THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippine archipelago is made up of 7,107 islands; located in Southeastern Asia between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam.
Sulu Province, the 500 islands and islets of the province stretch 190 miles from Borneo to Philippines and form both a geological and a historical bridge between the two. The region has scarcely been touched by tourism, and few Filipinos in the north even take much interest in these remote islands.BASILAN PARADISE,
BASILAN PARADOX
6:45am Zamboanga Pier
We board a ferry for Basilan island, about a 45 minute ride. The pier is just across the waters from our Lantaka Hotel, nestled in those palm trees you can see on the rightside of this photo.
Our ferry was packed, with workers from Zamboanga City heading to Basilan. I sat at the back of the ferry, outside, to take in the beauty and calm of the morning."DON'T GO, DON'T GO!" Why??
Don't go! We were warned by various security sources. The Mindanao region, especially the ARRM region, has carried this warning for all Americans and tourists for many years now, even as cities like Zamboanga and islands like Jolo and Basilan have tried to shake the stigma. The threat? When asked, many cry, "Muslims! Muslims!!" Since the Islamic Muslims of Mindanao have been twarting outsider (Spanish, Dutch, French, Americans) dominance for centuries, their notoriety as warriors and fighters has stuck.
It is here also that the the Philippine Government faces threats from three terrorist groups on the US Government's Foreign Terrorist Organization list. In 2006 and 2007 the government's military scored some major successes in capturing or killing key wanted terrorists. Decades of Muslim insurgency in the southern Philippines have led to a peace accord with one group and an ongoing cease-fire and peace talks with another. The Philippine government has stationed troops by the thousands throughout Mindanao and Sulu. At the same time, USAID/Philippines is infusing the region with development projects involving infrastrucure building and education programs to help the vulnerable youth and insurgents tired of warring who want to return to a normal life. There are rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or MILF, which is fighting for an independent Muslim state.
There are also renegade rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF. Once the largest Islamic separatist group in the Philippines, the MNLF signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government in 1996, but not all its members agreed.
And then there is the Abu Sayyaf, made up of Islamic fundamentalists -- extremists compared to the MILF and MNLF -- and renegade members of both. For almost 30 years, these groups have been engaged in an insurgency for the formation of an Islamic state, independent of the predominantly Christian Philippines.
Basilan is the birthplace of Abu Sayyaf,which has "franchised" its members to surrounding islands like Jolo (where one of the groups of Abu Sayyaf kidnapped tourists from a Malaysian resort in 2001 and allegedly received millions of dollars in ransom). The Basilan Abu Sayyaf are fiercer, more dogmatic, more violent.
Some 32 kidnapped foreigners and hundreds of Filipinos have, at one time or another, been in the custody and control of Abu Sayyaf, according to one report dated 2002.
We arrived an hour after our leaving Zamboanga City at Basilan island, following its northern coast for some 20 minutes, passing pole villages and thick jungles along the way.
BASILAN'S capital is Isabela City, which was our destination. Though the island is surrounded by an abundant sea and fertile lands with virgin forrests, 75% of the island's food supply has to be imported from nearby provinces. Why? Land is the problem. Some 330,000 people inhabit this land of diverse cultures. Muslims make up 71% of the population, yet Christian settlers most of whom came here in the early 1900s from the north to work for American and European planations (Dole, Firestone, and the like), own 75% of the land. Compounding the land problem, the Chinese control 75% of business. 
Greeting our ferry were these two little boys who called to us to throw our coins, which they would dive for.
Also greeting us at the pier were staff members of the Nagdilaab Foundation, a partner with Consuelo Foundation that is wroking to uplift the socieo-economic conditions of those who are marginalized in Basilan. Priorities are literacy and education, development of a culture of peace, and micro-finance projects.
Consuelo specifically funds a project that integrates technical education and employment.
Also greeting us were our escorts, PI Marines, compliments of the local security system.
Never did we feel unsafe, nor did we have any incidents to worry us on this island, home of Abu Sayyaf.
FARMLAND RESORT
Our one-day visit to Isabela City can hardly be called a visit to Basilan. The island is 533 square miles of mostly agricultural lands. It has six municipalities with 261 baranguys (towns/villages). Our convoy sped up the slopes of Isabela, passing various rubber planations and farming estates.
What a surprise to find a quaint resort up in the hills, the Farmland Resort where we would have breakfast, an orientation session with Nagdibaab Foundation, and then lunch and a Yakan cultural program.
Farmland Resort runs a youth training program where students learn aspects of running a tourism/hotel service business, including wait/waitress training and food service.
TOURISM? Virtually none, although I was told that every now and then a foreign couple will come and stay for a few days, sometimes for a few weeks. For some travelers, Basilan's allure is its white sand beaches; apparently Francis Ford Coppola filmmed parts of APOCALYPSE NOW on Basilan (mentioned here and there in internet stories).
Here some of the Farmland youth selling their souvenirs and Yakan wares -- another way to teach tourism as a trade.
Basilan is popular for the Yakan cloth, which ethnic Yakans weave from bright-colored threads. These cloths are also symbolizes of peace and unity.
