My musings about the
Barangay of San Antonio
San Antonio is the
most remote barangay of the 40 or so barangays in the Tinambac municipality.
We were stuck there for about 2 1/2 hours waiting for the van to pick us up to
go to Naga.
We incurred the
curiosity of some of the residents with whom we engaged in lengthy
conversations. We had time on our hands. One of them was with a
lady in her 20’s who had two young children, the other a male with one
child. Both were married and had intact families. There were others
who came and went. They contributed as well.
San Antonio has a
population of 1200 residents as of the 2020 census. It has about 750 registered
voters. By contrast, the community college where I used to teach had
upwards of 7000 students.
Still, this community
is a barangay and qualifies as its own political entity. There are two
elected officials who receive a modest government stipend, not enough to live
on. When public officials campaign, they access these areas in bancas
(outrigger-canoes). These communities are called barrios that
define them as social entities, barangays as political entities.
They do not have a
police force. On occasion, a law enforcement official may include San
Antonio when he makes his rounds. They do not have a fire department nor
any medical services or facilities. A priest comes every Saturday.
Those who wish to marry may opt for the services of a government official.
There are no public
buses that service San Antonio. There is a jeepney (a converted WW2
military jeep) that comes every day(?) from Naga and back, a one hour and 45-
minute trip one-way. It is loaded to the brim.
In the middle of the
barrio is a covered basketball court. Basketball is to the Philippines as
baseball is to the U.S. They have an elementary school and high school.
Education in these parts is not viewed as essential to social mobility,
happiness or personal development.
There were a lot of
people of all ages engaged in various activities. Dwellings were very
close to each other with openings to the outside. I wondered how these
people maintained a sense of privacy. They do. They are all dressed
modestly. Because they were relatively isolated, the pandemic had little
impact on their lives. Everyone knows everyone else personally. It is
noteworthy that a person’s identity is first and foremost who he/she is as a
unique individual, signified by the person’s name. Any other social
category is tagged onto his/her name. So, it would be Pablo who happens
to be a fisherman or Mario who is a father. All too often in the urban
setting the social category is prime or comes before the who the person
is. Often, who the individual is, is not
important relevant or even desired.
In Buddhism to be
compassionate, one has to relate to an individual as a person before being compassionate.
What is life like in
a barrio? I grew up in the city and had a postcard view of rural
life. Barrio life was and still is - Greek to me.
It is from their
perspective that I continue my description. It is tentative, incomplete,
one that needs verification, elaboration and research. I intend to pursue a
deeper understanding of San Antonio.
What struck me about
San Antonio is that it has many of the characteristics I associate with 16th
-17th (?) century European towns. These towns existed prior to
the rise of capitalism, the advent of the factory system and the advent of cash
crops. Their distinctive characteristic was that of a symbiotic
self-sufficiency. San Antonio exists in the 21st century.
Survival: Food
There appears to be
no problems with physical survival. Their diet consists of sea food which they
harvest from the sea and the chickens they raise. Vegetables and fruits come
from gardens and trees that abound in the region. Vegetables are grown
more like that of a forest rather than in neatly arranged rows of plants.
From the outside,
they can purchase pork, beef, cooking oil, cooking fuel, other food stuff and
household implements. Most important they must purchase rice. Rise is a
staple. It is incorporated in most meals and cooked/prepared in a variety of
ways.
Otherwise, their
foods needs are more than adequate. They appear well-nourished and healthy.
Survival:
Dwellings
I think the dwellings
reflect the traditional practice of constructing houses utilizing materials
available in the environment – bamboo, coconut trees, etc.
Houses are close to
each other, sometimes there is little if any space between a few of them.
Streets are narrow. It is a communal way of living where dwellings are
bunched together in a cluster.
There are a few
houses that built with cement blocks in the western style. The main
difference from the traditional way is the incorporation of modern
materials. For example, thatched roofs are replaced with galvanized iron
that rusts.
On occasion the strong
winds of typhoons damage these huts which have to be periodically
restored. The attitude is to make-do and re-purpose what is available and
with what one can acquire at minimal cost. The key is functionality and
making what fits dweller’s needs and tastes. There are no neighborhoods
clearly separated by individual private dwellings.
Residents of San
Antonio do not have the attitude that everything has to be in “factory
condition” before they proceed with a project. They do not accumulate
tools over the years for specific purposes. The bolo or local
equivalent of a machete is one of the most versatile tools they have that can
be used for a variety of tasks.
