nonetheless, PATAMABA can claim to be the duly recognized voice of informal workers in most communities where local chapters exist as these receive full backing and support from their respective local governments and supplemented as well by proper networking. PATAMABA has continually encouraged the setting up of indigenous social protection schemes for homebased workers like “damayan” and “paluwagan” and other forms of social security.
PATAMABA recently conducted a strategic planning workshop among its members and for its five-year plan (2OO9-13), PATAMABA’s objective is  still broadly to strengthen  the capacity of informal sector workers, their organizations and their networks. This will be carried out through organizing and membership expansion;  revitalization of inactive chapters and consolidation of existing ones;  education and capacity building; lobbying, advocacy, networking to push particularly for the ratification of the ILO Convention on Home Work, the enactment of the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, and other items on its legislative agenda;  social protection campaigns with focus on occupational safety and health; and resource mobilization for sustainability where trade facilitation will be introduced and developed.