At Farmland, Christians and Muslims work together.
BASILAN YOUTH (ages 6-24):
Only 44% (70,710) attend school, while 56% (89,985) are out of school. Why? Very few employment opportunities due to stagnant industries. When youth are trained, they are assisted in getting employment on mainland Mindanao or abroad.
We heard from the Nagdibaab Foundation head, Miriam Suacito, a trained psychologist who organizes trauma-healing sessions for war widows and orphans and for former hostages of the Abu Sayyaf.
We also heard from several youth who have benefitted from the Integrated Educational Assistance for Out-of-School Youth in Basilan. 288 have graduated; 173 of them are employed or self-employed.
And from the Make A Connection: Nurturing Future Leaders project.
Through this Nagdilaab and Consuelo project, 21 youth are engaged in livelihood projects; 7 are enrolled in formal school; 6 are employed (2 local, 4 abroad); 2 are teaching; and others are engaged in community work.
THE RIDE INTO ISABELA CITY
SOME THOUGHTS: How much of Isabela City we saw, I don't know. It was straight to our destination, and right back to Farmland for lunch. What I can tell you is that what I saw impressed me. This may be among the poorest places in the Philippines, but it can proudly claim it is one of the cleanest. When I became aware of the cleaniness of the city, I asked one of our guides about it, having been used to seeing the squalor elsewhere. Apparently, a government program that awards baraguays (villages) for their efforts to keep clean and look clean is at work here. Even so, you can't make people do it if they don't want to. What I saw in this cleanliness was a pride in who these people are and in where they live. Indeed, apart from the poverty and Abu Sayyaf casting a shadow over this island, and with its slow progress towards economic prosperity, Basilan seemed to me a perfect paradise -- beautiful from mountain to shoreline, a potential ecotourist spot. Ah the paradox. 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION CENTER
A short visit to meet the students and see their center. We saw no women here; not sure if it's exclusively for boys or that girls are just not that into welding and things.
I was told by one of the teachers as we were leaving that they really need computers to train on.
Then a stop at Infante hospital, where Nagdilaab Foundation sends trainees (no photos).
Another stop at the offices of Nagdilaab Office where we met students and saw some of the art created using bullet casings. Turning war into peace. Angels were my favorite transformation of these bullet sculptures. (sorry, no photos)
LUNCH TIME AT FARMLAND
Let's talk food. Yes, we ate and ate and ate wonderful regional cuisine. There were no bad meals; I'd say all of it was equally good, sometimes exotic, but mainly foods I was used to my mom cooking for our family.
Let me quote Carlos V. Francisco from the website PAGKAING PINOY:
Philippine cuisine is as diverse as the different cultural groups that make up the Filipino people. It is flavored by a rich variety of herbs and spices found all over the islands. Aside from the many tropical fruits and vegetables grown in the mountains and plains, fish, meat and poultry are also a major part of the Filipino diet. Rice is a staple food.
Contact with foreign cultures resulted in interesting blends of flavors with Philippine cuisine. Spanish and Chinese cooking are among the many influences on Filipino food preparation. http://www.seasite.niu.edu/TAGALog/Tagalog_Default_files/Philippine_Culture/Pagkaing%20Pilipino/Philippine_cuisine_fs.htm
Our time at Farmland ended with a performance of Muslim dances from this region. In the dances of the Moro (Muslim) tradition, the colorful costumes transport you back in time and the sound of gongs, when they are a part of a dance, take you to rhthmic movements unique to the Muslim culture. 
The Yakan dances we saw here are among the colorful contributions of Basilan and other areas Mindanao and Sulu. Muslim ethnic dances and music are known for their mysticism, royalty. Their dances involve complicated hand and foot movements. Accompanied by the agong and kulintang, Filipino Muslim dance is marked by not only intricate hand and arm movement but also with shimmering costumes. To see a beautiful website dedicated to Muslim dances of the Philippines, go to this link:
SOME THOUGHTS: I grew up in a Filipino American family that had very little exposure to traditional Filipino culture because we were Americans first, Hawaii-born second, and Filipinos last. Every now and then we would see a Philippine dance troupe or attend a Filipino event that celebrated our culture through traditional dances. We were observers; that is until we went to live in the Philippines. My dad's new station was a US military advisory group (JUSMAG) in Quezon City, and we would live there from 1963 to 1967 when we returned to Hawaii. I spent all four years of high school there, at the American School in Makati. Most of my friends were either the Americans at the high school or the rich Filipinos we hung with. Living in the Philippines brought my mother's homeland culture all that more close to us. My sisters and I felt the culture permeating our skins in many ways. From foods to PI relatives to our new lifestyle, our immersion in to Philippine life was real and lasting.
My sisters and I, in costume, followed a script that ended in us doing a few Filipino dances that we had learned. I never felt more Filipino! And so when I saw these dances in Basilan, it brought me back to that moment. Not that I had danced the same dances but that I remembered dancing something Filipino. How strong our DNA memories can be! 
I especially thought of my sister Terri, a world traveler who I know would appreciate the beauty and remoteness of this place. Mom would like it too; it feels like her kind of place. Clean, cultured and beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment