ALEGRIA is now rich, says President Duterte. But truth be told, we’ve always been rich. Why do you think Spain and America colonized us if not for the abundance of our natural resources. Only the most naïve or the most indoctrinated would say the Spaniards came to spread Christianity and the Americans democracy.
Our problem has never been lack of natural resources but their inequitable distribution or use for the exclusive benefit then of colonial masters and now of the heirs, the present crop of politicians cum businessmen that has monopoly control of the country’s economy. There is no other explanation to the sad irony of a very rich country that has a third of its hundred million population mired in poverty.
This ought to warn us that Alegria’s oil will not necessarily translate into inclusive prosperity for the town’s population. A lot will depend on how deftly the municipality can control neoliberal undercurrents that will try to funnel the town’s resources into their exclusive politico-economic enclaves almost always at the expense of the environment.
Oil will surely attract well-intentioned investors and eager job seekers, but it will also attract corrupt and evil opportunists, carpetbaggers, and criminal elements, vice and drug lords among them. Like the yellow, black gold also attracts economic vultures.
Consequently, the mercury in Alegria’s political thermometer will shoot up and even off the scale. What with more people’s money at stake that the corrupt among local, provincial and national politicians might want to dip their dirty hands into.
I know Mayor Verna Magallon to be honest and sincere. I am not surprised to see that she has the right priorities in her intended allocation of the town’s new-found wealth. I especially like her provision of water for all. It would be most ironic for the people of an oil-rich town to have no water for their health and sanitation needs.
Nevertheless, it will take more than honesty and sincerity. She has to dig deep into her political-savvy pockets for her priorities not to be squeezed out by the complex economic and political dynamics oil will bring to Alegria.
Proactivity will be the name of the game. She has to come up with a plan or walk through whatever plan the town has and revise it by way of anticipating both the benefits and the problems its new-found wealth will bring to the town’s population and environment.
The Philippines has always been rich in natural resources yet its people have always been poor. Thus, Alegria has always had oil. Now that it flows commercially, it is hoped that Alegria will shun the exclusive and impoverishing way the national government has always utilized the country’s natural resources.