Holiday Mood

Both cities were in holiday mood when I left Jakarta and arrived in Manila. Jakarta was about to celebrate Idil Fitri or the end of Ramadan, while Manila was preparating for 1 Nov for All Souls Day when Filipinos go to cemeteries to remember the dead. The airports and hotels and the streets were filled with people all rushing to the provinces. The police forces in both cities have announced they are ready with full security during the holidays, 4-5 Nov for Indonesia and 31 Oct to 1 Nov for the Philippines.

Both countries announced they were in full alert against terrorism. The bomb blasts in India added to the paranoia. How could you enjoy the holidays with this threat in the air?

But the domestic flight I took last Saturday from Manila to Tagbilaran was quite full. I could not find any familiar face. It seemed all the other passengers were domestic or foreign tourists. Bohol is still the country's top tourist destination. If they are scared of terrorist attacks, nobody shows it. The beaches and the cemeteries and the malls are all full of people here in Tagbilaran City. Looks like everybody is determined to enjoy the holidays with or without this warning against terrorist attacks.

Back2Manila

10.00 a.m. Jakarta time, which is one hour ahead of RP time. I have checked the Blog section and found out my entry yesterday is missing. Where can it be?

Perhaps it goes to be saved somehow. So, for the moment, Jakarta Blues2 is on deck.

I arrived late this morning, almost 9. I usually come half past 8. The taxi I took from the hotel had a different route. What normally takes 15 minutes took us 30 minutes. Different drivers, I found out during the past 6 days, have different ways to go to the office from the Hotel Mega Anggrek. It's good in a way. I get to see different parts of the city.

But this morning is quite different. I was charged Rp 33,000, which is Rp 10,000 more than my usual fare. I could not argue with the taxi driver because he had this table that clearly showed what I would pay given the route we took. But, of course, he assumed I did not know some other routes which could be shorter.

It's like I am in Manila. Taxi drivers always prove to passengers they are smarter. How about putting them in one city or region, for that matter, and let them run things? Probably things will run better because taxi drivers anywhere in the world are smarter than the rest of us. They will always get you to the place you want to go - and they are so creative about the possible routes to take to bring you there.

Now I go back to this EU proposal I am preparing for Habitat Indonesia. Will Jakarta Blues3 disappear, too, in cyberspace? Let's see what happens.

Jakarta Blues

Still here at the Habitat office in Jakarta. Martha, the secretary, has phoned in to say if I need a taxi. I said yes, at 5.30 p.m., as usual. I have been here since Tuesday last week. The mission is simple enough; produce a proposal for EU funding. It will be similar to the Mindanao Peace Build project that Habitat Philippines submitted to EU last August.

Handoko, the Habitat National Director, assigned four staff to the project proposal team. We all thought at first that Manado would be the project area. When I checked the EU website last Wednesday, after a full day of taking down notes, I found out Manado was not among the five preferred sites for the donor assistance. Thursday we finally decided, after another day of reading, comparing notes and discussions, that we would zero in on Nusa Tenggara Timur or West Timor as the proposed project area.

More discussions last Friday enough grist for my mill during the weekend. I was not able to go the nearby Anggrek Mall. I just stayed in my room churning out around 30 pages of text. Today, most of the team members are gone. Vinon got married last Saturday. Pauline went back to Bandung. Handoko is on a mission to Manado. Glenn left for West Timor yesterday.

Fortunately, I was able to discuss things with Ricky and Lanny. They gave me fresh ideas. Now I have to revise substantial portion of my draft.

Jakarta is getting to be a ghost town. I was told when it's about the end of Ramadan, people go back to their hometowns for celebration, or in anticipation of the celebration of the fasting season. I read in the papers sales are slow in the shops because of low purchasing power due to the 126% increase in fuel prices here.

Now my taxi is here.

Old Friends

Old friends have kept turning up during the last two years or so. I am trying to figure out if there is some kind of logic behind it all. Or, is this just coincidence?

