Building transformative communities, Part II

Last weekend, a group of about sixty people was gathered by the Center for Asia Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP), the Foundation for the Advancement of Filipino Women (FAFW) and the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA’s) Philippine Gender Equality Fund to attempt what many activist, community-based organizations normally find daunting – documenting their numerous struggles in building transformative communities, extracting the most critical insights from their extensive experience in this type of social engineering and, above all, formulating a conceptual frame that systematically links their transformative objectives, strategies and resources.

To emphasize this conceptual task, the sixty participants were formally invited to join " A Writeshop on the Conceptual Framework of Building Transformative Communities [BTCs]". A motley group, their common bond is the activist commitment to help change their communities into more recognizably human, just and democratic societies. Among the participants were the most uncommon of our ordinary people – principled, compassionate, generous and proud even in their poverty, all superbly clear-minded, articulate and confident despite many barely finishing their elementary school.

Most of them are battle-scarred veterans in many encounters with authorities whose idea of a peaceful community mistakes the quiet of a silenced public and the tranquility of their graveyards for peace. Unfazed by these often brutal encounters, the ordinary people in this "writeshop" chronicled the progressive history of their transformative activities and generated the optimism that the document serving as the participants’ provisional conceptual frame now reflects. (This BTC frame is provisional for two reasons. First, a first attempt at this kind of conceptual work is necessarily exploratory and therefore must be subjected to candid review by others. Second, BTC is the kind of social engineering whose structural integrity and enduring viability rely on regular ground-truthing – checking out whether its assumptions still hold, its real-life data remain up-to-date and alternative management strategies have not ignored what might be novel possibilities. Actually, progressive reviews even of so-called "final" conceptual frames are necessary when working to transform any social reality.)

There were also quite a few government workers and public officials. Unlike their more typical government colleagues, they knew how to listen well and could acknowledge their errors easily. They also were impressive in their knowledge of the harsh dynamics of the bureaucracy and their grasp of government’s fundamental challenge — how to make governance by, of and for the people rather than making government, as a wag would say, buy the people, off the people and fool the people. Truthsayers rather than spinmasters, these government representatives acquitted themselves exceptionally well in crafting a conceptual framework for those attempting to build transformative communities.

Civil society community organizers and professionals – some from the business community and a pithiful few from academe – made up the rest of the participants. Muslims, Christians, farmers, itinerant vendors, storeowners, proprietors, employees, medical doctors and other health workers, teachers, researchers, professors or homemakers (housewives or "househusbands") – they all collaborated much in this "writeshop" to collate, analyze and synthesize the experiences of those who dared build or initiate transformative communities.

The success stories are truly impressive. Zone One Tondo’s (ZOTO’s) efforts at BTC go all the way back to 1968, survive the problematic martial law years and persist all the way to current times. In their original Tondo setting and expanding to other areas in Metro Manila and Cavite where many of their initial members had been forced to relocate, ZOTO people have learned not only to survive housing demolitions, political and economic harassment and similar dangers; they have learned to organize and transform themselves into economically more viable and politically less vulnerable communities. They have learned to integrate governance, livelihood and gender issues. On these concerns, they have wielded their communities democratically and with commendable equity, efficiently utilizing their own productive resources, reaching out to legitimately tap those of others and making sure that the more marginalized – the poor and women – are properly attended to.

In the historic community of San Miguel, Bulacan, the Kapisanan ng mga Kababaihan (KBB) has done a similarly impressive job in transforming their community. Impoverished, discriminated against, politically unempowered and with a very low sense of self-worth, the women of this town finally decided to challenge their traditional condition and slowly – often nervously and with so many misgivings – marched their way towards autonomous economic productivity, non-tokenist gender equality and undeniable political empowerment. They started with growing pigs for a livelihood, learned to handle male chauvinist pigs in their immediate families and finally turned to managing their traditionally pigging authorities. From pigs to politics! has been their battle cry across the years. In 2003, San Miguel pigs are clean and productive and most San Miguel politicians have actually become gender-responsive and responsible authorities.

One should not wonder why most women of San Miguel now walk with heads held high. Birthing a transformative community – turning swinish politicians and husbands into accountable and egalitarian partners within a generation – is no mean accomplishment.

In Naga City, the enlightened democratic inclinations and incredible managerial talents of Mayor Jesse Robredo have earned the dedicated support of most Nagauenos. Common taos as well as the city’s highly-motivated government workers, entrepreneurs, professionals and other civil society members collaborate in the delicate task of Naga City social engineering. As in the case of ZOTO and San Miguel’s KBB, truly participatory governance, sustained economic prosperity and a heightened sense of self-worth now enable the Nagauenos and their dynamic leaders to more easily sustain and to further strengthen the transformative community they had cooperatively initiated.

In Bohol, an indomitable young man rediscovering his cultural roots helped turned his provincemates and the authorities into culturally-sensitive Boholanos diligently researching their roots, identifying and protecting their cultural treasures and using them to endow young people with a functional memory of their living past. Where the young man had initially wailed at the disappearance within a single night of an entire house, a national treasure in his hometown of Loboc, he now is able to have the entire community defend these priceless structures day as well as night against mercenary barbarians without a sense of history. A Bohol Cultural Renaissance Program has emerged in the province; its operational arm, the Center for Culture and Arts Development (CCAD) , is housed in the very office of the Governor. A Bohol Arts and Cultural Heritage (BACH) Council – "a province-wide network of artists with concrete goals and plans" – has been birthed and the Boholanos are proudly nurturing it.

Integrated with the common people, supported by the private sector, the numerous civil society groups and the provincial and municipal authorities, the cultural dimension of Bohol’s transforming communities has taken off. Authentic cultural offerings – musical concerts, dances, plays, readings, exhibits and other rituals – have increased tremendously. Perhaps the most important characteristic of this particular transformation is that among the youths of Loboc and other Bohol communities, the beats of the bobolingkingking – their native percussion music – will no longer sound so alien. Regaining one’s cultural soul is an essential step in building transformative communities that colonial rule had mercilessly ravaged.

At the national level, little transformative community building is taking place. It is mostly at the local level where successful efforts at progressive community transformation is taking place. Most national leaders are apparently on a perpetual political high; their habit of addiction to irresponsible politicking is only too obvious given the current electoral season. Out of touch with the people, suffering their distrust and contempt, these inept politicians have no inspiring vision of the Philippines that could rightly be – a properly transformative national community.