5.1 Historical Evolution of Social Welfare in the Philippines and Internationally

5.1 Historical Evolution of Social Welfare in the Philippines and Internationally

Board Exam Orientation: Social Welfare Policies, Programs, and Services (SWPPS) constitutes exactly 20% (100 items) of the Philippine Social Worker Licensure Examination (SWLE). Licensure questions consistently test historical lineages, legislative enactments, institutional acronyms, pioneering personalities, and the philosophical evolution from residual dole-outs to rights-based developmental social welfare.

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1. Theoretical Paradigms of Social Welfare

Social welfare is both a societal institution and a professional practice. To analyze its history, social work scholars classify welfare systems into three overarching paradigms:

Residual Paradigm (Harold Wilensky & Charles Lebeaux)

Under the residual model, social welfare institutions step in only when normal social structures—primarily the free market and the family—break down. Relief is strictly temporary, emergency-oriented, and targeted via rigorous means-testing. A heavy social stigma is often attached to recipients, as poverty is viewed as individual failure. Examples include emergency calamity cash doles and municipal burial assistance.

Institutional Paradigm

The institutional model views social welfare as a regular, primary, and legitimate function of modern society. Rather than waiting for catastrophe, institutional welfare provides universal social utilities to assist individuals in attaining self-fulfillment and realizing their fundamental rights. There is no stigma attached; services are seen as the entitlement of citizenship. Examples include universal public basic education, universal healthcare coverage under PhilHealth, and universal pension schemes.

Developmental Paradigm (James Midgley)

The developmental model aligns social welfare investments directly with macroeconomic economic development. Instead of treating welfare as an economic drain or passive safety net, it channels social expenditures into programs that enhance human capital, build community productive capabilities, and foster economic participation. Hallmark Philippine examples include the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps conditional cash transfers) and the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) micro-enterprise modalities.

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2. International Evolution of Social Welfare

The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 (43 Elizabeth c. 2)

The foundation of statutory public welfare throughout the Anglo-American world—and by extension the colonial welfare structure inherited by the Philippines—stems from the English Poor Law of 1601. In the wake of feudal dissolution, the closure of monastic charities by King Henry VIII, enclosure of common lands, and rapid urbanization, England faced widespread vagrancy and famine.

The 1601 Act established the principle of secular state responsibility for the destitute, financed through compulsory local taxation (the "poor rate") administered by appointed Overseers of the Poor in each parish. The law categorized the dependent population into three distinct statutory classes:

1. The Impotent Poor (Deserving Poor): Aged, blind, lame, sick, and mothers with young children who were physically incapable of manual labor. They received indoor relief in almshouses (poorhouses) or, under exceptional conditions, outdoor relief (provisions of food, fuel, or modest financial assistance delivered to their own residences).
2. The Able-Bodied Poor (Undeserving Poor / "Sturdy Beggars"): Individuals physically capable of work who lacked employment. They were categorically denied outdoor relief and consigned to "workhouses" or houses of correction (Bridewells) to perform forced hard labor. Those refusing labor faced whipping, imprisonment, or execution.
3. Dependent Children (Orphans and Foundlings): Children whose parents were deceased or unable to maintain them. They were placed in indentured apprenticeships until adulthood—boys apprenticed to tradesmen or farmers until age 24, and girls placed into domestic service until age 21 or marriage.

The Poor Law was further reinforced by the Settlement Act of 1662 (Law of Settlement), which restricted eligibility exclusively to legal parish residents, empowering local authorities to forcibly expel newcomers who might become a public charge.

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 (The New Poor Law)

Spurred by classical laissez-faire economics (Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus) and rising welfare expenditures, the 1834 Poor Law Amendment introduced the draconian principle of less eligibility. This statutory rule dictated that the living conditions, food, and accommodations of a pauper inside a workhouse had to be substantially worse and more humiliating than those of the lowest-paid independent laborer outside. Outdoor relief for able-bodied persons was completely abolished to force workers into the industrial factory labor market through the sheer terror of the workhouse.