My impression is that
raw materials from the environment are not as plentiful as they have been in
the past. Neither is the fisherman’s catch as plentiful compared to the
past. These are presumably due to pollution, climate change and the
degradation of the environment.
They have adequate
food and shelter.
Survival: Why
do the residents need money?
Residents need to buy
clothing, food, household, and work implements over what is available in their
environment. They need luxuries. They need transportation, smart phones
and access to the Internet.
None of the
residents, as far as I can tell have jobs. The only professionals in the
barrio are the teachers who are subsidized by the government.
Out-of-barrio teachers are provided with government subsidized housing.
If a resident becomes
employed in a 9-to-5 job they move out of the barrio. There is no
commuter service and riding one’s own vehicle is too
time-consuming.
Residents get money
from selling their surplus from fishing and the other resources on the
land. Those that have motorcycles opted to sell some of their land buy
one. They refuse payment plans which wind up costing them twice what they
would have paid otherwise. Land is not viewed the same way it is in the
west.
Residents may take
odd jobs and help-out others as needed. They prefer cash transactions.
Cash crop
There are no cash
crops to speak of. Areas are not cleared to make way for planting.
There are coconut trees which the residents periodically harvest for
copra. The coconuts have to be husked and the meat extracted and
dried. They can sell these to purchasers who come around periodically or
they may take it themselves to a broker in the town. There is not that
much to justify purchasing a truck. The cost of fuel is a major
consideration.
The government
provided the residents with a machine that allows the husk of coconuts to be shucked
to make twine and for other uses. The government buys the product at a
modest price since they provide the machine.
Fishing is accomplished
by local fishermen using bancas that are manned with a crew of 2-4
fishermen. There are no large-scale commercial fishing vessels or
techniques.
Comments
The residents live
close to the land and develop a symbiotic sustaining and sustainable relationship
with their environment and other residents. While large families have been the
norm, the young residents I spoke with planned to restrict the number of their
offspring because of their perceived dwindling of resources available in the
future.
There are no 9-5
salaried or wage earners. There is no commuter transportation between San
Antonio and other towns. They would have to commute by motorcycles more
than 3 hours daily. Those that have jobs in the larger towns, live
there.
Teachers are the only
exception. They are also the only resident professionals.
There is a huge
difference between the commodification of services and resources from the
codification of the same. The latter is subject to accounting in fuzzy
logic. In other words, how services and
“goods” are counted is different from the way they are accounted
commercially. I am guessing that by U.N. standards these people are all
way below the poverty line. This is the case if you count only the
“commodities” they possess. We are defining commodities here in terms of
items produced by employers for which a monetary value is assigned. It
also raises an interesting problem when it comes to taxing one’s
“income.”
Monetary
relationships are based on reciprocal exchange of commodified goods. Family
relationships are based on need and sentiment. They are counted
differently.
The residents of San
Antonio do not display the virtues or stresses of factory/office
employment. The virtue of hard work does not exist. The pressures
and anxieties of urban employment are absent. The work may be hard, but
one is not judged (put-down) by superiors. One is not judged in terms of
the virtues of urban employment. Many Filipinos view these barrio people
as lazy, uncaring, without ambition and indolent.
It is interesting to
note the residents have access to the Internet and everything global. It does
not necessarily lead to a widespread desire to incorporate the ways and values
of urban living.
Conceivably, if
salaried work becomes the norm, the barrio as it is today will no longer
exist. Guam and San Salvador are examples. In Hawaii, traditional
culture probably and primarily now exists as a commodity of tourism. It
allows us to enjoy the “authentic” or the “real thing,” which is no longer practiced
except by a very few.
Equilibrium with
nature
What is demonstrated
here is the establishment of a symbiotic equilibrium with environmental
resources which is sustaining and cyclic. This contrasts with the idea
that economic activity is ever growing or expanding so an equilibrium is never
achieved. Why is it that prices always rise without ever going down to
their original levels.
According to Karl Marx, capitalism is
characterized by a series of boom and busts till the whole system
collapses. Keynes suggests a way where the peaks and troughs of these
cycles mollifies but retains the continual upward ascend of economic activity
and expansion. To Marx these are temporary. Capitalism, embodies contradictions that will lead to its own destruction. The Marxian take-away is that capitalism as implement today is not self-sustaining. The whole system will collapse unless undeterred and unremedied.
The same argument has been applied to climate change, nuclear energy ...
