Civil Society in the Philippines: Struggling for Sustainability

Civil society in the Philippines is by no means a boring lot. It is a very dynamic society that has seen major social upheavals and five regime transitions in the last 15 years of the century just ended. People power revolutions have been an outstanding manifestation of such dynamism. True or not, the 1986 people power revolution in the Philippines was supposed to have inspired
subsequent people’s revolutions in Eastern Europe.

What about this civil society? Is it any different from other civil societies in Europe or Asia? What’s unique about this society that might set it apart from others elsewhere? And what would explain this difference, if at all? This paper hopes to be able to shed some light on these
questions mindful of the difficulty attending country comparisons.