Choosing a Path for Modernization

Lastissue, we discussed the different changes made geared towards modernization that the local past administrations of Cotabato City has chosen. Although we cannot disregard the influence of the national government and the neighboring areas on the growth of the city, it still has the last say on the selection of the path that it takes in preparation for the future.

Although some Cotabatenos insist that the changes were really needed for the city to grow, there are still criticisms on the path of modernization that the past administration took. What type of modernization is really appropriate for the city and the region as a whole?

Let’s look at pervading understanding of modernization. “Modernization theory was the dominant approach to global developmental issues in the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by the search for factors that underdeveloped countries lacked, and which were presumed to cause their lack of development.” Thus, after rising from the destruction of the second world war, many of the countries in Asia embarked on facing development issues with the hope that it will rise from the tag of underdevelopment that many have been cast on. Philippines is one country that tried several ways of rising from underdevelopment. In a paper of Ayesh Perera for Harvard University, he described the following impediments to development as follows:

1. Collectivism

The emphasis on group identity over individual identity seemed to create needless obligations that could impede the development of the individual. The expectation on children to leave school early and help with their parents’ farming endeavors is one such example.

2. Particularism

The allocation of roles based on familial relations in many poor countries diminished opportunities available for competent and talented people.

When, for instance, a government official or a CEO gives a job to someone based on blood-kinship, ethnic group identity or friendship (as opposed to individual merit), the best of human capital would be underutilized.

3. Discrimination against women

Certain entrenched patriarchal structures in 3rd world countries often impeded the rise of women to positions of economic and political power. Additionally, the lack of educational opportunities available for women would aggravate the situation whereby, most women would be ill-equipped to assume such roles.

4. Fatalism/Ascribed status

When an individual’s birth is construed as determining his or her ultimate station in life, upward mobility is significantly hindered. Example is India’s caste system.

Sounds familiar? You can find these especially in this region. If we acknowledge that we recognize them as impediments to development, we can devise ways to face these challenges. But like the physical infrastructure that were put up in the past, a lot of thinking must first be done. Remember, there are always two sides to a coin. MC

This was the threefold unified cry of Filipino workers on Monday, May 1, Labor Day, as they trooped to Mendiola in Manila, near Malacañang. The workers – members of Kilusang Mayo, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilpino, and various other labor groups – called for a significant salary increase, an end to contractualization, and government action on inflation which has continued to worsen the situation of the ordinary workers.

In a media release dated April 28, independent research group and development institution IBON Foundation said Filipino workers and their families are “barely surviving.” The prevailing minimum wage, IBON said, is less than the official poverty threshold for a family of five. Citing the Philippine Statistics Authority, IBON said a family of five nationwide needs P12,030 on average monthly, this amount being the minimum level of income deemed adequate to survive. This poverty threshold is usually calculated by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year. IBON said it is based on the P79 daily per capita poverty threshold converted to monthly for a family of five.

In the National Capital Region, IBON said, the average nominal minimum wage is P12,398 monthly. This is P1,343 or 10% less than the P13,741 poverty threshold for a family of five in NCR. Compared to the NCR family living wage, it is a much bigger gap at Php12,811 or 51% less. The situation is even worse in the sixteen other regions of the country, IBON added, saying nominal minimum wages are from 13% (Region IV-A) to 36% (BARMM) less than the poverty thresholds, and 54% (Region IV-A) to 71% (BARMM) less than the family living wages.

Rallying workers on Monday backed the P750 wage hike proposal of the three-member Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives or the P150 proposed salary increase filed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri in the upper legislative chamber. The same demand for higher wages were made by workers elsewhere in the country: various labor groups in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental called for a P100 to P350 daily wage increase while workers in Iligan City in Lanao del Norte called on government to grant workers throughout the country a

UNWITTINGLY at younger age then, I first saw the concept of a ‘city within a city’ in all the years that the ORC area has evolved into what it is now. Offices are situated in that roughly eight-hectare estate that has been donated by the heirs of pre-Commonwealth Cotabato Governor Dionisio Gutierrez.

It was only when I saw new commercial buildings in some provinces, cities in Metro Manila like Pasig, sprouting to form an economically “separate” district, the Ortigas Center.

The administration of the late President Fidel V. Ramos had had its domestic economic cooperation with giant corporate bodies that resulted to state sale of public estates to private corporations, and eventually the development of the Bonifacio Global City as a city within Taguig City, a semi-urban component of a larger Metropolis.

