EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL WELFARE IN THE

PHILIPPINES
THE PRE-SPANISH TIMES

• Communities were independent social units called

“barangays”, which was often ruled by a headman,
who was usually the oldest member of the
community, and known as “datu”, whose function was
to oversee the welfare of the members, and also
serves as the arbiter of conflict and leader in times of
anger.

• Welfare concentration: Mutual protection for

economic survival
• Basic Concepts: Bayanihan and Damayan
• Source of Policies: Maragtas Code and Kalantiaw Code
SPANISH TIMES (1521-1898)
• Basic Philosophy: Religion was the motivating force
for the charity

• Forms of Charity: almsgiving, charitable

institutions, and hospitals for the poor

• Source of Funding: Religious orders, contributions

and donations of rich individuals, subsidy from the
spanish government( in the Philippines and in
Spain)
Significant Development: institutions were established
by religious orders:
1. San Lazaro Hospital (1578) – took care of indigent
beggars and sick “natives”
2. San Juan de Dios Hospital(1596) – took care of
indigent and sick spaniards
3. Hospicio de San Jose(1810) FOR THE CARE OF
ORPHANS AND THE AGED
4. Asilo de san Vicente de Paul(1885) – for the care and
protection of indigent and orphaned girls
5. Santa Isabel – school for the indigent girls
6. San Juan de Letran- school for the indigent boys
For the indigents outside of the institutions, almsgiving
was regularly practiced by the churches and convents and
the affluent individuals and families.
First Philippine Republic (1896-1902)

• Tandang Sora (Melchora Aquino) took care of the sick

and wounded soldiers
• Hilaria Aguinaldo, wife of the President of the first
Republic introduced the concept of the red Cross.
• American Colonial Period (1899-1946)
• Birth of voluntary organizations for social welfare i.e.
Associated Charities of Manila(1917)
• Public Welfare- beginning assumption by the
government of its responsibility for social welfare
• Parents Patriae – child welfare concept that it is the
duty of the government to place children in better
circumstances, whenever the parents could not
provide adequate care themselves.
• The administration of social welfare in the Philippines
was marked by significant developments when Frank
Murphy became governor general in 1933.
Scholarship grants for professional training in social
work in the United States were made available.
• The Murphy administration’s social welfare programs
marked the first time the government assumed full
responsibility for the relief of the distressed due to
any cause.
THE COMMONEALTH PERIOD
• President Manuel L. Quezon, passed the anti-usury
laws, the eight-hour labor law fixing minimum wages,
laws related to insurance, pensions, women and child
labor.
• Initiated housing projects making it possible for
tenants to buy these houses on easy installment
plans.
• He created relief boards and other bodies to
undertake relief activities during periods of natural
calamities, economic crisis and unemployment.
THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION
• The second world war brought death and
immeasurable suffering to the country’s population
for three years 1942-1944.
• Social welfare activities during this period consisted
mainly of giving medical care and treatment, as well
as food and clothing, to the wounded soldiers,
prisoners and civilians.
• The Bureau of Public Welfare was closed when the
war broke out and was reorganized by the Executive
Commission and instructed to attend the general
welfare of the residents, and to give food and comfort
to the released prisoners from concentration camps.
• Relief work operations was undertaken primarily by
volunteer organizations. Ex. Philippine Red cross,
YWCA, and the National Federation of Women’s
Leagues. Hospitals also were there to provide medical
treatment i.e. Phil. Gen. Hospital, St. Luke’s, Mary
Johnston and the North Gen. Hospital.
• Churches and convents were used as centers of
operations with members of religious organizations
doing their share of volunteer work.
THE POST-WAR YEARS
• The Bureau of Public Welfare re-opened in 1946, but
lack o funds greatly limited its operation.
• On October 4, 1947, recognizing the need for a more
centralized and better integrated social welfare
program, the bureau became the Social Welfare
commission, and was placed under the Office of the
president. This signified the formal recognition of
social welfare as responsibility of the state.
• The late forties saw the upsurge of new socio-
economic and political problems. The feudalistic
tenancy system created a dissident movement which
threatened the stability of the government under
President Elpidio Quirino.
• In August 1948, Pres. Quirino created the President’s
Action committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA) which
was charged with the “duty of giving relief assistance to
the hungry, the homeless and the sick. . . to victims of
dissident depredation and violence.” It included a
comprehensive program of health, education, welfare,
agriculture, public works and financing.
• An international agency also made its mark in the social
welfare scene: The United Nations International
Children’s Emergency fund (UNICEF) created by the
United Nations General Assembly in 1946 to further
maternal and child health in economically
underdeveloped countries, and became active in the
Philippines after 1948 to date.
THE SOCIAL WELFARE
ADMINISTRATION
• On January 3, 1951, the Social Welfare Commission
and the President’s Action Committee on Social
Amelioration were fused into one agency called the
Social Welfare Administration. Shortly after this, the
new agency established a staff development service,
began accepting social work field practice students
from the newly-opened social work schools in the
metropolitan Manila Area, and started to conduct
more surveys and field studies on income, housing
needs, and the needs of social groups such as the
handicapped.
• With the establishment of Social Welfare
Administration, the responsibility for relief was placed
under the new agency’s Division of Public Assistance,
which became concerned with the need for a kore
professional administration of public tax-supported
welfare programs and services to needy and
disadvantaged members of the community. This office
has two programs:
1. Assistance and
2. Service
• Another important Arm of the Social Welfare
Administration was its Child welfare division.
• Another division was created by Administrative
order No. 7 on September 5, 1951, the Division
of Rural Welfare, to deal with the mounting
social problems in the rural areas. i.e. land
settlements for victims of dissidence and
disasters, and the establishment and
maintenance of welfare services for non-
christian tribal groups.
• In 1954, the SWA was reorganized, and this division
developed new community programs such as self-help
centers, community kitchens and cottage industries.
“Self-help” became the underlying philosophy for the
rural community development projects facilitated or
stimulated by the SWA’s Rural Welfare Division.
• An important development in the mid-sixties was the
passage in 1965 of R. A. 4373, “An act to Regulate the
Practice of Social Work and the operation of Social
Work Agencies in the Philippines.” Generally it is
considered the formal recognition of social work as a
profession in the Philippines.
• In 1968, Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos signed R.A. 5416,
known as the social welfare act of the Philippines,
elevating SWA into a department. The Government
declared social welfare a matter of policy when the
law stated that “it is the responsibility of the
Government to promote a comprehensive program of
social welfare services designed to ameliorate the
living conditions of distressed Filipinos particularly
those that are handicapped by reasons of poverty,
youth, physical and mental disability, illness and old
age, or those who are victims of natural calamities,
including giving assistance to members of cultural
minorities to facilitate their integration into the body
politic.”
• The Department drew up a comprehensive social
welfare program along the following concerns:
• A. preventive and remedial programs and services for
individuals, families and communities
• B. Protective remedial and developmental welfare
services for children
• C. Vocational rehabilitation and related services for
the physically handicapped, ex-convicts and
individuals with special needs
• D. training, research and special projects
THE SEVENTIES
• Martial Law was declared and it set up a crisis
government on September 21, 1972. this was the
period of the first (1970s) United Nations-declared
“Development Decades.”

