The Public Realm

Centuries ago, Filipinos lived in separate settlements and small kingdoms. But during the end of each cropping season, they all came together as one community to help harvest the rice one farming family had planted. This tradition came to be known as bayanihan, which comes from the Tagalog words bayan (community) and anihan (harvest). Bayanihan is synonymous to “working together for the common good” and has since evolved to apply to practices of communities coming together to relocate a house or building a school or rebuilding villages shattered by natural disasters.

The rice field, therefore, was the first physical manifestation of the public realm in the Philippines as it is an asset shared by the community. In fact, the archipelago’s only megalithic structure was a terraced rice field carved out of a mountain in Banaue province, a giant common good for the common good. In it, rice paddies were built like a stairway to the skies and a web of irrigation ducts was developed so all of them could benefit from the waters that flow from the rainforest above. Filipinos proudly say that their megalithic structure was built to ensure human survival, unlike those in other cultures which were products of slave labor.

From the bayanihan spirit of the rice fields came the Filipino core value of pakikipagkapwa or the holistic interaction with others, the root word of which is kapwa or shared inner self. Thus, even if the pre-colonial Filipinos lived scattered across the landscape in small hamlets, they were not altogether apart from each other, as pakikipagkapwa recognizes them as “persons who share my humanity.” Pakikipagkapwa results to pagtutulungan (mutual self-help) and kawanggawa (charity).

Pakikipagkapwa was strengthened more when the Spanish colonizers, under a policy known as reduccion, began to resettle Filipinos. The 1573 policy mandated that towns that will be created must be built around a central plaza, to be surrounded by the church, convent, casa real (municipal hall), casa tribunal (courthouse), escuela publica (public school), cuartel (colonial police station) and patio (cemetery). It is in the plaza where pakikipagkapwa was practiced all the more as Filipinos found a place to interact. The plaza functions as paseo (promenading area) during daytime and as adelance (night market) during nighttime, and as mercado publico (public market) during the designated market day of the town.

Sadly, few people are using plazas these days because of the onset of shopping malls, a phenomenon that translates to their neglect. Moreover, the construction of covered courts here and there – after a window where to spend pork barrel funds was opened for legislators – drastically changed the landscape and the aesthetics of the plazas. The significant role of parks and other open spaces in the process of urbanization had been totally neglected in order to balance man-made and natural environment. It is very unfortunate that at present, almost all of us have been neglecting our traditional town plazas and parks in favor of the shopping malls.

The mall phenomenon did not only cause the diminished use of plazas but also saw their transformation into mini-malls where stalls for rent have mushroomed, resulting to the deterioration of the bayanihan tradition that they imbue. “What we find, sad to say, is a cynical disdaining of the spirit of bayanihan, a selfish rejection of the cordial virtues of pakikisama (interaction) and pagbibigayan (compassion) which are the hallmarks of our people,” laments the Supreme Court in a 1987 decision abhorring the transformation of the plaza of San Fernando, Pampanga into a wet market as it upheld the local government’s decision to demolish the stalls.

The weakening bayanihan spirit is also taking its toll on other community assets like streets, schools, public buildings, public markets, libraries and public transport systems, among others. People’s lack of concern for others makes streets filthy due to mounting litter, school buildings unsafe due to disrepair, government offices unkempt due to indifference, public markets unhygienic due to poor waste disposal, libraries uncomfortable due to poor lighting and ventilation, and public transportation unpleasant due to congested traffic. The erosion of the public realm – of our environment –happens because people have stopped using it. And because they have stopped using it, they have stopped valuing it.

Reviving the bayanihan spirit thus means providing a venue for the people to co-own the public realm. People have not totally stopped relocating houses. There are just no more houses left to relocate. The key here, therefore, is creating an opportunity for partnership – for bayanihan – where Filipinos can again come together to harvest for the common good. If we won’t start creating such a venue, then nature will create it for us through destructive typhoons and devastating floods. But do we really need calamities to revive the bayanihan spirit in us? If our ancestors were able to imbue it centuries ago, there is no reason why we can’t nurture it now. (To be continued)