There is so much misconception and mis-information about the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” Program which is now being pushed by the government for implementation nationwide.
Some say it is a knee-jerk reaction by government prompted by the difficulty it faces in controlling the spread of COVID-19 virus in the congested and over-populated urban centers.
“Balik Probinsya” is also blamed for the spread of COVID-19 in the rural areas brought by local stranded individuals who were brought home through the “Hatid Probinsya” Program initiated by other government agencies.
Others have a more malicious notion saying that it is just a political propaganda aimed at boosting the poilitical stock of its main proponent, Senator Christopher Lawrence Go and President Rodrigo Duterte.
Setting political motives and biases aside, what good will the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” Program bring to the country?
Superficially, the Balik Probinsya Program could, in the short term, help decongest the crowded urban centers as informal dwellers from the provinces are brought home to their places of origin.
There is, however, a more profound implication that the program brings which is very clearly perceived by Rural Development Advocates like me.
The greatest misfortune of this country is the fact that many of those who occupy positions in government which are tasked with critical decisions on policy directions hardly know the realities in the countryside.
Development programs are focused in the urban centers giving these areas a greater share of the national budgetary pie and in the process depriving the rural areas of the attention that they deserve.
Mindanao is a perfect example.
While it supplies 54% of the total food requirements of the country and posts a development growth of 6.6% higher than the national average, it only gets a measly 16% of the total budget.
Rural roads are sacrificed in favor of six-lane highways while the basic need of water has been largely overlooked thus stunting the growth of the agricultural economy in the countryside
With scarce economic opportunities in the rural areas, people flock to the urban centers to find jobs while poor families are forced to allow their wives and daughters to work abroad, oftentimes under exploitative conditions.
COVID 19 has reshaped a lot of things, even the thinking of the economic and development planners as they realize that a pandemic could disrupt the global food supply chain.
It also affected the millions of overseas workers who are now forced to go home because of unemployment.
The “Balik Probinsya” program marks the shift of the focus of our national development planning.
Now, everybody realizes that we have to develop the countryside to create jobs and produce sufficient food for the country.
The positive implication of this shift in the economic development mindset is immense.
With the focus now trained on developing the countryside, more economic activities are expected to provide jobs and income-earning opportunities.
Husbands, wives and daughters no longer need to leave home to work abroad and leave behind broken families.
This is the deeper implication of the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” Program.
The movement of families from the urban centers to the rural areas is just a small activity in a grand event which will transform the country’s economy from being service-oriented to production oriented.
Increased and self-sufficient local food production, rather than dependence on importation, will be the new norm.
This is the real meaning of the “Balik Probinsya” and unless critics have jaundiced eyes, it is very clear for everyone to see.
#RuralDevForInclusiveGrowth!
#YouDontHaveToLeaveHome!
(This video material is a production of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Media Team and shot in its entirety in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte.)
https://fb.watch/aJLGeZzKqE/
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