CHSNAF: Coming Home

CHSNAF: Coming Home: This article was published March last year in the High Blood/Opinion column of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I'm sharing it here because I'...
I find this article quite interesting. I do identify many, if not all, of Belma's experience of the Philippines today, esp. Manila. I have lost my usual landmarks to identify streets so I am quite lost in Manila. My usual haunts do not look the same...like I am walking and riding around a strange city. Yet the people are the same..the kindness and hospitality. At the same time, traffic has increased despite having freeways and overpasses. Also, there are soooo many people. I feel that the absence if not lack of government policy on population control prevents Philippines from progressing as fast as its Asian counterparts. I am not talking about abortion, however, free contraceptives and other methods of birth control information ought to be disseminated widely throughout the country. I also wonder that despite the arrival of noveau middle class OFW families, I wonder what effect(s) an absentee OFW parent has on the families in terms of values (family vs. material benefits), the breakup of a once intact family, children growing independently or children growing up without supervision and guidance, the upgrading of the education of children (private school vs. public schools) and economic survival of the country as reflected in the humongous malls and rapid increase of condominiums. I hope that Philippines is truly developing in the direction that its people purport their destiny to be.