THE GARDENER’S TALE OF THE YEAR THAT WAS

2012: this was six and twenty years after the 1986 Edsa Uprising, which in turn was the twentieth year after the 1966 Marcos take-over, which was in turn the twentieth year after the 1946 dubious independence of the Philippine nation. Prior to this triple twenty was a 4-40-400-time flow: four years under Japan, forty years under the USA and almost four hundred under Spain. Beyond that was collective national amnesia.

Rizal, who was executed by Spain a hundred sixteen years ago today, tried to cure the amnesia in his annotations to Morga’s “Sucesos.”[1] Colonialism, however, was just too wrenching an experience for our psyche. Of course we all knew, or thought we did, that Rizal was the greatest, the best and the brightest – everyone’s hero, a man who died that a nation might be born – or did we really know this? Did we bother to learn the lessons he taught? Dr. Jose Rizal wanted to cure our amnesia but it seemed incurable.

To stand in dignity and accomplish greatly, the old Greek adage was, first of all, to: “Know yourself.” We, however, clean forgot how far advanced we were in civilization before the onset of the Western invasions, what great traders and travelers and warriors we had become in times past, or how skilled we were in the application of science – preserving the bodies of our forebears as we mastered the art of mummification thousands of years ago, how we replaced stones and shells with metal for technology more than two thousand five hundred years ago, how we built huge agrarian pyramids as a free people that built such structures not for human sacrifice but for human survival and prosperity with the genius of hydraulic engineering and ecological farming hundreds of years ago, how in the depths of our consciousness we regarded each other as kasama – partners in a common journey not merely in life but in death, too, as evidenced by the northern Luzon mummies which were found with provisions afforded them by the community they were about to leave behind.

We are so surprised today when Chinese show us their records: how, for about three hundred years, from 618 – 905 A.D.  we traded with their Tang Dynasty; how in 900 A.D. we brought goods to Canton directly from Ma-i or Mindoro, and in 1001 A.D. brought gold from Butuan to Sung China, and in 1277 – 1368 A.D. traded with their Yuan dynasty from Butuan, Tanjay, and Cebu, and from 1368 – 1424 A.D. sent six trade missions to Ming China from our prosperous Sulu islands just before Sayid Abu Bakr established the Sulu Sultanate in 1450.

And we don’t easily see how rich and prosperous we were then; we were, of course. We had to be if we could, as we did, engage in sustained and serious trading with neighboring communities and empires. A thousand years of constant trading with neighboring peoples is no small matter by any standards anywhere!

Tao i-chi-lio of the Yuan dynasty mentioned in a report in 1349 the excellent metallurgy in our country, and a thriving shipbuilding industry strong enough for international trade. But we forgot how this trajectory to prosperity suddenly ended with the onslaught of colonial subjugation till we became no more than a source of raw materials at cheap prices and a dumping ground for finished products at higher prices and a non-industrial agricultural base for the rising industrialization of the colonizing countries. Oh, but we cannot dwell on this too much, can we – for what good will it do us at all, never mind Rizal, Santayana, and who else do you have in mind?

Let’s move on, then:  in the year just past – how did we really fare?

We can check out, quickly, our nation’s “house of life” or its natural setting, in other words the environment and natural resources without which there is no Philippines to talk of. Then we could scan the economy, or whether and how we create the wealth we need, and the social conditions it engenders, as well as the kind of politics that are consequent on these two, which in turn influence them for better or for worse.

The year that was saw our natural setting modified tremendously

by human-made global warming, which gave us and many parts of the world stronger typhoons and storms. The boast of the Philippines has always been Mindanao, “Land of Promise.” Whatever you plant there faithfully promises fruits and rich returns, because in chronically typhoon-ravaged Philippines, Mindanao has always been “typhoon-free,” an exemption to the rule, the envy of other islands, ultimate destination of all adventurous internal migrants.

