Kuripot, Gastador, Tikalon, Damak, Maisug, Manug-Hiwit, Aswang

Philippine regionalism is one important factor to consider why Capicenos have been branded as aswangs, and in understanding why the myth has been perpetuated for over 100 years. Archipelagic Philippines has been populated by divided and competing tribes whose highest politico-economic achievement as a civilization have been the short-lived minor kingdoms in Pangasinan and Mindanao. Prior to Spanish colonialization, there was no sense of national identity, and much less appreciation about other ethic groups and cultures. The small, diverse and self-sufficient tribes have been scattered and isolated across thousands of islands. Having primitive maritime technology, they did not have active inter-island trade and much less opportunity for cultural exchange. It was only in the last 350 years, under the Spanish rule, that we evolved a concept of a nation. And even today, we are still struggling to accept it. Until the last century estrangjeros or pangayaos have been fiercely rejected by the tumandoks. Hence, whatever information we had about other regions could have just been trickles information. Bits and pieces of information are sewn together to make a derogatory collage of peoples of other regions.

Our diverse ethnicity is the foundation of our rigorous regionalism. We are a 7,000-island nation with over 100 ethnic groups. Overall, we are overwhelmingly Malayo-Polynesian under the broad Austronesian linguistic family. But underneath, we have more diverse ethnicity, subgroups, and sub-subgroups, hastily categorized into generic groupings of Ilocanos, Pangasinense, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano, Bisaya, Mindanao minorities, tribal groups, Chinese, Spanish, and Western and other minorities. Ilocanos are Ivatans and Ibanags, and their many variants; Pangasinense have the Cordilleranos (Igorots and their variants); Bisaya is classified under three main groups of Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), Cebuano and Waray. But under that, there are distinct sub-groups like the Aklanon, Karay-a, Romblomanon, Sibuyanon, Masbateno, Cuyonon. Each one of these has another layer of diverse ethnicity (e.g., Mambusaonon, Sapianon, Sijuiornon, etc.). Southern minorities include the Tausugs, Maranaos, Samals, Yakans, and the Lumads. The Lumads alone include the Manobos, Tasadays, Mamanwas, Mandayas, and Kalagans. And like our nomenclatures, they also have distinct diversity.

As indicated above, regionalism is not only a distinction due to geographic locale, rather, it is an ethnic divide highlighting cultural, social, economic and political differences - over 100 of it. In our attempt to make our region different from the others we highlight our dissimilarities. Such that, we never cease to find what is ridiculous in other cultures. We stockpile our arsenal of insults against them, so that, ultimately, we want them to be inferior to us. Sociologists point out that an individual ethnic group, united by a common language, invariably views the world from its own set of filters, experiences, beliefs, traditions, standards, biases and vantage points, a condition known as ethnocentrism. Ethnocentricism means judging other cultures as inferior based on your own culture’s superior cultural vantage point. Over time, an ethnocentrist world-view can hastily summarize a region into one common derogatory characterization. For instance, the Tagalogs have a crystallized world-view and common characterization of Bisaya as aswang, mangkukulam and katulong. The most degrading of which is aswang, and Capiz is said to have the worst concentration of aswangs.

Regional characterizations are not without bases, however. Ilocanos have been said to be frugal because their arid land does not allow large-scale cultivation of food and cash crops. Therefore, other regions dismiss them as kuripot. Tagalogs, living in the center of Philippine culture, politics and economy, having the first glimmer of electric lights and cooking gas, thought they are in the center of the universe. Anywhere outside their region had hitherto been a bundok. Hence, Americans going to the hinterlands was said to have gone to the boondocks. That literally landed into the English dictionary as a legitimate word - owing to the arrogant and ethnocentrict Tagalogs. The King of Spain gave generous encomiendas to conquestadores from northwestern Spain settling in Iloilo and Negros. In the heyday of sugar plantations, from the turn of the 20th Century to the roaring 60s, briefly disrupted by war but put to a final end by Marcos cronyism, sugar barons lived in Southern opulence and lavish lifestyles. The 3 percent Spanish sugars planter families, having their own sugar centrals, railways, piers, and shipping lines, have had every right to boast - guina pala, guina piko! But if the other 97 percent also brag, they are on their own. Hence, the Negrense and Ilonggos earned the tikalon moniker. Fierce resistance from attempts to Christianize the Mindanaonons earned them the savage, bloodthirsty reputation. Of course, regional attributions to Masbate, Siquijornons, and Samarenos as manug-hiwits could likewise be explainable. For instance, an MGB episode a few years ago featured an age-old modus operandi in one Samar hinterland about the locals secretly adding toxic herbal concoction into the beverage of strangers, only to be “healed” with an antidote for a fee. Although Bisayan and Tagalogs alphabets are almost exactly the same, our pronunciation did not highlight the different sound of paired vowels. Hence, enthocentrict Tagalogs’ criticisms against us. Remember the PLDT ad about a Bisayan katulong? “Sir, tumawag si GG.” for which the boss asked, “Si Gigi or si Jayjay?” The katulong answered, “Si GG, sir.” It would be a full time job to document all the insults, ridicules and mockeries that we hurl against each other.

But there have been tangible events that did earn a region an insulting reputation. If a province or one region was to be branded as aswang country, it should have been Samar-Leyte. There had been no single pre-Hispanic record about aswang anywhere in Philippine folktales and literature. Hence, the earliest written record about aswang in the whole 7,000 islands ever is by a Westerner, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. On February 14, 1565, in Samar, he wrote about being warned by the natives about the existence of aswang and how terrified they had been listening to howling noise around his encampment one night. But Legazpi’s account did not come without motives or reason. He came from Medieval Europe, itself rife with burning accused witches at stake, predisposed to the Count Vlad story, and with a mission to introduce faith. This perfectly jibed with the situation of Samar tribe that, without an army, only hoped to drive away Spanish colonizers with horrific tales about aswang and by actually making terrifying nighttime noise around their encampment. The reason why this first aswang manuscript did not stick to Samar-Leyte region is probably because this account had not been reinforced by other socio-cultural factors in the region. Such that, Samarenos did not create and maintain an aswang out of themselves. We did.

In summary, regionalism is partly due to the absence of a sense of nationhood - each tiny ethnic group or tribe, isolated by mountains and seas, existed alone for centuries without contact with the others. When they finally have contact, their crystallized ethnocentrict world-views, predisposed Filipinos to ridicule and degrade people from other regions. Each region had been given a brand or moniker. It is unfortunate that Capiz had been branded as aswang. The continued Filipino regionalism, along with complex web of factors that we will discuss more, sustains our aswang brand. In order to minimize it, we need to respect and be sensitive to other regional cultures.

In the succeeding posts, we will examine the other factors and elements that created, strengthened and perpetuated the aswang brand to us.

Sapianons are invariably associated with the Capiz Aswang tradition, to the extent of being ridiculed and humiliated. For decades, Capizeños, and Sapianons for that matter, have earned a moniker that is culturally derogatory, but inadvertently prank in this time and age. As you very well know, almost everyone outside Capiz is itching to ask us, given the opportunity, a standard question of whether or not aswang really exists. Generally, we would vehemently deny it. Denial would be laborious because you need to present a broad array of scientific, historical, social and cultural facts, theories, postulates and propositions, hoping that you are talking to an enlightened human being. When they insist, we would give them what they want to hear. We tell them stories from our Pandora’s box of age-old “actual” and “proven” stories from “reliable sources” passed down to several generations. We often detail the cadence of a horror event, grizzly “real” aswang episodes, even exaggerating it until they shiver and tremble in fear. A dismissing disposition could be a lamentation of how hopeless the long Philippine Airlines wait list was in Roxas City Airport, even with the evolution of domestic service and expanding capacities of Fokker-50s, to BAC-1-11s, to 737s. The same is true with the crowded, ardous and troublesome sea travel, even with today’s roll-on-roll-off (RO/RO) innovation. If we could just fly, why bother with the ordeal. Capicenos would sometimes boast that while some countries fly the best planes, we have the best pilots flying without planes. Digressing more, we could always volunteer wishful hindsight scenarios of how World War II had been averted if our vampires crushed the Japanese advance. Our forebears would have been enlisted by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to dismantle the Axis powers so Russia did not have a chance to race for Berlin. With that, the Cold War and the arms race could have never took place. By now, the whole Western world would have bowed down on our doorsteps, the Philippines had been made a U.S. state, with Roxas City as its capital. The largest air force base could be in Sapian, and genetic research would be in full swing on how to further improve the aswang DNA strains for other applications, even for space travel.

