INTRODUCTION:
Taking it back to centuries ago, people have been able to establish a sense of belongingness and independency from the other tribes with the aid of “balangay” in which we refer currently as the barangay which seems to be their distinction from the other occupants of the land. Our first history classes taught us the basics about how that works, about the people, lifestyle, culture, and government in a barangay. It is meant to be considered as a one free land, free from other tribes’ sense of judgement, justice, and conversance. And those boundaries do not only cease from there, but there are still signs and fruits bore that are still enduring in this present time, products of the past as we may refer to it this time.
As we reach heights of advancement, the same thing had manifested with the manner how our ancestors lived, from a small barangay to a bigger one being led by someone from the “capitolio” during the Spanish era, the capitol or the municipal as we refer it contemporarily in relevance to Philippine’s government system. The sense of having a town, village, and a community is slowly pushing through and appearing to appeal to people’s interest and perspective on their way of living thus, seeing it as an improved lifestyle and mimicking it and eventually pushing it through to the society. Not that we are assuming these changes happened alone due to naturality, globalization on the same way played a significant role in the pursuant of these vicissitudes.
As a further matter, creation of the community also entails roles, some are assigned, and others were implied. According to Britannica (2020), role is the attitude and behavior expected in an individual in relation to their societal position or stature which may also reflect about their function in society, and in this case, the community. In the Philippines, being a country that practices democracy, citizens elect the leaders through their right to vote, thus, empowering the essence of choice among the candidates and the force of the majority always wins. McMillan and Chavis in 1986 mentioned in their journal Sense of community: A definition and theory that the role of community leaders is pivotal in outlining ideas that are beneficial to the community and in the same way allowing these projects to be shared with the community members in the effort to seek support from the people as well as to highlight unified effort in the aim of developing the community.
Periodically, people who have not been assigned with the leadership roles are the community members. Unlike the people’s frame of reference, community members are only to follow the policies and rules set by the leaders, in which logically, should be the case, yet this does not equally equate that their voices will be left unheard. “Members are like Creators, Critics, and Spectators in the social technographics ladder system.” (“Community Member - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics”) (Howard, 2010). Consequently, the community members are not only servants of the community who are to follow the instructions of their masters (leaders of the community), their voice, perspectives, and outlook matter in an identical prestige of the leaders. Therefore, these voices speak truth at the same time, might not be the general truth that goes with every citizen of the community, but the point that it transpired and continuously transpiring, that speaks volume of the actions that must be taken by the governing body of the community.
The inception of community requires interaction among residents and community action. And community action depicts the system of building social relationships in the aim for common community interests and maintaining local life (Wilkinson, 1999). Public welfare remains the core of community assessments, in order to name the issues and not only naming them yet, putting them as a priority in relevance to outlining projects propitious for the community.
Thus, this blog entry aims to signify that community members own a crucial point to the community they belong to. Their opinions, observations, and even experiences are worthwhile pondering in evaluating the current condition of the community which does not only serve its advantages for the leader’s awareness but for the entire community at hand, so to speak.
The blog will serve as an account of experiences and suggestions of the citizens in Marilao, the chosen community in Bulacan, Philippines, in which the researcher will assess. It intends to give name to the pressing issues the citizens of this community are facing; thus, scopes and limitations apply which are to be discussed in the next section of this blog.
SCOPES AND LIMITATIONS:
The blog tends to focus on a community which is advantageous for the analyst in terms of proximity chiefly at this height of the pandemic. The focus community of this blog is the area of Marilao, Bulacan alone, no data was gathered outside the community mentioned, thus, keeping this blog analysis limited and applicable only for the focused community. Data collection was done via an online platform with the aid of Google form in the pursuit of keeping the confidentiality of information as well as the well-being of both the respondents and the analysts and in relevance to the required platform being asked for this blog. Raw data and documents are available for perusal.
Furtherly, this blog concerned nine respondents in total coming from no particular barangay from Marilao. Respondents were chosen randomly with a lone criterion of being a citizen of Marilao, presently. Thus, this type of method aims to debar from biased outcomes. The respondents were limited to its number with the adherence to the requirement set for this blog.
DATA GATHERING:
The data collection is mainly supported by an online survey which has been sent to the respondents. The survey sent is identical to each respondent with an initial disclaimer in relation to confidentiality and privacy of their information. Respondents were initially briefed as to how the data will be utilized; consent was asked before performing the survey.
