"What might be done differently today?"
On paper, it is difficult to argue with the government’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa program that aims to decongest Metro Manila by providing financial assistance, employment and livelihood opportunities to people who want to move back to the provinces.
With a population of about 14 million, Metro Manila is among the most densely populated urban centers of the world. Many of its millions live in poverty and squalor that make their communities hotbeds for diseases such as the deadly COVID-19, which has infected 11,350 people nationwide, about 64 percent of them in Metro Manila.
That the program is being pushed in the middle of a pandemic presents special problems of its own, but also lends an air of urgency to its mission to decongest the 16 cities and one municipality that comprise Metro Manila.
With a lockdown still in force in the National Capital Region, the government will need to balance, on the one hand, the need to limit mobility to reduce the opportunities for infection, and on the other, the need to encourage migration out of Metro Manila. Certainly, the last thing we need is to create new hotspots of infection in the provinces with the introduction of returning their returning natives. A crucial prerequisite, therefore, is fast and accurate testing of all who wish to enroll in the program.
Another crucial prerequisite is the creation of new jobs and opportunities in the provinces that will keep the returnees. In this regard, the three-year P1.5 trillion stimulus program anchored on infrastructure spending in the countryside being proposed by the House of Representatives could make a difference, assuming it is approved and carried out efficiently by the executive department and the local government units involved.
Dubbed the COVID-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus (CURES) Act of 2020, the legislation would appropriate and automatically release money from a CURES Fund over a three-year period to bankroll infrastructure projects in the priority areas of health, education, agriculture, local roads and livelihood.
But adequate funding and appropriate investment alone will not guarantee the success of the program, which could trip on a number of pitfalls. Those responsible for planning and implementing the Balik Probinsya program should seek out lessons from past attempts to encourage the outward migration from Metro Manila.
A similar program was also implemented during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III but clearly failed to take off. Why? What might be done differently today?
In Manila, some city officials recall that Mayor Ramon Bagatsing launched a similar scheme in 1971. The official in charge of the program at the time says almost all of the poor families that signed up for the program eventually returned to the city. How will we prevent this from happening again?
These are some of the questions that those behind today’s Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa program must answer to achieve their goal of enticing up to 1 million Metro Manila residents to move back to the provinces—and to stay there for good.