Joone Xyron Creencia CD 11

2015-03303 Prof. Honorio De Dios

CD 11 Finals

Our community exposure was held in RASYC, a community that lives under Sta.
Mesa bridge by the San Juan River. Put frankly, it is a poor community; there’s
practically nothing there. There were a few stores within the community but none of
them are ones where you can buy daily necessities. All these were found on the one
side of the bridge: the more spacious side. Going to the other side of the bridge, things
just take a turn for the worse; to get to that side, we needed to go down a very steep
slope, steep enough for it to pass as a wall, then go through a very narrow pathway
going to the more spacious part. Along the way, while we were in that narrow path, you
would sometimes see the path opening to the left or to the right, apparently leading to
the residences of the people living in the area. Once we reached the end of the path, we
arrived on a thankfully larger space by the bridge. There, we made our interview with
some of the people of the community. Adding what we learned from our interview with
the residents and also from what we saw during our time there, as well as from what our
classmates shared about their own experiences, I think that the number one main
contributing factor in the community’s poverty is inequality. Of course, that does not
essentially mean that the deprivation of rights and entitlements or marginalization does
not contribute to poverty–they still do, it’s just that inequality only contributes more than
they do. Also, from the reports that the other groups made, it became evident that
inequality is present even within communities like RASYC; this is especially true in the
case of our report, as we were the group that interviewed the person who charge the
people in the area the “rent” for the place they stay in. When we tried asking the reason
for it, we were told by Ate Christine that she is apparently the caretaker of the houses in
the place. Also, from the reports of the other groups, we were able to learn that there
are people in the community that are among the “higher” class in the community.
Inequality is also evident in the organization as pregnant women were apparently not
allowed to participate in the meetings held by the organization , like what our other
interviewee, Ate Joy, told us. It is also evident in the treatment that the community
receives; while they do have electricity there, the amount they would have to pay is
astronomical compared to normal residential households as their community is labeled
as industrial and not residential, meaning they pay the electricity at the same rate as the
mall beside them (SM Sta. Mesa). The next main factor that affects their poverty is the
deprivation of rights and entitlements. Although the community is near places where
they can get access to necessary goods and services, since they do not have the
resources needed to be able to acquire these things, it is as though these services are
not there at all. Since the people living in the community are either with low-income or
unstable income, the services that they can get access to is quite limited. Most of the
households do not even have a television, though during the group reports we learned
that there are some with not only a television set, but even a refrigerator, only making
the inequality between the people more evident. And last but not the least,
discrimination also plays a role in the community’s poverty; since the people of the
community are poor and are essentially informal settlers, it would be unavoidable for
them to face some sort of discrimination. They would be targets of discrimination due to
the difference in social classes, one good example of which is the Bayani incident
where they were “visited” by the former MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando and were
told to leave while being threatened to be driven away forcefully if they do not comply.
Even within the community, discrimination is also present, one example is Ate Joy, who
was not allowed to participate in the events held by the organization because she is
pregnant, and she also said that in the meetings that the community organization
frequently hold, women like her tend to remain silent as they would likely not be heard
anyways. Older people as well tend to not intervene with the decisions made in the
meetings and also avoid speaking during meetings for the same reason women do. We
also learned from the accounts of the residents that the barangay government does
practically nothing to help them and that politicians only come to visit them when the
elections are near to give them meager help. The Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD), also visits them ever so often to look for residents who are
willing to be relocated to relocation sites outside the city. This, in itself, is a good
gesture, but sadly it stops there since the place the people get relocated to are very far
from the market and even farther from places where they can earn money. We tried
asking our interviewees about the details of the relocation and we learned that the
house that the people are given is essentially a box with windows and a door, and we
also learned that they would be given around 15k to get whatever they would need for
their new house (dividers, etc.) which is apparently nowhere near enough. From this, it
could be said that the government does not truly concern themselves with the well-
being of the people, and probably only want them gone from the place they stay
currently stay in.

In Amartya Sen’s Poverty as Capability Deprivation, she said that “Improved

income may lead to improved capabilities, but, it is also that improved capabilities can
lead may lead to improved income.” This can be very obvious if you only think about it,
and this is also probably one of the reasons why poor people try their hardest to get
their children to finish school, as it could help them get a better life. Improved
capabilities, like in Tita Elma’s case, leads to improved income since her eldest son was
able to graduate as a seaman. Because of that, she is able to live relatively easily even
though she does not earn much by herself since her children have work and are
supporting her (her second child works at Milkita Factory). On the other hand, an
example of the improvement of capabilities brought about the improvement of income
would be from the Mocha Girls and Boy group’s report, about Nanay Emelita. Of her 6
children, 4 have stable jobs, with the remaining two being a housewife and an
undergraduate student, respectively. Of the four that are working, one is a bank
supervisor, another is a call center agent, the third works as a supervisor at V. Mapa
and the last one has an online gaming business in Makati. The class also learned from
the report that the children who have work all give part of their income to the family
which would make it hard to think for anyone who can see the details about Nanay
Emelita’s family that they are having a hard time making their ends meet. Even if they
are not rich, they would probably be among the lower middle class outside the
community and definitely in the upper class within the community.