The aswang brand to us is a valid generalization, both a legacy and a birthright, of being a geographically and organically a part of the Capiz ethno-historical tradition. Filipinos are more clannish rather than ethnic, and far more regionalistic rather than patriotic. As such, they tend to promote their own region’s superiority by downgrading other regions and ethnic groups (e.g., Ilocanos vs. Visayan, Capiznon vs. Ilonggo, etc.). Talk about crab mentality. Additionally, we are part of the blame because our own local ethic traditions strengthen that myth; our folktales and superstitions highlight the aswang tradition. Local folktales, branding and ostracizing individuals and local families as aswang, confirm the belief - to the mixed pleasure and terror by our regional detractors. For generations, our culture has institutionalized the existence of soothsayers, sorjuanos and arbularyos. Professional soothsayers are the creation of the myth, and the myth lives on with our continued patronage. It is a symbiotic relationship between the mythical healers and the myth itself - each one requiring the other, sustaining each other, surviving together. More importantly, the colonialization by Medieval and monastic Spain established the foundations of an intricate anthropological and sociological web that cajoled us into creating, believing and perpetuating the aswang myth. And because of its mythological nature and the Filipinos predisposition to superstition, it has remarkably evolved to become the centerpiece and the most pronounced feature of the Capiceno and Sapianon belief system and world view. 

In the succeeding items, we will attempt to discuss, from a systems approach, the components and elements of this myth. We will also attempt to articulate how these factors interacted with each other to formulate, confirm and sustain that enduring ethno-cultural brand.

Petropolitik, Sapian and China - Thirteenth and Final Part

Phew! Final part. Sapian is part of the Visayas Grid, powered by the combined generation capacities of Tongonan, Kanlaon and Palinpinon geothermal plants. On its own, the Capiz Electric Cooperative (CAPELCO) is solely dependent on bunker fuel. Other power plants in the region are predominantly bunker fuel, fuel oil and coal-fired. National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) augments shortages around the Visayas islands with bunker fuel-run power plant barge. Bunker fuel is generally used to run factories, and Chinese power plants and factories consume increasing volumes of that fuel distillate. Recently, China has been consuming nearly half a million barrels of bunker fuel everyday, and more than three times more fuel oil. See China’s Petroleum Consumption, by Economic Sector, 2002

As such, CAPELCO competes against China for scarcer bunker fuel. Increased demand for electricity in Sapian was due to expanded electrification. But power is essential to spur growth and development. With electric power, people would enjoy improved quality of life and have access to better opportunities. Families would converge around energized areas to enjoy the amenities of modern technology, like the wider world-view TV offers, and food-preserving refrigerators, and better study hours for students. They could operate capital equipment like rice mills and welding machines, and would have a longer productive day. Senator Juan Flavier once joked in a meeting that electrification also reduces birth rate because people could follow soap operas instead of going to bed early. In short, electric power also empowers people in many ways.

Over 15 years after Poblacion was energized, a large chunk of Sapian, from Crossing Bilao onward to Lonoy and Guibongan did not have electric power. I recall Igsoons Toti and Bodong having to come to Poblacion to charge car batteries to power their TV. I do not know if they are served today, but in any event, a lot of households should be served by now. Energizing that part of Sapian can be traced to Cory Aquino’s visit to Iloilo.

Cory’s regional visits and inspection trips have been the domain of former Cabinet Secretary Jose P. de Jesus (later, DPWH Secretary). But it was turned over to Chito Sobrepena when Malacanang was reorganized under the flamboyant Executive Secretary Oscar Orbos. Government programs and projects are usually developed through long bureaucratic processes, but Cory also wanted to go directly to the people to know about their needs and to address local problems. Secretary de Jesus was designated to coordinate during the early part of the Aquino Administration. At the latter half, Sobreprena was appointed under the Office of Special Concerns. I was part of Sobreprena’s core-group for regional visits. That unit coordinated all presidential visits across OP and line departments. During visits, we collected hundreds of letters and resolutions from local governments and individuals. We make sure that visits run smoothly. One time, I earned the ire of the Bishop of Nueva Caceres in Naga City when I asked what would he say in his prayers at a program the next day.  He snapped, “It’s between me and God!” Advance party had to be quizzical because one priest prayed to God to fix a bridge in a program. Cory was put on the spot and could not respond right away.

Cory’s visit to Iloilo was announced to the media far ahead in advance. But in case they did not hear about it in Sapian, I told the late Uncle Alber Gallardo, Sr., former ABC President. When I called him at Movietone Studio, he said he heard about the visit and had been planning to write a request letter. At that time, he said he was torn between a farm-to-market road in Poblacion and electrification from Bilao to Guibongan. Two weeks later, when we collected his letter during Cory’s dialogue with the local officials in Iloilo, his letter requested Cory for a power connection to Bilao-Lonoy-Guibongan. As a closing statement in that dialogue, Cory promised her very special commitment to all the requests submitted, verbal and written. Hence, in compliance to the President, all letters gathered and oral requests raised at that specific event bore a collatilla, “the President’s very special commitment.”