Barely surviving; “Sahod, Trabaho, Karapatan” hinking A loud

Carlos C. Bautista caloyb@gmail.com uniform minimum wage of P1,234 a day.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. marked his first Labor Day as Chief Executive while on a fourday official visit to the United States, but prior to his departure for Washington, he took part in a Labor Day celebration in Pasay City on Sunday, April 31. In his Labor Day message, Marcos said his administration is “working conscientiously” to address workers’ concerns and provide opportunities that will elevate the living and social conditions of their families. While the President acknowledged the struggle of the workers and their families amid high inflation, he made no mention of a wage increase in his Labor Day speech.

Prior to his departure for Washington, Marcos Jr. approved an executive order that paves the way for the creation of an inter-agency committee to oversee labor cases.

Trade unionists and workers continue to be targeted in the Philippines. Labor rights defender and organizer of the BPO Industry Employees Network Alex Dolorosa was found dead on the outskirts of Bacolod City last week with over thirty stab wounds, his murder believed by workers’ groups to be connected to his union work. In January, teachers’ and health workers’ rights activists Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha were abducted in broad daylight at the Cebu City pier by a group of armed individuals who introduced themselves as police and were released only days later in a resort town outside Cebu City.

Labor unions which defend the rights of workers also end up being red-tagged by groups identified with the government. Several who have been red-tagged ended up dead.

Local prospects the Old Kutawato, or “Tinda” to the old stream folks of my generation. is published every Saturday by the Mindanao Cross Publishers, Inc., Sinsuat cor Quezon Avenues, Cotabato City. Tel Nos. (064) 4217161

Right half-way from the main road to the foot of the Timako Reef Hills, is a gazebo house. At a vast mangrove area at the back are workers earth-filling spots of one cubic-meter nine meters apart from each other, side-byside and diagonally.

Fr. Rogelio Tabuada, OMI, Chief-Executive-Officer

Eva Kimpo - Tan, Editor-in-Chief

Edwin O. Fernandez, News Editor

Gemma A. Peñaflor, Administration and Marketing Executive

Julito P. Torres, Circulation Officer

Karl John B. Daniel, Graphic-Layout Artist

COTABATO CITY / ARMM CORRESPONDENTS

John M. Unson, Ferdinandh B. Cabrera, Charlie C. Señase

Nash B. Maulana

NORTH / SOUTH COTABATO CORRESPONDENTS

Williamor Magbanua, Romer “Bong” Sarmiento, Roel Osano & Drema Quitayen Bravo CARTOONIST

Lourd Jim Diazon

By the windows of the Greyhound Train from N.Y. to Washington D.C., I saw modern tall buildings in an otherwise old business district of Pennsylvania.

Back here at home, one would see the modern-day evolution (still) of that ORC-Gutierrez area in the new establishments built inside and around it—extended northwest to the erstwhile “barter trade” stalls, a new building that houses food places that serve Mediterranean dishes. To the west is the Alnor Hotels and Convention Center, a moden resort complex of catering services, native foods and oriental restaurants, franchised coffee and pizza shops, and even movie houses.

But these are the urban version of a “city-within-city” development concept unfolding in our own generation. The other version is ecotourism development of resorts evolving over time into a city within a city—like Davao City’s Garden City of Samal Island.

The city’s Grand Mosque southwest is a nucleus of cultural tourism development that is now evolving into an ecotourism destination for local and foreign tourists alike.

Around the mosque are new stalls spaces in permanent structure, designed for the vending of local souvenir items and fresh seashells and other seafood products.

At the foot of the Timako Reef Hills, are sprouting potential tourism spots of seaside restaurants, recreational fishing and serene biking routes.

City Mayor Bruce Matabalao says the city is expanding fast southwest toward that section of the Diversion Road’s polygonal paths around the heart of

The family of Engineer Avila Abobakar owns the area that is now being cultivated for the heavenly palm dates trees. Avila says two palm dates varieties will be grown there—the Medjool Date Palm and the Ajwa (Black Tamer), “a well-known cold hardy palm tree that bear fruits in every two to three times a year. According to eastern agriculturist, palm trees bear fruits after four to five years of planting, and will remain productive through the next 30 years.

Abobakar says he employs an old technology taught by the Prophet Muhammad (God’s Peace and Mercy be upon him) in one Hadith that the tree of the palm dates “should be planted with the female and the male seeds.” And then to a youth’s question on whether this secret of a technique in growing palm dates tree, also held true to all fruit trees, the Prophet answered: “You will know better in your own time.”

Structural (and political) developments towards a prospect of a city within a city are also shaping up in Parang, Maguindanao del Norte which is groomed to soon be elevated to a state of cityhood, and become the political and economic capital of both Maguindanao del Norte and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Parang, the old port town founded in 1910 will soon be elevated into a city local government unit (by regional and national legislation), Mayor Kahar Ibay said at the ground-breaking ceremonies for the construction of five Bangsamoro barangay hall buildings, in March.