The University Of The Philippines
A Hundred Years Hence
And so Asiaweek ranked the University of the Philippines Diliman #48 among Asia’s Best Universities in 2000 (asiaweek.com). A very hard slap on a proud face in a very public place. By reputation, UP Diliman is the best of the University of the Philippines; the Asiaweek rank rankled the UP System, but it was true – the whole of UP had sunk below her very own standards. The exercise of academic freedom had turned out to be mostly academic and not instructive, mostly theoretical and not practical. I’m UP ’65, and I’ve been around so long I know: Been there, done that!
This one’s about how two institutions, one in the Philippines and one in India, address the poor. UP being educational should have known more, ICRISAT being developmental would know better.
(1) The University of the Philippines
The University activists had insisted on being the voice of the poor, but the poor needed more than a voice. In the first place, the University needed to be the voice of itself first, as Asiaweek showed it to her face that UP had failed all 5 subjects! In the following list, the lower the number, the higher the rank (UP should be in the Top 10): Academic Reputation rank #18 (Failed), Student Selectivity #44 (Failed), Faculty Resources #61 (Failed), Research #60 (Failed), Financial Resources #67 (Failed). UP’s reputation was undeserved; she selected her students unintelligently; her faculty resources were deficient; her research efforts were insignificant; her financial resources were scarce.
Did the University of the Philippines learn from that and mend her ways? Well, UP is 100 years old next year and you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Still, UP has to make a paradigm shift in order for her to be able to teach herself. A new University charter is only a makeover, not a fundamental change. It’s the attitude, not the altitude.
Consider: Is UP a champion of the poor? If so, it should be anti-poor. Now, how do we measure whether this University, or any University for that matter, is anti-poor? Allow me to submit my own biased list as follows; so I ask if the University does address:
Poor farmers? Too many farmers are mendicants, sorry to say. I know, been there, done that. I’m a farmer’s son, and I stopped for 2 years before college to work the stone-dry hard clods of soil in our bangkag (rainfed farm for vegetables) by the Agno River in Asingan, Pangasinan, and the weeds and mud in our talon (irrigated field for rice). UP professors talk about self-sufficiency, but talk is not enough.
Poor soils? The wise use of inorganic and organic fertilizers is not enough. The soils have to be conserved, and at little cost to farmers and with little disturbance of the cycle of life and death. If you get from the soil (crops) but don’t give back (crop refuse), you’re a robber, and you know about robbers – only Judas not pay.
Poor access to credit? Why can’t I read of hundreds of UP projects that continue to this day by virtue of well-supervised credit schemes? It’s easy to borrow and difficult to pay.
Poor access to information? The information scientists give to farmers is mostly technical, a language that only the experts understand. If you don’t believe me, click on any Philippine-based website featuring a knowledge bank now.
Poor markets? If I harvest much and get only so much for my labors, what good is farming to me? It’s only a survival kit – for me to survive, not prosper.
Poor distribution of the benefits of labor? A good scheme for this is the farming cooperative. Is UP for cooperatives? I know UP to be un-cooperative!
Poor educational services? Is UP interested in rooting out those who don’t know how to teach and know only to terrorize their students? One or two even brag about failing everyone.
Poor communication services? Does the University computer system work well? We received yesterday the report of grades of our daughter Daphne who graduated 15,552,000 seconds ago (6 months). The system should be faster than turtle slow.
Poor water supply? How do you expect the UP scientist to worry about the water problem of others when he has his own? On campus, the water supply is bad.
Poor leadership? Those from UP get a kick out of demonstrations. Not demonstrations of initiative, entrepreneurship, creativity, leadership. A team is necessary, a leader is paramount.
Poor health services? Why can’t UP develop a model health service system and stop pointing to the Philippine General Hospital as the one and only solution of health-with-a-cash problem of the poor?
Poor Government services? It is not enough that the academics complain of the national Bad Government. Teach by example; show Good Government services within the University itself.
Poor entrepreneurship? UP and all other universities in the Philippines are dedicated to the proposition that students must study first and then seek employment after graduation. There is no degree option for entrepreneurship – UP professors are not enterprising enough.
Poor social contribution? Do you wonder why agriculture in the Philippines is not as vibrant as it can be, given the rich soils, pleasant climate, open export markets for farm produce? That’s because UP Los Baños has abrogated her duty to country to contribute intellectually to policy, procedure, monitoring, evaluation. Been there, not done that.
UP must be able to transcend the mirror of greatness it looks into every morning, un-Harry Potter-like, and ask questions what next needs be done. UP, if you are farmer-centered, and you should be, ask the farmers, all kinds of farmers. Ask the right questions. If you are needs-based, and you should be, ask them and they will tell you their virtual needs – and then go ahead and find out what their real needs are. Do not go there and pretend you know everything, because you don’t; do not assume that you have all the answers, because you don’t even have all the questions. I know; been there, seen that.