When request letters have been sorted in Malacanang, Uncle Alber’s request was grouped together with a similar request for Dacoton, Dumarao. Office of the President’s Office Special Concerns Director Nick Torres promptly conveyed this very special commitment of the President in a memorandum to the National Electrification Administration (NEA). NEA, soon thereafter, had informed CAPELCO that a special loan with Land Bank of the Philippines was being offered under the rural electrification program. CAPELCO initially expressed disinterest, stating that the proposed connection would be fiscally infeasible given the density of prospective users and the long stretch of power lines that would be required. Director Torres again issued a memorandum reminding NEA that the very special commitment of the President had to be delivered to the people of Sapian. NEA replied two weeks later that a barge carrying electric posts from Leyte are en route to Roxas City. Uncle Alber Gallardo, as the requestor, and Uncle Nicoy Odrunia, as a Sapian delegate to CAPELCO Board of Directors, have been continuously apprised of the status, as are any requestor for President’s assistance from anywhere else. As FVR said, fire on top and fire at the bottom get things done.

Uncle Alber had been very happy about the completed electrification project. I also heard about the ceremonial switching. I remembered about this project recently when Nang Luz Obligar talked about a power outage during their visit to a church in Lonoy that her daughter, Inday Reynalda Firmalino, helped build. Hopefully, the project had been financially feasible for CAPELCO as it is empowering for the Sapianons it now served.

Petropolitik, Sapian and China - Twelfth in a Continuing Series

The increased gas demand in Sapian may partly be attributed on the increased number of vehicles of more affluent Sapianons, and partly because of the improved quality of roads.

In the past, our national highway had been in a terribly despicable state. Most Youngblood contributors may not have recollection of what an ordeal it used to be just going to Roxas City. Public utility jeeps (PUJs) have been very few and I could still recite most of them from memory, namely, those of Nong Turing “Comos” Baldesimo, the Dennis series of former Vice Mayor Nita Baldesimo, a few from Dapdapan, i.e., the Monica of Nong Willy Martinez and that of the Bonaleses, and later, of Nong Loret Flores, driven by Nong Meo, and Nong Dodoy Teddy Vista, and Nong Culasing in Maninang. Aklan-bound, there was Kitahanon, and Nong Odong Vista’s Kamihanon. Later on, the family of Totit Obuyes acquired a few buses. Iloilo-bound, were R&K and later, Ceres would survive the grueling route. Nong Emoy Garcia and Nong Verino and Nang Rosit had the first tricycles to shuttle between Polacion and Crossing Talaba. In short, transportation was very, very scarce, and there was probably be one PUJ on every hour. You had to plan a trip to Roxas City. Leave as early in the morning as possible so you can return home just before dusk. Nobody would ever know what was the loading capacity then. Everyone was just too polite to move over on the middle bench until there is just enough room to breath and blink your eyes.  On the middle bench, you would tumble and turn. Your elbow may not move from Majanlud to Kilometer One. You had to disturb at least two other passengers whenever you straighten up a numbed leg. 

On rainy days, be prepared to take your shoes off. You’ll never know. In many instances, either its approach or the bridge itself is flushed away by flood water, or the road had suddenly melted into the surrounding rice paddies. Chances are, jeeps would either detour 40 miles, or stop dead then tell passengers to wade through flood and pump through mud to continue a journey on a waiting jeep. Summer months were as terrible with the clay that dried up into white, fine dust. You’ve had to wear a nose mask, cover your eyes and hair, and wear a jacket. Inside the jeep, air turbulence would cycle dust around. So you’re better off on the PUJ roof where air would blow dust away as soon as the jeep on the opposite lane had gone past, better than the hot, cramped, dusty “cabin” below.

For many of us, the best project for Sapian is to get road fixed. So, that was a priority research for me in Cory’s Malacanang. I found out then that help is on the way because the highway system, dubbed Panay Arterial Highway, was going full-speed ahead. The project had all the needed money from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In fact, the Aklan-Antique and Antique-Iloilo phases have been mostly completed. The Kalibo Highway I: Passi-Lanot Road was nearing completion. The part for Sapian was dubbed, Panay Arterial Highway-Kalibo Highway Phase II, Lanot-Banga Road, had been bided out. I closely watched developments on this project and gave periodic status reports to my neighbors, Mely Baldesimo, Edwin Padasas and Giovanni Obuyes. I also gave copies of DPWH reports to the late Uncle Alber Gallardo, who was then the ABC President.

