For The Bohol Tribune
In This Our Journey
NESTOR
MANIEBO PESTELOS
Boholanos from various
parts of the world have been arriving in the province for their TBTK (Tigum
Bol-anon sa Tibuok Kalibutan) Global Homecoming held every three years for the
past 15 years.
This year, culminating activities scheduled 24 to 27 July, will
include, as in previous years, street dancing, arts exhibit, trade exposition,
beauty pageant and for this year back-to-back performances featuring this year’s
international hall of famer Loboc Children’s Choir and the recent Asia Got
Talent champion, the phenomenal El Gamma Penumbra from Batangas province.
It is easy to lose
ourselves in revelries and the thrills of the Sandugo Festival, but it is also
worth reflecting about Bohol as the place of our hometowns and the barangays and
families which nurtured us in our earlier years before we have known other
places and cultures. I am sure Boholanos feel intensely this pull of place in
their psyche not only during TBTK days but on occasions when they are far away
from the land of their birth.
It will be interesting to
do a focus group or a survey to find out what exactly the home-comers are
thinking about when they visit their folks and the places they have not visited
for three years or more. Lost in the embrace of their kin and friends, in the
intensity of planned activities at community and the broader environment, such
as the provincial, city or municipal level, they may take for granted the
fast-paced urbanization trend which has taken place and its impact on the
quality of life of people in the city, municipality and the local community.
If all they do is go to
the big malls in the city and visit resorts in Panglao and Anda, they will
probably think that indeed the Boholanos have risen from the rubbles caused by
the magnitude 7.2 earthquake and are now on the road to full recovery. And they
may be right if they will see the efforts exerted in the building of roads and
bridges, churches and schools and, more importantly, in the rebuilding of
totally damaged houses and moving earthquake victims from tents to either
temporary or permanent houses. If expectations are not high at all, any
perceptible change will appear as a monumental achievement.
We may still come to the
objective view that Tagbilaran City and the rapidly-urbanizing municipalities,
which are mostly those with seaports, seem to perform better than others in
terms of post-quake rehabilitation and rebuilding and in fast-tracking local
economic growth. Guided with sound political governance, those Local Government
Units with relatively more resources will most likely outpace others in both rebuilding
and development efforts.
Urbanization may create
jobs, improve delivery of services and modernize public infrastructure, but it
also provides a fertile breeding ground for modern-day problems such as drug
addiction, alcoholism and crimes not only against property but also against
persons at a rate unheard of several decades ago. The bad effects of these negative social
problems will not escape the notice of discerning balikbayans when they go and
visit their hometowns and go around the only city in the province. They will
come to hear these from their relatives, friends and media or read about it in
Bohol’s several weeklies and one daily paper.
The fact is that the
resiliency of Boholano culture has been under siege in recent years from
organized illegal drug trade and the usual enticements to pleasures associated
with urbanized culture, such as the easy life of cheap thrills on the fast lane,
all alien to what we have come to be taught and cherished as our way of life in
this province.
When I first set foot in
Bohol thirty years ago to establish and manage a UNICEF-funded international
training center on community development, I was attracted to the peaceful life
on the islands, to the simple ways of its people. I still remember a souvenir
shop owner telling our guests to just leave the payment for some items with their
Boholano neighbor who would surely come home for the fiesta.
I remember our staff in
the old Ilaw International Center whose families I came to know, from the
utility to the administrative and training staff and saw first-hand their
industriousness, honesty and close family ties. I remember those times when I
could walk in to do meditation in small chapels left open all day and night in
remote barangays.
I remember when I could
not go home to Quezon for the Christmas holidays because our organization had
no funds to pay for our plane tickets and my neighbors in Bool would take turns
to give me food for an entire week. I remember simple acts of kindness and
thoughtfulness of ordinary folks in mountain and coastal villages where we used
to eat and sleep and work for projects funded by external donors.
I remember my Annus
horribilis or horrible year, 1987, when my Boholano friends accompanied me to
the Jesuit Retreat House in Cebu so I could spend ten days with the late Fr.
Cavan on a one-on-one spiritual retreat, faced personal tragedies courageously
and proceed to mend my messy life. My
friends were not surprised at all when I chose Bohol as the place where I would
go back to my faith and rebuild a life broken in so many ways by having too
many Messiahs on my Cross!
Now I die a little when I recall
these things and suffer from day to day in recent years in experiencing
insensitivity and rudeness on the part of young people doing immersion work in
communities. Rather than listen to people, their needs and aspirations, these
students go their merry ways doing selfies and playing their music foreign to
the ears of local folks.