Richard Prado and Ces Adorna, friends from those UNICEF days 20 years ago, managed to visit us here two years ago. Mil Sevilla, my close friend in high school, visited us here during the same period that the two were here. Of course, I see Rem Torres, my closest friend in college, now and then. Last Oct. 2, we were with him and his wife, Kits, in Manila to celebrate his birthday, which was on the day before.

Bituin Gonzales, my kumare, was here in Laya, Bohol a couple of times this year. I had not met her for almost 20 years, I think. I met Ruth and Sammy Ruiz in Dumaguete City in early 2004 after years of not seeing them. I know Ruth from those NEDA days and Sammy from our UP Los Banos days. Talking about UPLB, I met Dr. Willy Padolina after decades of not seeing him on a plane from Jakarta to Manila. That was early August this year.

I just came back from Dili, Timor Leste. There I met Offie Valdecanas, our Mother General during those country programming days with UNICEF in the late 80s. She was with Dr. Arnold Calooy, my inaanak sa kasal.
There must be a reason why I have kept bumping with old friends in recent years. I feel happy seeing them again.

Still at BLDF

It's 6.25 p.m. Still here at the the BLDF office. BLDF is Bohol Local Development Foundation, the NGO which has pioneered the household poverty database system here in Bohol. It was quite a busy day here.

Arnold, our database management specialist, had to finish putting into the poverty database the Habitat home partners from two villages, Bool in Tagbilaran City, and Tabalong in Dauis municipality. We were quite excited when we finally was able to link the poverty status of each home partner to their home repayment status. This is a breakthrough. Now we at Habitat can be guided by the database on what strategy to take to improve the repayment rates of home partners. It is easy to see what to do with home partners who are no deprivation but still refuse to pay. This is clearly a case of wrong values and will have to be dealt as such. It can justify using the full force of the law to evict such home partner from the house for which he or she refuses to pay despite having the means to do so.

The others burdened by high deprivation levels need a different strategy. Perhaps our youth volunteers can help them identify a project to lessen their other burdens so that in the near future they can realize some savings and pay for the house.

We were also able to compare the poverty status of home partners with the rest of the households in the village where they live. The database can also compare the poverty status of home partners based on 12 core indicators.

Let's see the other home partners in other places, how they will rate based on this database. More next time.

Thanks, Rence!

Rence Sore, a friend from the Solomons, turned up in cyberspace and asked that I sent him a copy of the reply made by Miss International from the Philippines when asked what would she say to the rest of the world who think RP is a country of nannies. I gave him a copy of the email sent to me.

I am happy that on the second day of blogging again for Poverty Cafe I got a query from someone whom I have not not met for years. At least, someone read my entry. Rence is now with Commonwealth International based in London. Rence is making it big, quite a leap from those days going through the bureaucratic maze in the Solomons where you could easily get lost untangling web after web of conspiracies and counter-conspiracies. It was easy in those days to lose one's footing. The rules themselves would complicate things.

I am happy for Rence. Now he can focused his enormous talent and people's skills on development concerns. We hope we can work with him again someday. Perhaps not in the Solomons, but in more remote areas where they may be just starting create a state. Timor-Leste, perhaps?

A good thought to close the day and wish everybody good night.

Emotions, Emotions

There's this email sent us by a colleague from Habitat. It's about the answer made by the Filipina winner of Miss International. She was asked about what she thought the Philippines being known as a country of nannies. The answer brought tears to my eyes. I sent the email to all my close friends and associates.

Sounds corny but until early evening that answer still played strong in my mind, and I cried now and then. If you guys want to know her answer, email me at pestelos2003@yahoo.com. I'm too emotional now to even try to put it again to words.

Good night, guys. It's my second day of blogging.