The problem was, the winning bidder, Turno America, had difficulty getting its equipment through Bureau of Customs. Turno claims that as an American contractor trying to implement a USAID project, it does not pay import taxes for its equipment. But former BIR Commissioner Liwayway Vinzons-Chato insisted that since the equipment are capital goods that are going to generate income in the Philippines, import taxes have to be paid. So, there was the long delay.

They did not resolve the Customs issue until Mt. Pinatubo erupted. A few days after the disaster, Malacanang scuttled all available unspent monies to pay for reconstruction, including that for Lanot-Banga Road. So, we’re again back to Zero!

During the time of FVR, and long after the demise of USAID funds, DPWH had been breaking grounds and inaugurating new roads and bridges around the country, left and right. These projects have been funded through the Medium-Term Public Investment Program (MTPIP). If we could only do the same for Lanot-Banga Road. So, it had become my conviction to guide former governors Borda of Capiz and Nang Nening, Governor Corazon Legaspi-Cabagnot of Aklan, to be on the same page. I advised them to raise the Lanot-Banga Road issue in all venues and forums, including all presidential visits to any province in Panay, League of Governors of the Philippines, or Cabinet Officers for Regional (CORD) meetings in Malacanang. And they did, Governor Cabagnot, particularly. Then we shepherded it from our end, including the Presidential Commitments and Directives Database that I maintained. As FVR fondly said, it had to be like a bibingka: fire on the top and fire at the bottom. But things stood still.

When FVR visited Capiz for a 3rd Army event during the term of Capiz Governor Esteban Contreras, concrete strides were made. Governor Cabagnot came to see me at Roxas Airpot. She wanted to speak at the dialogue, but she was not on the program. I added her amidst protests by Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Director Gina Jota. I took the heat, provided she mentions the Lanot-Banga Road problem. In our coordination meeting in the residence of Mrs. Judy Roxas in Baybay to thresh out issues to be raised to FVR, Lanot-Banga Road was added as one item. That meeting was attended by former Governor Contreras, Mayor (now Governor) Vicente Bermego, as President of Mayors League, and Congressman Mar Roxas. Two weeks later in dialogue with FVR, with former Congressman Roxas as moderator, both governors raised the same road issue. In reality, the governors did not stand to gain any monetary reward for a DPWH-administered project. So, their efforts and time have been pure civil service. Soon after that visit, with bibingka fire working on top and bottom, Malacanang endorsed the project to Regional Development Committee (RDC) Chairman Hechanova as a priority project. It later came back to us in the Joint Cabinet/NEDA Board meeting as an update to MTPIP. My supervisor, Director Jess Albar, speaking to me about that Cabinet road item, “There’s your item, take it.” I gladly wrote into the Cabinet records the Cabinet approval of that project. As part of MTPIP, it would have a guaranteed budget appropriation on the next fiscal year. That next year, the project was again bided out and construction finally commenced. Dozens of subcontractors took part in the construction.

Youngbloods would not have to suffer the ordeal we went through. Anyway, I rode through partly completed highway in the late 90s, with dirt road stretches and base courses every few kilometers. It was not until January 2005 that I rode the full stretch of the proud Lanot-Banga Road.

Petropolitik, Sapian and China - Tenth in a Continuing Series

FVR’s trip to visit a farmers’ cooperative in Silay, Negros was actually a side trip to a visit to Victorias Milling Company (VMC). VMC is a family enterprise started in 1951 by the super rich Luzuriaga clan in Victorias, Negros Occidental. Its over-diversification and the decreasing demand for cane sugar in the world market left it in financial trouble. So, FVR bailed out the sinking company with a PNB loan package. While there, he inaugurated additional canneries for VMC Spanish sardines and Spanish-style bangus that we enjoy today. Victorias deserve help. It is probably the most compassionate company that I will ever know. Don Claudio de Luzuriaga was said to be strict and arrogant haciendero. Of course, since the 50s, he had the first and only sugar refinery (white granulated sugar) in the Philippines until Benedicto built the Calinog-Lambunao refinery in the late 70s. But one night he had a dream of God castigating him. The next day, he built a Church of the Angry God as he remembered it in his dream. We visited the circular Catholic Church painted halfway around with a mural of a very angry Jesus Christ, pointing fingers, mouth cursing, eyes blazing with fire, on the background were lightning bolts and a trembling earth. The depiction of Christ would have been a sacrilege had he not own a refinery. More than that, he also built homes for all his workers, from accountants to tractor drivers; houses with middle-class amenities, marble floors, hardwood panels, running water; he established a hospital, and sent the kids to better schools in Bacolod, from prep to College. Some children and thrid generation descendants of drivers and servants are now doctors and engineers. And many of them continue to work for VMC.

