A recent Facebook posting by Atty. Leni Robredo showing where she has been in the Philippines based on https://my-philippines-travel-level.com/map made the rounds as she has truly been in every province, which is a feat in such an archipelago. Two FB friends of mine - one formerly in government, another formerly an aid worker - came quite close though with a few white spots. My profile would be mainly Luzonian - Joe and Lance would surely win hands down when it comes to Visayas and Mindanao.
Former VP Leni once mentioned that being on the ground was far superior to relying on reports only in calamity and development situations as it gave a more accurate view. Certainly different from those who might believe that walking around the countryside is just for peasants, and might feel they are like Harrison Ford in the movie Air Force One when they fly over disaster areas. But who really knows the Philippines anyway?
It occurred to me that I have been to more islands outside the Philippines than in it, and that I know more European languages than Philippine ones. Growing up in the 1970s Philippines, I experienced a time when news of the "provinces" was rare in Manila. The Visayas were far away and Mindanao was Terra Incognita, a place of "strange beasts". Cebu Pacific budget flights were from the mid-noughties, and nowadays Boracay, El Nido and Siargao are places a lot of people have been. So much has changed really.
Before the Spanish came there certainly was a lot of trade and exchange between the small polities of the archipelago - and beyond. The galleon trade of Spanish times focused stuff on Manila, people were tied to the land by colonialism and raids from Mindanao (which had lost its business in the Spice Trade between the Moluccas and China) made the Visayas an uncomfortable place - until steam gunboats began to be used from 1848 onwards. Two centuries spent looking mostly inward and locally.
All this may have led to an attitude I often have observed of those Joe America calls Filipino 100-percenters - the "when you know you know!" attitude, the exact opposite of the Socratic principle of "I know that I know nothing" that leads to ever new insights. Parochialism is about not understanding that there are more perspectives than one's own, and that knowledge is found by putting together varying perspectives, getting an idea of where the other person is coming from. TSOH is the latter, not the former way.
This is why I fully support Karl's previous article to revive this blog, as it has been a source of insights to me and hopefully to many others. Our knowledge is ever incomplete, but the more we open our eyes the less we feel lost. Let's keep going.
Irineo B. R. Salazar
Munich, 18 April 2023
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