• On September 8, 1976, the Department of Social

Welfare became the Department of Social Services
and Development shifting emphasis from the
traditional, often institution-based social welfare to
community-oriented programs and services which
underscored people’s own capacities for problem
solving. The department accepted the development
thrust in social welfare.
• On June 2, 1978, Pres. Marcos issued P.D. 1397,
providing for the conversion of departments into
ministries, to adapt to the requirements of the change
from a presidential to a parliamentary form of
government. The department was renamed into the
ministry of Social Services and Development. The
organizational structure, functions and programs
remained the same.
In 1949, the Council of Welfare Agencies and the
Community Chest of Greater manila were organized.
The Council was established to:

a. study and define social welfare problems and human

needs
b. develop a coordinated plan of action to meet these
needs
c. help improve the standards of social services
d. serve as the national Committee for the international
conference on social welfare
THE EIGHTIES
The self-Employment Assistance (SEA) the Ministry’s
banner program was upgraded to make it more
responsive to its clients’ needs. The “total family
approach” that guided the program put emphasis on
food production and nutrition, and provided training in
business management skills.
Other important achievements of MSSD during this
period includes:
a. Launching of case management system employing TFA
with a set of SWI
b. primary health care related activities integrated into
the MSSD’s services on the barangay level
c. greater cooperation and coordination and coordination
among NGOs in response to MSSD’s technical assistance,
consultation, planning and monitoring workshops
d. increased participation of local governments in social
welfare activities
. . . And more
• On January 30, 1987, Pres. Corazon C. Aquino signed
E.O. 123, reorganizing the MSSD and renamed it
Department of Social Welfare and Development. The
department was “evolving from mere welfare or relief
agency to the greater task of development.” E.O. 123
provided for the creation of the Bureau of Women’s
Welfare “with specific attention to the prevention or
eradication of exploitation of women in any form . . .
As well as the promotion of skills for employment and
self-actualization.”
• The approach taken by the agency this time is
described as “preventive and developmental,
participative and client-managed.”
THE NINETIES
• The DSWD still continued its areas of concerns, but gave
priority attention to Low Income Municipalities (LIM) and
other socially-depressed barangays. It was also greatly
involved in disaster management in many parts of the
country that experienced calamities and other hazardous
incidents.
• On October 10, 1991, R.A. 7160 otherwise known as the
local Government Code of 1991 was passed. The DSWD
shifted gear. i.e it had to devolve its implementing
functions together with its programs and services , direct
service workers, budget corresponding to the salary and
funds of the staff and programs, and assets and liabilities
to the local government units starting 1992. the
devolution meant a realignment of the DSWD’s structure.
• The decade of the nineties saw the DSWD move from its traditional
image of service provider to one that leads in social welfare policy
formulation and program development, standard-setting and
regulation enforcement, provision of technical assistance, capability-
building and augmentation support to LGUs, NGOs and POs.
Social welfare defined
In its broadest sense, it covers practically everything that men do for
the good of the society.

Organized concern of all people for all people (Gertrude Wilson)

The organized system of social services and institutions, designed to aid

individuals and groups to attain satisfying standards of life and health.
(Walter Friedlander)
Includes those laws, programs, benefits and services
which assure or strengthen provisions for meeting
social needs recognized as basic to the well-being of
the population and the better functioning of the social
order. (Elizabeth Wickenden)

The common denominator in the various definitions is

what society has done and continue to do in order to
respond to the well-being of all the members of the
human society – includes the physical, mental,
emotional, social, economic and spiritual well-being
Social Welfare Programs of the
Philippine Government in the 20s
1. Reduction of poverty and reduction of vulnerabilities
2. Protecting the poor and vulnerable from risks
3. Mitigating pressures on households

Strategies:
1. Social Insurance – programs that seek to mitigate income risks
by pooling of resources and spreading risks across time and
workers.
2. Social welfare – preventive and developmental interventions
that seek to support the minimum basic requirements of the poor
particularly the poorest of the poor, and reduce risks associated
with unemployment, resettlement, marginalization, illness,
disability, old age and loss of family care.
3. Labor market – measures aimed at enhancing
employment opportunities and protection of the rights
and welfare of workers.

4. Social safety nets – stop-gap measures or urgent

responses that address effects of economic shocks,
disaster and calamities on specific vulnerable groups.