Since it was a PNB bail-out, PNB Chairman of the Board, and Presidential Adviser Bitay Lacson (former Negros Occidental Governor) helped us coordinate the event. We see Governor Lacson every Tuesday in FVR’s Cabinet. Bitay is the elder cousin of Jules Ledesma III (Asunta), sugar baron of San Carlos City and owner of Negros Navigation (NN). He is also the boss of Iloilo’s Hechanovas - Ramon is the Chairman of Regional Development Council (RDC) and Tony is former NN president before he was appointed as DENR Undersecretary. We will talk about the Hechanovas in another post, particularly, on with regard to our improved road that was officially called, Panay Arterial Highway/Kalibo Highway Phase II: Crossing Lanot-Banga Road.

At the end of the program, and FVR has gone to golf with the Luzuriagas, we staff waited in the VMC Club House with West Visayas PNP and AFP commanders ready to load our VIPs back to Manila. Suddenly, I saw retired Colonel Romeo S.  Fernandez. I approached him and he remembered me. He said he was the Warden of prison in Iloilo. Colonel Fernandez was the Provincial Commander of Capiz for many years. I remembered that when we were in Grade VI-Rizal, under the late Auntie Pining (Mrs. Josefina) Baguio, we had flag raisings and retreats in front of municipal hall and Chief Jose “Peping” Honrado was the Chief of Police. He was still the Capiz PNP Commander until after I graduated in High School. When we were in first year high school, the late Mayor Ishmael B. Orillos organized an very important Purok Organization event held in Basketball Court. Nong Tiboy even had a lechon baka near the slide. I waited for slices of roast calf and watched the program. Colonel Fernandez was the guest of honor, and Chief Peping was introducing him, “Colonel Fernandez, I am happy to report to you that the Municipality of Sapian is the most peaceful town in the whole Province of Capiz!” Then there was a very loud BOOOoomMm! followed by a long silence. Toto Alfred Oleo, Ramon Montina and the late Peter Vista Bueno were in Toto Alfred’s house just on the next block from the program and they lighted a large firecracker. Chief Peping ordered his policemen to get the perpetrator, but before they could, Alfred’s Dad knew who it was and they really got into a big trouble that night.

Mr. Eddie Olmo deputized Nening Alex Olano to train our CAT Corps officers. The day before COCC started, Nang Marilou Oro received a message from Provincial Command for a youth training. I, together with the late Sammy Oro, was asked to go Loctogan to attend a Barangay Rural Improvement Corps (BRIC) seminar on livelihood project. Colonel Fernandez presided over the training. I asked him to give a short tape-recorded inspirational message to SNHS CAT Corps. He obliged and remembered me from thereon. The tape was played on our COCC. Many years later and long before our last meeting in Negros, we would see in few major events in Malacanang and once in Camp Crame. I reminded him of the interview in his jeep. In one instance, I delivered his letter to FVR, and in another I helped follow-up his retirement with General Ernesto Gidaya of Veterans Affairs

Petropolitik, Sapian and China - Ninth in a Continuing Series

Since it might prove hopeless for us to compete against China for limited petroleum supply, we should rather focus our energy to develop our agriculture. It was believed that we could not industrialize without modernizing our agriculture; now that we might never industrialize, it is the more reason to modernize our agriculture and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Projects in Negros and Bulacan deserve notice because they transcended limitations of land sizes. Size of lands has always been a perennial obstacle in economies-of-scale rice farming, especially since parcel sizes continue to be reduced as properties are passed down from generation to generation. In two barrios of Silay, Negros Occidental, farmers surveyed their properties, measured each parcel and valued them into commensurate share of ownership in a cooperative. Then, using their combined lands as collateral, they applied for multi-million Land Bank loan, bought tractors, seeders, and built post-harvest facilities. Then, they destroyed the pilapils, flattened their farmlands, installed irrigation system, and hired an agriculturist. They themselves have rotated turns in Board of Directors, as company officials, and as drivers and manual laborers. A similar project in Santa Maria, Bulacan, involves hundreds of farmers who established a self-sufficient, chicken production plant. They planted corn, manufactured feeds, raised chicken, produced eggs, processed meat, and hired sales and delivery staff to market their products. Their conveyor-based processing plant, which looks more like a Magnolia plant, was worth nearly P25 million. In Leyte, instead of selling copra, a cooperative built a coconut oil mill worth about P1.25 million. Because of profitability, they expanded to two more plants. Later, Japanese businessmen imported their coconut oil to be processed into special lubricant for high precision instruments. Now, they are reaping the benefits of their entrepreneurship.

