Why My Balikbayan Visit May Just Rescue This Country From Ruin

      By Rolando Cunanan

Question: Who is a bigger threat to our national well-being? A corrupt traditional politician, or my hard-working and decent friend Jeffrey? I dare say it is not the TRAPO, and I can tell you why. But before that, let me tell you a bit of myself.

I graduated from San Beda College in 1970 with a BSc degree in Business Management.
I left the Philippines for Europe in May 1971 and returned to Manila in February 2000 for my 50th birthday. I visited a second time last month.

I am well-traveled in both have- and have-not countries. And here’s my take on our current situation.

Our malaise is complex, and there is no shortage of armchair experts advancing why we are what we are today. Contrary to the popular belief of Filipinos, the principal reason why we are rock-bottom economically in relation to our neighbours has nothing to do with graft and corruption. China is a classic case, corruption permeates its bureaucracies but the country makes great strides in improving the standard of living of millions of its peasants. As a factory to the world it supplies practically all of what Walmart sells on its shelves here in North America. It matters not that China is a communist state. As an economic powerhouse, it has been able to transform a large segment of its population from the clutches of poverty and famine during the early fifties to the well-fed citizenry.

Anyone that has visited cities like Shanghai and Beijing can attest to this. The Emirs and Sheiks of the Middle Eastern potentates, and also the Sultan of Brunei, treat their kingdoms as if they were their own private fortunes. But they still seem to do very well with keeping their population content and from rushing for an exit visa.

Let’s assume for argument’s sake that our public officials, from the president to the lowest civil servant, have all been honest, conscientious and saintly, and eager beavers to serve the public common good. I reckon that this still would not make much difference to our current predicament.

I grew-up under the shadow of President Ramon Magsaysay until his fatal plane crash in the late fifties. Using an arbitrary Prosperity Index starting from his tenure, I would give his reign a nine on a scale of one-to-ten. Only a nine, on account of what has been making rounds recently: the fact that the Philippines was at one point second to Japan in terms of economic output. (Excuse me? How had I ever missed that uplifting historical footnote? What were we selling to the world to merit such an accolade?)

I award an eight under President Garcia, seven under President Macapagal, six for President Marcos, and half of that for ERAP. It is not surprising that some Filipinos long for the “good old days” of Da Apo’s era. Of course, things were relatively better during his regime. But that has nothing to do with him being the Prima Causa. There were lesser mouths to feed then and the cost of living was much lower. I remember a time when Filipinos who studied abroad very often returned, as the greener pastures were right here in our land. I can’t recall physicians wanting to regress to nursing simply to improve their chances for employment abroad.

How bad can things get? I have seen our professionals sweep floors or working as maids in some European capitals. Imagine, horror of all horrors, a provincial governor or a city mayor becoming a TNT (illegal) in the USA because it’s “better over there.” The current administration of Mrs. Arroyo-compared to whoever will occupy the seat at Malacanang Palace in 10 year’s time-would be remembered, relatively speaking, as the “far better times era.” In retrospect, we have been in an economic free-fall as far as I can remember.

I cannot remember a point in our history that life for our average Juan-or shall I say John de la Cruz?-got any better. After all, poverty and misery are like numbers. They know no end! If our average John is malnourished, what’s to stop him from graduating to starvation and famine, as seen now in the Horns of Africa? This scenario is very probable unless we tinker with two variables.

Let me get back to my friend Jeffrey, and the reason why he presents a bigger threat. During my first visit back-home in 2000, Jeffrey was a caretaker of the rest-house my wife and I stayed at for a few days in Marinduque. At that time he was in his early 30s, his wife in her late 20s. They had four children.

You could call Jeffrey a man-on-a-mission. Also that year his wife was due to give birth in another month.

I did not visit Marinduque last month, but I’ll surmise that seven years later, Jeffery might have fathered another three mouths to feed.

I also visited my cousins in Cabiao, Nueba Eciha. In my youth I spent my summers there with my late grandmother. I remember vividly the vista of lush rice fields gracing the countryside.

Fast-forward half-a-century later, and my impo’s backyard is all but history. Houses have replaced the open space. Gone were the mango, jackfruit, santol and tamarind trees that somehow supported the family’s income. I saw my cousin Amang again, but recently he has been very anxious. He has almost a half-hectare of land that he tills for livelihood, a few fruit trees and domesticated animals, which somehow support him. What causes my cousin to lose sleep is the fact that markers have been set in his land to give-way to plans for a new subdivision-hence a battle in the local court between the residents and the developer. What fighting chance does the former have?

I also visited the city of my birth and my parents before me: Paco, Manila. In my youth , prominent were the Acacia trees (where Kabisotes and Mayas chirped) that lined our street. Today, the Acacias have given way to rows of non-descript houses. The same is true with St. Andrews-By-The-Field (San Andres Bukid). School children thought I was talking double-dutch when I asked them if they knew what martiniko or tumbang-preso meant.

Manila, from being a premier and important Asian commercial port to the New World during the Galleon Trade in the 17th and much of the 18th century, is now reduced to a city at a standstill. Its roads are heavily congested.

As a native Manileño it pains me to see my city crumbled. It’s become a shack-and-smog galore, with its buildings greying from the latter’s effects. In my two-week stay my nose ran and my throat rasped. I feel for the commuters forced to breathe its deadly air.

This is not a put-down of the present mayor and fellow St. Andrewian Lito Atienza. By all accounts, he is doing a great job for the city. But the macro economic, political and cultural considerations of this country are beyond his reach. And here’s more foreboding news: in Canada’s national paper, the Globe and Mail (March 23, 2007) a Wall Street Journal compilation by Andrew Batson discussed the topic of “China manufacturing evolving to high end.” In an article pertaining to Intel Corp. (also Philippine-based), the world’s biggest maker of computer chips, it was believed that: “China isn’t the cheapest place to run an integrated circuit operation. The Philippines, for example, could be cheaper. But logistically…China is irresistible.”

My adopted city Toronto, Canada has a reputation for being one of North America’s cleanest cities. Toronto has a population of less than 3 million-but the February 17 edition of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper, estimates that 1700 residents die prematurely each year because of air pollution.

Caribbean countries such as Cuba-which has a third of our land mass and a population of roughly 12 million-may hold visible pockets of poverty. But ours come in sacks and tons. We have jewels like Pagsanjan and Tagaytay, but on the way to these places, our version of poverty assaults the senses. The same is true from Mactan International Airport to one of Cebu’s finest resort areas. Would Dumaguete City and my old Silliman University be as leafy and serene as they were during the 60's? The coastline of Acapulco was a top tourist attraction forty years ago. At present, it is still Mexico's top tourist dollar-earner. Can we say the same of our beautiful Boracay forty years hence?

Why would our other cities be any different?

If you want to put a Pinoy abroad in his place, tell him you have been to his country. That is enough to trigger his inferiority complex. Please don’t be offended: sensing that I was a balikbayan, two ladies of my youngest daughter’s age subtlety propositioned that I take either of them with me on my return trip. Yes, poverty sucks. And its first casualties are honor and modesty. Why are so many unaccompanied single males coming to our shores?

In 1964, if I rightly recall my high school Social Studies assignments, we were 37 million Filipinos. When I left in 1971 that estimate grew to roughly 43 million. This year, I heard the figure of 88 million being bandied around.

In 36 years we have nearly doubled. If this trend continues, in less than 20 year’s time, we’ll easily overtake Japan (finally!) whose birthrate is declining with a present population of 128 million. The same holds true for Mexico, which has a lower birth rate than we do and a population of 110 million. However, they also have a land mass approximately seven times bigger than our archipelago.

In the latter part of this century, we will have more people than what the USA has today, which is currently close to 300 million. This figure is staggering and mind boggling in its environmental impact for our small islands.

We are over breeding, and at present, a number of our islands are losing their capacity to sustain life. It hardly surprises me to hear of calamity-after-another befalling our country. Floods. Landslides. At a distance, Mount Arayat appears partly bald with brown patches at its feet. China and India are homes to a population of over 1 billion. But on a per-person square kilometer basis, we are more densely populated than those two combined.

Filipinos of my generation remember that Thailand once sent its best agricultural minds to be educated in our universities, and that the “miracle rice” saw its beginning on our shores. But presently, we are a perennial importer from Thailand.

And why shouldn’t we be?

Thailand is a bigger country with less people to feed, ergo, more room for planting and fun. It is depressing to note, during a recent drive through Bulacan, Pampanga, and Nueva Ecija-the rice granaries of this country-that so much of the country’s fertile agricultural land has been converted to subdivisions and rural sprawls to accommodate our ever-increasing population. In my younger days I hitchhiked throughout Western Europe and parts of Northern Africa. One could not help but notice that parts of the landscape in Europe were always reserved for factories, office buildings and supporting road infrastructures. These countries have in their economic arsenal goods and services that the world is willing to pay for. It is the absence of these landmarks in our landscape and in those parts of Northern Africa that poverty is compounded.

The world does not owe us a living. We don’t have enough products and services that foreigners are willing to import. We hark back when the almighty dollar is equivalent to 2 pesos, and now, close to 49 pesos. And why is that? It’s because nobody wants our pesos. This would have been a different story if the world clamoured for a “Made in the Philippines” label the way they do for “Maids from the Philippines.”


