The
Unforgettable Philippine Study Tour 2000
By Takashi Nishitate Introduction
From the media reporting on the
Philippines in television, newspapers, magazines, books and the Internet, I do
not smell the stench from the Smokey Mountain and expect to use pooled
rainwater for the toilet and shower because of lack of modern water supply
system. In the media, neither street
children nor poorest people living in small houses along the railroad would beg
things from me. Through the Philippine Study Tour 2000
(PST 2000), I actually experienced a part of the miserable lives and poverty in
the Philippines, especially in Samar Island, one of the poorest islands. At the same time, I found out what official
political actors had done to alleviate poverty and how the Shitaba seminar has
been able to and will be able to do, all of which I did not get to know from
the media in Japan. On this point, PST 2000 was a special 10-days
intensive lecture for me. What I
learned from the lecture is that there are two types of poverty, which we define
as the lack of necessary resources that prevents the social system from
functioning in an expected way. One is
social poverty, a situation wherein the social system cannot achieve its own
goals. The other is personal poverty, wherein
people cannot meet their minimum conditions to live with basic human
needs. The next thing that I found was that both
direct and indirect actors act to alleviate the poverty. The difference between direct and indirect
actors is on whether they directly alleviate poverty or not. Indirect actors impact on both direct actors
and indirect actors. The Shitaba
seminar effectively helps to address the poverty issue by supporting both direct
and indirect actors. I propose in this paper several key points
to address the poverty issue, after determining the connection between poverty
and the actors. PST 2000 gave me a
ground for understanding what poverty is in real life, and a chance to think of
an ideal resolution, knowing the essence of our seminar activities and the involved
governments. I also propose points for
a better PST in the future. 1 Poverty
1-1 What is poverty? Throughout the PST 2000, I discovered
there are two types of poverty, which we define poverty as the lack of
necessary resources that prevents a social system from functioning in an
expected way. (NOTE: In this essay, we do not touch the resources
related to poverty in detail.). One is
social poverty, a situation wherein the social system cannot achieve its own
goals. Particularly in Samar Island,
some municipal governments and hospitals do not work well effectively. And long stretches of roads are also not
paved (concreted). The other type is labeled personal
poverty. This poverty means people cannot
meet their minimum conditions to live with basic human needs. Safe water and sanitation and so forth are crucial
problems for the people in Samar Island.
Lack of modern irrigation systems directly impact on the food supply for
them. And street children in Manila showed
how they lack basic human needs. 1-2 Social Poverty and Personal Poverty In Samar Island, I found many faces of social
and personal poverty. Social poverty is
found in the facilities of a hospital, a municipal government, and the unpaved roads. Among them, an experience in a hospital
where I stayed one night is unforgettable.
At the hospital, they lack medical equipment, especially for surgical operations. In addition, the hospital lacks medicines. The number of beds are also few. The toilet in the ward I stayed in was
almost out of order because of a broken water supply system. I was totally shocked about them. If I was not ease when I used toilet in the
ward, how could the hospital provide a comfortable place for the patients? One of the nurses told us that some patients
needed to go to a hospital in a city far away for emergency operations. But, it frequently happened that patients
died on the way to city. The sad incidents (deaths) occur not only
because of lack of medical stuff, but also of lack of well-paved road and, possibly,
of an effective local government system.
In just a part Samar Island are the roads well paved through official
development assistance (ODA). In other
words, the roads in most parts of the island are rough and bumpy. It rained heavily once (when we were there),
and the roads became useless. In a municipality
called Quinapundan, its government officers still use an old typewriter. Unless the office is made a workable place,
the officers could neither work on development for the municipality nor assist
the hospital with its needs.
Personal poverty in the area is also serious,
which totally shocked me. One of the
students in the School of Health Sciences (SHS) told me that, among many sick people
in Samar Island, the cause of death is diarrhea. This implies that people’s sanitation and health care are in awful
conditions. My experiences in using
pooled rainwater for toiletry and observing the lack medicines in the hospital
surely prove the shortage of minimum basic needs. The smiles and the laughter while we were
having dinner together made me want to move.
My heart started pumping hard, “What can I do for you?” 1-3 The Interconnections of the Two Types of
Poverty Social poverty and personal poverty are
related to each other. This relation is
really similar to a combination of an artery and a vein in our body. Without an artery, a vein cannot work well;
likewise, an artery is useless in the absence of a vein. In the same way, social and personal poverty
mutually influence each other. For example, a hospital that is not
working competently cannot achieve its aims to keep people healthy. Well-paved roads are essential for the
people to access the hospital. Without
these amenities, thus, the poor becomes poorer and poorer. Another example is the insufficient
irrigation and water supply systems. In
general, these systems are consolidated by an effort of the local
government. But the local government
faces financial deficit, besides having a less-equipped work place. In such a condition, how can the local
government take the proper steps to address the problems? What’s worse, the irrigation system is
crucial for the food supply and the water system is needed to provide safe
water for the people. On the other hand, personal poverty
impinges on social poverty. There are
two reasons. The first point is, a
social system can, needless to say, work only with healthy officers and
educated people. Whether the social
system is a hospital or a school that works well or not is a crucial example of
this viewpoint. Secondly, as the number
of the poor increases, the social systems have to exert more efforts to address
the need of the poor. For instance, the
food supply need is greater if there are many poor people. This means that the present irrigation
system needs to become more sufficient and modernized. Thus, as personal poverty becomes worse and
worse, this would also increase the incidence of social poverty.
