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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Roperos: My shipbuilding town
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
There was so much to think about afterwards, when some of our best economic minds were given the time to let go of their deepest thoughts during the Sun.Star Economic Forum at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu City last week. But I was more drawn to the short, concise presentation of Roberto Aboitiz, chairman and chief executive officer of the Aboitiz Construction Group, regarding the state of the shipbuilding industry in the Aboitiz industrial park in my hometown.
It was deeply heartwarming to hear that despite the fact that my hometown is way out on the other side of Cebu island, on the central west coast, it is starting to stand on its own. Its economy, that is. And the reason is, it has developed an industry that is unique to this province, shipbuilding. How it came about, I cannot say since I have not lived there for quite sometime. But my recent visits have left me impressed.
Only after the talk of Mr. Aboitiz last Wednesday that I realized what has been cooking all along in the coastal villages where, until the late 1960s, was a favorite bathing place of my kin and friends. There were mangrove areas. But these have vanished in the 1970s when things began to happen there. But one has to make a hard choice between two equally important things to us, a choice that’s equal in weight and importance to human life.
We can fight to retain the natural features of a place, or allow it to be altered to accommodate the development of a concept that would eventually redound to the material improvement of people’s lives. It was a difficult choice to make for the leaders of my town. But I am glad that they decided for the benefit of the many who are materially deprived, instead of the few who, though not really well-off, are still able to enjoy the material comforts of life.
Thus, before I knew it, the landscape of Barangays Arpili and Buanoy began to change. The mountain of Kamanggahan was the setting of my first short story, “The Hollow Man,” when I was already in the university.
Today, the whole landscape I used to hold in my mind’s eye has almost totally vanished and in its stead is a booming industrial community that is providing livelihood to the people not only in Balamban, but also to migrants from other towns and provinces who have the skills that my hometown could not provide. I should have objected to the alteration of the landscape of my boyhood. When a group of aggressive environmentalists first came, I was confronted with the dilemma whether to support their cause or fight it.
I chose to go against them, simply because hundreds of families would have been displaced had the newly opened shipbuilding industry ceased operation. It was a question of social responsibility for the leaders of the town. While the activists were merely haranguing the industrial firms with environmental issues, none of them offered any alternative livelihood to those who would have been displaced.
The question boiled down to a simple scenario. A choice between the economic life of the people working in the industrial park or the ephemeral issue on the preservation of the environment which with care, can be compensated elsewhere.
The people’s choice is obvious. As Mr. Aboitiz had articulated, the economy of Balamban is assured, as the people’s pride that a small town in a nondescript corner of the earth is producing luxury and cargo boats for the world.
(August 16, 2005 issue)
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