To the countryside

President Macapagal-Arroyo is training her guns at the countryside – which is apparently her counteroffensive against her political foes. This is something that the opposition may not have considered, believing perhaps that power rests in the hands of "Imperial Manila."

Ostensibly, GMA’s provincial forays would be for the purpose of explaining to the people her call for the adoption of a parliamentary form, federal type of government. This is envisioned as an instrument for the eventual redistribution of power from the central government to the constituent units in the provinces.

The President’s support to the growing call for a review of the Constitution is expected to further galvanize moves for a constitutional change that hopefully should bring about a meaningful restructuring of our political system. This call has now become her advocacy.

But one unstated objective of her out-of-town trips will most surely be to win over to the administration side the provincial folks who remain either uncommitted or largely indifferent to the political rumblings in Manila.

Apparently, the President has rediscovered a source of hidden strength which was manifested through the very vocal support she got from the Local Government (LGU) officials and community and political leaders who filled the session hall of Congress to listen to her State of the Nation Address July 25th, applauded 33 times, and gave her five standing ovations.

The renewed attention given to the countryside is a shrewd move on the part of GMA. The opposition seems to have completely missed out on this, having concentrated their attention mainly on capturing the support of Manila-based media and of the traditionally anti-administration Metro Manilans. It is something that they will rue about in the days to come, once they realize that the President has strengthened her political base by consolidating behind her the support of LGU leaders and the provincial folks.

On the other hand, this development is being enthusiastically welcomed by both the political leaders and the people in the provinces who have long chaffed under the dominance of vested interests ensconced in the seat of power.

This could set the stage for a shift in the dynamics of political power, if not of power politics – "from the center to the countryside that feeds it," as the President so aptly put it in her speech. This would really be giving soul and substance to the idea of local autonomy, a concept as it were, that was concretized in Republic Act 7160, otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991.

Ironically, one of those who worked hard for the passage of RA 7160 was opposition Senator Nene Pimentel who, in June 2000, filed Senate Bill 2064 that seeks to strengthen local autonomy. It now appears that by vigorously pushing for the adoption of a parliamentary-federal type of government, President Arroyo has jumped the gun on the Mindanao senator, and the entire opposition.

Federalism could mean real empowerment in the countryside. And perhaps not just of the LGU officials but also of the other sectors, such as the teachers, the traders and businessmen and particularly, the farmers and fishermen who in reality produce the food that feed the people in Metro Manila and other urban centers.

Imagine if, through a federalized state with real and not just symbolic power ,the LGU units could achieve fiscal independence and the power of taxation. Imagine its effect on education, health, livelihood and job generation, and public order and security. That could really revolutionize the way government is run.

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Federalism could still be the solution to our waste management (or is it mis-management) problem. If all the barangays had the support and power to dispose of their garbage problem the right way, we should have no problem at all.

An afternoon with Odette Alcantara in her Blue Ridge QC home was one well spent as she gave us a situationer on the progress of the efforts made by environmentalists to clean and give back to mother earth what is due her. First, she showed us how many billions of pesos are being spent to manage the garbage situation – the traditional way, or how it has been done since time immemorial.

For the year 2001 alone, the cost of garbage disposal by Metro Manila local governments was P6,047,960,280. Mind you that’s more than a billion pesos that have been spent on hauling the basura from households by garbage trucks (mostly private contractors paid by the local governments) and dumping them on selected sites, like Smokey Mountain and the Payatas dumping grounds. The volume of garbage and cost of getting rid of it must have gone up tremendously during the last three years, considering the population increase in Metro Manila.

The garbage disposal system in practice is mixing all kinds of garbage – kitchen waste, baby pampers and sanitary napkins, plastic cups and glasses and styrofor fast-food containers, rubber slippers and car tires and throwing them into a dump in the empty lot next door or the neighbor’s backyard (not one’s own). Garbage collectors – poor souls – pick up the crazy, ugly-smelling basura, haul it onto trucks and dump them in sites to produce toxic ash, toxic fumes, leacheates, ipis and daga, and disease.

A number of non-government organizations, fortunately, have been working on what they call Integrated Solid Waste Management (or Basura Reform Program). Among them is Mother Earth Philippines* Caring for the Planet, a movement that gives free lectures and demos in schools and barangays on the proper way to throw garbage.

The proper way is not to throw the basura at all. Odette Alcantara, prime mover of Mother Earth Philippines, told us that garbage management starts at source – the home. Trash is placed in separate containers. The organic (food, animal and garden wastes) go into a container. Recyclable garbage go into another; these are paper except carbon paper, wax paper, shiny gift wrapper and aluminum foil, plastics, except polystyrene and doy pack, glass and metals. The residual such as polystyrene (more commonly called styrofor), doy pack, disposable sanitary napkins and diapers, rags, shoes and slippers, household toxic wastes, flashlight and toy batteries, all and pentel pen, etc., are placed in a third container, and garbage trucks are mandated to collect this.

The disposable trash is mixed with some soil in the container, or placed in holes in the ground that is covered with soil and which after a few weeks become compost that is used to fertilize plants.

This system of disposal results in no garbage problem at all.

The system does not need billions of pesos to dispose of garbage.

The system, said Odette, results in the appreciation of clean air, pure water, fertile soil. No ozone depletion. Empowered people. Moral and economic recovery.

Actually, Ecological Solid Waste Management is mandated by Republic Act 9003 which has not been – not even partially –implemented by local governments. Reason? Why, they won’t have access to the billions of pesos appropriated for garbage collection.

Some local executives have been doing wonders with their community trash, though. One is Mayor Cesar Perez of Los Baños, who has converted 70 percent of the town dump into an ecologically-sound center, and is working out a plan to solve the 30 percent residual problem. The other is Jun Macabuhay, chair of Barangay Dolores in Taytay, who turned a tambakan into a "paradise."

Former Sen. Jovito Salonga, a member for life of Mother Earth Philippines, enjoins everyone to be responsible caregivers of their environment, to be "a permanent part of this spiritual movement for earth rehab – wherever you are, as you are, the best way you know how, to help heal ourselves and Mother Earth."

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Here’s a mother who wishes to get in touch with her daughter, Agnes Aldana. Lydia Montoya has lost track of Agnes for a long time, and she misses her granddaughter Linaia. Agnes can leave her phone number and address at the Silliman Office on Kalaw St., Manila, tels. 5232993 and 5219764.

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My e-mail: [email protected]