The first section of the survey includes the exposition of the following:
Survey Disclaimer
Data usage, Collection and Storage
Consent (I Accept button)
At the second section of the survey, respondents were asked to fill in the following:
Name
Gender
Educational Attainment
Profession
Age
Birthdate
Community Issues
Facets the local government can still improve on
Suggestion for resolution
The data gathering process used random sampling as its methodology. “Random sampling is a part of the sampling technique in which each sample has an equal probability of being chosen. A sample chosen randomly is meant to be an unbiased representation of the total population” (The Economic Times, n.d.). The analyst chose this sampling method to observe unbiased and impartial outcomes free from the event of manipulation of data. In addition, the data collection process resorts to this method with relevance to the time frame set for the blog making it expedient for the analyst and for the outcome to be produced at the same time given that the respondents were chosen in a lone criterion, location based. The presentation of data gathered will be presented and analyzed in the next section of this blog.
PRESENTATION OF DATA:
A. Age Distribution among the Respondents
B. Percentage of the Respondents’ Gender
C. Percentage of the Respondents’ Profession
D. Percentage of the Respondents’ Educational Attainment
E. Percentage of Community Issues according to the Respondents
DATA ANALYSIS:
The previous section contains the presentation of data that consists of the following:
a. Age Distribution among the Respondents
b. Percentage of the Respondents’ Gender
c. Percentage of the Respondents’ Profession
d. Percentage of the Respondents’ Educational Attainment
e. Percentage of Community Issues according to the Respondents
The data shows that most of the respondents are in the age groups 11-20 years old and 21-30 years old representing the majority of the respondents (see Chart A). And other respondents were from age groups ranging from 31-70 years old. With these, it can be pondered that most of the respondents are from the working-age population (15-64 years old) in accordance with the age structure defined by Ritchie and Roser in 2019. Thus, further discussion in this analysis will tackle the background of the respondents for better understanding of the community issues stated.
Proceeding to Chart B, it can straightforwardly be seen that 66.7% of the respondents recognized themselves as women, and 33.3% recognized themselves as men. Before advancing with this, it is noteworthy to fathom that the survey utilized ‘preferred pronoun’ in asking for gender, it is significant to realize as well that gender is a social construct which is far different from sex which is based alone on biological and physiological characteristics, male and female as we refer it. The blog requires to know the gender of the respondents leading the analyst to the utilization of preferred pronoun in asking for the respondents’ gender. Moreover, even with this, the percentage depending on sex remains the same with the percentage mentioned beforehand, 66.7% are female, and 33.3% are male.
In a study of Smith (2008), it has been found that survey response and non-response trends do exist with respect to traditional modes of survey administration. As a further discussion, it stated there that generally, more substantial and educated people are highly likely to engage in surveys than less educated and less affluent individuals. Additionally, women are more likely to engage in answering surveys than men, and younger people than older ones, in which in this analysis, very apparent. The analyst sent the surveys to possibly 20 respondents who are citizens of the focused community and only nine surveys were returned.
Moving forward, Chart C signifies the representation of the profession of the respondents. The analysis of Chart A shows that most respondents belong to the working age population yet from this representation (Chart C) it battles that most of the respondents are still undergraduate students. Hence, the working age group population only defines it as the working group depending on the age bracket, and the main basis was the legal age to work, which also is being implemented in the Philippines, 18 years old and above. It can be realized as well that undergraduate students are soon to be professionals and part of the working population. Undergraduate students represent the majority of the respondents which is cohesive to the study of Smith in 2008 that there are certain trends, behaviors, and categories to survey response and non-response and that can be related as well to Chart D, which depicts the percentage of the respondents depending on their educational attainment. Most of the respondents are attending universities, some have already finished tertiary education, and high school education, in that essence, sense of literacy is already present in terms of fathoming the events and occurrences in the society and in their community. In this manner, one of the purposes of educational structure and systems to equip individuals with competencies requisite in imparting with the society (Massing & Schneider, 2017).
Hence, the number of respondents might not equate to the huge population of Marilao, Bulacan at 254,453 by 2020 Census according to PhilAtlas, but the issues tackled by the respondents still weigh something about their community and not just stated without basis, thus, the respondents' answers have something to do with their experiences, observations, and encounters.
Thoroughly, the analyst examined the data presented into grouping what are the issues that are most mentioned in the raw data collected (documentation folder). From there, the community issues chart (Chart E) has been created. Community members are not only receiver of actions, static, and unchanging, they are also variable for change as they can also be considered contributors, critics, and influencers of society (Howard, 2010).
The community issues stated are as follows: (see Chart E)
Improper Waste Disposal
Flood Control
Poor Information Dissemination
Unclean Water Supply
Abuse of Authority
Lack of Community Projects
Security
Polluted Marilao River
Unemployment Rate
Traffic Jam
Neglect of Dress Policy
Most of the respondents who are also citizens of Marilao initially written the improper waste disposal in the community as one of the issues that should be prioritized. Tackled in this issue is the waste incurred by industries near the Marilao River which has been considered as one of the “World’s Worst Polluted Places” as given into account by PureEarth earlier known as Blacksmith Institute (Blacksmith Institute, 2007). Not to mention the throngs of factories as well who are residing all over the area of Marilao. Here is a comment left by one of the respondents appealing not just to the physical waste of factories but to its aerial waste as well contributing to the pollution around the area as well as impacting the health of the residents.
