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Crime and Poverty: Criminalization and Empowerment of the Poor in the Philippines

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Crime and Poverty: Criminalization and Empowerment of the Poor in the Philippines INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INTERNSHIP PROGRAM | WORKING PAPER SERIES VOL 7 | NO. 1 | FALL 2019 Crime and Poverty: Criminalization and Empowerment of the Poor in the Philippines Alicia Blimkie ABOUT CHRLP Established in September 2005, the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) was formed to provide students, professors and the larger community with a locus of intellectual and physical resources for engaging critically with the ways in which law affects some of the most compelling social problems of our modern era, most notably human rights issues. Since then, the Centre has distinguished itself by its innovative legal and interdisciplinary approach, and its diverse and vibrant community of scholars, students and practitioners working at the intersection of human rights and legal pluralism. CHRLP is a focal point for innovative legal and interdisciplinary research, dialogue and outreach on issues of human rights and legal pluralism. The Centre’s mission is to provide students, professors and the wider community with a locus of intellectual and physical resources for engaging critically with how law impacts upon some of the compelling social problems of our modern era. A key objective of the Centre is to deepen transdisciplinary — 2 collaboration on the complex social, ethical, political and philosophical dimensions of human rights. The current Centre initiative builds upon the human rights legacy and enormous scholarly engagement found in the Universal Declartion of Human Rights. ABOUT THE SERIES The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism (CHRLP) Working Paper Series enables the dissemination of papers by students who have participated in the Centre’s International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP). Through the program, students complete placements with NGOs, government institutions, and tribunals where they gain practical work experience in human rights investigation, monitoring, and reporting. Students then write — 3 a research paper, supported by a peer review process, while participating in a seminar that critically engages with human rights discourses. In accordance with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded. Therefore, papers in this series may be published in either language. The papers in this series are distributed free of charge and are available in PDF format on the CHRLP’s website. Papers may be downloaded for personal use only. The opinions expressed in these papers remain solely those of the author(s). They should not be attributed to the CHRLP or McGill University. The papers in this series are intended to elicit feedback and to encourage debate on important public policy challenges. Copyright belongs to the author(s). ABSTRACT Poverty is an acute issue in the Philippines. Working alongside the poor to decrease the number of people living in destitute conditions, several NGOs in the country employ a strategy called “alternative lawyering”. Similar to the global framework of Legal Empowerment of the Poor, this form of practicing law highlights the contributions of the clients themselves, empowering them to personally take action against the injustices that they face. A major stumbling block to this approach is President Rodrigo Duterte. The Philippine President has taken many actions that have exacerbated poverty on the islands, including increasing enforcement of “anti-tambay” laws, which criminalize benign acts such as smoking in public. Despite the increasing criminalization of poverty in the Philippines, this paper argues that alternative lawyering can still be employed as an effective method to resist anti-poor laws and increase participation of the poor in decisions that affect them. — 4 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 A SNAPSHOT: POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES 8 CRIMINALIZATION OF POVERTY: ANTI-TAMBAY AND ANTI- 12 BEGGING LAWS LEGAL EMPOWERMENT OF THE POOR AND ALTERNATIVE 19 LAWYERING IN THE PHILIPPINES THE LIMITS TO EMPOWERMENT OF THE POOR IN A CONTEXT 24 OF CRIMINALIZATION OF POVERTY A SAMPLE OF SOLUTIONS 28 CONCLUSION 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY 34 Introduction The Philippines is a country of contrasts. In Manila, the skyscrapers of Makati’s business district stand in sharp relief next to the shacks of informal settlements. The inequality that is visible throughout the country is also reflected in statistics: more than one fifth of the population lives under the poverty line.1 The United Nations defines poverty as “sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights”.2 Thus, poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon. While the number of poor households in the Philippines has been slowly declining, the state still lags behind other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in terms of poverty-reduction.3 As a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Philippines has an obligation of provide for its citizens with “adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions”.4 However, the Convention only obliges states to fulfill these rights “progressively”, “to the maximum of [their] available resources”.5 Thus, the state has no immediate obligation to ensure an adequate standard of living for all. Moreover, the current regime, headed by President Rodrigo Duterte, has taken actions that disproportionately target the poor and have the potential to push families deeper into poverty. Recently, enforcement of a collection of laws referred to as “anti-tambay” ordinances has intensified. These laws impose fines and jail sentences for individuals who drink or smoke in 1 World Bank, “Philippines’ Poverty Rate Declines; More Well-Paying Jobs and Opportunities Needed” (30 May 2018), The World Bank, online: <https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press- release/2018/05/30/philippines-poverty-rate-declines-more-well-paying-jobs- and-opportunities-needed>. 2 UNESCO, 25th Sess, UN Doc E/C.12/2001/10 (2001). 3 Supra note 1; Asian Development Bank, Poverty in the Philippines: Causes, Constraints, and Opportunities, (Mandaluyong City: Asian Development Bank, 2009) at 39. 4 United Nations, “Chapter IV: Human Rights, 3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”, United Nations Treaty Collection, online: <https://treaties.un.org/pages/viewdetails.aspx?src=ind&mtdsg_no=iv- 3&chapter=4&clang=_en> [UNTS ICESCR]; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 16 December 1966, 993 UNTS 3 art 11.1 (entered into force 3 January 1976) [ICESCR]. 5 ICESCR supra note 4 art 2.1. (2019) 7:1 IHRIP WORKING PAPER SERIES public or go outside shirtless. Additionally, a law criminalizing begging was enacted in 1978, and is still in force.6 All of these laws target the poor, contributing to the penalization of poverty. To combat these injustices, a group of NGOs in the Philippines has used a framework called “alternative lawyering”, which is similar to the approach of Legal Empowerment of the Poor championed by the United Nations Development Programme. In the summer of 2018, I worked as an intern at the Ateneo Human Rights Center (AHRC), an organization in Manila committed to alternative lawyering. My time at the AHRC has informed this paper. In this paper, I argue that despite the barriers to empowerment caused by Duterte’s anti-poor tactics, the approach of alternative lawyering remains an effective method to create a Filipino society where the law is neutral, and the poor participate in making decisions that affect them. To begin, I define the contours of poverty in the Philippines, to underline the complexity of the issue. Next, I describe several Filipino laws that unjustly target the poor, resulting in infringements of their human rights. Subsequently, I explain the concepts of alternative lawyering and Legal Empowerment of the Poor, then explain their limitations in the current political and legal climate. To facilitate this analysis, I employ Amartya Sen’s framework of “capabilities”, which conceptualizes poverty as the absence of capabilities. Continuing with this theoretical framework, I propose several solutions to mitigate the effects of the aforementioned laws, and to increase the participation of the poor in political decision-making. From this analysis, Legal Empowerment of the Poor emerges as a potential foundation on which to base strategies for the poor to exercise their agency individually and at the policy level, despite a political climate that fosters hostility toward the indigent. A Snapshot: Poverty in the Philippines The Philippines is a country known for its poverty and inequality. While the country’s Gini coefficient, which measures income distribution, “improved to 0.4580 in 2006 from 0.4605 in 2003 and 0.4872 in 2000”, this change is marginal and still 6 Presidential Decree No. 1563: Establishing an Integrated System for the Control and Eradication of Mendicancy, Providing Penalties, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes, 11 June 1978, online: <http://www.chanrobles.com/presidentialdecrees/presidentialdecreeno1563. html#.W-XgmpNKg2w>. — 7 — CRIME AND POVERTY: CRIMINALIZATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF THE POOR IN THE PHILIPPINES represents a high level of inequality.7 Moreover, the economy of this Southeast Asian archipelago has suffered from sluggish growth, particularly when compared
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