Mindanao NGOs having difficulties getting foreign grants due to fund use issues

Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Access to funds and resources of Mindanao nongovernment organizations have been adversely affected by the funding controversy of the Visayan Forum and the recent suspension of European Union funding to the peace group Mindanao People’s Caucus (MPC), several groups here said.

“It cannot be denied that what happened to the Visayan Forum and now, the Mindanao People’s Caucus, will cause ripples of negativity to other groups who conform to the pro-people requirements of the funding,” said Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan.

“But in fairness to the NGOs involved, we should give them the benefit of the doubt and hear their side,” Ilagan said.

She cited risks in having a funder-driven project, in so far as maintaining the “strictest ethical standards” for NGO operations.

When an NGO or an institution is “funder-driven,” it is forced to meet the requirements of the funder or the terms of the fund, even if these requirements might not be relevant to the actual situation on the ground, or the reality of the project target, according to Ilagan. The implementation could become unrealistic, or to a certain extent, violative of the ethical or qualitative standards of the project or program, said Ilagan.

Ilagan was speaking on general terms, triggered by the reported suspension of the EU funds to the MPC, an NGO active in the Mindanao peace process, after auditors from the Brussels-based EU Services for Foreign Policy Instruments spotted a number of “ineligible costs” in its audit report done last August.

Dr. Jean Lindo, convenor of the No to Coal, a group opposing coal-fired power plant projects in Mindanao, said it would make funding agencies more vigilant in granting funds to other NGOs.

Lindo, however, said she found it strange that such things could still happen, considering the meticulous system of monitoring and reporting usually adopted by funding agencies. She said the problem could only be technical and did not necessarily indicate “abnormalities.”

“Most FAs I know are vigilant and they can facilitate helping intervention through the third party evaluations,” she said, “That’s why I was surprised when the Visayan Forum debacle happened.”

“NGOs have their learning curves, their ups and downs,” she said.

“It will have repercussions on NGOs in terms of credibility,” said Jeanette Ampog, executive director of Talikala, an NGO assisting prostituted women. “It will affect NGOs’ opportunities in resource mobilization.”

But Ampog said MPC should be heard on the matter and be given the chance to explain its side.

Since reports of its fund suspension leaked to the media, the MPC has refused an interview, saying that the audit report was strictly an internal matter; and that the EU has asked them not to talk to the media. Instead, it has circulated a text message to its network, saying it will “not take sitting down” the current media and Facebook attacks “waged by disgruntled former staff with the backing of a very powerful politician.”

“The MPC council and staff wish to inform our partners and colleagues in the peace movement that we will not take this sitting down,” part of the text message read.

“MPC will take the necessary legal, cultural and traditional means to protect the good name, reputation and integrity of the organization and each and every officer and staff who are unjustly maligned and vilified,” the text message added.

The European Union confirmed in an email it has temporarily suspended its funding to MPC.

In a September 25 letter to MPC executive director Mary Ann Arnado, Willem Verpoest, head of contracts and finance section of the EU Delegation to the Philippines, cited a “number of potential ineligible costs” as a cause of the temporary fund suspension.

“You will appreciate that the high level of these potential ineligible costs does not allow us to consider, for the time being, further funding of the MPC, in the framework of the mentioned 2012 programme,” Verpoest said in a letter to Arnado, but added that the “position is not final.”