FVR’s trip to Samar-Leyte was memorable. I was the point-person on the visit’s leg to Calbayog, Western Samar. So, I contacted the province, made all the arrangements and prepared the itinerary. On the morning of our ocular inspection, my alarm did not go off and woke up at 7:00 a.m., which was our take off time. I jumped up and sped to Villamor Air Base’s 205 Presidential Airlift Wing. When I arrived 45 minutes later, everyone, including Colonel Hermogenes Ebdane, then Deputy Commander of the Presidential Security Group (now DPWH Secretary), was already aboard the plane. People did not talk much to me until we arrived at Romualdez International Airport in Tacloban. Our aircraft stopped at the regional composite force helipads and we quickly boarded two waiting Hueys. After a brief warm up, we took off and I was relieved that my tardiness no longer matters. After about 15 minutes airborne through the coastline, the Huey in front turned back, then we followed. Soon we were back in Tacloban airport. The pilot of our Huey said that since we left too late that morning, return flight from Calbayog could be impossible because of thickened cloud cover that day. Now I had cold-chills again. Stranded after 10:00 a.m., everyone’s blaming me now. Colonel Ebdane was cool. That cool brought him to top. With no prior arrangement made on land transport, we boarded and transferred into a succession of government vehicles, practically from town to town.

We arrived in Calbayog by almost 3:00 p.m. The late Governor Jose Rono (former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Government under Marcos) patiently waited for us. Governor Rono was cool too. We ate (and cherished) a lunch that was ready since that morning and ready to spoil at that time. After an abbreviated meeting and a quick look into FVR’s venues we quickly headed back to Tacloban, non-stop this time. We arrived in Tacloban airport at around 8:30 p.m. and luckily, it is one of few domestic airports with fully operational night navigation system to support our type of aircraft. An Air Force officer joked that airport’s night instrumentation has been installed because Imelda usually flew home anytime she and Marcos had fights.   

That next day, our ocular trip was the worst in the history, I was ready to volunteer to swap with a co-worker for another visit. However, in an afternoon that next day, PSG operations staff called me that we were probably been saved by my tardiness. One of the two Huey choppers we briefly flew in exploded at sea. Everyone died, including General Orina, father of ABS-CBN anchorwoman Ces Orina-Drilon. If I remind Secretary Ebdane now, I may get a free meal in DPWH cafeteria.

Petropolitik, Sapian and China - Fourth in a Continuing Series

Cory and Ramos Cabinet deliberations on GATT/WTO involved many economic concepts that Ms. Flores laid the foundations for. GATT/WTO was discussed on my first attendance in a Cory Cabinet Meeting, and Jose Concepcion (JoeCon), former Trade and Industry Sectary in Cory Cabinet, owner of Condura, Cosmos Bottling, General Milling, etc., tripped on my right foot and almost crashed on former Defense Secretary Renato De Villa. I was terrified, my first Cabinet and I caused an accident. But people I sat next to assured me that it was not my fault - Lucille Peralta (now Ortille, and Director General of the Cabinet Coordinating Committee on Housing and Urban Planning), also from Roxas City, and Mary Ann Z. Fernandez (now Assistant Commissioner of Civil Service Commission) told me JoeCon was looking up on screen while briskly walking down the hall.  Corridor of power is always cramped, so seats around the Cabinet Meetings are always crowded. Seating was arranged in two rings - the inner circle which is the president and cabinet members, and the outer circle composed of lesser bishops and acolytes like myself. State Dining Room is cold and dark when giant Swarovski chandeliers are dimmed for PowerPoints. Only Imelda’s sconces would light the old rose velvet carpet while people seated on the outer circle would obstruct most steps of the way. Talk about cordon sanitaire.

