(A personal account written in 2005.)

Yesterday I visited a remote barangay in the mountains of Pilar, Sorsogon.  I traveled with Jesa, the Assistant Training and Monitory Officer of the micro-finance organization I work with, the People’s Alternative Livelihood Foundation of Sorsogon, Inc. (PALFSI).  We had a meeting scheduled with the barangay captain to get his permission to help the micro-businesses of his barangay by giving out small, low-interest loans of $50 to $100 to the most underprivileged entrepreneurial operations.  I’m starting to be a fan of micro-finance because it promotes and empowers the poorest members of a community by helping them develop a business they themselves created, so that they can provide the basic necessities for their families.  I think that only when survival is guaranteed can people look beyond those immediate needs to their communities, to their countries, and to others all over the world.  I can go on and on about this, but I particularly wanted to share with all of you my thoughts when I visited this remote barangay.

I asked Jesa if there are a lot of NPA in Pilar and she said “yes”.  The New People’s Army (NPA) is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).  She said she was concerned about the PALFSI employees because they travel all over the province carrying the loans that they give out to the people.  I thought about it and I wondered why the NPA would want to hurt the people, because that would just be suicide.  From my readings on the NPA, it is not an isolated entity.  Its members depend on barangays to feed them and provide them shelter.   They do not reside permanently in the forests because then how will they ever recruit more members and achieve their long-term goals.  If they ever abuse the people or take advantage of them in any way, it is self-sabotage and will guarantee the demise of the NPA because it will not have any support.

I had so many thoughts about the NPA when I was up in those mountains, but I also thought about how its residents would react to Communism.  The NPA and the CPP originated with Mao Tse-Tung thought.  They are struggling for a National Democratic Revolution which is, according to Mao, the prerequisite for a Communist state for a dominantly agrarian country, such as the Philippines.  Socialism, as expressed by Marxism-Leninism, is a necessary step for dominantly industrial countries.

I do not think the people of the Philippines would want to live in a Communist state for three main reasons. 1) Communism wants to eliminate all private property.  I think Filipinos would want their own plot of land they can call their own. 2) Communism is against an economic system that has wages or salaries.  I think Filipinos would work for wages, as long as they’re decent wages, a living wage.  They would be happy if their earnings were enough to support their families.  3) Communism wants to eliminate profit.  I think Filipinos would accept profit, as long as it is secondary to the interests and livelihood of the workers.  Ever since profit’s inception, it has been insufficiently regulated, which has led to endless cases of exploitation, corruption, and injustice.

I think the ONLY reason why the people of the Philippines join the NPA and the CPP is because there is NO OTHER clear alternative to the current system.  They become radical because they are desperate.  I’m very interested in micro-finance because it surprisingly has the support of both the elites and the masses. PALFSI is part of the umbrella organization, Opportunity International, which is endorsed by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the World Bank, and many of the biggest multi-national corporations.  Yet, I’ve researched the socialist state of Venezuela and I was surprised that micro-finance organizations are supported by the Hugo Chavez government, which is one of the most anti-US, protectionist, and revolutionary systems in the world today.  Micro-finance may very well be the alternative that Filipinos want.  I still have a lot more I want to learn though.

Jonathan Lorenzo participated in the Filipino American Youth Leaders Fellowship Program offered by the Ayala Foundation.