Citizenship and Governance

What are the prospects and limits of my power as a citizen?

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:03:00 +0800

Given the term “prospects,” I noticed that it has a broad scope of definition. It has different meanings base on the dictionary but as we relate it to the question, it probably means“a person regarded as likely to succeed or as a potential customer, client, etc.” Obviously, the limitation is“the action of limiting something.”

Going back to the main topic, the prospects and limits of my power as a citizen are not that accurate if you are going to compare it to other person’s. It differs based on the person’s own perspective. Having my way of thinking, I believe that the prospects are the citizen’s unity to contradict or to perform a certain act for the benefit of majority. People exercise their right to speak if they think they are being wronged. “Rally” is the term associated with this kind of unity, uttering words which they believed is right and what should be done. We are in a democratic country and the government hears the citizens’ voice and make decisions based on what the citizens’ need. When majority agree on the same thing, they follow what they want (can be seen in voting). I think that is why it is one of our prospects as a citizen but this is not absolute that all the majority needs and wants are followed by the government because we do not directly participate in the decision-making in the government; however, we have the power or voice to speak out which made some laws beneficiary to us. (I think) Another prospect of being a citizen is that we can arrange a civil war and give threat to the government if we don’t agree on what they perform. The government is responsible for maintaining the peace of a certain state so this turns them to a pet which obeys what his master says. Civil war rarely happen to a democratic country because the government avoids it so they deal with the citizens peacefully and they make agreement over a conflicting belief. Also, if you are a powerful person and has prestige, your voice can be easily heard but as a student and only has little knowledge, our prospect is by writing what we can say and by publishing it through school newspapers or showing other people that have the wits to say something about the government ways of governing our country. I believe that a citizen’s prospects is not that visible if alone and not in masses. That is my first limitation of the power. Also if not all, many, of the government officials will not hear the voice of an informal settler who is begging for a job, maybe if majority of them begged or maybe if it became open and known to all citizens through media, the government will be there to rescue those people. Having this point of view, as a student, I do believe that my voice isn’t so powerful to make the government follow what I want and will not able to give me all I need.

I conclude that the citizen’s prospect is having masses of citizens agreeing in one belief while the limitation is the absence of other people to support you. I think the best example of this is the “Kony 2012,” that one person who started and aimed to help those people in Uganda knew that having no one on your side, will bring nothing so he made “Kony 2012” known to all people through social networking sites and also by posters, videos, bracelets, and other things. He knew that if he will do that, many people will stand on his side and will be willing to help those children thus making the U.S. Government agree to deploy U.S. Army to Uganda to help arresting Kony. Giving this example, I believe that everyone can understand what I mean.

What major insight have I gained so far from my on-going experiences in engaging in the initiative?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:51:59 +0800

Taking the initiative to be involved with their projects seemed to be really wonderful because it is good to help people who are in need. On our first visit on Sta. Mesa, we talked to the head of ULAP, President Morales, August 1 which made us more informed about their on-going projects and project-in-appoval of the government. There were currently no on-going projects which involves ULAP, their projects will start on the last week of August, some of their projects are still being discussed on their meeting. We were a bit worry when we heard it but it was still nice that we are informed not too late about it. We told the President that we need an on-going project because we only have limited time to be involved in it. Mr. Morales suggested that we could be involved in a certain barangay in Sta. Mesa which is also monitored by them. We decided to agree with him but our goal didn’t change, it was still the same except the scope of our project was limited for just a barangay. Obviously on that day we can’t start doing the project because the time will not be enough. We got there at around 2 in the afternoon and we had a small discussions regarding the projects they are exhibiting. We arranged a date on when to do the project. It was scheduled on August 10,2012.

As you can see, that week was the week of disaster which was brought by the monsoon. Sta. Mesa is a place which always experience flash floods so we expect that our project will be postponed but since the weather seemed good on that day and the flood already subsided, we decided to continue our project. However, what we did didn’t go as planned. The people there seemed to be agonizing. It is understandable because when we got there, the people were just recovering from the flood. Some of their things were outside their houses which is being cleaned and some are being dried such as books and notebooks that were wet because of flood. Their clothes were all hung in their ceilings to dry. That day wasn’t a good day to do a livelihood project. Mr. Morales was not there because he is having a meeting so her wife was the one who guide and cooperated with us. We thought of giving them relief goods since they were just recovering from the flash floods and they have no enough money to buy everything that they need. Even we were just 5 people, we gave the maximum amount we can give in order to give them their primary needs like potable water, rice, noodles and biscuits. The place accommodates 97 families and we were slightly afraid that our food will not be enough for them but still we made a way to give goods to all families in that area.

