Masking poverty in the Philippines

WRITTEN BY JOEMARI OLEA GRAPHICS BY CHRIS AQUINO

AFTER THE UNVEILING of Duterte’s project such as “Build! Build! Build!” and the Jeepney Modernization Plan, a certain word starts to resurface in the media: the act of gentrification. Gentrification is the term used to characterize the beautification of an impoverished site to mask the current problems of poverty in an area. Instead of assuaging the lives of the people and solving the economic problems from their roots, gentrification uses the visual facade of grand structures, good architectural designs, and technological modernization to create an illusion of a country’s progress: a pseudo-economic development. This concept is not new to us, for we have an entire history of Filipino presidents who used this technique to gather foreign investors in the Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos used this concept heavily for the mere purpose of hiding his corruption cases from the public, while other presidents used it to increase foreign investments which inevitably kill local businesses and hopes for a national industry.

The Marcos Regime: Golden Age of Gentrification

President Marcos used the concept of gentrification to induce an impression of economic competence during the time of crisis. It did work, for there are still a lot of people, especially in social media, who berate on how the Marcos Era is the Golden Age of the Philippines. How can you say that the country is suffering a financial catastrophe when the government can build lots of huge edifices? It is really a smart move for most of his “legacies” are in visual form and will forever be in the face of the Earth unless destroyed. It is easier to see the magnificence of the structures even if they’re on a backdrop of corruption and human rights violations.

The Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) is a government funded project built for the international delegates of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund Annual Meeting that was held in the Philippines in 1976. This building boasts itself to be the first international convention center in Asia (About PICC). Together with the PICC, several five-star hotels are built with the pursuance of the government to become temporary settlements of the delegates in the said event.

Another structure spearheaded by Ferdinand Marcos is the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Built to preserve and develop the Filipino culture and arts, the said structure billed 50 Million Pesos on our international debt (Vision Mission CCP). The still-operational Light Rail Transit is also one of the famous projects of Marcos. The 3.4 billion pesos structure is a manifestation of Makoy’s plan to interconnect Metro Manila using fast and accessible transportation system (Razon, 1998). His other projects include the Heart, Lung, and Kidney Centers of the Philippines that offer world-class medical attention to Filipino patients. The Marcos Regime also brought life to the Metropolitan Manila Commission (MMC), now commonly known as the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA). Imelda Marcos was the first head of the said commission (Michel, 2010). The creation of MMC is on par with the Marcos Family’s mantra to make Manila a utopia for the planned New Society.

Although some of the projects are promising and for the betterment of the Filipino people, under the veil of extravagance are the hidden cases of corruption and plunder. Most of these buildings are funded with international debts, while the Marcos family and their cronies feasted themselves with the Philippine budget. The political instability in the Philippines then forced foreign investors away from the country, defeating the purpose of the buildings themselves in the first place. Aside from the structures built under their name, the Marcos Family left the Philippines with nothing but a massive sum of debt that Filipinos still currently pay three decades later.

Gentrification in Post-Marcos Era

The usage of gentrification didn’t stop from the Marcos Regime. Several instances of masking poverty were reported in the country after his term. During the 8th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that was held in the Philippines in 1996 under the term of President Ramos, 21 APEC Villas were erected in Zambales to become temporary dwellings of the delegates which reported to amount to 1 million to 2 million dollars to construct each. The villas were only resided by the delegates for one day (Romero, 2015).

During President Arroyo’s term, Metro Gwapo was launched by MMDA under Chairperson Bayani Fernando. Pink became the color of Metro Manila under Fernando’s governance: from footbridges, to public urinals, every structure made by MMDA was slathered with the rosy color to make the capitol visually appealing for foreign investors. Fernando’s term also saw the harsh actions to deal with and expel the street vendors (using the infamous “Pink Line” strategy) and illegal dwellers. This was also the time when jeepney and bus drivers were ordered to have a dress code (Michel, 2010). As ex

pected, Fernando’s actions were criticized by many, claiming that his projects were solely focused on the poor sector of the population.

