DECONGESTING Metro Manila through a “Balik Probinsiya” program will surely help in solving the current problem of COVID-19 which has moved the national government to lock down the nation’s political, economic, and social center.
The idea of implementing this program was raised by Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go who said the lack of urban planning and lack of rural development led to the undue expansion of the population of the National Capital Region, which now has some 12.87 million people.
He proposed that the government shoulder the transportation of families willing to permanently relocate to their home provinces and provide them with livelihood options. He also called on private investors to bring their businesses to the provinces to help spread their development and provide employment opportunities.
For years, entire families have been moving to Metro Manila from provinces all over the country, in the hope of finding work and better opportunities for advancement. These tidal waves of people from the provinces settled in areas along Metro Manila’s hundreds of streams and rivers and along Manila Bay, creating squatter colonies that gave rise to such problems as pollution. But they also became vote blocs that some local politicians cultivated.
But the problem of congestion in Metro Manila is largely the result of lack of opportunities in the provinces where the squatter families came from. They came to Metro Manila because there was no work for them in the provinces.
This is the same problem on a bigger scale of our millions of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). They travel to other countries around the world in search of work which they cannot find here. Now that the economies of virtually all the nations of the world are in trouble because of COVID-19, our OFWs have now started to return to the Philippines.
Many families may accept the government’s offer of free transportation to their home provinces and this will help decongest Metro Manila and stop the spread of COVID-19. But the more important part of the proposed Balik Probinsiya program is the provision of livelihood options. Without these, the families will soon be back in Metro Manila.