Some high school students
we were helping to be provided bikes to make it easy for them to go to school would
sneak into the stock room right on our front yard to steal spare parts. I recall
giving cash to a school drop-out to buy paint needed for the odd jobs we had
hired him for so he could earn money, have some savings and eventually go back
to school. He disappeared with the money on his first day on the job!
In projects I was involved
in since my retirement from UNDP since December 2001, I now look back and say
that settling disputes among project implementors, clarifying misinformation
with project partners and getting rid of intrigues and dealing with backbiters
or other shady characters who have come to infest projects, falling under what
is termed HBO or Human Behavior in Organization in management courses, took
large chunks of management time compared to that spent on technical matters. I
suppose this is because projects do not
happen in a vacuum and, hence, they are not immune from corrosive values that
reflect a decaying social order.
All these indicate an
erosion of moral values on our part as project planners and implementers and on
the part of those we have been trying to liberate from the constraints brought
about by deprivation and poverty. I do not know which incidents may be more
convincing to home-comers during these TBTK days to make them re-think their
ways in making their brief visit more memorable – by reflecting on how they can
contribute more meaningfully in helping transform Bohol more in conformity with
the values their ancestors sacrificed their lives for to protect a way of life
that will resist negative values brought by modern-day urbanization.
But it will not do harm if we cite recent statistics released by the
government’s lead anti-drug law enforcement agency, PDEA or the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. PDEA is the implementing arm of the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), the policy-making and
strategy-formulating body in the planning and formulation of policies and
programs on drug prevention and control. PDEA and DDB are both under the supervision of
the Office of the President.
PDEA itself is the source of
information that 876 (76%) barangays of the total 1,109 barangays in Bohol are
affected by illegal drugs. Some credible sources say more than 50% of the crimes
reported in the province are drug-related. Despite these alarming statistics,
PDEA classifies Bohol as “moderately” affected by illegal drugs which is quite
alarming to us and our colleagues in media, including Columnist Romy Teruel, for
example, whose views I respect particularly on peace and order matters to which
he invested a lot of time and other resources when we were together in the
Provincial Government.
As part of efforts to convince
political leaders and technocrats in Government that the drug menace in Bohol
is quite alarming and require a decisive and comprehensive respone, I reprint
here a list of headlines which we compiled for several months until the last
week of May and published in this column in the 24 to 30 May issue of the Bohol
Tribune:
-Raids on
suspected sources of drugs resulted not only in the confiscation of shabu and
other drugs, but also “yielded loose guns, including high powered , and even
live grenades.”
-Seventy-one
barangays have been considered with serious drug problem which means they have “at
least one drug laboratory, den or resort or a shabu tyangge,” according to the
police.
-Pension
houses are suspected as distribution points for illegal drugs.
-Stolen
motorbikes were found in a hideout of suspected drug pushers.
-A former
vice mayor and a former vice governor were among those arrested in police
operations against illegal drug trade and use.
-Former
barangay captain nabbed for drugs.
-Drug
suspect arrested for the murder of a municipal councilor.
-Illegal
drugs are reportedly sold in school campuses, particularly during night-time.
-A 63-year
old woman was arrested for being drug courier.
-Drug
suspect fired at arresting policemen.
-Illegal
drugs cited as reason for series of carnapping in the city.
-Minor
arrested for illegal drugs and possession of M16 bullets.
-More women
sell shabu.
-Drug
addict hangs self in a tree.
-A retired
cop nabbed in drug raid.
-Rape-slay
filed against estranged boyfriend, who is a drug abuser.
-Drug raids
continue during Holy Week.
-Drug-linked
shooting mars barangay fiesta.
-Illegal
trade drugs sold on-line.
-Woman
nabbed while buying illegal drugs.
-Tricycle
passenger arrested for wanting to pay driver with shabu.
-Police
blamed illegal drugs for alarming rise of rape cases in the province.
-203 drug
cases filed in court in recent months.
-Ex-convict
arrested for having shabu .
-Businessmen
dare police to arrest drug lords, not only small fries.
-Alleged
lady drug pusher arrested and reported to be contacting top government
officials to get protection.
We have compiled clippings of the same
nature after this period until last week. Given these headlines, how can PDEA
classify Bohol as moderately affected by the illegal drug trade? Perhaps it is our friends from TBTK who will find it
sensible and practical to do something about the drug menace in our midst and,
in the process, help us recreate the Bohol Republic of our dreams. Well,
perhaps. #TBTKbohol
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