Documentaries from the DED

It can get depressing in manila, says Christoph Dehn, Country Director for the German Development Service (Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst or DED) in the Philippines. Though it is not his job to directly monitor common projects the German government has with varied non-government organizations and local government units around the country, he will find time to venture out of the cynical concrete jungle, where one can easily get lost in the heat of tropical summer.

But it is not so bad on the 11th floor, air-conditioned offices of the DED in Makati City, high above the sweltering throng. Dehn, whom we recognize in one of the documentaries made by young filmmaker Kidlat de Guia on the service’s varied projects released earlier this year, is telling the magazine about the German experience in the Philippine grassroots, in our time of Cha-cha, economic summits, the upcoming World Cup on cable TV.

"Strictly speaking they are not our projects," Dehn says, referring to the more than 40 ongoing link-ups the DED has with LGUs and NGOs; what the German government does is provide the technical expertise, the lead personnel or consultant to help guide the project in any one of the following areas, which the DED has been doing since 1991: environment in terms of waste and coastal resources management, and economic promotion through sustainable development by providing school and company with certification processes.

Sounds Deutsch to you? It makes better sense after watching the documentaries, and of course talking with Dehn.

Think of a school in the south in a remote island called Cabilao in Loon, Bohol, where electricity is rationed for five hours every day, and dreams of the Internet may as well remain just that: a high-tech pipe dream.

"There are many similar projects, that is, helping provide Internet access to schools by donating computers and such, but what makes ours different is the sustainability," Dehn says, adding that almost two years after the first solar-powered Internet café was set up in Loon, it is still going strong and in fact enjoying a surplus, with not just students but also residents and foreign tourists logging in. Of course, the Cabilao National High School’s academic ranking nationwide has improved by leaps and bounds since DED consultant Jens Funk helped install the Internet dish.

The kids are thankful that they no longer have to motor all the way to Tagbilaran just to do some research or online chatting.

"It’s not enough that the kids are intelligent, you have to have the materials and technology to further develop that intelligence," Dehn says.

In the first half of 2006, he says the DED is aiding seven other high schools in far-flung areas gain access to the worldwide web and all its attendant joys, from Google to Friendster. He said the funds for these are practically all internally generated, with companies such as Ayala willing to pitch in and Internet providers offering huge discounts.

Also in Bohol, in Maribojoc Bay, the Germans have made local residents more conscious of preserving the marine resources. Marine biologist Antonio Cabo, who wears a t-shirt saying "I am not an American," has helped the locals preserve the coral reefs in the bay so that future generations would still be able to fish.

"He’s still there in Bohol," Dehn says of their DED man, who has learned conversational Cebuano during the course of his stay in the central Philippine island.

Yes, Deirdre, there are fellows who have a natural facility with language.

Generally the Germans have had no problem with any political groups or vigilantes who may make it difficult for the collaborative projects, but Dehn recalls an "isolated" incident sometime last year when one of their consultants was almost killed in a fishpond altercation in Aklan. Another person was injured while the German consultant’s wife, a Filipina, was not so lucky.

"He’s back in Germany recuperating, but he’ll return here in a few months," Dehn says of their former man in Aklan, now a widower. "Of course the thing with the Philippines is there are so many loose firearms. If the other guy didn’t have a gun, maybe the worst that could happen was a fistfight."

While most of German Development Service’s project tie-ups are in the south–Visayas and Mindanao–there are a handful in the north, such as in Pampanga’s Mary Help Technical School for Women. Here is one instance, Dehn says, where the DED can give certification to schools that would produce graduates qualified to work in companies such as Sanyo and H3. At first there was resistance, because the stereotype is that electrical engineers and technicians are boys, but consultant Marion Gottman has overhauled and designed the Mary Help curriculum to make it at par with the best technical schools.

The DED works closely with the Cebu-based Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise in locating possible projects in the Visayas area. For the sticky Mindanao peace process, the DED coordinates with the Balay Mindanao.

In the documentary on the peace process, there are shots of unburied culverts and other unused equipment for a waterworks system, as well as a school that lacks a ceiling. This brings home a message all too Pinoy: poverty can be self-inflicted because of lack of political will or basic discipline to follow through.

In Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, the Germans have helped preserve the wildlife by sending in wildlife veterinarian Christina Georgii. "Bacolod has one of the best zoos in the Philippines in terms of physical infrastructure," Dehn says of the zoo that also serves as a breeding center for rare and endangered species.

Independent of the wildlife zoo but also linked to it is the touring puppet theater Christina co-founded, whose members are mostly kids from a depressed area in the city called Tinagong Paraiso. "The kids develop their creative ability" with the puppet theater, Dehn says, as the touring group make the scripts and put together the puppets in the roadshow to spread the gospel of preserving, instead of eating, wildlife.

In Bais City, the DED has supervised the construction of a sanitary landfill through consultant Johaness Paul, who has in turn guided the natives to set up a cottage industry by salvaging juice wrappers and turning them into a variety of useful bags and quilts.

"As we all know another big problem of the Philippines is what to do with much garbage," Dehn says, careful not to sound a bit metaphorical. Again, he says, it would be better if the waste management act were implemented to the letter.

Dehn is excited about two current projects now in the pipeline. One is the reforestation of 240 hectares in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, which is a long-term thrust for the preservation of the watershed. To make the project self-sustaining, residents have set up a water center where the commodity is sold at 75 centavos per 1,000 cubic meters, or related rates, which earnings will go to the cultivation and upkeep of a mixed forest consisting of mango, assorted softwood and hardwood trees.

Dehn foresees a return on investment in five to six years with the harvest of the softwood variety, and a longer period of, say, 25 years for the hardwood. "The advantage of this is there are different harvest cycles," Dehn says, and a single pestilence won’t wipe out the whole plantation unlike what happened to the ipil some years ago.

Another project Dehn is excited about is DED’s tie-up with Figaro for the certification of the Filipino company’s organic coffee. "Local production is presently short of local consumption," Dehn says, and certification would hopefully address that gap. There is also the possibility of developing and marketing barako abroad, the local strong coffee whose bean is grown only in five countries.

The DED has an agreement with a large German retailer which will definitely ease exchange of trade between the two countries, including coffee, since Dehn notes that Germans are basically coffee-drinkers like Filipinos.

Dehn, who has been in the country for four years, won’t be going back to Germany, west, Dusseldorf side near Koln, for the World Cup. He’ll be following it on cable, but is pessimistic that Kahn, Ballack and company can get past the quarters. He has many things to do in Manila, including occasional forays into the outskirts for development assistance summits, a corner kick to make life a little more bearable in these here parts.