As our appetite for things from abroad increases, things simply become a question of supply and demand. Is it true that even onions and garlic are being imported? And if so, would the mango be far behind? Is it inconceivable that one day, $1 U.S. will reach the 100 pesos mark? Lee Kuan Yew, transformed his swamp-and-mosquito infested island of Singapore during the late 60's into one of Asia's economic tigers. Without natural resources to speak of other than the entrepreneurial spirit of its people, Singapore became, and remains today, one of the world leaders of telecommunications and high-tech industries. For the record, I am not condoning corruption among our elected public officials. Singapore, Thailand, and to an extent Malaysia, would have been hard-pressed to have taken-off economically had bad governance been endemic there.

Lest we forget: politicians don't create wealth. If my super hero the late Ninoy Aquino were alive today and at the helm of running this country, with the demographics we have today, he would still not make any material difference. Our emerging medical tourism and call centres make a difference. Our Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) make a helluva difference. They are one export that somehow foreigners are willing to pay for. Next to Dakilang Lumpo and Tandang Sora, the OFWs are our real national heroes and heroines. They keep this country afloat. Manny Pacquiao is a well-known international sports figure and credit to our nation. But due to the temporary nature of his boxing title, he is not a hero. Our OFWs, being permanent mainstays of our economy, are the legitimate title-holders.


My recent visit to the Philippines would also have made a difference. When I say “visit,” that also includes the other hundreds of thousands of balikbayans and tourists. On a three-week stay, my wife and I spent almost 150,000 pesos: this paid for our taxis, hotels, restaurants and shopping ; if there are a million of us on average pumping the equivalent of $3000 annually, think of the multiplier effect this would have on the local economy and our GNP.

* * *

So there is an election frenzy going on, Pinoy-style. And it’s tragic that none of the election promises or platforms address the issue of planned parenthood. I believe that this should be one of the pre-eminent issues of our times.

I sounded this off in North America on several occasions, and the usual riposte has been: “It is against the Catholic Church teachings!” None of the politicians vying for office seem to have the courage to confront this issue for fear of ruffling the feathers of our religious leaders. Well if I may be bold to suggest: Don't worry about the church's condemnation or sensitivity. I observed that none of the progressive and advanced governments in Western Europe and North America care much for their clergy's positions while forming public policies. The birth control pill is one example where the church hierachy's reach is absolutely non-existent.

Lest some readers accuse me of being an infidel or a non-believer, let me just stress that dogma and spirituality are not of the same side of the coin-they are different matters altogether! The high priest will never be there to get us out of the morass we find ourselves in.

While in Manila last month, I tore-out a column by Babe Romualdez in the Philippine Star that struck a chord in me. Romualdez wrote of Peter Wallace suggesting in a population forum that “perhaps the church could help address the lack of classrooms by allowing the schools to use empty Church facilities as classrooms.” In another paragraph, Mr. Was Sycip of the accounting fame reiterated in a speech he delivered before the Management Association of the Philippines that: “these problems will not be solved if we continue to turn a blind eye on of the most glaring problems that continue to set this country back-the unabated growth of the country's population.”

Filipinos may be surprised to know that we are bigger in religion than the Spaniards, who brought their Catholic faith to our shores! Look at it this way: If I were a crusader and had to pick-up a cause for the many reasons that ail our society, I’d rather have the church establishment as my main opposition. For a start, I am absolutely certain that they don't have goon squads at their disposal and payroll! The same cannot be said of the other vested interest groups. If there is one common denominator that links countries that have an abysmal low standard of living, it is invariably their uncontrolled population growth. This is a given in the corridors of the United Nations on issues of economic development. I wish there is a consensus among our leaders on this, regardless of the political affiliation. They should always be at the forefront of their political agenda.

It is secondary if our leaders bring with them different roadmaps, provided the goal leads towards the same mountain top. An inclusion of this issue by any party in its election platform would go a long way, and perhaps result in a different society today. This inclusion does not need to be as draconian as China's one child per-family policy, or the enforced sterilization instituted in India during the 80's. This issue of family planning is very much inseparable to our economic development. The noted British economist Sir Thomas Malthus said that when production increases arithmetically, human population increases exponentially. One can deduce that something will eventually give way to accommodate the imbalance.

I had a dream-pardon me Mr. Martin Luther King for borrowing your line-that I am embarrassed to admit brought tears to my eyes when I woke-up. The last time I cried, I was a sixth-grader in the playground of Sta. Ana Elementary School. I lost my pocket money during recess in a game of Trumpo. Since then, I hadn’t even shed tears when my long-time companion and a live-in English girlfriend walked-out on me during the early seventies while living in London.

Anyway, I dreamt I was at the check-out counter at Home Depot, a big Multinational hardware store, where the customer ahead of me was holding the line.

The reason for this, you may ask?

In her impatient and loud voice, so that everyone in that queue could not help but hear, the customer insisted that the power-drill tool she was about to buy bore the Tagalog word "Makita" (actually, a Japanese brand) and should only be Made-in-the-Philippines.



Mabuhay,

Rolando Cunanan
Toronto, Canada
March 2007
E-mail: rocu@rogers.com