CReDO’s Dream: Empowering the Subanons

by Theresa Limpin, Manager, TVIRD Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO)

January 16, 2008 

 
 On my first month on the job, I was asked to write an article about the dream of CReDO for the Indigenous People of Canatuan.  I found the request a challenging task. That’s why, as an advocate of the participatory management approach, I opted to ask my colleagues in CReDO about their views, about what they dream and aspire for the Subanons.  Aware that many of them had been working in CReDO for a long time before I joined TVIRD, I thought it would be good to hear, and exchange thoughts with, them about their aspirations for the Subanons.

The common response I got was: for the Subanon to  realize one day that they are already empowered and, thus, are able to take control of their destiny.  The thought-sharing exercise with my colleagues made me ponder on their responses…and appreciate the beautiful words in those responses...  It also made me realize that what we aspire for, for our gracious hosts, will be a long, arduous journey.

Getting to know the residents in the Subanon village where TVIRD operates has become my favorite past time. One day I crossed paths with a middle-aged Subanon mother with several children in tow. I asked her “Ilan ang anak mo?” (How many children do you have?) She replied with an impish smile:  “Lima pa lang po”  Only five yet. I wonder how she can be so confident as to raise so many children in a place where opportunities are so few. I wonder what parents like her in Canatuan wish their children to become.  Pretty difficult, I suppose, for a people who aren’t sure yet what they envision themselves to become as a cultural community.

One morning, a well-respected elderly Subanon woman approached me as I emerged from a Managers’ Meeting.  She begged me to take in one of her children as a CReDO employee, “even it’ll just be for a utility man or messenger post.”   It broke my heart to learn that sons and daughters of Timuays (village chieftains) are willing to become servants in their own ancestral domain.  When I asked the mother if her children are still studying, she replied that they had to stop because of financial difficulties.  I told her that CReDO would rather send her children back to school under TVIRD’s scholarship program.  This, I said, will ensure that the Subanons will have a better chance of having more professionals in their midst – probably the next generation of managers, teachers, engineers, foresters, geologists or lawyers of TVIRD.

On another occasion, one sunny afternoon, as I was coming out from a meeting with officials of the Siocon Subanon Association, Inc.,  a couple hurriedly walked alongside me.  They were requesting the revival of the Adult Literacy Program, conducted by TVIRD in Canatuan some two years ago.  Pleasantly surprised, I stopped walking and asked why.  They said they wanted to learn how to read so that they can follow the lyrics on the videoke.  (Canatuan has many videoke houses – favorite hangouts of village folks after a day’s work.   It is not uncommon for people here, or in many similar poverty-stricken places in these islands for that matter, to spend their last peso in the video-karaoke machine just so they can sing their favorite “American Idol” songs for everyone to hear.
And many of them can sing well, and will have good chances of winning in singing contests!)  What the couple said made the humid day seem cool and refreshing.  Some people are really willing to go to great lengths – even to want to learn how to read late in life – for the chance to achieve their dream of becoming famous one day.

In another instance, after a Canatuan day care graduation ceremony, a father of a child who just graduated was at the Company Clubhouse.  I  engaged him in small talk.  He  was thankful to TVIRD for the Daycare Center it built and operates, and for the many projects it has provided its host and impact communities. He said that he may not have been successful in life as he had wanted to be, but all he dreams of now is for his children to achieve what he had not. He said this thought is what makes him work harder  as a TVIRD employee.

Dreaming is, indeed, one of the best things in life that are free.  Let’s keep dreaming.  But, at the end of the day, it’s what we do to achieve our dreams that will spell the difference.