This world ended in 2012, right after senior government officials proudly announced that their disaster-preparedness had never been better. Result of climate change? Or just a bit of evidence that this was the planetary end of the 13^th baktun in the Mayan calendar? [2] Choose your line but in 2012 a typhoon named “Pablo” said to Mindanao, “Welcome to the Philippines! Hundreds of fatalities, hundreds more missing in the water and the mud, hundreds of thousands affected, farms upon farms devastated, billions upon billions of agricultural values lost.” Bravely the spirit of Mindanao replied, “Thank you for the welcome, we shall not secede, we shall overcome!”

“Pablo” was unique because his predecessors “Ambo” and “Gener,” “Helen,” “Julian,” “Karen,” and “Ofel,” all made their play in the Visayas and Luzon with only “Pablo” ever making it to the heart of Mindanao, for the first time ever.

In New Bataan Township, people welcomed the President’s kind visit. He promised amidst the mud and the debris, the roofless houses and the felled banana plantations that had much earlier caused the cutting down of the sturdier, typhoon-tested coconut trees, in the direct and indirect presence of hundreds of thousands of affected families: “I want to know how this tragedy happened and how to prevent a repeat.”

The perceptive Chief Executive may have noticed how geological hazard maps show that many of these farming towns were built in areas classified as “highly susceptible to flooding and landslides.” One wonders if he saw how logging continues despite his Executive Order that banned all logging in natural and residual forests. Did he see those logs floating in the smaller rivers of Mindanao being transported to bigger rivers in open defiance of the Philippine state, some even passing by military camps for full “review”? Did he notice how typhoon “Pablo” used those logs to kill residents, soldiers and militants alike without discrimination?

Still in the “house of life” or the environment: real cause for alarm was the condition of our coastal systems in 2012. Seventy percent of the country’s mangrove forests had been logged over or reclaimed for other uses. Beaches and foreshore areas are under increasing pressure from uncontrolled development, which leads to erosion, sedimentation and water quality problems. Ah, but these are themes not deemed worthy of front-page monitoring; thus, they are reserved for times of crises and disaster, which became more frequent in 2012.

Next, regarding wealth-creation: the year that was saw the economy reach its strongest position in years – with GDP growth rates of 5.9%, though with no measurements as yet of NNP or Stiglitz’s strongly suggested Net National Product, which measures adjustments for the depreciation of the country’s physical assets.

Gross National Product in the Philippines increased to 2072624 Php million in the third quarter of 2012 from 2047722 Php million in the second quarter of 2012.[3] The National Statistics Coordination Board of Philippines reports Gross National Product in the Philippines. To appreciate the 2012 numbers, one must note that, historically, from 1998 until 2012, Philippines Gross National Product averaged 1431942.10 Php million reaching an all time high of 2072624 Php million in August of 2012 and a record low of 939555 Php million in May of 1998.

Of the countries in Asia, only China, with a GDP growth rate of 7%, and oil-rich Indonesia, with a GDP growth rate of 6.4%, were able to outperform the Philippines. However the new strength was not due to any real structural re-form of the age-old colonial economic design, referred to earlier, but fortuitously on account of sustained income from overseas workers and benefits of new tax and fiscal measures. All this should increase even more, with 2012’s passage of so-called “sin tax” laws that, however, may yet lead to ever-greater smuggling opportunities and temptations.

In the World Economic Forum’s Survey of Competitiveness, we read the following:

“Ranked 65^th [out of 144], the Philippines …has advanced 22 places since reaching its lowest mark in 2009. The Philippines makes important strides this year in improving competitiveness—albeit often from a very low base—especially with respect to its public institutions (94th, up 23 places). Trust in politicians has made considerable progress (95th, up 33), although significant room for improvement remains. The perception is that corruption (108th, up 11) and red tape (108, up 18) are finally being addressed decisively, even though they remain pervasive. The macroeconomic environment also exhibits marked improvement (36th up 18) and represents one of the strongest aspects of the Philippine’s performance, along with its market size (35th). In addition, the financial sector has become more efficient and increasingly supportive of business activity (58th, up 13). Despite these very positive trends, many weaknesses remain to be addressed. The country’s infrastructure is still in a dire state, particularly with respect to sea (120th) and air transport (112th), with little or no progress achieved to date. Furthermore, various market inefficiencies and rigidities continue, most notably in the labor market (103rd).”