Having as such experience is making my mind open to all conditions of life. I saw that those people are living near the river and their houses are not made of cement, they are just ply woods, and roofs. I came to know that there are still many Filipinos who are suffering from poverty and I think the government should not only focus on the places which are still suffering from flash floods but should also give hand to the people who are poor or informal settlers which also suffered from flash floods but subsided soon because these people don’t have the capability to recover from it like other people who have money to buy what they need. I also believe that those informal settlers are the one who suffers most from the disaster. I experienced giving relief goods personally so governance is never absent on that case because we are the one who assigned specific person for a specific task. We also governed the people in that are to form a line so they can get their relief goods. I realized that if the governance is good, everything will go smoothly. I am also thankful for the people in that are because everyone cooperated with us. That relief operation will not go as smoothly as we had if the people were all aggressive and want to race just to get food. Also the wife of Mr. Morales was a big help for us. She was the one who told and gathered everyone for the relief operations.

What do we hope to achieve?

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 00:39:31 +0800

Well, as a group we have the same prospects or goal that we hope to achieve which is not mentioned in our report because of our change in NGO. We reported about CO Multiversity but since they weren’t able to respond to our initiative to be involved in their on-going governance project, we tried to find another NGO. We have chosen ULAP (Union of Local Authorities in the Philippines) which focuses on Urban Poor; however, ULAP is not an NGO; it is an association of LGU Chiefs or Mayors and their subordinates. But we are allowed to do our governance project with them. They focused on livelihood projects so we should be involved in improving their way of working to earn a living. Our group goal is to help people who are in need which are the poor. We are involved in a project which aims to give them a moment of relief on their financial problems. We decided to be involved in rag-making project which can help them by selling it to the people around but we will be the one who will make it. We will also provide the resources which are old clothes, thread and needles, and scissors so they will not be bothered by finding where to get old clothes when they were still wearing their clothes which they got 5 years ago or so. We don’t want to give them problem on where to get those materials that we need to use for rag-making. We will already provide it so their job is only to sell those and the money they can get is wholly for them. We will act as a producer of rags which in turn will not get any amount from them but the payment for us is their moment of being relieved by the service we can give them. I do believe that this will help them even a little. I think this will also be fun because for me, helping people and seeing their smile makes me feel at ease.

"What Bothers me?"

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:02:00 +0800

I am a girl who lives in San Pablo City, Laguna for about 16 years and it’s not my first time to be away from my homeland but it bothers me that I am staying here in Manila for 2 weeks and it gives me an irritating feeling that I am living with an environment which is not as good as our environment there. Manila is the capital of the Philippines but why does Manila looks very poor, I am not talking about the tall buildings, establishments, etc. but I am talking about how people live here, there are so many people who are living on streets, they have nowhere to sleep and just ask for money from other people, also garbage is everywhere! I just can’t understand why people like to throw their trash just everywhere even we are the ones experiencing its consequences, so why do it? When it rains here, even if it is not heavy, streets experience floods and it is almost anywhere. I think this is normal here because people are used to it but I am not that’s why I think I am complaining. Living here in Manila bothers me because I really prefer to live in a small province at least it is not polluted as Manila and not as crowded as here. I miss the cool breeze of Sampaloc Lake, I miss the trees where I used to look at when studying, I miss the road where I used to pass by when going to school, I miss the time when I enjoyed riding the tricycle with my friends. Riding tricycle here in Manila does not feel good instead I am just irritated by the filthy air. Aside from the environment, what really really bothers me is that I am not staying with my family. I really miss them, maybe that’s also the reason why I am bothered about the place here. I miss my mom. I miss her reminders (she always remind me the things I need to do) I miss how she prepares things for me. In short, I just miss to be on her side. I also miss my brother even though I think he hates me, I just don’t know why. Of course I miss my dad but he’s in Australia for work. Actually my first time to live on another place is when we stayed at Doha, Qatar for a month and my family is with me so maybe I just didn’t feel that the place bothers me because I am happy being with them. As of now, I am still a college student and I am studying at De La Salle University so I need to stay here in Manila for my studies, maybe if I get used to live here, this thing will not bother me anymore. It is just that I am staying here for just 2 weeks, maybe time will change my mind and my point of view.

People are different, so we have different tastes and preferences so I hope people from Manila will not criticize my statements. I am just stating what I feel and also I hope that you will not take it personally. I also like Manila in terms of mall, and other things but I just don’t like to live here.