In 2015, the Philippine government under Pnoy’s presidency invested a whooping 10 Billion Pesos for the APEC forum that was held in Metro Manila (Calleja, 2015). Classes are suspended, and the routes the delegates are going to traverse are closed from the public. There are reports that the internet speed is incredibly fast during the forum, and flights are cancelled to ensure the security of the delegates. Dinky Soliman, the head of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, ordered to cover squatter areas with huge plywood to hide the real state of living of the Filipino people from the APEC ambassadors. Soliman was already in the hot seat during the APEC forum after the resurfacing of the rumors of DSWD’s involvement in convincing homeless families to stay at a resort during the visit of Pope Francis in the Philippines (Ager, 2015). It is ironic that the APEC’s theme at that year is about the welfare of small scale business owners, while Pnoy is attempting to get foreign investors for the Philippines which kills small time Filipino businesses.

Duterte’s Build! Build! Build! and Jeepney Modernization

One of the Duterte’s flagship platform is the improvement of infrastructure in the Philippines under the banner of “Build! Build! Build!” Under this project, the government plans to invest a massive sum of $180 Billion to create public structures which most of them are for improving the transportation in the Philippines (expressways, highways, and bridges) (Heydarian, 2018). It sounds promising at first, but certain aspects of the project are heavily criticized.

The funding for the project will mostly be from foreign loans from China and Japan. Not only that the two countries will benefit from the interest of the loans, under the loaning deals is the requirement for the Philippines to buy the materials needed for infrastructure building solely from the lender countries (Padilla, 2017). Another source of funding for the project is the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law which is heavily deemed to be anti-poor. Although it lessens the income tax, it will inflate the prices of certain commodities, transportation fares, and electric bills, for the law also imposes taxes on diesel, LPG, kerosene, and bunker fuel (Moilna, 2018). Lastly, the main department associated for the “Build! Build! Build!” project, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), is under the leadership of Secretary Mark Villar, a member of a family known for real estate business. People have panned this appointment by Duterte, since aside from his lack of experience in engineering and architecture, his father Manny Villar once used the power of DPWH to have C-5 Road Extension to pass through Villar’s real estate properties (Ramos, 2016). This increases the suspicions that hidden capitalist agendas are behind every project of DPWH during Duterte’s term, including the structures to be built under the “Build! Build! Build!” project.

Aside from the “Build! Build! Build!”, another manifestation of gentrification in Duterte’s term is the Jeepney Modernization Plan. Jeepney drivers are forced by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) under Secretary Arthur Tugade to buy newer jeepney units that are eco-friendlier than the ones they currently use. This plan of DOTr was severely panned because the units, whose materials are to be imported or to be assembled from other countries, are too expensive for the jeepney drivers which amounts to 1.2 - 1.6 million pesos per unit. DOTr has proposed a loaning scheme for drivers who can’t buy the jeepney units in one billing, but an amortization of 800 pesos daily for seven years still seems to be unacceptable for drivers for it is still too expensive (Balangue, 2017). If ever continued to be implemented, the Jeepney Modernization Plan will cause for a lot of jeepney drivers to lose their livelihoods, and for the transportation fare to inevitably spike. This forced the jeepney drivers to hold transport strikes contesting the anti-poor project, which paralyzed classes and works nationwide.

The main problem with gentrification is that it only deals with the surface of a massive problem in poverty. It is like a common Filipino practice to ingest Paracetamol to deal with the fever which is just a symptom of a much more dangerous disease. Like what the word signifies, gentrification is simply a manifestation of a larger predicament: the Philippine’s lack on national industry and our nation’s economic dependence to foreign investments. The government’s continuous effort to get the attention of foreign countries makes us doubt our own independence, for it begs the question whether the Philippines is for the Filipino people or for the bidding of other nations. ●

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