Many people believe development work is one of the most rewarding jobs out there. Helping people seems much more 'worthy and meaningful' than peddling in a corporate office. No, I wouldn't want to change my frequent trips to Philippine companies and communities for a 9 to 5 office job! Nevertheless, while my work is definitely exciting and meaningful, it can be downright frustrating when facing the ugly reality of corruption and power abuse.
Calituban is a small island off the Eastern tip of Bohol. The island is paralyzed by overpopulation, lack of sanitation and potable water, a suffocating solid waste management problem, not to mention the lack of schools and able teachers.
The inhabitants of the island depend on fishing and seaweed farming. They need training to improve the quality of their seaweeds as well as farming inputs. With a Cebu-based seaweed processing company at hand, which is willing to share its knowledge to develop future suppliers, the Calituban community is my type of potential project partner.
A trip to Calituban was inevitable and so was a night spent in an open bamboo hut on a seaweed-trying platform, 3 meters above the smelly ocean water. The hospitality of the Calituban people was mind-blowing. Hardly owning anything themselves, we were fed mussels, fish, and rice. They even made the effort to get ice for soft drinks. Since there is no refrigerator or freezer on the island, that chunk of ice swimming in my glass had travelled all the way from the mainland and probably cost double the price of the soft drink. We politely enjoyed our drink on the rocks, despite the fact that the ice was chopped with an unwashed fish knife and had made a run for the floor before.
Nobody spared an effort to host us, the first three white people to ever have set foot on the island. And, as the protocol requires, we had an audience with the Barangay Captain. Entering her house, the discrepancy between poor and better off couldn't have been any more obvious. I was surprised at the piles of high heel shoes decorating her shoe rack. Just to put this into perspective: the island has nothing but dirt paths. The massive chandelier dangling from the ceiling of her concrete house was wrapped in plastic, just like the couch we were invited to sit down on. After exchanging a few polite formalities and outlining our project idea—that of bringing jobs and income to the island through seaweed farming—we went back to the farmers.
A few weeks later, I was informed about problems in obtaining concessions for the aquatic land just off of the island which had been identified as a suitable seaweed farming area before. The Barangay Captain suddenly asked for 30,000 Pesos per hectare of land to issue the concession. There are 2 problems here: First, the Barangay Captain has no authority to issue concessions, it is the Municipal Agrarian Office. Second, the price went up times 60!
And, this is how the story went: Our visit to the island fostered the idea to turn this potential project into a cash cow for a few people in power. Instead of attracting investors and claiming the success of job generation, she prioritized her personal short-term enrichment. Sad to say, this is not a unique case. This is one of the reasons why development in this country (just like in any other corrupt country) has enriched the rich more and impoverished the poor further. Instead of closing the gap, foreign aid money achieves a negative result if not watched carefully.
The reason why I haven't quit my job yet is, that there are positive examples to cite as well. After we withdrew our support from the initial project area of Calituban, we moved the project site to the neighboring island. In stark contrast to our experiences on Calituban, the Barangay Captain of Guindacpan drives an agenda for his people. He sees the income opportunities for his community, which will eventually trigger improvement on the island.
Once more, I am reassured about the type of assistance we are providing: establishing trade links, providing technology and skills training rather than cash. Cash in a community has never yielded a positive outcome. As soon as there is cash, there is corruption. What's happening in Calituban on a small scale has been happening in the government on a large scale for too long. Let's hope the new president can crack down on it.
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