Even the Nobel Prize Committee is convinced that human activity is contributory to global warming and can be mitigated if we act now. Global warming is a problem, not a given; to solve a problem, look at it as an opportunity. Gaunt from intellectual nourishment of only one kind, UP Los Baños is a giant half-asleep and half-awake. Bleary-eyed, it refuses to look at climate change as a wide-open horizon for opportunities in instruction and research and extension – the 3 pillars it claims it is built on. There are tons of funds for research for development (R4D) inside and outside the country; all that is needed is a brilliant R4D proposal. Why can’t UP Los Baños make one, and another, and another? Been there, not done that.
(2) The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
Can UP in general and UP Los Baños in particular learn from ICRISAT? A learning place.
I see that while the UP Los Baños paradigm derives from the bird’s eye-view (the all-seeing eye), the ICRISAT paradigm derives from the worm’s eye-view (the one-eyed one). ICRISAT is pro-poor – it looks at the problems from the point of view of the poor, not the expert.
I’m not surprised. Only 7 years ago in India, ICRISAT was languishing, its energy spent, its genius discouraged, its will wilted. Along came a man called William Dar from the Philippines, and that made all the difference. He brought with him instincts sharpened by confronting adversities positively, seeking options, pursuing his dream. His dream was to rise from poverty. He knew how it was to be poor, and wanted out. ‘Poverty is not abstract for me. Poverty was there for us,’ he says. So: ‘I challenged myself to be one of the most successful people from my village.’ That’s what he is now.
William Dar comes from Danumán West, a village in Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, Northern Philippines. Theirs is a farming family of 6 siblings (4 girls); he first learned his agriculture from his father. ‘I’ve done it all – planting, land preparation, harrowing, everything. So farming or agriculture is not abstract for me.’ Rice, onions, sweet potato, corn, peanuts, pigeonpea. You don’t know how cold is cold until you have shivered with your raincoat of a layer of palm leaves in the middle of the field in the middle of a heavy rain and there’s nowhere to hide. I know: Been there, done that.
His maternal uncle helped him through college. He graduated from the Benguet State University (BSU, then Mountain State Agricultural College) in 1973 with a BS in Agricultural Education. His first mentor was BSU Vice-President for Planning and Development Saturnino Ocampo. His other mentors were Fortunato Battad, now President of BSU; Santiago Obien, who became the Founding Director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) and built PhilRice into a world-class institution. ‘Battad made a good PR man, specialist at marketing, while Obien was the kind of man who would show you the way, the person with technical knowledge, very focused. These two are honest men,’ he says. ‘This association with stalwarts has given me the professional edge.’
He has always tried to inspire others to work with, not against each other. Team, not steam. Dar says:
I believe in group strength. I remember my father asking us to help out in the household chores. There was division of labor. I would have to feed the dogs in the evening and sometimes cut grass before dusk (to be sold later) while my sister would be cooking. There was one message for all of us. You help one another. Do the task assigned to you responsibly but at the same time help one another. This hard training in the family imbued in us a sense of oneness. It gave us the confidence that together we could achieve something. Wherever I have served I have always laid stress on the gains to be had from working as a team, much more in a public institution. That is the work ethic that I have tried to inculcate in ICRISAT. That’s the genesis of Team ICRISAT.
So, the withering ICRISAT became a challenge to him. ‘I began wondering how to rekindle the enthusiasm of everyone. My past experience made it easy for me, for I had in similar situations created a Team Philippines and a Team Singapore. The slogan served as a platform to unify an institution. All it needed was a leader who could motivate.’
So, as a challenge, ICRISAT was heaven-sent. This poor boy was ready, willing and eager to soil his hands for the poor in the lands of poverty called the semi-arid tropics: 55 countries, 2 billion people, 50% poor, no water, crops devastated by insect pests, people ravaged by disease (HIV/AIDS and malaria), soils degraded, biodiversity endangered.
‘Now I call myself an international public servant who is determined to make a difference in the lives of the poor. My personal mission is to serve with a heart the poor living in the drylands,’ Dar says. The team is necessary, so you have Team ICRISAT. The team still needs a leader with a vision to make true and a mission to make it happen, and ICRISAT has William Dar.
Does UP have anyone like William Dar inside?
Been there, seen that. I know that there happens to be one Dean in UP Los Baños who has that same heart, and she was one of my students: Candida Bernabe Adalla of the College of Agriculture. The art of the academic is useless without the heart; the private science of the researcher is useless without the public service. Until she learns that lesson with a grade of 1, on the whole UP will continue to be half-aware, half-relevant to the affairs in her own country until 2107. Alas, two halves have never been seduced by a genius to become a whole. Never been there, never done that!
