Synergeia in Saranggani

It is almost noon in General Santos City, and I am at an internet cafe opposite the Notre Dame University campus. Its signage still identifies it as the Dadiangas campus, after the former name of GenSan.

Woke up before 5 this morning to catch the 7 am flight. My companions and I checked in at the Isla Parilla Resort across the border in Saranggani province, but immediately drove back to GenSan to look for internet access.  We are here for a workshop on assessing lifeskills, as part of the Alternative Learning System component of the EQuALLS education project.

The resort has a good ambience, with cottages built on stilts on top of former fishponds. But there is no WIFI access, and there is only one computer that we can use at 100 pesos per hour. Here at the cafe, an hour costs only 12 pesos.

On the way to the city, my companions wondered aloud how we managed to be productive when we had not yet gotten used to the internet. That was barely a decade ago. Now we feel inadequate, though we shouldn’t. Getting used to being wired creates new capabilities, but also new vulnerabilities.

The issue of the digital divide and what technologies are  appropriate for learning are sure to come up when we discuss the programs for out of school youth, especially in the rural areas of Mindanao.

On the plane, I sat beside someone who looked vaguely familiar. He also kept glancing at me, but decided to ask my name just a few minutes before we landed. He said he thought I might be “Father Ed” but wasn’t sure, until he observed me reading the whole time in between dozing off. He introduced himself as Joshua Loyola, former Passionist priest. “You lectured to us seminarians before martial law,” he told me, “and I have read your writings. I sometimes wish I hadn’t listened to you, since that was what got me involved in the movement.”

He said that with a half-smile, which became even more meaningful when he told me that he is currently working with Migrante International. That got us talking about the national democratic movement and the debates and splits that have happened. We shared the wish that dialogue lines should remain open. “The left can learn from the history and lessons of the ecumenical movement,” I added. It should be possible to have diversity and even disagreements, without mutual excommunication.

“Why don’t you write a sequel to your book Touching Ground, Taking Root,” he asked me. I urged him, in turn, to do some writing himself about his experiences.

“But some people are more able to reflect on what activists have gone through since 1986,” he said. I told him that I am thinking of doing a bit more writing as I approach my 65th birthday this July.

Much earlier at the airport, I was approached by General Ferrer, commander of the Sixth Division. I got to know him through the “bridging leadership” program of AIM. He was worried about the recent statements of the MILF, which seem to make the prospects of peace dimmer. But he also expressed his reservations about the AFP statements that equate victory with eliminating the armed rebels. “We should articulate our victory in terms of attaining peace,” he said. “That is a goal that can mobilize more stakeholders.”

That conversation about war and peace in Mindanao is a backdrop to my stay here in Saranggani. I am here because Nene Guevarra has asked me and ELF to help in designing and implementing ALS for out of school youth in the project areas assigned to Synergeia – Marawi City and some towns of Lanao del Sur, some towns of Sulu, and some towns of Maguindanao and Sharif Kabungsuan.

Synergeia’s main program is still the reform of the formal school-based education system. But I am glad that in this second phase of EQuaLLs, there is greater attention to the needs of the out of school youth.

I hope that I can bring to it the lessons learned from the TESDA programs we had for the children of MNLF fighters and the OSY in their communities.

The resource persons at the workshop are from Boston, and they introduced us to an assessment tool which they call “DAP.” At first we thought DAP refers to the Development Academy of the Philippines, but they explained that it means “Development Assets Profile,” from the SEARCH institute in Minnesota.

We are spending three days on DAP, to find ways of adapting it to the specific situation of the OSY in Mindanao and in the ARMM. The resource persons encourage us to exercise healthy skepticism toward it, but my initial impression is that DAP can be a useful complement to the more academic tests given to OSY by the DepEd. Despite efforts to improve the test, its questions are still biased toward classroom performance, rather than life performance.

Besides, why should we narrowly limit achievement and success to passing a paper and pencil exam, especially among OSY?

Although the DAP does not refer explicitly to “appreciative inquiry” and the theory of “multiple intelligences,” the  underlying principles are similar. The self-assessment of the OSY before and after the program focuses on four categories of external assets and four internal assets that are spelled out in 40 items. 

Tomorrow, we travel to a nearby barangay to observe how the DAP is administered to a group of OSY. I look forward to learning how it can be used also for our work with the Ayta youth in Zambales and the child-workers in the sugar plantations of Negros.

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