The 19th-Century Divergence: COS vs. Settlement House Movement

Modern professional social work originated during the late nineteenth century from two sharply contrasting responses to the brutal human consequences of the Industrial Revolution:

Charity Organisation Society (COS)

• Founding: Established in London in 1869 (Octavia Hill, C.S. Loch) and introduced to Buffalo, New York in 1877 by Rev. S. Humphreys Gurteen.
• Philosophy: Rooted in social Darwinism and moral individualism. Poverty was attributed to personal moral flaws, intemperance, and character deficits, exacerbated by "indiscriminate almsgiving" which bred pauperism.
• Methodology: Systematic "scientific charity." COS organized a central registry of relief applicants to prevent duplicate aid, conducted rigorous investigative home visits through middle-class volunteers called "Friendly Visitors," and demanded moral reformation and industriousness before material aid was granted.
• Professional Milestone: Mary Richmond, an executive of the Baltimore and Philadelphia COS, professionalized this approach by publishing Friendly Visiting Among the Poor (1899) and the seminal textbook Social Diagnosis (1917). Richmond formulated the first systematic methodology of Social Casework, grounding social work in evidence-based psychosocial assessment, diagnosis, and individual rehabilitation.

The Settlement House Movement

• Founding: Originated at Toynbee Hall in East London (founded in 1884 by Samuel Barnett) and brought to the United States with the establishment of Neighborhood Guild (1886) and Hull House in Chicago (founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr).
• Philosophy: Rooted in the Social Gospel, social justice, and environmental determinism. Poverty was recognized as the direct outcome of systemic societal failures: exploitative wages, child labor, unsafe factories, disease-ridden tenements, and lack of municipal sanitation.
• Methodology: Educated, middle-class reformers moved directly into impoverished immigrant working-class neighborhoods to "settle" and live as neighbors. Settlement workers did not investigate or moralize. Instead, they built community infrastructure: free kindergartens, daycare centers, adult education and citizenship classes, public baths, labor union meeting halls, and cultural clubs.
• Professional Milestone: The movement pioneered the methods of Social Group Work and Community Organization, spearheading legislative advocacy for factory inspection laws, child labor bans, women's maximum working hours, and the creation of the world's first Juvenile Court in Chicago (1899). Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her relentless peace and social justice leadership.

Comparative Matrix: The Two Cradle Traditions of Social Work

The Beveridge Report of 1942: Blueprint for the Modern Welfare State

During World War II, British economist Sir William Beveridge authored the historic report Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942). The report identified the "Five Giant Evils" obstructing post-war reconstruction:

1. Want (poverty) — addressed through universal compulsory social insurance;
2. Disease — addressed through a comprehensive, state-funded National Health Service (NHS);
3. Ignorance — addressed through universal public education;
4. Squalor — addressed through massive public housing and urban renewal; and
5. Idleness — addressed through state commitments to macroeconomic full employment.

The Beveridge Report transformed welfare internationally from discretionary charity into an institutionalized, legally enforceable social contract.

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3. Historical Evolution of Social Welfare in the Philippines

Pre-Colonial Era: Indigenous Communal Solidarity

Long before Spanish colonization, Philippine archipelago communities (barangays) functioned as tightly knit, self-sustaining socio-political units comprising 30 to 100 families under the leadership of a datu. Social welfare was neither institutionalized nor bureaucratized; rather, it was organically woven into the indigenous moral and cultural fabric:

• Bayanihan: Collective voluntary labor rendered freely for the benefit of a community member, famously manifested in communal house-moving (lipat-bahay), cooperative agricultural harvesting (palusong or suyuan), and disaster clearing.
• Damayan: Mutual aid, emotional presence, and material assistance extended during bereavement, severe illness, or calamity.
• Kawanggawa: Innate compassion and communal charity toward the infirm, orphaned, and vulnerable.
• Babaylan / Katalonan: Female community spiritual leaders, healers, and counselors who functioned as indigenous social mediators, crisis intervenors, and custodians of communal health.

