• Filed under dchs88
  Apr 21

  Davao, Mindanao, and the nation
  By Gail Ilagan / MindaNews / 20 April 2006

  DAVAO CITY — It was standing room only on the occasion of UP Professor Randy David doing a national situationer at the Grand Men Seng last night. The event was sponsored by the Initiatives for International Dialogue, a local advocacy group that has consistently sustained its emphasis on dialogue, that vital precondition to reaching a viable consensus on public issues.

  Trust IID to put together a creditable representation of Davao’s public. By public I mean people who manifest interest in a particular issue. Judging from the SRO crowd who came to the forum, the national situation and what it means for Mindanao is obviously a topic of widespread interest. The forum was a timely shot in the arm, said former partylist congresswoman Pat Sarenas. Yes, of course, it’s about time that we should be talking about this.

  My mother-in-law, Gabriela Women’s Party chairperson Luz Ilagan, headlined the forum along with Prof. David. Recently accorded the dubious honor to belong to the Davao 8, Mother Luz takes the inconvenience in stride and graciously pays homage to this character trait of the Davaoeno - our ability to sit down and dialogue peaceably among ourselves despite the ideological, intellectual, and cultural boundaries that divide us.

  True to the spirit of the occasion, Prof. David abandoned his prepared paper to launch into an impromptu address more in keeping with the kind of reflective sharing that one has with friends over coffee. The unread paper should be up on IID’s website by the time this article comes out. Check out www.iidnet.org.

  Anyway, it’s two in the morning and writing this article is my way of rewarding myself for getting through checking test papers. As an educator, I believe in immediate feedback on performance, and since the summer term means daily classes, it does require little sacrifices like burning the candle at both ends when one takes the time to take advantage of cultural benefits like listening to Randy David and Luz Ilagan when one should be checking papers. Oh well.

  Okay. What was said in that forum? Well, it was articulated that more and more people are fed up with Philippine politics. This is important. When one is fed up, one can’t muster the moral outrage needed to spark that burning desire to take it upon one’s self to correct the situation, or at least be part of the effort for a resolution. People who are fed up retreat in repression or in apathy. But abdication does very little to change the situation. The problem does not go away just because we choose not to concern ourselves with it.

  Gus Miclat, IID’s executive director, prays that people will get tired of being fed up and revisit the problem, this time with the intention to work for its resolution. David obviously agrees. By making the time to share his lucid analysis of the political crisis the nation is now facing, he helps identify for us the leaks in our sinking boat. What is particularly remarkable about his activism is his passion for what should be in the face of the ills there are. Fed up, he is not. By continuing to engage the nation’s citizens wherever they are and in whatever forum, David conveys this belief that the people can make a difference in the life of this nation.

  What are we in Mindanao to do? What are we to do, especially those of us who reside in Davao where life is tolerable despite the political unrest in Manila? Are we indeed the comfortable that David seeks to afflict? Have we set virtual boundaries to our community that we can’t relate to what is being done to the nation? Can’t we relate to what is being done to Mindanao, exploited and used as a convenient tool to legitimize usurpation of powers that are national in scope?

  David advocates that Mindanao should consolidate its community by reworking its institutions to be responsive to local needs. He envisions a dignified, self-contained Mindanao that would render superfluous any form of largesse from the national government. In so doing, Mindanao would similarly free itself from reliance on external resources that come with strings attached. Mindanao would be above the fray, even as the increasingly ugly political crisis plunges the rest of the nation into the impending civil war.

  There. It’s something to think about. Don’t take too long, though. Thinking about something doesn’t get it done. This suggestion is actually workable. As citizens of Mindanao, we can actually draw in the details to these broad strokes in the way that we live our collective life. Dare we try?

  (Wayward and Fanciful is Gail Ilagan’s column for MindaViews, the opinion section of MindaNews. Ilagan teaches Social Justice, Family Sociology, Theories of Socialization and Psychology at the Ateneo de Davao University where she is also the associate editor of Tambara. You may send comments to gail@mindanews.com. “Send at the risk of a reply,” she says).

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