Rather balanced reporting there – or just plain careful?

Quite realistic, and most significant of all is that we are far from being a strong industrial economy. Whether in coconut or minerals we still follow the easy colonial route of selling raw and buying finished until we have nothing easier to export but warm bodies that we then label with the glorious term, “new heroes” – for, indeed, the sacrifices many of them go through are of a heroic degree.

Thus, there’s no denying that improved economic growth in the year that was still failed to make significant inroads in addressing unemployment and underemployment problems. Growth was not as inclusive as most people desired. It is good to have those jobs abroad and those call centers here – to a point. But 80% of Philippine poverty is rural, and 70% of this is in the coconut industry. Really, PNoy – it’s not difficult at all; let’s just get to it quick.

Regional data for Southeast Asia showed that we had one of the highest incidences of poverty with 15.5% of the population living below $1 a day. Metro Manila average income per head was almost nine times higher than the poorest region’s – namely, that of Muslim Mindanao. Land acquisition and distribution mainly distributed poverty among rural folk because the much-vaunted agrarian reform activity of land acquisition and distribution was very seldom accompanied by rural development and rural industrialization. Hence, no one should be surprised how so many “beneficiaries” lose (sometimes profitably) CARP-covered lands to real-estate developers, at the expense of national food security.

In exasperation and intellectual despair, our economic managers sought to reach a 7% GDP growth by giving away our national patrimony to foreigners – a policy unashamedly backed up to the hilt by the Supreme Court.

Since in the year that was we could not tackle, again, the real significant issues of sovereignty, social justice and sustainable development– we regressed into petty politics and sought, in vain, the whole nation’s participation in elitist squabbles that only succeeded in further distracting us all from the real issues. In the year that was the Chief Executive of this country was a very busy man – running roughshod over his co-equals in the legislature and the judiciary, even tactically outmaneuvering the only critical opposition within the Philippine state to the present government, viz. the CBCP. Now that that victory is complete, his popularity suddenly dipped. A significant dip but not a free fall yet – “it can be cured.”

Popular protests against real dangers to people’s health and further degradation of the environment found insufficient support anywhere in government – only among the institutional moral leaders of the country, the Catholic Bishops. Suddenly, then, people sympathetic to government remembered Rizal and his times, Padre Damaso and Spain’s erstwhile frailocracy. The amnesia was not total after all, just selective. The church institution’s modern record of siding against dictatorship and human rights violators will soon be all forgotten – “by a significant few.”

To unite the country, we can always find a common foe. Thanks to China, the USA and ASEAN, the government will not run out of popular sympathy issues. “China is stealing some of our islands – the ones with oil deposits offshore.” “The U.S. and ASEAN need the sea lanes of communication (SLOCs) for navigational freedom and international trade.” “Let’s sock it to China! Let the US give us some ships.” “We knocked out the CBCP, who’s next? What smart fighters we are!”

But wait, what’s really happening? Can’t we access some of those documents and conversations between PNoy and his advisers? No? No Freedom of Information yet? When? Oh, that’s the real test then. That debate between Population Reduction and Poverty Reduction – what was all that about? How much? Is the imperial world through its UN agencies really going to give us billions of dollars under Title Millennium Development Goals if we promise, really promise (as through an R.A.) to reduce our numbers significantly? What for? Never mind the consequences. Never mind the lack of logic. “Don’t listen to Singapore. They’re too small and so are their …”. 

2012: It is the end of another year but is there now a new beginning, or not quite yet? Must we wait and see for whom May flowers will bloom? FINIS.