During a birthday party of a Filipina that I recently attended, I engaged in a conversation with a Filipina friend. She commented that she was disappointed with some former activists (activists during the Marcos dicatatorship) who were no longer involved in Philippine politics, especially at this time with Duterte as president.

I felt that this comment also pertained to me, and I was prompted to respond. So I told her that when I left the movement in 1993 I told myself then that I will stop ‘saving the world’ and just do ‘simple, little things’ for humanity and for the betterment of the world.

I told her what we (Carlo and I) are doing in a town in southern Mindanao, together with a good friend of ours (also a migrant but who had moved back to the Philippines). We have an ongoing ‘project’ in that area, that of an inclusive business through Molenaar (a rice mill). This could be a new paradigm which can concretely help poor rice farmers in the area get out of poverty. Since Molenaar started with its pre-financing for farmers last year, three (3) of the farmers have already redeemed their rice lands. As of this moment there are at least thirty (30) farmers who have invested in Molenaar.

So I told my Filipina friend that I’m actually quite excited about developing the concept of inclusive business, as one of our approaches to help poor farmers really get out of poverty. She responded that for as long as the system is oppressive and problematic (referring to Duterte’s government), that it is not possible to get the people out of poverty. And I replied “I do not intend to eradicate poverty in the Philippines. I just want to help the poor farmers in this town rise out of poverty. Those three farmers who were already able to redeem their ricelands, that inspires me and gives me hope for the future.” This is precisely what I meant when I said to myself in 1993 that ‘I will stop saving the world and just do simple, little things’.  

When I came home I still kept on thinking about that conversation I had with my Filipina friend. I started to doubt myself, why I have stopped being an activist that I was. I understand my friend’s disgust with the Duterte government. And I even shared her disgust, especially regarding the extra-judicial killings in his war against drugs, and his many sexist sneers against women. How could I not do something against this? How could I not raise a clenched fist to oppose our present government in the Philippines? “What has become of me?”, I asked Carlo referring to my seemingly passivity. And he reminded me of what Edicio de la Torre* once said about the many activists who left the movement (which included me by the way) after the split in 1993. “They only left the ‘big story’. But many of them went on to make their ‘small stories’, stories which are part of the big story.”Yes indeed, right now, my ‘small story’ are the poor rice farmers in Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao.

*For more info about Edicio de la Torre, see http://www.prrm.org/edicio-g-dela-torre.html