Anyway, this was not the case in the brightly lit and well-appointed National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Board Room in Pasig, thanks to Toto “Tayho” Guijaro. The president and Cabinet also convene as Joint Cabinet-NEDA Board a few times a year to update the National Development Plan, and they meet in Pasig once in a while. In NEDA sa Pasig, I always see Toto Tayho because he does the electro-systems for NEDA Board Sub-Committee on Human Resources and NEDA Board/Cabinet that I both attend. I’m sure, Toto Tayho, bombarded by economics everyday, would remember the lectures of Ms. Flores. Our batch was the first to graduate under the nationalized high school. Unfortunately, it was the last batch Ms. Flores would teach. That very next school year, she moved to then Panay State Polytechnic College (PSPC). Lucky them.

Further exploration on China’s economic boom needs us to look into just a little bit of GATT and history. Ms. Flores taught us that Industrial Revolution, which started in Britain between late 1700s and early 1800s, was characterized by increased production due to mechanization (e.g., steam engines - factories and railways). Mechanization allowed mass production that created surplus products. Countries needed to sell surplus products to other countries (dumping). But other countries have the same industries and were creating the same products. So, each country tried to protect its domestic industries, and a period called Protectionist Era ensued. Nations established trade barriers, raised import taxes and tariffs, to make it very difficult to import and export outside of national boundaries. Trade wars ensued - dumping of surpluses to, or raising tariffs against unfriendly nations. Countries like Britain, U.S. and France (Allied) were lucky. Their colonies acted both as exclusive markets for their surpluses and source of cheap raw materials. Other industrializing countries like Japan, Italy and Germany (Axis) did not have colonies. Axis powers had to either have colonies or just fade away. Many summed up World War II as an attempt by Axis powers to re-divide the world and gain colonies for themselves. At that time, China was an agrarian economy trying to survive its own Cultural Revolution.

In 1944, GATT, a trade treaty involving many nations, was established. Its purpose was to facilitate free trade by encouraging member-nations to reduce tariffs and remove trade barriers. This would avoid trade wars and the need to maintain colonies (i.e., the Philippines was then allowed to become independent). Under GATT, each one had a list of sectors, industries or specific products they want to open to international competition. Taxes for those specified sectors or products are either lowered significantly or removed altogether. Since then, GATT worked on the sidelines until the emergence of European Community in the late ’80s. At that time, trade blocs, treaties involving many nations, in many regions of the world started to proliferate. By early 90s, there were APEC, Uruguayan Round, NAFTA, AFTA, BIMP/EAGA and dozens others. Trade blocs reminded some economists of Protectionist Era.

Therefore, GATT had to be reinvented. This time, it would have to include China. The world could not wait to sell 1.3 billion more bottles and cans of Coca-Cola and McDonald’s burgers.  And China itself, wary of being alone after the downfall of USSR and its Eastern European allies, and tempted by outward forces of its modernizing economy, had to jump into the bandwagon. Western companies, led by American investors, raced their way to China to manufacture everything from slippers to ICs. This proliferated the market with too much China products and created higher demands for petroleum.

Negative implications for Sapian: First, China has drawn in foreign investments that would have otherwise been invested in the Philippines that, directly, either employ some Sapianons, or benefit Sapianon businessmen, or indirectly, bring in money into the domestic economy and trickle down to Sapian in form of taxes or increased buying power/demand for Sapian fishery products. Second, flood the Philippine market with cheaper Chinese goods, competing with our local industries - especially with GATT - losing our fledging manufacturing businesses and jobs. Third, highly industrialized China makes it more influential in geopolitics to the detriment of our security, including losing our claim to the disputed, natural gas rich 200-mile EEZ off Palawan. Fourth, China is developing backbone industries like steel, chemicals, etc., is reckless with environment and could upset South Asian environmental health (e.g., nuclear waste, industrial dust, acid rain, etc.). Fifth and most importantly, China, consuming more oil, offsets supply equilibrium, creating shortage, increasing prices, and causing more instability in volatile Middle East (e.g., giving Saddam rockets, bribing Iran with $70 billion, and possibly, some bits of nuclear technology). Increased prices slow down the Philippine economy, as it pays more power bills, lower Peso value because more dollar is paid for oil imports, less tax collections because of lowered profits, less foreign investments because of less anticipation of profits, and so on.   

On the positive side for Sapian: First, abundance of made in China products, as said earlier, makes it easier for us to buy products that used to be difficult and expensive to acquire. Second, China would attempt to expand its political and economic clout among its neighbors and invest in the Philippines, such as in agro-industry. This should be our last opportunity to dove-tail on global trade. Third, since the continued affluence of China’s economy is dependent on its goodwill, it would not do much to offset South Asia security - although the 200-mile EEZ is now irretrievably lost.