Guest Editorial

A VISION OF THE FUTURE

 

            If it were a line graph, imagine a steep rise settling on a plateau of awards and honors gained principally in the last ten years. Steered by a strong leader and council whose terms invariably spanned with those of three presidents of the country, including the present, the challenge today is, “Quo vadis, Lagro?”

            Where is Barangay Greater Lagro headed for is a question that confronts incoming leaders after Atty Renato U. Galimba bows out at the expiration of his three consecutive terms as Barangay Chairman in about two months time. 

            Chairman Galimba will be leaving behind a village metamorphosed into a complex community that spontaneously grew up during its 21-year history as one of the most progressive urban barangays not only in Metro Manila but in the Philippines.

            Simultaneous growth of adjoining barangays, principally North Fairview and Pasong Putik Proper, saw the rise of three giant shopping malls -- SM, Robinsons, and Fairview Terraces; four big academic institutions led by Our Lady of Fatima University, STI and AMA University; and a growing number of houses of worship, hospitals and clinic, business establishments, SMEs, modern residences, and entertainment centers, among others.

            Before the decade ends, MRT 7 shall then have connected through Regalado Highway, Quirino Highway, and Commonwealth Avenue the whole area complex. It is a main thoroughfare in Barangay Greater Lagro to Mindanao Avenue and the Neopolitan Business Park.

            Barangay Greater Lagro has indeed metamorphosed from a GSIS housing project in the early seventies. Today, the barangay encompasses La Mesa Dam, Hilltop Subdivision, Sitio Milan of Neopolitan Subdivision, Villa Vienna Subdivision and Lagro Subdivision, which is the biggest and the center of the barangay local government (LGU).

            As Manila grew into a metropolitan city in the sixties and seventies, inevitably the growth of its suburbs had to spread farther. Its original residents and influx of people from the provinces seeking space to breath and place to have their own homes, began to settle in new areas which included sprawling Novaliches which extends to Lagro subdivision. In spite of its distance and poor accessibility then, the area soon transformed from countryside to a vibrant urban center. Yet in the early stage, who would like to settle some twenty kilometers away from downtown Manila?

            But demography tells us why. Three generations jointly came like links in a chain, with the millennials -- those born into the new millennium and immediately thereafter -- dominating our postmodern society. On the other hand, longevity of the older generation broke all records, creating a major demographic force. This is a pattern experienced in many parts of the world which explains the birth of urban centers and growth of cities into metropolises and megapolises.

            Metro Manila is about to graduate into a megacity with a population of more than 15 million, spilling into our own Greater Lagro area with more than two million residents. Worldwide, there are 7.7 billion people in the world, half of them ensconced in urban centers, and more are on the way in a kind of exodus.

            There is an adage “All roads lead to Rome.” to describe the failure of society ruled by centralized power which explained the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, so with a dozen past civilizations, by world renown historian Edward Gibbon. Exodus to cities has been a syndrome with people moving en masse from the rural to urban areas.

            Boom in economy is associated with growth of cities. So with the standard of living, and a progressive life in general. Today the “world is wired at all its corners” by Internet. We cannot live today without the Internet. Cyberspace is the extension of our daily lives. But we cannot live without heeding to limitation.

            Limits to Growth (1972) by DH Meadow warns us of “progress gone stray,” building up into a dinosaur that led to its demise. On the other hand, more and more economies agree with EF Schumacher’s scholarly book “Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered” (1973). The phrase “Small Is Beautiful” is often used to champion small, appropriate technologies that are believed to empower people.

            “Future Shock,” a 1970 book by the futurist Alvin Toffler, defines the term “future shock” as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time,” spurred by an accelerative thrust of technology. To which FH Hornedo tersely defined our postmodernism era as “living tomorrow today in a free fall,” pointing out to man’s helplessness adrift towards an unknown future.

            Without controls the Malthusian theory warns us of a scenario of arithmetic food growth with simultaneous geometric human population growth predicted a future when humans would have no resources to survive on. To avoid such a catastrophe, Malthus urged controls on population growth.

            Our postmodern society appears to be vulnerable to socio-economic failure. While cities are the centers of education and culture, they too, are the breeding ground of poverty, lawlessness, breakdown of values. Cities are orphaned ganglia or nerve centers severed from the countryside. As a consequence both sides suffer. The parameters of

progress are visibly artificial and short-term, measured by immediate returns and not by sustainability that insures the future of the next generations.

            Lagronians of the “I Generation” (i-gen) precedes the coming of Pheonix Generation. This is the very essence in choosing the right leaders who are undoubtedly capable of carrying such responsibility and accountability to make Barangay Greater Lagro a little corner of Eden to all three generations under one roof, and in ushering the newest generation, Phoenix Generation.

            In the coming Phoenix Generation, according to futurist and sociologist, KL Dennis, humanity is entering a momentous phase in its history. Being born today is a generation of children that will radically reinvent human society, moving our culture from competition, control, and censorship toward connection, communication, and compassion.

            But we have to look into the brighter side of life guided by the power of the human spirit, reflected in Plato’s Republic, a Utopian society, and in the testimonies of residents that Barangay Greater Lagro is a beautiful place no other place in the world can compare.

            On a plateau where we now stand, on a pedestal of honors and awards we are proud of as Lagronians, lies around us a view far and wide that takes us to a mystery -- what lies yonder in time and space.

            Barangay Greater Lagro is a microcosm of a global community. It mirrors local and international events like the coming and passing of seasons that make history.

            Barangay Greater Lagro has the potential capability of plotting its course guided by the philosophies of Meadow, Gibbon, Toffler, Schumacher, Malthus, Plato and in real terms and most crucial of all, the philosophy of the present leadership under President Rodrigo Duterte translated down the line to the barangay level as exemplified by outgoing barangay chairman, Atty. Renato U. Galimba.

            A strong and responsive leadership though proven in the past and present, is committed to the continuity of progress, that “life must go on,” and we mean an enlightened, compassionate, loving, fulfilled -- and above all, a life by the people, for the people, of the people with the guidance of the Almighty.

            This is Barangay Greater Lagro in the making. 

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By Dr. Abe V. Rotor -- Award-winning author of “The Living with Nature Handbook” (Gintong Aklat Award 2003) and “Living with Nature in Our Times” (National Book Award 2008); Recipient “Father Jose P. Burgos Achievement Award” (2016); professor, University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University-D; former Director, National Food Authority; and Consultant on food and agriculture, Senate of the Philippines.