“Not taking action of the unpleasant odor due to the nature of the factory's operation. (It has been years that I think it is being ignored and allow it to just part of the way of traveling, however I find it disturbing that I think they have to reprimand factories causing it because it is unhealthy for people and significantly for the environment.)”
-Respondent #2
Moreover, a question left with this is how the local government unit is permitting businesses to operate with the presence of such complaints and experiences of the Marileños. In addition to this, the second most stated issue of the respondents is the flood control system in Marilao. Flood control in the community is commonly associated with the reconstruction of roads, seemingly, public consumer of television news or even digital ones are not surprised whenever the community of Marilao is being broadcast with human-height or beyond flood being it a common scenario during the typhoon season.
“Lahat ng daan nataasan na ung part na lng ng daan samen ang hindi pa.”
-Respondent #4
Flood plans in Marilao rely on the construction of roads alone, the main roads so to speak, leaving other compound and residential areas behind and being the catch basin of flood water during typhoon season. It is usual to see in the community of Marilao, houses that are seemed to be low, low in such a way that you will see their windows already reaching the ground, an implication of road heightening so as an impact, the residents are left with no choice but to level their houses with the roads just not to be the catch basin of flood water, a band-aid solution, indeed. Not that it is only affecting the day-to-day living of the Marileños but this served as well as a threat for the health of the citizens given that 31% of the entire diseases documented in the Philippines are originating from contaminated waters. According to (Malenab et al., 2016), a number of 55 Filipinos every day suffers from 153 diseases accounted due to unclean water quality and poor sanitation.
Poor information dissemination as well has been one of the dilemmas the respondents are facing. It is one facet that can be considered significant as well in notifying people about the programs or plans of the government, in that way, people will also be able to assess those programs to see if it really fits the public welfare or otherwise. Moreover, this could have been beneficial in disaster risk reduction as the implementation of effective dissemination of information could lead to preventing higher risks of damage of resources and infrastructure in times of disaster. Additionally, this is being associated with the lack of community programs, as the citizens are left uninformed, the citizens were not able to see if there were programs that really went successful, or at the very least, were implemented in the first place. Other issues tackled by the respondents are security, which refers to the general security around the community, one of the respondents mentioned an experience in relation to this:
“Security is not really tightened. (Going out even at late night would not have been scary and unsecured if incidents relative to people with bad motives is given enough attention to ensure that they will be held liable and impose the right sanction.)”
-Respondent #2
Maslow's 1943 paper titled A Theory of Human Motivation introduced the hierarchy of needs. (“I Have Needs Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Psychology Mug | Etsy”) Being second from the lower level of the hierarchy is safety. It is next to the lower-level needs, it is the necessity of people to feel protected and secured which may be associated as well with emotional stability and well-being. Moreover, citizens will always feel the necessity to feel safe from the community they belong with, safety makes the citizens foster trust again with the community.
Other issues mentioned included the unemployment rate in relation to the emergence of various industries. An emphasis given is that Marileños are not being prioritized in their own community in terms of job distribution. Factories are surfacing around the area but not jobs. According to DOLE (Department of Labor and Employment) Regional reports for 2022, a seller and manufacturer in Japan is reportedly investing P3.2 billion for the plant expansion of its local licensed builder in Marilao, Bulacan with an estimated 5,200 jobs required to support this industry. Hence, this will serve as a new opportunity for the people in Marilao to wait for.
CONCLUSION:
It is almost non-negotiable to mention that every community owns a dilemma of their own. Well, seeing it from a bird’s eye view might limit the capacity of an individual to discern the situation from the land. This blog allowed a worm’s eye view to set foot into giving voices to the citizens, the members of the community, which serve as the observers, spectators, and the critics of society (Howard, 2010). Most times, citizens are just allowed to watch, in the standard lens and framing, citizens were just there to observe without the expectation of being heard.
Being a member is being a part of something, it is partaking oneself as a part of a whole. Being a citizen does not equate to being just an observer but also as a contributor which could have signified a better community, a better society. Thus, a significant thing to ponder is that public welfare will always be the core of community assessments, this serves as an opportunity for critical issues to be heard and in the same way, addressed.
Contemporarily, the idea of being a member is already transcending. The citizens are now out of the standard frame, people ought to take a glimpse, stories to be told are now not caged but rather going out of the box, but it is the purpose of tales, right? To be freed and to be told.
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