Bayanihan in the grassroots

It is amusing and thankful to a particular kind of volunteerism taking place in our community's smallest level of governance. Each sitio or iskina of a certain barangay, we can see a group of residents who volunteer to guard their area from intruders or non-residents coming in as they want to protect their own residents from being infected with the dreaded coronavirus.

Generally speaking, we welcome guests or unknown personalities to our place or even in our own families. The initial discomfort caused by the lack of knowledge is only natural, but it will gradually fade when we return to our basic nature of congeniality. This aside our religious conviction and responsibility to accommodate outsiders who need our protection.

But the present situation is pushing us to behave otherwise. If they might be asked or directed by their barangay or they just developed out of the spirit of volunteering, fitted themselves with the cheapest necessities such as alcohol, masks, and food supplied by some neighbors, the volunteers stationed themselves in an area that typically separates them from another site or barangay. So they watch over the place for a long period of hours, making sure no intruders or people that they don't know can get inside. And, unsurprisingly, these volunteers have been residents of the place for many years because they can spot non-residents right away and prevent them from entering.

In this time of crisis, one unique characteristic of us Filipinos and that is protective in nature is being triggered, particularly because we don't want the spread of the virus.

A territorial characteristic of us is helping when we want to define what we claim is ours and when there is threat of claiming it by others. And also we don’t want that everything in it will be compromised including the very lives and safety of the rightful inhabitants. And in the this time of the health crisis, we don’t want to compromise the health condition of our loved ones.

On an international scale, it is even a long battle for ownership of islands or territories. Decades or centuries of claim for sovereignty that even the present generation can’t expect for a resolution. And when a country has such valid claim would fight at all costs and by all means. 

The crisis encourages us to reach out for the benefit of others. We find each one in the group to be an integral part of any joint undertaking. And any threat to a member's safety is indeed a danger to the society at large.

A community's greatness is determined most reliably by the caring actions of its members. We will never get a collective re-creation and heal our society without giving a sense of belonging to the people. Indeed what our volunteers are doing, being at the forefront of a risky task, where no one will respond to the call right away, is putting the need of others above themselves, a great call of the time.