Back Home

Well, back home. This is after dinner. I'm here in front of the laptop. This is a challenge. It's still early but I feel drowsy. Another tiring day at BLDF. Arnold and I are working out the database for the Habitat home partners here in Bohol. He has tinkered with the existing poverty database for two villages here where there are Habitat communities. Now it is easier for me to find out how each home partner ranks in terms of each of the 12 poverty core indicators.

Tomorrow, we will continue this tedious work. I have requested him to reflect the repayment status of each of the home partners. If we can link these to the poverty status, then we can systematically assist the households cope with problems that impact on their capacity to repay the house loan.

Let's see what happens tomorrow. Good night. I need to sleep.

We are back!

Looks like it is a good day to resume blogging. What can I say? My last entry was more than a year ago, in May last year! And to think that I was saying at that time that it had taken me a month to resume writing.

So many things to say. Where to start ... Here I am, at the BLDF office. I am actually waiting for Arnold to program something in my computer. It's almost 11 a.m. here in Tagbilaran City. We're in this new BLDF office.
Ok, Arnold, is finished. Must go back to work.

Will resume later.

Almost a month after my last entry? Sorry, sorry, sorry. I have noted that the journal has been visited 15 times this May. There's really no excuse.I must find time to make entries to this journal. I must. I must. I must.

I have a sore neck. It must be from this TV set which is placed too high in my room. Like many Filipinos these days, I depend on TV to keep track on what's happening in Congress these days. They are supposed to canvass the votes for the President and the Vice President. Instead, our honorable representatives of the people spent the past two days debating on the procedures. Last night, a woman spectator from the gallery sent a note to the filibustering Congressman who, incidentally, lost his bid for Senator to just shut up and start the counting. The honorable wants the whole Senate and Congress to act as committee of one to do the counting instead of having a 14-member committee to do the canvass as it was done before. The honorable congressmen and senators could not agree on which option to take.

Anyway, let us hope, the people will not be too impatient to take matters in their own hands. They may just barge through the barricades of policemen and the Marines to just scream their frustrations about the delay.

Meanwhile, here in Baclayon, more than 200 residents have signed a petition addressed to their political leaders that they support their proposed amendment to the road expansion plan to be implemented soon by the Department of Public Works and Highways and Korea's Hanjin Corporation.

Copies of the petition were also sent to the Office of the Governor, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, the Office of the Vice Governor, the Office of the Representative for District 1, Hon. Edgar Chatto. After a week, complete silence.

In a microcosm, you see here the indifference of public officials to the simple request of residents that the expanded highway should not destroy pre-World War II houses and other structures along a two-km. stretch of the town.

I still hope the bureaucracy can act a little faster to respond to this petition.

Meanwhile, life goes on. That means, I have now to go to the showers, dress up, eat breakfast, and rush to the office. Here's another day to live through despite all these distractions or, if you prefer, burning issues...

OK, my apologies. It has taken me a long time to get back to this journal. The usual excuse: lack of time. But if I look back, I could have squeezed in a few minutes before going to bed or upon waking up to drop some lines. Anyway, I am encouraged that some visitors do get to this journal. It must be frustrating or downright disappointing for them if they read the same stuff each visit.

It's for them that I must find precious time to write something on this journal.

Let's start with yesterday... We were in this workshop which is trying to build a research consortium among academic institutions,NGOs and academic institutions in the province. It is being conducted by Dr. Peter Urich of the International Global Change Institute. Yesterday was Day 2 of the workshop. We had the Planning Secretary, Hon. Romulo Neri, as guest. He gave powerpoint presentations on the basics of economics and also on his analysis of the country's political oligarchy. He said the election process is flawed from the start because it is the rich who bankroll political parties and candidates; he calls this group booty capitalists. The financiers naturally would like to get their investments back and for these investments to earn in return.

This is actually the third time I have seen this presentation. I have been hearing the same views from my college days three decades back. The only difference is that if you said these things in the 60s, you would be branded as leftist or a trouble-making radical. Now this is a member of the Cabinet saying the same things for which many of my friends were persecuted in the past. That's proof the democratic space has somewhat widened since the 60s despite persistent efforts of vested interests to capture political power and economic wealth. Many Filipinos will agree with this analysis. The challenge remains: how to address the situation within the framework of existing laws and conventions that an elite-dominated political process has put in place ...

We need to process his input in the context of the workshop's objective to organize a research consortium. In fact, there is a need to see the proposed consortium in the light of the provincial development agenda as reflected in the various development plans.

The Planning Secretary came with Director Romy Escandor of NEDA Region 7 and an old friend, Dr. Severino Cuevas of UP Los Banos. It must have been more than 20 years that I have not seen Seve. I was eager to bring him to dinner home but his schedule is tight this time. We hope to meet him again here in Bohol.

It's 6.37. I have to follow doctor's order, walk and up down this hill every morning. All these things we have to do to survive.

OK, it's the last day of March. The first quarter of the year is gone. Tomorrow, we start a new quarter. So many things to do, so little time. There goes the familiar refrain. But, at this age, let's not fret about time. It's counterproductive. It's just that April is our birth month. And if you are my age, it always feels like time flies so fast.

We're busy on this research about micro-enterprises. Atty. Cambangay says it's important we come up with a program framework on sustainable livelihoods. We will start with this study on micro-enterprises. I have to finish the design for this rapid survey or assessment. We have to find out what the agencies and NGOs, as well as LGUs, are doing to support micro-entrepreneurs. Probably it will take us more than a month to do this province-wide survey.

Then we can talk about preparing that framework later.

Today, we had an interesting workshop, actually a baseline survey on the performance of the DILG-GTZ WSSPMO (Water Supply and Sanitation Project Management Office). A three-member DAP staff Center for Knowledge Management led by Vice President Elizabeth Manugue facilitated the activity. Good design, good time management.

Around 20 participants attended, including several Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators (MPDCs). There was even a participant from the Ilaw ng Buhay Water User Association of Guindulman municipality. He is Felix Licong. There was a loud applause. It warmed the heart to know the Ilaw ng Buhay is still alive in a few places despite the center being closed for more than 10 years.

This made my day. Guindulman Vice Mayor Eleno Laga called up. He's running for Mayor. He used to be an outstanding trainer and fieldworker of the UNICEF-assisted Ilaw ng Buhay (Light of Life) program of long ago. Hope he gets that post now in his town.

Memories are creeping in. I should stop now. It has been a long day as usual.

Good night to all.

Ms. Sylvia Clemente, FAO/UN Consultant, visited our office this morning. She was accompanied by Ms. Corazon Estocado of the Department of Agrarian Reform. Atty. Cambangay, the head of our office, the Provincial Planning and Development Office, invited me to join him in answering questions from the mission.

She was actually the 6th consultant from DAR to visit us since last year here at the Capitol. I remember one lady consultant who borrowed the CD version of the Poverty Reduction framework She said she would just copy it in her laptop back in the hotel. That was the last time we heard of her. Like all the hordes of consultants and researchers from all sorts of agencies before her, she did not give us even a draft copy of her report.

All the previous 5 consultants working on agrarian reform practically asked the same question: how do we integrate the ARC plans with the LGU planning process? It gets so taxing, for me at least, to answer the same question each time that a DAR consultant comes around, particularly if it's already phase 3 of the project. Don't they ever compare notes?

These consultants and researchers (from DAR Manila and other agencies) just appear here and we extend to them all the cooperation we can muster. We spend an average of two to three hours per visit of consultants and researchers to our office. In most instances, we even arrange their appointments with other agencies. Not that we are complaining; it's just that they should at least give us a summary of what they have found out here and their recommendations. We don't even bother to ask them about their TOR and credentials. Everything's taken in good faith. But it looks like they do not regard us as their equal; they do not even bother to tell us about the results of their mission.

All we want is for them to be fair with us. Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from their reports. Let's see if Ms. Clemente will be different from the rest of them.

There, I finally managed to say it. It has been bugging me for a long time, this unpleasant feeling that we are just being used by some people.

By next week, the third month of the year is gone. We have been busy with a lot of things lately. But this is not an excuse to neglect this journal thing. It's a question of finding the time, or is it a matter of will? Surely being busy is not an excuse. I must find the time to write, reflect ... It warms the heart to know 101 visited the journal this month. And to think I had only one entry!

What were we busy about in March? Let's see. First week, I went back to an old action item that I had really to dispose of. That was revising the draft Medium term development plan 2004-2009 of Bohol province. I had to put in the poverty reduction focus in each of the sectors. Well, I was able to do the revisions in five days' time.The ball is now with the sector heads. They are also awfully busy with a lot of things, but I hope they will be able to come up with the final draft by early next month.

The AusAID education sector mission came. We had to rush some references for them. We also gave the mission a copy of the proposal we drafted a year ago for the retrieval of school dropouts. This case of so many unemployed youth, in addition to school dropouts (6-14 yrs old), really needs to be addressed. Someone will have to match the abundant idle land with this phenomenon of having unemployed youth in the hundreds joining the labor force each year but finding no job at all.

Then I had to rush an accomplishment report for the unit and a proposal for availing volunteers from the Korea Overseas Volunteers program. I found time to direct the work being done on the formulation of a staff development plan for the 15 provincial agencies. This involves establishing the database for all of more than 600 regular employees of the Provincial Government. If we can have the plan and implement it in a 12-year period to coincide with the time frame for the poverty reduction framework, it can motivate employees to work harder; their career path will be clearer.

Lito de Vera came to attend a national conference of DED (German Development Cooperation) volunteers held here in Bohol. He dropped by in the office with a colleague. I know this guy from way back during our brief stint with NEDA. Our posting there was paid for by UNICEF.

On 07 March, Tony Irving, Arnold Seloterio and I met with the Purok Development Volunteers of our village. It was a Sunday, but all the volunteers turned up. The PDVs do not receive any honorarium. It's a great thing they come even on a Sunday. We usually meet with the 12 volunteers from the six puroks on a Sunday. That was their choice.

I found time to act as judge for an essay writing contest among first year high school students in Tagbilaran City.

For the month, I am back to the routine of riding in the van that brings children to school as early as 7.00 a.m. I know the doctor will again complain since I have had no time for my usual brisk walking up and down the hill. Still, I found no time to write on this journal regularly.

I hope I can do better next time...

Still too busy to get into this journal thing. Still waiting for AusAID PACAP to formally approve the LGU strengthening project in 17 municipalities here in Bohol. Still trying make head or tail of the new projects coming up as part of the poverty reduction efforts. Still wondering why donors seem not interested to monitor their projects here. Still trying to figure out what can be good motivating points so government employees will work hard from day to day. Still getting drowned by all these charges and countercharges among the politicians in this busy season. Still pretesting the survey methodology in Laya. Still. Still. Still...

0832. First journal entry for this year. Too busy with a lot of things as last year ended. Then there was this two-week training (12 – 24 Jan) held in Cebu for the MPDCs (Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators) of 17 municipalities in Bohol proposed for the implementation of the AusAID-assisted Strengthening Local Governance Project.

I attended the live-in training at Days Hotel in Mactan as one of three participants from the Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO). The other PPDO representatives were: Atty. Nitz Cambangay, the provincial planning and development coordinator, and Roger Alegado, head of the Project Development and Monitoring Unit (PDMU) of the PPDO.

That was actually Component 1 of the AusAID-funded training on Strengthening Local Governance for Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development. The province requested for the training as start-up activity for poverty reduction project to be implemented with AusAID assistance in 17 municipalities in Bohol.

