Rural development
URBAN dwellers, including informal settlers, now see that salvation from hunger and poverty appear to be in the countryside, where there are idle lands to be cultivated.
That’s why concerned national government authorities ought to spread the benefits of development right down to far-flung communities not only in Luzon but elsewhere.
In the view of many, the government should address the lack of industrial activities in the provinces to stop the “probinsiyanos’ exodus to urban centers across the country.
Note that rural dwellers, many of them youngsters, are forced to leave the countryside to look for greener pastures in Metropolitan Manila or seek employment abroad.
What’s needed now, according to various sectors, is for the authorities to assure the people that the government is committed to spread the benefits of economic development.
“Dapat umabot sa kanayunan, na ang karamihan ng mga naninirahan ay mga mahihirap na magsasaka at mangingisda, ang ginhawang nararanasan ng mga taga-syudad,” they said.
We find it hard to understand why there are still hard-headed informal settlers who refuse to return to their provinces “kahit na hirap na hirap na sila sa MM dahil sa pandemya.”
Perhaps, government authorities should now look deeper into the problem of squatting not only in the Metropolitan Manila area but throughout the Philippines.
Likewise, we call on foreign and local businessmen to invest in the countryside to stop the unhampered exodus of rural dwellers to urban centers.
It is a way to decongest the overcrowded Metropolitan Manila, where the garbage and flooding problems are still major headaches of the government and the people.
