CONTROLLING THE MARKET By Sunny Rasheed Lucman Pacasum

People of Marawi City, have you noticed how clean our streets are nowadays? I remember first noticing it when I had to rush early in the morning from our house in Alonto Village going down. I could only see visible parts of vehicles like their mirrors and their reflected lights breaking through the billions of dust, the thickness of an early fog. I watch as children who on their way to pilot school seem amazed at the spectacle of rushing cars - a sight they clearly don't see everyday in their simple and quiet lives.

Our politicians have now decided once and for all to clean the streets of our city and clear the sidewalks of temporary one-half meter Sari-sari stores. However, it has been proven difficult for government regulations to suppress the means of livelihood and survival of the poor. They will risk going to jail and getting their goods confiscated in the name of the putting food on the table. Take the case of our Maranao brothers who sell pirated CDs in Greenhills, San Juan; selling CDs is their only alternative. CD vendors are thus like flies. You shoo them away and they come back as soon as you stop holding the fly swatter. No one has succeeded in getting rid of our Maranao brothers. Not the Spaniards, Japanese even the lousy Americans. So how do you expect Bong Revilla to stop them? He may have succeeded but only for a while, but in the end, he will fail because survival is an irresistible human force.

Marawi city has all the ingredients and natural resources to progress just like our neighboring city of Iligan. Perhaps even better. But at the end of the day it all boils down to political will and in effectively managing serious issues like poverty reduction. While our neighboring provinces are surpassing us, here we are in a critical state and still engaging in a lot of political hullabaloo. Is politics really going to solve our problems? Instead of using all our energy and time in looking for a strong leader with the kind of political will to get us out of the rut we're in, here we are speculating whether one of our relatives will run for office and how much he or she will spend for each vote.

MICROECONOMICS is visible in the third world poor. Some of our less fortunate brothers would even eat only once a day. We shouldn't curse the sari-sari stores for the traffic they have given us. To the motorists, they define traffic and chaos. But to the urban poor advocate, denying MICRO-enterprises to the poor is a form of genocide. This is our dilemma. Most of the demolished sari-sari stores were good friends of mine like Saguiara, whom I would buy my pancit canton and coke from. And, Bapa Randang, an old man who sells junk food for a living. He would always greet all the teenagers with a smile and would always find time to joke around with us. I think we shouldn't despise them. Even if their houses would spell 10 minutes more to get home because of inconvenience to survival at a micro level. It would make us less vicious. People make heroes of those who give them benefit and make anti-heroes of those who steal it away. It's true that these sari-sari stores tend to abuse: if you give them an inch, they will take a mile. If you allow a sari-sari store to sell in the streets, a hundred will follow. If you give them 10 sq. meters, they will occupy 20. Then you end up being bad-mouthed by motorists and commuters. This reflects two things. First, our poor brothers in Marawi are growing in an alarming rate.

Many of our problems are due to the lack of support for poverty reduction policies. It doesn't help that our politicians still favor one shot programs that feed our poor brothers for a day or two and then leave them with crumbs for the rest of the year. Unless our politicians get their act together we can forget all the talk about national development. Secondly, the striking force cannot stop them except by brute authority and this might lead them to join drug syndicates that is a much bigger problem. Many of our policemen are either protectors of these drug syndicates, users or even pushers. Which is not exactly news anymore. Pinpoint any community that has problems with drugs and you can be sure there is a police officer protecting the pusher (if he is not doing the pushing himself.) My brother Mikee would suggest giving permits to sari-sari stores in order to control their number, but do you think it will work? I suggest giving their own market space. We should permit them to operate but set a limit so that motorists and commuters get some street space. Control is the key and total demolition is but a temporary solution.

Not even GMA is powerful enough to suppress our less fortunate brothers' survival. Human survival has tremendous energy. If only our government officials will rule with an iron fist instead of spending a lot of time and resources "politicking". One reason why some sound policies never take off is because the top consideration is always if these will translate into more votes for those running for public office. Our politicians should use the hard-earned money we pay for taxes to enact only bills that improve the economy, e.g., livelihood projects and foster an environment for brisk business activities.

The Bangsamoro are losing hope and we need a leader who will inspire, motivate and provide us with something we can look forward to. The sari-sari stores are very much affected because their profit come from basic human need at the mass level, which is "food". So the wholesalers in Padian are losing thousands a day. My friends Saguiara and Bapa Randang are not getting enough for half a meal because politicians are not interested in morality - what is right or wrong. They are mainly interested in what is legal and illegal. It's like poverty is up and rising and its eradication is the overaching goal of government policies. But poverty seems as palpable as ever. I remember even the president swore in her SONA that in her administration the poor won't have to wait for mere trickles.

Someone said that a real democracy takes care of its poor. And this country claims to be a democracy. But does this government take care of its poor? If it doesn't then do we have the right to call ourselves a democratic nation? Our government must always be alert about the further marginalization of the poor and the promises it made to address it. While it claims that it tries to protect freedom in general, it should first protect the freedom of the Bangsamoro to earn a living and provide jobs and opportunities to those willing to take them.

We are in an era where globalization is beginning to punish us. Big time companies are beginning to dominate our economic landscape and make the small industries like us poorer. US dumps chicken in Philippines, killing our local production.

Recently I heard in the news that even Taiwan is joining in the frenzy. They were caught smuggling garlic, onion and vegetables thus killing our farmers and local industries. We will slowly drown if we don't fight back. There is a solution in defending our market. We should strengthen our small and medium. Then we could strengthen our MICRO-Enterprises. It's what I call the " soul of enterprises" because it provides income to majority of us who are poor. Most of us here in Marawi City depend on MICROECONOMICS. The black market (sells gas at Banggolo) thrives invisibly. Many of us depend on the smallest business. There are about 200 jeepneys, 300 pedicabs and 500 sari-sari stores, 50 small-time gas stations and 1000 VCD vendors in Marawi City. MICRO-enterprise, is the key to the survival of the majority; trade and all forms of livelihood (considering that it's legal) should thus be fully encouraged and supported (not suppressed and controlled) by local government. Because this will on the long run contribute to the greater good of the Maranao people. Without MICRO enterprise, we will all suffer and the generations to come will be the ones to bear the grave consequences. WASSALAM!

Mr. Sunny Rasheed Lucman Pacasum is an economics graduate from the Mindanao State University, Marawi City. For comments, please email him at santino_101@hotmail.com

About the Author

ASSALAMUALIKUM its important n showing these crises 2 people in dis country,occupied bangsamoro state(muslim mindanao)& d international community by getting a reaction we r bringing des crises 2 d attention of d world & inshallah ultimately provoking an international reaction..millions of people r struggling through crises in places that rarely,if ever,get mentioned in d news,& in my experience, silence is the best ally of injustice...kno