Spanish Colonial Period (1565–1898): Church Dominance and Religious Charity

Under Spanish rule, the secular mutual aid of the barangay was superseded by the Roman Catholic doctrine of caridad (charity) and beneficencia (pious public works). Care for the poor was driven by religious merit and spiritual salvation for wealthy benefactors, rather than human rights or social justice:

• San Juan de Dios Hospital (1578): Established by Franciscan friar Juan Clemente to treat poor residents, soldiers, and indigent natives.
• San Lazaro Hospital (1578): Founded specifically to isolate and medically treat patients afflicted with leprosy.
• Hospicio de San Jose (1782): The first formal social welfare institution in the Philippines, founded through an endowment by Don Francisco Gomez Enriquez and Doña Barbara Verzosa. It served as a protective sanctuary and asylum for abandoned infants, orphans, the physically handicapped, the aged, and mentally ill individuals.
• Obras Pias (Pious Works): Religious charitable foundations funded by bequests and profits from the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade, which provided loans, funded church hospices, and paid for indigents' burials.
• Revolutionary Heroines: During the Philippine Revolution against Spain and the Philippine-American War, Melchora Aquino ("Tandang Sora") fed, sheltered, and medically treated wounded Katipuneros. In 1899, Doña Hilaria del Rosario de Aguinaldo (wife of President Emilio Aguinaldo) established the Asociacion de Damas de la Cruz Roja (Philippine Red Cross), mobilizing relief supplies, bandages, and surgical support for revolutionary soldiers.

American Colonial Regime (1898–1946): Secularization and Professional Genesis

The American occupation transformed Philippine social welfare from clerical charity to state-sponsored secular administration and scientific philanthropy:

• 1915 — Public Welfare Board (PWB): Created under Act No. 2510 to coordinate, supervise, and subsidize government and private charitable and welfare organizations.
• 1917 — Associated Charities of Manila (ACM): Founded by civic-minded American and Filipino leaders as the first private family welfare agency organized along modern scientific casework principles. ACM introduced the central registration index and systematized relief records.
• 1921 — Josefa Jara Martinez and the Birth of Philippine Professional Social Work: Martinez returned to Manila after completing her Master of Science in Social Work from the New York School of Social Work (Columbia University) in 1921, becoming the first professionally trained Filipino social worker. Appointed Executive Secretary of the Associated Charities of Manila, Martinez phased out untrained volunteers, recruited college graduates, and introduced formal casework assessment, diagnostic case recording, and supervised field training.
• 1921 — Bureau of Public Welfare (BPW): Established under the Department of Public Instruction by Act No. 2988, absorbing the functions of the Public Welfare Board.
• 1924 — Welfareville: A 50-hectare institutional child and family welfare village established in San Felipe Neri (Mandaluyong, Rizal). Welfareville consolidated government child-caring institutions, including the Philippine Training School for Boys, the Philippine Training School for Girls, a home for mentally challenged children, and a sanctuary for the elderly and infirm.
• 1935 — Commonwealth Era Social Justice: Under President Manuel L. Quezon, the 1935 Philippine Constitution explicitly mandated the state to promote Social Justice to ensure the well-being and economic security of all people. Quezon created the National Relief Board, implemented minimum wage legislation, and expanded tenancy protections.
• World War II (1941–1945): During the Japanese occupation, social workers operated underground relief networks. Josefa Llanes Escoda, founder of the Girl Scouts of the Philippines and executive of the National Federation of Women's Clubs (NFWC), funneled food, medicine, civilian clothing, and intelligence to American and Filipino prisoners of war in Capas, Tarlac and the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. Escoda and her husband Antonio were captured and martyred by the Japanese Kempeitai in Fort Santiago in 1945.

