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| The coconut-lined roads of Barangay Tamisan in Mati, Davao Or. |
These past four weeks, survey fieldwork led me to Camotes Islands in Cebu, Mati City in Davao Oriental and Gubat in Sorsogon, in pursuit of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the fisherfolks and the community in relation to their marine sanctuary – travelling by foot, ferry, habal-habal, tricycle, jeepney, van, bus, airplane, cutting across turbulent clouds, rough seas, dusty dirt roads that turned to foot-deep gushing streams come rainfall, macadam’s, footpaths and highways, braving the heat, habagat, ITCZ rains, watery winds of Falcon, and the slapping warm dusk-time sea breeze, conferring with LGU officials, environment or agriculture officers, coordinators, field enumerators, flipping through, reviewing, rejecting and rechecking hundreds of pages of survey forms all the while juggling our Binol-anong Binisaya alongside Sugbuanong Binisaya, Mati Binisaya, Mandaya, Camayo, Sorsosgon Bikol, Tagalog, and English, in a word – exhilarating.
The one-sentence paragraph aside, this travel of different terrains in very close intervals, one can’t help but compare the one town from the next, this barangay from the other, that province from mine, that road from this, their mode of transportation and the habal-habal fare – my gosh, que horror, the habal-habal fare – and their telecom signal strength, the karaoke machines per capita, and the presence of the greatest development indicator of Pinoy post postmodern times, Jollibee!
But, I digress. Because really, my views of the development, or lack thereof, of a certain place would be superficial at best, I decided, if I didn’t have the opportunity to speak with or, perhaps, briefly, live with, or at least get the actual general feel and countenance of the everyday locals. Supervising this household survey and actually getting to confer with the people – unlike most of my previous cross-country travels which comprised mostly of convention-house consultations, structured dialogues, guided tours – made me re-think, re-examine, and reconfigure the concepts and figures I associate with poverty vis-a-vis development.
If I were a mere passerby, at a far-flung town, and see rough roads, thatch huts and zero signal bars in my phone, I’d probably say: Aww, poor place. But, alas, these people, they greet you with PSPs, talk of Discovery Channel programs, and climate change. Well, these are, at best, still superficial indicators, but sure, I’d take that. That means technology, education, awareness. And when you get to know them further, you’d learn their values rooted in rich local traditions.
Development is not all infrastructure and utilities, not all physical and tangible – set to western standards or civilizations purportedly of superior level. Human development is about quality of life, and the kind of quality not purely measurable by the type of house, or water source/line, educational attainment or monetary income. There mustn’t be one mold, type or concept of development, especially one that’s dictated only by external pressures. Development, in the end, is the collective dignity, a sense of gravitas, the spirit of the people from within.
Of course, the internationally-accepted indicators of human development (i.e. HDI, PDMS, etc.) are important. At the macro level, figures of GDP, GNP, income per capita (which, I think, must always be complemented with the Ginni coefficient), technology, energy, transportation, public utilities, industries, environment and natural resources, security, freedom; on the individual/family level, safe abode, education, household income, the kind of toilet one has, the list goes on.
My top 5 development indicators would be livelihood, education, health, environment and freedom coupled with values, well-being, identity & integrity, culture & heritage, innovation.
While the Philippines, we must all agree, has all the makings of achieving its full development potentials – do we not always hark back at the times when we were supposedly better poised for greatness than any other Asian country post-World War 2? – there is an expiry date on blaming others, the Spanish conquistadores, the American colonialists, the Japanese invaders, then the American neo-colonialists, always the Americans, now the Chinese, for our blight (though I agree that present external liberal capitalist pressures are formidable forces that should be constantly warded off or buffered), everything’s still up to us, in the end.
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| Bagacay, Gubat, Sorsogon enjoys natural resources from the reefs to the rice fields. |
I say one of the most crucial development concerns in our country would be the managing of our resources, natural and human. We are an agricultural country, and we must take pride in this. But what’s shameful is that our yield is largely inferior to the countries with much, much smaller resources. We may never be an industrial country, that’s fine. But we must aspire to be self-sufficient, because we can be (we have the resources, and technology can be learned, created). As regards our human resources, this massive systematic exportation of our labor capital may be giving millions back to our economy (and may be, practically, keeping us afloat) but this is a seriously sick system that must be treated to be temporary – not propagated into our very educational system, nor idealized in the national consciousness.
There is a need to re-program our whole educational system. No, not with burdening secondary education with 2 more years to adapt to the “international standards”. No, not with technical education courses designed for the international ‘skilled labor’ market. Yes, we need more educational infrastructures & technologies, able teachers, quality instruction, ever the budget, but the education surgery should include, foremost, the very psyche of the Philippine educational system. Make education – from pre-school to postgraduate – democratic, participatory, local, liberative. Bring education to people.
The Philippines should strive towards becoming a welfare state. With political will, basic social services such as health, housing, education, etc. can be shouldered by the state.
Health, particularly, must be only be treated with reason & compassion – not commercialization – and therefore, must be a primary state responsibility.
Of course, we need reforms in our political system of elite democracy. To fight corruption and incarcerate corrupt people is one thing – and must be incessant and unbending – but a system that tolerates, allows for, and breeds corrupt practices must be fixed quick.
There’s so much more developmental concerns that needs to be addressed to by the Philippines as a whole and by every Filipino on the individual level, but I must stop with the above, lest this becomes a full-blown ideological paper.
We know what we want. We know what we need. Development may be viewed differently across islands and cultures, but we feel when it’s there. We yearn for it when it’s not.
I remember leaving Barangay Tamisan in Mati. The sun’s finally out, the wind from Pujada Bay and the Pacific ocean whistled goodbyes as, behind us, dust and fine rubble burst forth, enkindled by the deadly clash of rubber tire and dirt road. Meanwhile, the barangay captain and kagawad’s been texting us: “You’re most welcome here in our barangay. Looking forward to working with you in future projects!” We’ll be back next year for the post-campaign survey. I am not counting on coming back to better roads. I am counting on returning to a more educated Tamisanon’s – that I could truly count: development.
