SAGIP PASIG MOVEMENT:
Communities Making A Difference

SPM envisions a society that works as one for a balanced ecosystem towards the improvement of life for the succeeding generations.

Mission

To mobilize community participation through the establishment of a movement of strong and capable community - based organizations working towards the rehabilitation of the Pasig and other river systems

Goals

• Establish 50 Clean River Zones in communities along the river
  
  
• Develop compelling advocacy and info campaigns exposing issues and promoting alternative ways to rehabilitate the Pasig and other river systems using micro and macro media
  
  
• Build SPM into a viable and professional institution towards effective and efficient delivery of its services

• To organize the clean river zones in strategic communities around the Pasig River ecosystem through the mobilization of all the concerned social sectors and the formation of functional conferential bodies.
  
  
• Promote and project various alternative ways of rehabilitating Pasig River ecosystem by undertaking comprehensive advocacy and information campaigns addressing both the policy makers and the general public at large.
  
  
• Undertake and disseminate various studies and researches that shall broaden the knowledge base and sharpen public awareness on the significance of rehabilitating the Pasig River ecosystem.
  
  
• Build the human resource capabilities of both the SPM workers and the community leaders and members along the knowledge-attitude-skills-habits requirements to successfully undertake the Pasig River rehabilitation program.

SPM developed a unique model of doing development work premised on the fact that, to sustain the rehabilitation efforts, the community must be mobilized into a social movement.

Operationally, the model incorporates the relevant lessons and methods culled from more than three decades of community-based development practice in the Philippines which consists primarily of:

• Awareness - raising & Advocacy

  SPM regularly conducts information campaigns targeting residents, industries and local government units on environmental issues, particularly, the Pasig River rehabilitation. SPM also works with NGOs and environmental agencies in legislative lobbying and environmental monitoring. Furthermore, SPM affiliates with schools and school organizations to tap volunteers for its programs and activities.

  Among its more unique programs is the Lason sa Ilog Pasig Awards - a mock awards given every April 22 (World Earth Day) to the top ten industries who have been found to be polluting the river. This has gotten positive feedback inasmuch as, for the past 5 years that the SPM has done this, majority of the past awardees have installed wastewater treatment facilities because of the pressure created by the awards.

  SPM is also piloting the Bantay Ilog Program , which trains and mobilizes riverside communities as vanguards of specific areas of the river. The Program trains community leaders in first-level monitoring of industries in their specific areas of concentration. These watchdogs are deputized as DENROS (Deputized Environment and Natural Resources Officers) to help the DENR in their monitoring functions.
  
  

• Community mobilization

  In the early stages of operations, SPM conducted a Rapid Urban Appraisal (RUA) of all the communities in the Pasig River System to determine focus areas for organizing. Of the more than 2,000 barangays that were studied, the RUA established 407 areas that are critical to the rehabilitation efforts. Presently, the SPM has already organized 153 barangays of these 407.

  SPM's organizing efforts are directed towards community management of area-related environmental problems. Community-management is the highest form of community participation inasmuch as it involves the stakeholders in decision-making.

  The main organizing aim is to start the process of transforming the communities into Clean River Zones [CRZs] to serve as vanguard points in protecting the Pasig River System from further pollution and in improving the conditions of the immediate localities.

  The CRZs are composed of organized communities that possess a high degree of awareness on issues related to river resources and are able to mobilize and act on these. The CRZ has institutionalized coordinative bodies or core groups that mobilize the community to act as one on environmental issues affecting them, and have clear administrative and operational structures that define the accountability of the members. They have legal identities that enhance their capabilities to interact with other organizations and agencies as well as to access external resources.

  The core program of SPM organized communities is the establishment of Community-Based Waste Management Programs (CBWMP). SPM has designed and implemented CBWMP not only as a complementary scheme of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Program of the government but also as an affirmation of the important role that communities play in ensuring the success and sustainability of development programs. Through the CBWMP, the communities re-acquire the concept and practice of organized work.

• SPM is the sole agency in the Philippines that specifically focuses on designing and implementing a model on community-based river rehabilitation.
  
  
• In the five years that SPM has been operational, it has been the focus of research and study on community-managed environmental programs by the United Nations Development Program, Green Forum exchange program, the University of the Philippines [UP] Center on Integrative Development Studies, UP College of Social Work and Community Development, the Asian Social Science Institute, the Asian Development Bank Technical Study Group, the World Bank, and the Philippine Business for Social Progress.
  
  
• Since 1998, the SPM has organized 153 barangays along the Pasig River System. These are located in the cities of Manila, Quezon, Makati, Mandaluyong, and Pasig and in the municipality of San Juan, all in Metro Manila.
  
  
• 61 core groups have been formed that act as the main coordinative groups in the implementation of the various activities. 13 conferential bodies, the culminating act of the organizing work, have been established.
  
  
• 32 CBWMPs have been put in place consisting of: improvement of household garbage collection particularly in inaccessible areas, segregation of recyclables, setting-up of buy-back centers for the collection of the recyclables, rehabilitation of communal toilet facilities, and the installation of garbage traps in strategic areas of the river. These CBWM Projects have gained the attention of several institutions and have been cited by both local government units, and local and international agencies.
  
  
• SPM has increased its membership from 30 in 1993 to 222 organizations as of January 1999. These consist of community-based and non-governmental organizations.
  
  
• A core group of industries has been formed in Zone 71, Manila, consisting of Unilever-Philippines, Coca-Cola Bottlers, YSS Laboratories, the Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Company and government agencies such as the National Power Corporation and the National Food Authority. The industry core group seeks to assist the existing CBWMPs in the Paco-Ermita area as well as to identify areas of sustainable cooperation between the residential communities and the industries.
  
  
• Similarly, a core group of food establishments was organized composed of the following leading fastfood chains: McDonald's, Jollibee, Greenwich, 7-11, Goldilocks and Tropical Hut. The core group commits itself to assist the SPM in its public information campaigns.
  
  
• A student core group composed of 27 student organizations from the Philippine Normal University, the Technological Institute of the Philippines, and Adamson University, has been organized. The core group serves as a venue for popularizing as well as initiating school-based waste management projects.
  
  
• The government's Department of Environment and Natural Resources [DENR] is in the process of deputizing SPM community leaders to monitor the compliance of manufacturing firms and industries to environment regulations. The deputized community advocates were comprehensively trained in the conduct of 1st and 2nd level monitoring of industries by the Metropolitan Environmental Improvement Program of the DENR and the US-based Global Rivers Environmental Education Network.
  
  
• The SPM was an active member of the Presidential Task Force on the Rehabilitation of the Pasig River. SPM was also a member of the Steering Committee of the Asian Development Bank Technical Assistance on the Pasig River and provided substantial input in the formulation of the Solid Waste Management Strategy of the ADB.