Post-War Rehabilitation to the Departmental Era (1946–1986)

• 1947 — PRATRA and the Social Welfare Commission: President Manuel Roxas established the Philippine Relief and Trade Rehabilitation Administration (PRATRA) to distribute emergency clothing, rations, and reconstruction materials. Concurrently, Executive Order No. 94 created the Social Welfare Commission (SWC) under the Office of the President. Asuncion A. Perez was appointed the first Social Welfare Commissioner, giving welfare direct cabinet-level attention.
• 1948 — PACSA: President Elpidio Quirino established the President's Action Committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA) to suppress rural peasant insurgency (the Hukbalahap movement) by providing agrarian credit, medical relief, and land resettlement in Central Luzon.
• 1951 — Social Welfare Administration (SWA): Executive Order No. 392 merged the Social Welfare Commission and PACSA into the Social Welfare Administration (SWA) under Administrator Asuncion Perez. SWA deployed municipal social workers nationwide and established division offices.
• 1965 — Republic Act No. 4373: Enacted on June 19, 1965, this landmark statute formally recognized and legally regulated social work as a distinct, specialized profession in the Philippines, creating the Board of Examiners for Social Workers under the Civil Service Commission (later PRC).
• 1968 — Department of Social Welfare (DSW): Republic Act No. 5416 (Social Welfare Act of 1968) elevated SWA into a full executive department with cabinet rank, known as the Department of Social Welfare (DSW), with Gregorio M. Feliciano as its first Secretary.
• 1976 — Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD): Presidential Decree No. 997 re-christened DSW as the DSSD, codifying an explicit philosophical shift from "palliative dole-outs" to developmental social welfare, emphasizing productivity-enhancing services, vocational skills, and day-care programs.
• 1978 — Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD): Reorganized under the parliamentary system under Minister Sylvia Montes.
• 1987 — Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD): Re-established under the 1987 Constitution via Executive Order No. 123 signed by President Corazon C. Aquino, refocusing agency mandates on grassroots empowerment, disaster response, and assistance to marginalized populations.

The Devolution Watershed: RA 7160 and the Modern Era

In 1991, the Philippine Congress enacted Republic Act No. 7160 (The Local Government Code of 1991), fundamentally decentralizing government operations. Devolution profoundly impacted the social work delivery system:

1. Devolution of Personnel and Programs: Frontline social welfare delivery, local day-care centers, youth homes, disaster relief stockpiling, and thousands of national social workers were devolved from the national DSWD directly to provincial, city, and municipal governments under the Local Social Welfare and Development Offices (LSWDOs).
2. Redefined Mandate of the National DSWD: Through Executive Order No. 15 (s. 1998) and Executive Order No. 221 (s. 2003), the national DSWD transitioned from a direct frontline service provider into the "steering" agency. Its core roles now focus on:
   • Policy formulation and legislative drafting;
   • Setting quality standards, licensing, and accrediting Social Welfare and Development Agencies (SWDAs);
   • Providing technical assistance, capability building, and resource augmentation (TARA) to LGUs;
   • Operating specialized national protective centers and managing large-scale national social protection programs (4Ps, Kalahi-CIDSS, Social Pension).

Historical Epochs of Philippine Social Welfare

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4. Concrete Practice Scenario: Residual vs. Developmental Welfare in Local Practice

Clinical Field Case

A newly appointed Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer (MSWDO) in a 4th-class rural municipality in Leyte notes that 85% of the annual local social welfare budget is exhausted by the third quarter on individual Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) cash vouchers for medicines, transport fares, and burial coffins. When typhoon season arrives, the LGU lacks funds for disaster preparedness or livelihood rehabilitation, leaving vulnerable coconut-farming families trapped in cyclical deprivation.

Social Work Analysis & Intervention

The MSWDO recognizes that the LGU is locked in a residual, palliative welfare paradigm, treating symptoms of poverty through temporary financial doles without addressing systemic vulnerability. Applying the developmental social welfare approach, the worker formulates a multi-year social development plan:

1. Policy Reform: Drafts an LGU ordinance capping discretionary emergency cash doles and allocating 40% of the welfare development fund toward community capability building, women's micro-enterprise cooperatives, and sustainable livelihood capital.
2. Preventive Convergence: Links indigent families with the national government's 4Ps conditional cash transfers, ensuring mandatory maternal health checkups and school attendance, breaking intergenerational poverty.
3. Community Organizing: Mobilizes local farmers into a Disaster Preparedness Community Core Group using Bayanihan networks, establishing community seed banks and communal evacuation protocols.

This structural transition from residual dole-out to developmental social welfare illustrates the philosophical transformation mandated by the PRC board examination syllabus.