Philippine Development Issues: An Inquiry

Reviewed by: Israela F. Padillla
IV- 18 BSE History

The book written by Avelino P. Tendero et. al tackles about the different Issues and Problems confronting the Philippine Society. It is divided into three units: Unit One: The Social Institutions and Social Interaction focuses on the roles and functions of Government, School and the Family towards the attainment of development. Unit Two: Problems of Community highlights the major issues confronting oneself, environment and society. Unit Three: Population Education talks about Population Explosion, Policies and Programs and the benefits of Family Planning in addressing the issue.To start with,these are the summary of every issue being discussed in the book.

Nationalism or Regionalism: A Choice or a Blend?

With the issue of Nationalism and Regionalism there should be a workable balance between the two. There must be a national unity but without disregard for cultural diversity. The best way that the regional and national sector should do, is that there should be sharing of skills and resources so that both of them will have mutual benefits. In like manner, success lies in the in their ability to harmonize the diversities to a point of convergence for national unity. It is therefore maintained that within the confines of the national, there should be ample room for variation-linguistic, socio-cultural, religious and ethical.

Education: It’s Purpose

Although the Philippines may have made some gains in social equality and economic growth through education, there is much more to be done because there are still educational problems and challenges which hinders us to enjoy and mobilize the education that we have to achieve and become what we want. In the economic crisis that the Philippines is facing today, the entire education should review their programs and curricula to ensure that these are capable of meeting the demands of the situation.

Communication in Modern Life

Mass Media have advantages and disadvantages in our life. It is the main medium to disseminate news and all kinds of information and plays an important role in modern education. However, with all these benefits, media is vulnerable to criticism and television has been cited as the culprit why students do not like to read and write. Even though mass media became a vital organ of our society, we should also monitor its bad effect especially to our young people. Since it is a forum for ideas as well as information, there are many conflicting versions and there are those who want to manipulate people and events through manipulation of facts. But the function of mass media and the responsibility of press as an agent  is to get the truth to the public. Since it cannot always tell what is the truth or who is telling the truth the press often has to simply put both sides and discuss for the public to judge.

Environmental Crisis

The growth  of  population, urbanization  and industrialization  are pinpointed  as  major causes  of  environmental crisis because as the city become urbanized and industrialized, the natural environment was being altered which causes to affect the old situation of the land and as these changes occur our environment was affected and somehow deteriorated. As we continuously live in this world, we must create awareness to the public because if we are concerned about the environment, it goes without saying that we also love the soil.

Poverty

 It is the lack of the means for meeting the needs of life- food, shelter, clothing and medical care. Some of us think we are poor because we can’t buy what others can and do buy but just like what other people said it is just a matter of material things that you are lacking not the relationships that you have with others because some people believe that this is the most precious treasure that people can cherish for the rest of their lives but we must remember that we should not disregard the need to meet our everyday needs because that is part of living. Some of the reasons why people are poor are because lack of skills and formal education because men who have trained to do a job are replaced by machines thus we can say that brain and skill drain is partly responsible for our country’s poverty. Next, the lack of ambition or weakness of character is one reason for poverty because the goals of the poor on the borderline of starvation are concrete and immediate. Every meal is a fulfillment and to go to sleep on a full stomach is a triumph. In short, people have no time to dream of being somebody. Finally, the low educational attainment prevalent among the parents and their juvenile delinquent children is undoubtly the offshoot of poverty.

Population Explosion and Population Policies and Programs

Population explosion or population bomb is one of the main reasons that hinder development that is why the right mix of population principles, policies and programs should be implemented. The multiplication of mankind has the effect of forcing whole nations down into poverty and misery, generating crime and letting lose the scourges of war and famine. Therefore in order to give solution to this problem, Family  Planning  is seen as a better way  to  lessen  population  explosion as well  as  the  issues  and problems obtained from it.

Critique

 As I read the book, it was not actually difficult to read because most of the concepts  they used and introduced were all defined and easy to understand for example what Development mean. Likewise, the most important thing I like about his work is that, he provide every issue with a case studies and readings that will support the issue being discussed. For instance, for the issue of Family Planning the author included Case Study entitled “The view of Letty Jimenez Magsanoc on the Catholic Stand on Birth Control.” The importance of this is that they give the opinion of one person about the issue and clarify the issues impact and what are the ways to solve the these.

          In one sentence of the book which states that “There is a strong need for concerted action and sustained interest on the part of government agencies to finally solve the housing Dilemma”. I partly do not agree with the statement because it tends to put the entire burden to the government and let them shoulder the responsibility to solve the housing dilemma. Actually, we must recognize that government indeed cannot put an end to all problems that’s why we must remember that we have an important role to do-to mobilize ourselves and participate in order to help solve the problem. What our complains can do if we do not make an action out of it. We just can’t seat and wait until an egg hatch, let’s work and get ourselves involve. Let us remember that there is no too small to make a difference.

The book for my own opinion is good and applicable to be read by everyone most specifically for people who were trying to identify the issues and problems and how to give solutions out of these challenges. There might be ups and downs but that is part of growing, we cannot attain something if we are not able to experience these kinds of challenges. No guts, No Glory only mean that without courage, there is no glory and at the end of the day we are still the one who will decide how we will face these issues and problems.

Insights

Life is a continuous journey beset with problems. As long as we live in this world, problems and troubles will always be a part and parcel of human life. We should not be dishearten when faced with problems but instead act wisely in overcoming them. No worldly-minded person can ever be free from problems. Hence, it is not so much who experiences problems that marks the difference between a wise and an unwise person, but the manner he faces them. (Dhammananda,1996). If we will put this in the Philippine context, our country is struggling with different issues and problems-high oil prices, increasing number of unemployment rate and issue in the possession of Spratly Islands but that is part of life, from womb to tomb we all have problems but the matter is that how are we were able to addressed these problems.

To sum it up, I want to end this paper by having a positive view that issues and problems may hurt at the moment, but take that pain because it will guide us out of our current situation and into something better. Problems do not have to remain a source of pain. Let them be the doorway to something new, something we may not have considered otherwise. We never know what may be waiting for us on the other side. It is time to start viewing our problems as an invitation for development.