Component 2 is what we are having here now at the MetroCentre Hotel in Tagbilaran City. The MPDCs were joined by 5 other members of the Municipal Poverty Reduction Action Teams (MPRATs).

The total number of participants who attended reached 102 out of the expected 105. That was around noon time yesterday. Those who were not able to come for one reason or another (sick; on official business to Cebu, etc.) sent replacements. Unfortunately, the ten or so replacements could only be classified as observers.

Gov. Erico B. Aumentado welcomed the participants and trainers during yesterday’s opening program. He said the MPRAT members are the front-liners in the fight against poverty. The Governor challenged the MPRATs to work wholeheartedly in achieving poverty reduction targets.

Dr. Benjie Gonzales-Flor of AusAID-Phil-Australia Short-Term Training Facility (PASTTF) also came for the opening program yesterday. She opened her talk by saying she believes that as a woman, she can do anything. Good opening! It got the attention of the audience. She also cited the characteristics of more developed countries: ethics; integrity; respect for laws; responsibility; punctuality, etc.

Dr. Vicky A. Bautista, director of the Center for Leadership, Citizenship and Democracy, UP National College of Public Administration and Governance, discussed key issues and concepts related to understanding poverty. She talked about innovative strategies which have been so far tried by the national government.

This is starting to sound like a news story and not a journal. Now I have to focus on the input. This is quite a big group. Fortunately, the audio system is excellent. Still, there is no way of knowing if they get the messages fully. Perhaps, in the future, we have to think in repeating inputs in small groups and minimize lectures in big groups.

We know this from way back, but we are victims of circumstances. The time frame is too short to have all these inputs.

1625 Christmas party here at the office. No-frills celebration. Just eating and karaoke singing; no formal program. I was not here for the party last year. There’s something new technology-wise. The LCD projector was linked to the VCD player. Hence, you see the text and the accompanying of the song on a big screen. There was exchange of gifts. I received a gift, marked number 2. It was donated by a medical company. It’s a miniature soft pillow, good to protect the eyes actually while sleeping. That was how I made of it. There is no label on this thing so I can’t tell what it is really for. Anyway, thank you for the gift whose number I had picked out of pure luck.

Same Xmas party is being held during this time of the year in hundreds of offices, public and private, here in the province. The stores enjoy brisk sales of gifts, xmas lights, lanterns, xmas trees … Christmas is indeed good for the local economy.

Hard to think about poverty when you have this round of parties. Christmas, like fiestas, must be a way to distribute proteins and blessings.

2100 Preparing to go to bed. Remember the book I have been intending to write the past two decades. Too many hindrances to fulfill this one great act. I again revisit my notes, scattered in notebooks, floppies and hard disks. Now another year will be gone and still there is no draft manuscript for the book. When will we find the time to sort out these notes?

That’s the question for 2004. Or, perhaps, this is just ego trip. Who cares about a book about development fieldworkers? I have the conviction the world needs one as a weapon against cynicism that has crept into the psyche of people everywhere in recent times. Now, may I proceed to sleep and dream and wake up again refresh in the thought that the world needs fieldworkers?

Amen.

1145 Bob and Belen Mendoza, our visitors from Sydney, are leaving today. Actually, we left them at the airport. The plane was supposed to arrive 9 but after two hours at the airport, there was no plane in sight. We reluctantly left them at the airport to wait for the plane on their own.

Now I am back at the office. It’s a few minutes before the noon break. Let me just look back at this brief visit of the couple. I have learned quite a lot from them.

For instance, they were telling us about the new teaching method (combining email, one-on-one tutorial, assignments, practical work) being applied in the school where Bob works as a teacher. He is actually handling an IT course. His students are mostly children of Asian who have settled in Australia. He says the method is based on the observation that students learn at different paces; no two students learn at the same pace. Hence, the method adjusts to the unique profile of each learner.

