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Showing posts from 2007

Twin Tragedy

“…. the twins were found embracing each other while floating lifeless in the deep well.” ( Bohol Chronicle , 18 November 2007) I was dumbfounded reading the news on November 18 about two boys who died in San Isidro, Pilar - drowned in a well near their house while their parents were in the fields and an elder brother was watching TV. Though I have not seen nor known the boys personally, I feel a deep sense of remorse and regret, and an unexplainable sense of sadness swept over me. It is maybe because I am a father that I can very well relate how such a grave loss could affect one immensely. Or maybe because I know Pilar quite well, because I have worked there when I was still very young and free of cares, that those children, faceless as they were in the news story I was reading, brought vivid images of children in Pilar that I have talked to in my endless wanderings in the rice fields. Or maybe because I can see myself as that young boy watching TV, which loud noise drowned the cri

Dam(n) Proactivity

I thought then that to be proactive was always desirable. Bringing an umbrella in London even without a “rain forecast” is always a good thing, because even the weather bureau at BBC fails to predict weather conditions a number of times. But it is another story when you wear winter clothes in Bohol because you anticipate that the snow would come any time of the day. Call that insane proactivity, if you like. But it is how government is run sometimes in this part of the archipelago. You build a dam and then wait for the water level to rise (reminds me of that bridge that never gets finished because it would destroy an-age old church). This October, President Macapagal Arroyo once again visited her favoured Bohol to officially inaugurate the Bayongan Dam , completed in controversy as it exceeded its 2.3 billion project cost by 52% (Bohol Chronicle, 14 October 2007). Despite opposition from farmer’s groups because of the project’s effects on the environment and its uselessness to address

That Airport Obsession

Airport talk, more particularly that of the one proposed at Panglao Island has been in discussion in government and NGO circles since early nineties. (On a personal note, I can still remember May Blanco, then with the Social Action Center of the Diocese of Tagbilaran, who did a research paper on the Panglao Island Tourism Estate and its potential effects). It has resurfaced time and again and is currently a major news item in Tagbilaran recently with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) avowing to finish the project before her term ends. PGMA seemed to be very insistent with the airport project. On 29 December 2004, she created a project management office for the Panglao Airport Development Project (Memorandum Order No. 157). Roughly seven months after, she signed Memorandum Order No 178 that sought to establish the Panglao Tourism Special Infrastructure Program with the development of the airport a major function. Very recently, she announced a timeline for its completion. Governo

Is Bohol's Tourism Any Good for the Poor? (a repost....original lost)

The benefits of tourism to the poor in terms of employment, livelihood opportunities, improvements in the local economy, has recently been highlighted in development practice (Ashley 2006). Specific country case studies have shown its effect in generating employment, in enhancing participation of women in the labour force, and in instigating developments in forward linkages (ODI 2007). In the Philippines, tourism is pushed as development strategy, not only to propel local growth but also to combat poverty (Turingan 2006). Eco-tourism is one of Bohol’s primary development strategy (PPDO 2003). Its competitive advantage is the presence of the famous Chocolate Hills, white pristine beaches in its islands, diving sites, and world-class cultural attractions (Relampagos 2002). Increased investments and promotional activities in the tourism sector have caused the dramatic rise in tourist arrival in the province since 2001.Starting 2001 tourist arrival in the province has significantly increas

Is Bohol Really a Model for Peace and Development?

President Arroyo (PGMA), in her recent Bohol visit, lauded again the provincial government as a model for local efforts to reduce poverty and promote peace. Ironically, this declaration was set against a background of a series of robbery cases, unsolved political killings, and undocumented violence across the province. This recognition of Bohol, however, is not a recent phenomenon. Two years ago, the Galing Pook Foundation awarded the Bohol Poverty Reduction, Peace and Development Program as one of the best practices in local governance in the country in trying to promote peace, through poverty alleviation and development (GPF 2006). Poverty alleviation programs in Bohol started started out as an anti-insurgency solution rather than a design to achieve poverty reduction. As a matter of fact, one of the first maps related to the province’s poverty reduction efforts was an insurgency map which became the basis of the targeting of provincial poverty programs. Barangays were classified as

Giving birth to a monster...

Today, I give birth to a monster. It can be a scary monster, or a monster hit, depending on how the wind blows, and depending on how you, as a reader, will take it. This monster I call....BoholAnalysis. Here, we discuss Bohol, not the way politicians would like to describe it, and certainly not the way tourism promoters would label the island. Don't take me wrong. This blog is not about the negative side of Bohol. It is a blog that talks about Bohol, critically, beyond the conventional labels. It is a blog about issues in Bohol and how an ordinary citizen like you, or me, views it, from a rather uninvolved and objective lens. It is a blog about Bohol without the hypocrisy, without the hype, absent the intended colors. This blog is that of a black god, ( see photo inset ) sitting close to a pool of water, looking intently at it, trying to figure out if indeed the fishes are alive, or if it is just the ripples that create the movement. If you can take this sense of nonsense, or bette