Repurposing Valentine
I was once big on Valentine, when I was young and starry-eyed. But now I think it is overrated. It is a totally commercial occasion that makes people anxious about not having someone special to spend the day with, and it pressures those who have a significant other to spend unnecessarily, sometimes even insincerely, on the supposed accouterments of love.
Depending on one’s pocketbook, these could be a card, a love letter, a stroll in Luneta or Roxas Boulevard, a movie date, a tryst, a single rose or a spray of fresh blooms, jewelry, a dinner date, or an expensive show. Often, though, people end up in Valentine’s Day traffic and a long wait for dinner at restaurants, even after having made reservations.
I don’t want to sound like a spoilsport but how about we repurpose Valentine into an occasion to show loving concern for the broader society — others who are not our spouses, lovers, children, parents, best friends and close relatives, people who are not in our loving inner circle? Let’s expand our worlds and our comfort zones to include “insignificant others” — people we take for granted, who are on the periphery of our lives and whom we have not bothered to get to know.
What if we take the time to get to know the people who make life easier for us: the security guards in the office or at the village gate, the newspaper delivery man, our drivers, gardeners, utility personnel, the neighbor downstairs, the cat lover up the street, the sacristan, the parish priest, the kids who play in the nearby park? Who are they? What are their stories? What makes them who they are? What makes them happy? What makes them sad?
While we’re at it, what if we go current and make an effort to get to know people who we may think are “different” from us, like our fellow Filipinos from Muslim Mindanao? How much do we really know about them and the realities they live with? In the past few weeks since the bloody Mamasapano incident that broke the ceasefire between the government and the MILF, the media and the legislature have spewed venom against the MILF and the peace process that the rebels and the government have painstakingly put together and so many have pinned their hopes on. The Senate and the House where the Bangsamoro Basic Law is being debated have all but put it on the back burner, citing their lack of confidence in the MILF.
The legislators protest that the BBL would give the MILF too much autonomy, police power and money. This from a legislature that for many decades has failed to address the grinding poverty, the absence of social services, and the lawlessness in Muslim Mindanao. If they could only put themselves in the shoes (do they even wear shoes?) of the Moro folk — not the privileged royalty but the average, ordinary Moro — even just for a day, our senators and congressmen might be able to appreciate the urgency of the need for peace and development among the Bangsamoro peoples.
The average Moro child who enters elementary will not finish schooling. Only one of 10 will graduate from high school. Only 29 percent of Moro children are vaccinated; out of every 1,000 children born in Muslim Mindanao, 24 will die as children. (The national average is 69 percent immunized and 9.5 mortality rate.) Only 37 percent have access to safe water (the national average is 80 percent), and only 22.5 percent have sanitary toilets (the national average is 87 percent). While the national average GDP growth is 6.3 percent, in Muslim Mindanao, it is 2.7 percent. And, of 86 known private armies in the country, 43 are in Muslim Mindanao.
While almost 80 percent of municipalities nationwide have received the Seal of Good Housekeeping from the Department of Interior and Local Government, only 6.6 percent of municipalities in Muslim Mindanao have been so recognized.
Largely low-value crops from agriculture, fishery and forestry drive their economy. Banks serve only seven percent of its cities and municipalities. One million residents of working age are outside the labor force; 75 percent of them are women, and 25 percent of those who are employed do not get paid. The poverty incidence is 57 percent, more than twice the national average, and close to a million people have no food security. Moreover, frequent displacements from armed conflict have caused poverty that is generational.
In other words, Muslim Mindanao is dirt-poor, dismally underdeveloped with few opportunities for advancement, and violence-prone — a very difficult place to live and grow up in.
The people’s vision of a just and lasting peace and development is articulated in the Bangsamoro Development Plan:
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful?We, the Bangsamoro people, under the guidance of the Almighty, envision the Bangsamoro as a just, peaceful, and prosperous society of empowered people and communities, enjoying a dignified quality of life enhanced by inclusive and sustainable economic opportunities.
In pursuit of this envisioned society, the Bangsamoro shall be supported by responsive, participatory and transparent governance systems that are reflective of the Bangsamoro’s distinct cultural identity, and right to fiscal and political self-determination.
This is a vision every society aims for, and it should not be difficult to understand if we can accept with an open heart who is expressing it. The tragedy in Mamasapano was an unfortunate event that no one intended to happen. Mistakes were made, the violence was unacceptable, deep-seated biases have been resurrected, but the situation is not untenable. We can still have peace in Mindanao if we can close ranks on the fact that close to 70 Filipinos — SAF, MILF and civilians — lost their lives in a mission that neutralized a wanted terrorist and ensured the peace and security of all Filipinos.
Do have a meaningful Valentine’s Day.