2
Direct
and Indirect Actors to Alleviate Poverty
2-1 The Actors I Came Across in the Philippines In this study tour, I found many kinds of
actors who try to change the miserably poor situation for the better. Inside the Philippines, there are five main
actors: the School of Health Sciences (SHS), some municipal governments,
Manila, the media and an artist group. Outside
the Philippines, there are two major actors: Tokyo and Washington. The students of SHS study medicine and
health care to become doctors and health workers who would support people in
their hometowns and other rural areas.
The municipal governments make local policies and work in problem sites.
Manila domestically makes guidelines
that municipal governments are supposed to follow. Internationally, Manila asks industrialized countries like Japan
and the U.S for financial assistance, and uses the money for needed
developmental programs. The media and
the artist group can change people’s consciousness through mass communication
and art exhibitions. Outside the Philippines, some countries,
especially Tokyo (Japan) and Washington US), can exert influence on some
projects that Manila launch to address the poverty on Samar Island. They support such projects financially and
skillfully through their official development assistance (ODA). 2-2 Direct Actors and Indirect Actors In the previous section, I briefly described
the actors I came across in the Philippines.
However, there is one thing we should note. All the actors do not have the same roles to put an end to
poverty. They are categorized into two
types. The first actor is an actor who
actually alleviates social or personal poverty. We call this the “direct actor.”
On the other hand, we have an “indirect actor” who does not directly
alleviate poverty. But this actor helps
other actors, whether direct or indirect, through financial support or some
other ways. The School of Health Sciences (SHS),
Manila, and the municipal governments are identified as direct actors. The SHS has a curriculum that expects the
students to go back to their hometowns - in most cases, remote areas from
cities – for health care work. On rotation,
the students study for about three months at the SHS and work about three
months in their hometowns right at the first step of the curriculum. Besides, the SHS often launches projects
to alleviate personal poverty such as human health problems and sanitation. The “ACA-SHS Barangay Project” is the latest
project that the SHS is initiating. (NOTE: ACA stands for Asian Community by the
Asians, an international NGO created in 1997.)
This project tries to improve “preventive health care,” support
socio-economic projects, maintain the local cultures and environment, and
promote peace education, according to the Prof. Borrinaga from the SHS. Not only the students from the SHS, but also
some of the graduates, faculty members and other people involved in health care
are expected to take part in this project. Manila and the municipal governments are
also identified as direct actors.
Manila seems focused on helping improve social systems rather than
targeting personal poverty. Not only
providing medical equipment and computers, but also building facilities,
schools, and paved roads is necessary to let the social system work effectively. Successive cabinets (national
governments) in the Philippines have tried to solve its social poverty since
WWII through import substitutions policy and requiring ODA. The Marcos Bridge between Leyte and Samar
Island is a good example of this. Because
of the bridge, access to hospitalization and commercialization improved in both
islands of Leyte and Samar. (NOTE: The Marcos Bridge was built in 1972, upon
the initiative of Pres. Marcos.
Generally speaking, the bridge was made because Eastern Visayas is Mrs.
Imelda Marcos’s home. However, this
essay does not touch on political matters; we focus only on the poverty of the
region and the ways to solve it from the experience in the Philippines.) In contrast, municipal governments do not
have enough money and resources to solve social poverty. But they target upon personal poverty. They get to the bottom of personal poverty
and attempt to distribute resources equally based on the people’s minimum
needs. In Sta. Fe town Leyte, there is
a huge bulletin board that tells us which family needs more basic human
improvements such as sanitation and health care. Using this board, the local officials are effectively providing
services for each family. Moreover, the
town puts great importance on people’s education, helping people to find out the
problems and to cope with them. Thus,
it is possible to say that the municipal governments try to meet what people
need for their daily lives while Manila tends to help social systems work effectively. The Palo Artist Group, the media, Tokyo
and Washington are identified indirect actors.
The artist group and the media, Leyte Samar Daily Express, have
an impact on people at the consciousness level. The theme of this artist group’s exhibit is “Peace, Democracy and
Equality.” Art never discriminates
people in terms of economic status.
This is one of the benefits of the artist group, when it tries to spread
their theme around its community. To
spread the theme and let people think about it is an indirect way to put an end
to social and personal poverty.
Bringing peace, democracy and equality is one of the main conditions in
order to get over poverty. The media also influences the people’ s
mind. Our PST 2000 was featured twice
in the newspaper twice as a unique happening in Leyte and Samar Islands, which
Japanese hardly visit. A professor of the
University of Philippines (Tacloban), whom I met in the Atitipalo Art Exhibition,
told us how our visit had caught people’s attention. Surprisingly, she mentioned her students and her consciousness
towards Japanese and Japan are gradually changing towards the positive. Through such an effort, a tie between people
in Leyte and Samar Islands and the Japanese can be milestone to build firm
relationship on between the Philippines and Japan in the future. This can help Japan’s ODA projects to be used
in the island effectively, supported by the local people. The media can also touch people in the world
and international NGOs. World opinion
and some of the famous international NGOs are powerful in influencing change in
world politics and each country’s politics toward positive developments. The main strategy of Tokyo and Washington
to solve poverty in the Philippines is through ODA. Using ODA, multinational corporations or Philippine companies
build roads, airports and facilities such as schools and hospitals. In this sense, Tokyo and Washington are not
direct actors but indirect actors. A
unique point in Tokyo’s and Washington’s ODA is the tendency to target upon social
poverty. In Samar Island, JICA’s
irrigation projects still remain useless, as what it was in the 1960s. In spite of this, in the Philippines, there
are many big projects such as bridges and ports constructed through ODA over
the past few decades. (NOTE: Unlike Tokyo, Washington has more interest in government
management or policy-making rather than on providing aid. Here we can see some political reasons, but
do not touch such things in this paper.) Home | . |