Friday, September 05, 2008 Valdehuesa: Tend to Your Own Economy! By Manuel M. Valdehuesa Street Talk
IF you took Economics 101, you would know that an economy consists of land, labor, and capital; that with good planning and prudent management, it would expand and grow and provide livelihood and other opportunities. The larger the economy, the more benefits for everyone - more jobs, more goods, and more services earning revenues, including earnings from exports to other regions or countries. More money for the people and for the government.
Now, there are huge economies like those of industrial countries and medium-size ones like our country's. Then there are micro-economies like the barangay's. It's important to understand this, and to know that even large or super-large economies consist of village-size micro-economies like the barangay's. Problem is, no one thinks of the barangay as an economy; so its importance to the Philippine economy is unappreciated.
Nearly 42,000 barangay economies make up our national economy. If you add up the amount of goods and services produced in them, you have an idea of the size of the Philippine economy.
But far too many barangay economies are unproductive, their inhabitants languishing in poverty. Neither the officials nor the people know how much in goods and services are produced by their locality. They don't know how much it contributes to the city's economy. Nor do they take the effort to identify its potentials. So they can't plan its growth or expansion. If only they would, and if their educated residents pitch in, poverty would not be so rampant. It would not be necessary for barangaynons to seek a living elsewhere and lose their dignity.
Too many barangaynons are abandoning their community to live as squatters in the poblacion because their home economy is unproductive, unable to generate livelihood or employment. It's not because their barangay is poor, just undeveloped and unproductive. Their officials are either incompetent to manage the economy or blind to its possibilities. Educated residents, especially the professionals who live in the walled compounds of their barangay, ought to lend a hand and help develop the revenue-earning potential of their community.
Take the upland barangays of Cagayan de Oro. A cursory survey reveals many revenue potentials. Their ecological diversity alone offers myriad opportunities for tourism and livelihood apart from white-water rafting. There are unutilized natural features that need only organizing skill and minimal infrastructure to become money-making: a cave system several kilometers long with all the adventure it promises, limestone hillsides for wall-climbing and rappelling enthusiasts, gentle hills and plateaus for horse-trail riders, even jump-off points for hang-gliding. And nearby are the few remaining rainforests in our archipelago.
There are lands to till, agri-business to organize, exotic spots for camping and other outdoor activities, areas to reforest and develop as tree-farms, and flora and fauna to appreciate or protect (the tarsier's presence was recently discovered!). There are idle folks to train as eco-tourism guides, arts and crafts from forest products to develop or promote, foods and fruits to package and market, what else can you name? But little is happening.
In cases, it's outsiders who exploit and profit from their resources, suck out their wealth, and leave them in penury. One can't fault outsiders for being resourceful. It's the local leaders and the well-off with landholdings in them that can be blamed for neglecting their backyard, for not making their economy productive, for not multiplying its benefits for the needy in their midst.
If you want to know more, consult those who own extensive landholdings in them. Among others, there's travel executive Malu Rubic, dentist Jim Borja, Rotarian Rolly Uy, engineer Romualdo Lagsa, or entrepreneur par excellence Manny Boniao!
A former UN executive and vice chair of the Local Government Academy, Manny heads the Gising Barangay Movement. He writes Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. valdeman_esq@yahoo.com