This method is being tried for almost two years. It evolved from the frustrations of educators about the high unemployment rate among college graduates and the lack of pertinence of what students learn to the needs of industry. A survey was conducted on what exactly industry needs and the curriculum planners take this into account. Hence, the skills being imparted to students are particularly designed to the actual needs of industry.

The other idea we have found useful is this concept of a Neighborhood Technology Center being tried in Australia. I think this can be tried here with a little imagination and efforts. I have discussed this with Tony Irving, and he says we actually can try it as a project in the barangay where we are pretesting the household survey. It can be a project to engage the large number of unemployed youth in the area.

Bob and Belen have stayed in Sydney for more than 20 years. Their five daughters were born there; all have their own families there. The Mendozas are originally from Lucena City, Quezon. They have their roots there and regularly visit relatives.

For this visit, they will have time to attend class reunions of the Quezon National High School (formerly Quezon Provincial High School). Bob and Belen belong to Class 67 and Class 70 of this school. In Sydney, they have helped our class, Class 58, produce its website and a powerpoint presentation to be used by Milwida Sevilla-Reyes for the class reunion scheduled 27-28 Dec.

11 Dec 2003, Thursday

1915 He introduced himself as Peter Turingan, a consultant from GTZ. A lady employee from DAR accompanied him. They were looking for “the one in-charge of rural development.” There’s no such officer at the planning office. Rural development cuts across sectors. What Roger Alegado and I do at our unit is focus on developing a poverty reduction, a key concern in rural development.

Peter decided to talk with us. Later, we were joined by Atty. Cambangay, the PPDC. Peter asked us to recommend a project that GTZ could look into to find out some best practices in project implementation. We recommended the livelihood dispersal project being implemented by the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian with assistance from Heifer International.

Peter also asked us questions as part of a survey on best practices. It was a lively exchange. Peter has the skill of making people talk. He did not give us any copy of his TOR nor any contact address. Because he was accompanied by someone from DAR, we cooperated fully with him. Frankly, we do not know how he will use the information elicited from us.

On hindsight, we should have asked for a copy of his TOR and his business address. It’s a usual phenomenon here that year after year we entertain hordes of consultants. Only very few gave us a copy of their findings. We have to establish a clear link to our development agenda in dealing with consultants. In the first place, we spend government time and resources entertaining them. It’s just fair the Government and the people of the province should also benefit from a consultant’s visit.

1900. Tired. Many people came for the fiesta. My colleagues from PPDO. Family friends and relatives. Ilona and Christoph, young German couple next door. Tony Irving and Sally. Sibyl, a German volunteer. Some people from the barangay. Too tired to reflect.

Only one thought. It’s about the reasons for having fiestas, obviously from our Spanish past.
But the particular reason I like most was the one cited by a friend from our UNICEF days decades ago. He said fiestas are a way of distributing protein. Smart guy!

If you will sum up the money spent for a town fiesta by individual families, communities and local governments, the figure will run up to millions of persons from year to year. Looks like everyone is saving money to be spent for a two-day celebration.

Something in this town was the street lamps and the colorful arches put up by all the barangays along the national highway. There was a contest and several barangays won cash awards.

There was the usual cockfighting. Another to circulate the money around? Games like this with money bets do not produce goods and services to add value to the local economy. Big money only changes hands among the rural elites; no contribution to local production. Besides, gambling sends the message it’s good luck rather than hard work that counts in improving one’s station in life.

Development workers have raged and ranted and fought against gambling and other vices. In the case of fiestas, a senator now dead organized a crusade many decades ago to at least temper or channel the spending during fiestas to productive activities. The campaign failed miserably.

Fiestas are a way to bring family members together in a grand reunion carried out by local communities and supported by their government. The economy may falter, but the expensive celebrations go on.

Some celebrations have taken on development aspects: agro-industrial fair; cultural shows; contests among barangays (cleanest barangay, etc.). Perhaps this is the way to go, rather than fight fiestas. Integrate progressive elements into the centuries-old tradition.