Sen also stated that “The capability approach should lead to better
understanding of “poverty and deprivation in terms of the lives of people can actually
lead (choice) and the freedoms they do actually have (ability to make the choice).” This
is reflected in the community very well as from how much capabilities some of the
people in the community have reflect the choices that they can make. For example,
since Ate Joy and her husband are unfortunately among the poorer people in the
community, they do not have much choice but to stay in RASYC since they do not have
enough resources to move to a safer and better place, they are forced to stay there.
She did tell us that if there was going to be a relocation the next time, she would
volunteer, even if the place they would be moved to is far since her greatest concern is
not income but the safety of her children. Another example of this would be Nanay
Marsha who was interviewed by the Mocha Girls and Boy group; having six children
with only two working and only one being able to help with the expenses at the house,
they were already struggling to make ends meet. If they were to leave the community in
that state, they would most likely starve before long. On the other hand, I think some of
the people in the community have the freedom and the capability to choose to leave the
community but opt to stay. One example of this would be Nanay Emelita; considering
that her children all have jobs with stable income, it would be hard to imagine that they
do not have the ability to move to a much safer place than the place that they stay in.
Having four of her six children help in providing income for the family, while also having
her own source of income, if they save a part of it every time her children get their
salary, they would be able to find a better place to live in but they choose to stay in the
community. The reason for this is probably partly due to them having lived there for so
long since she was there since 1981. Another is maybe because part of their income is
there as well, since Nanay Emelita owns a store there which is her main source of
income.

Failure to promote or apply people-centered development principles can

negatively impact the capabilities of the people of RASYC since the changes that would
be brought by the development would be unable to improve what the people think
needs to be improved. Rather than become beneficial to the people, it would be
detrimental, either hindering the people or doing nothing at all to help improve their
living conditions. An example of this would be the organization’s Disaster Risk
Reduction(DRR) drills that they periodically take. While it is true that they are in a
danger zone and that being safe is better than being sorry, since the only thing they
would need to do if the river overflows is to go up the bridge, I don’t find any good
reason for them to focus so much on DRR drills. These periodic drills only serve to
waste the time of the people living in the community, as they would have to participate
in these drills than use the time to man the stores for those who own them and vend
their goods for the roaming vendors. Another would be the meetings that the community
holds ever so often. The people still attend them, but since they haven’t seen any
changes after so many they have practically lost all interest in them leading to some of
the members of the organization to stop attending, or stop participating in these said
meetings. This is probably because only the concerns and the voices of the majority
(the people who are on the side of the community organizer) are heard and not the
concerns of the minority of the community. This leads to the policies and the changes
that are made to not be very helpful and useful to the people of the community while
leaving the true problems seen by the people unresolved.

First of all, what I think the community really needs would be community
education. From the group reports I learned that the people of RASYC are not fully
aware of their potential as a community. There is room for the enhancement of the
people’s potentials and capability and also to help them identify what oppresses and
exploits them. The community of RASYC, on the surface, may seem like they are very
united but after talking with the people of the community you would realize that it is
actually otherwise. While the community may look like they are a united front, some
people apparently do not benefit from the organization. To fix this, they would need to
go through all the parts of community education starting with community value formation
to ensure that the community is truly united, on the surface and on the inside as well. To
raise their awareness, going through the conscientization part of community education
will be incredibly helpful since it would help them critically understand their community
and the world, the driving forces which lead to and sustain these existences, and finally
but most importantly, the way out from any oppressive relationships. Lastly, developing
their skills for collective action would be the clincher that would ready them for what
other community development (CD) method we plan to apply to them since these would
enable them to translate their awareness into operational and effective actions such as
community organizing, mobilization, etc.
 Another CD method which could be very helpful to the community if applied is
Community Planning. This is actually not my own idea, but after hearing the exposure
report of the group Gorapronobis, and also after re-reading the slides of their exposure
report, I was convinced that they were right. Community planning has many advantages
for the community as it can help them respond to the immediate needs of the people
while ensuring the proper utilization of resources such as land, money, etc. and also
provides basis for monitoring and evaluation. It will also deepen the people’s
understanding of the community’s situation, as well as its causes and consequences
which can be very helpful when trying to improve the community. It can also help
promote change as it would provide opportunities to rethink and reflect which can lead
the people to be more open to change. Community planning would also ensure that the
community keeps its plan’s goals realistic so as to not lead them to making unrealistic or
unneeded plans which could be nothing more than detrimental to the community.

Lastly, I think that Community Mobilization and Advocacy would also be helpful to
the community. I think this is necessary because this could act sort of like a bridge
which would connect community education and community planning to the community
making concrete plans of action and also concrete actions to promote positive change
to their community. I say this because community mobilization and advocacy has the
same purposes as the other two CD methods preciously mentioned with the addition of
having the community mobilize for action to bring about change. And while it has some
of the purposes of community education and community planning, those two CD
methods are still needed because they are more in-depth than what the people could
ever learn from just community mobilization and advocacy. What sets apart community
mobilization and advocacy from the other two is that it would teach the people what else
they can do after mobilizing to ensure that they get what they think they need to
improve their community for the better.

After the community visit in RASYC, I realized just how had life could be for the
people who are essentially at the bottom of society; struggling to make ends meet,
having to skip meals just to get by every day. I also learned that wherever there are
people, there will always be hierarchy, no matter how united something is on the
surface, there will always be conflicts. But what hit me the most after the visit was the
reality that even among the marginalized and the poor, there are still those who exploit
and are exploited, those who oppress and are oppressed, but since these oppressed
and exploited people have even less power than those who take advantage of them,
they just choke it up and resign their selves to fate, telling themselves that there is
nothing that they could do. After the course, I have learned a lot of things, particularly
what makes poor people poor, as well as the dimensions of poverty which could affect
how we could define the word “poor”. I also learned about the meaning of development
and what it truly means to advocate it. This is a major realization for me as I learned
from the course that development is not something that can be imposed, since the
development official does not know what the people know and the development official
does not feel the hardships that they could. I found these to be important as a Filipino
because it helped me understand more of some of the country’s problems, and since I
plan on becoming a nutritionist-dietitian and then later a doctor, these details would be
very helpful to me as it would help understand what I can do to help the people in a
community that I would be assigned in, if I ever get sent to work in poor communities in
the future.