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IN connection with the Asean Summit hosted by Cebu
last January 2007, leading citizens and the military spearheaded
outreach projects in communities where cause-oriented groups were
recruiting participants to protest the Asean meet. Some of the areas
included suspected landing areas of members of the New People’s
Army. Common for the areas were mass poverty and general neglect by
local government—caused by either lack of concern or deliberate
neglect.
Maretes, an NGO worker and
community organizer, had brought me to a meeting in Brgy. Bangbang,
a coastal barangay in the municipality of Cordova, Mactan. The
military had already addressed some local peace and order problems
which the local police had failed to deal with. Other local
government officials were also challenged to address the concerns of
the residents. The poverty of the residents was obvious—and
Maretes and I wanted to do more.
Maretes volunteered to organize
some of the women, and I donated P5,000 as seed funds. The women
started propagation of mangrove seedlings and a simple rice
business. The profit is used as revolving fund for zero interest
loans to the members. From an initial 29 members, the group has
grown to 50 members and the P5,000 has become P10,000.
In the course of looking for
partners in the mangrove reforestation project (“1 million
mangroves for Cebu ”) of the Coastal Conservation and Education
Foundation, Maretes met Ms. Maita Manglapus, the president of the
Rotary Club of Mactan. The club not only got involved in mangrove
planting in Cordova and coastal clean-up initiatives in Gilutongan
Island (also part of Cordova), Ms. Manglapus was able to source
additional P500,000 for the women’s group for livelihood
assistance – including acquisition of high-speed sewing machines
and a motorized banca – from the Village Aide Program, a
development initiative by Rotary clubs in Australia. The project
also includes feeding of malnourished children and promotion of
scouting.
During the Asean Summit we were
driven foremost by a desire to prevent anti-government organizations
from using the poor as paid “warm bodies” in their rallies.
However, the inadequacy of government efforts to address the
legitimate concerns of people was also glaring in many instances. If
only the government would do its job NGOs, foundations and civic
clubs—and even the military—wouldn’t have to engage themselves
in medical missions, feeding, construction of water systems, toilets
and school buildings, provision of scholarships, livelihood
assistance and skills training, and environmental protection to the
extent that these institutions are involved. Education, health,
sanitation and environmental protection are the foremost
responsibility of civilian government.
Thank you for the books, the
principal of a high school in the island community of Olango (part
of Lapu-Lapu City) told me when I turned over a box of books donated
by The Asia Foundation and Kiwanis International. But we don’t
have a library, he added.
A bleak future awaits most of the
graduating high school students in Olango—and they are even lucky
to have reached high school. Few can afford to pursue a college
education or vocational course on the mainland. It isn’t just the
lack of quality teaching materials, one school proprietor told me.
The quality of the teachers themselves is a problem. From my visits
to public rural schools, I have noticed the problem. The teachers
are products of the educational system. They are as good as the
education that we give them.
Some schools are lucky—like one
public school in Panglao, Bohol, which is equipped with a library,
computers and internet connection through Rotary’s Village Aide
Program. The academic performance of the children has improved
tremendously in only one year, Derek Pyrah of the Village Aide
Program told me when we met in Bangbang. Other charitable
organizations, NGOs and philanthropic individuals donate books,
school supplies and computers, and provide scholarships and job
placement for graduating scholars, but it is never enough. There are
more children who are not provided the education that is supposed to
be a fundamental right, as enshrined in the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, an education that is directed to “the development of
the child’s personality, talents and physical abilities to their
fullest potential.”
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