I just spent three long, busy and most enjoyable days in Southern Mindanao in the Philippines. It is the beginning of the rainy season there so the sun may or may not be shining but rain is virtually guaranteed. With close proximity to a volcano, the soil is dark and rich and the vegetation is lush across the rolling hills and surrounding small mountains. The General Santos City airport is small but clean and efficient (two gates) with a four-lane highway leading to General Santos City (GSC).
This trip was made with a slight bit of apprehension. I've never been to Mindanao and only had newspaper clips and TV footage to rely upon. I've watched the news for years where CNN and BBC reported on the Abu Sayyaf and MNLF training camps and terrorist attacks on the helpless local population while the hapless military was powerless to stop them. I must have missed something because I looked everywhere I traveled and I didn't see one terrorist. The only people carrying guns were security guards at the local hospital, in front of banks and the occasional business. I'm perfectly comfortable being around guns but sawed-off shotguns with pistol grips seemed to be a bit much for a gas station guard, and I wasn't too sure about the faculties of the gent who had it strapped across his shoulder.
Nonetheless, I was most pleasantly surprised with the entire trip. By their very nature, Filipinos are a remarkable friendly and gentle nation of people. They are also well educated and have an incredibly strong work ethic. As a largely Catholic nation, their high birth rate has created their single largest asset - people - who travel the world as maids, nurses, factory workers and more creating the largest portion of the nation's wealth, repatriated cash. Overseas Contract Workers, or OCWs as they're locally called, are the backbone of the nation's economy. Yet, having men and women being away from the family for weeks, months and years at a time does not help to keep family structures together. (The national OCW agency is the largest of all government agencies. What does that tell us???) It seems to me that rebuilding the local economy to provide jobs at home should be a top priority of the government.
The Philippines have been invaded and conquered far too many times, including a 300-year occupation by the Spanish. In spite of it all, seem to harbor no ill will toward anyone. Or, if they did, they didn't share it with me.
The streets of GSC, and neighboring towns such as Polomolok and Surallah, are incredibly clean and orderly. People drive their vehicles relatively slowly (petrol is about US4.00 per gallon) and safely. Stop signs and stop lights are a rare sight so driving through an intersection is a nimble dance with a large dose of courtesy thrown in. And, with the legal minimum daily wage being about $6.00, they're mindful of their mpg (miles per gallon) usage. The sun comes up at 5 am and sets at 6 pm so in this largely agrarian and fishing region, they are a "early to bed, early to rise" lot. There are a LOT of motorbikes driven by young men telling me that the earning power of the populace is on the rise (most are low-cost imports from China), and those that don't own their own transport have money to jump in a motor-bike taxi, bus or local Jeepney.
Not to make light of these terrorist groups, because they're apparently still wresting their violence in areas around the Philippines, but in Mindanao, I saw peaceful, hard-working people in a beautiful part of the world. The beaches are white, wide and clean. The breeze is usually light and temperatures warm as Mindanao is just north of the equator. The streets were safe and clean, shops and restaurants offered food and consumer goods for the local population, and a small but growing tourism industry is beginning to flourish. I hope to return there soon and not worry about the images our international media foists upon us.
This trip was made with a slight bit of apprehension. I've never been to Mindanao and only had newspaper clips and TV footage to rely upon. I've watched the news for years where CNN and BBC reported on the Abu Sayyaf and MNLF training camps and terrorist attacks on the helpless local population while the hapless military was powerless to stop them. I must have missed something because I looked everywhere I traveled and I didn't see one terrorist. The only people carrying guns were security guards at the local hospital, in front of banks and the occasional business. I'm perfectly comfortable being around guns but sawed-off shotguns with pistol grips seemed to be a bit much for a gas station guard, and I wasn't too sure about the faculties of the gent who had it strapped across his shoulder.
Nonetheless, I was most pleasantly surprised with the entire trip. By their very nature, Filipinos are a remarkable friendly and gentle nation of people. They are also well educated and have an incredibly strong work ethic. As a largely Catholic nation, their high birth rate has created their single largest asset - people - who travel the world as maids, nurses, factory workers and more creating the largest portion of the nation's wealth, repatriated cash. Overseas Contract Workers, or OCWs as they're locally called, are the backbone of the nation's economy. Yet, having men and women being away from the family for weeks, months and years at a time does not help to keep family structures together. (The national OCW agency is the largest of all government agencies. What does that tell us???) It seems to me that rebuilding the local economy to provide jobs at home should be a top priority of the government.
The Philippines have been invaded and conquered far too many times, including a 300-year occupation by the Spanish. In spite of it all, seem to harbor no ill will toward anyone. Or, if they did, they didn't share it with me.
The streets of GSC, and neighboring towns such as Polomolok and Surallah, are incredibly clean and orderly. People drive their vehicles relatively slowly (petrol is about US4.00 per gallon) and safely. Stop signs and stop lights are a rare sight so driving through an intersection is a nimble dance with a large dose of courtesy thrown in. And, with the legal minimum daily wage being about $6.00, they're mindful of their mpg (miles per gallon) usage. The sun comes up at 5 am and sets at 6 pm so in this largely agrarian and fishing region, they are a "early to bed, early to rise" lot. There are a LOT of motorbikes driven by young men telling me that the earning power of the populace is on the rise (most are low-cost imports from China), and those that don't own their own transport have money to jump in a motor-bike taxi, bus or local Jeepney.
Not to make light of these terrorist groups, because they're apparently still wresting their violence in areas around the Philippines, but in Mindanao, I saw peaceful, hard-working people in a beautiful part of the world. The beaches are white, wide and clean. The breeze is usually light and temperatures warm as Mindanao is just north of the equator. The streets were safe and clean, shops and restaurants offered food and consumer goods for the local population, and a small but growing tourism industry is beginning to flourish. I hope to return there soon and not worry about the images our international media foists upon us.
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