Carving the Future in Community Colleges

          I wrote about a remote community college three years ago while sitting at a fast food restaurant in the Katipunan area.  I was then wrestling with the stark difference between students of the top two universities in the Philippines and students from a community college in our 4th class municipality in Bicol.  The community college was only in it's third year of operations then.

          At least two friends affirmed the need to help the countryside through our respective skills, education, and experience after reading that post.  One of them works at the Advanced Science and Technology Institute - DOST while the other is a regional GMA News television reporter.

          Their responses were a great encouragement and affirmation for what I have been wrestling with.  That was an achievement by itself and I thought that was the end of my musings on community colleges as vital instruments in the development of the Philippine countryside and winning a dignified struggle against poverty and insurgency.  If our people can't go to the cities to obtain college degrees, then we should bring colleges to their own rural communities.

          Ever since I was in college 20 years ago through class readings like Andre Gunder Frank's "The Development of Underdevelopment" and convinced in the Lord Jesus Christ's incarnation as a carpenter's son in a lowly Jewish town, I held the growing belief that growth and development should not be concentrated in cities only.  Borrowing from Frank's terminologies (if I remember it right) "Satellites" will continue to be mired in poverty and underdevelopment if we all keep focusing on "Metropoles" only.

          We should bring attention and development in the periphery and support community colleges where it is most needed.

Love Ko 'To, posted three years ago.

          That was a post from 3 years ago. 

          I've been teaching at this community college for over a month now after finally moving to the province from Metro Manila.  This wasn't planned.  The opportunity just came literally knocking at our door.

          When my wife and I moved here a couple of months ago, we thought of helping the community by setting up small businesses that can earn income for us while helping others.  Running a computer shop on a lot adjacent to the community college  -- providing a small academic support facility for personal use and internet research and conducting free once-a-month computer and English tutorials (in coordination with HARNESS Phils) -- seemed good enough as a starting endeavor.  Little did I know that another opportunity would suddenly arrive through an invitation from the former local chief executive.

Induction of the 2014 Community College of Manito student government officers

          We only planned to chip an impact outside the gates of the community college but now I'm actually within its fence hopefully carving an even greater influence in it's rural-styled classrooms.

          I hope working alongside dedicated LGU and college officials, faculty and staff will aid in the socio-economic progress and intellectual/patriotic stimulation of these next generation educators.



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"Ang tinanggap ng Diyos bilang anak niya ay hindi na nagpapatuloy sa pagkakasala, sapagkat nananatili sa kanya ang buhay na galing sa Diyos...

Kapag nakikita ng isang maykaya sa buhay ang kanyang kapatid na nangangailangan, at hindi niya ito tinulungan, masasabi bang siya'y umiibig sa Diyos?  Mga anak, huwag tayong magmahal sa pamamagitan lamang ng salita, subalit ipakita rin natin ang tunay na pag-ibig sa pamamagitan ng gawa."
          -- 1 John 3:5a, 17-18 (MBB05)
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