Overseas Fieldwork Report 2016:

Laguna Province, The Philippines

Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya University

Overseas Fieldwork Report 2016

Laguna Province, The Philippines

March 2017
Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya University
Nagoya, Japan

Overseas Fieldwork Report 2016
Laguna Province, The Philippines
Copyright © GSID 2016

Graduate School of International Development, Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Japan 464-8601
http://www.gsid.nagoya-u.ac.jp/

Foreword
Sometime a few years back, I had the chance to meet one of my trusted colleague and development consultant
regarding possible programs and partnerships for my beloved municipality. I became very insistent when I
learned that a partnership between Nagoya University’s Graduate School of International Development inJapan and the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Philippines is being established and they wereassessing a possible site for the conduct of an Overseas Field Work.
After a very rigorous selection process wherein we truly showcased what our small town could offer, wewere able to make the cut and therefore be chosen as GSID’s partner local government unit for the conduct of
the said program for 2016.
The Overseas Field Work on my keen understanding prepares GSID students on the fundamentals of
research and provides them with first-hand experience with regards to the research process - planning,
executing and analyzing important data of interest. However, OFW 2016 which happened from the 19th until
the 30th of September, 2016 not just equipped the students with the 21st century research and development
skills but most importantly, made them experience the value of life, intercultural relations and communicationand had a glimpse of what development at the grassroots level truly is all about.
The fruits of the works of the twenty young development advocates that is part of this final output shouldbe celebrated as it will be an important resource or reference for our continuous local development especiallyin the areas of Food Security, Tourism, Foreign Language Education and Youth Employment Opportunities.
I whole-heartedly salute and congratulate all the members of the OFW 2016, the faculty and staff of the
Graduate School of International Development and the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, the active
local guides, the local government unit, the participative community people and most importantly the GSID
students whom made this final report possible.

From the people of the Municipality of Rizal, Laguna, Maraming Salamat!

Hon. Antonino A. Aurelio, DPA
Municipal Mayor
January 15, 2017iForeword
Tourism as a product and service-oriented industry is envisioned as a significant growth potential and a driverof local economic development (LED) in the Philippines on account of its vast natural and historical attractions.
Aside from gaining worldwide attention, tourism industry provides socio-economic benefits that accrue tolocal communities through direct contributions on job creation, foreign exchange generation, and stimulationof foreign investments (Javier and Elazegui, 2011). To further the tourism industry, tourist destination areas
are being developed across the country as an investment-driven strategy to boost motivation for tourist arrivals
by not being totally reliant on its natural attractions but also through community participation.
One of the selected priority areas being developed as a tourist destination can be found in the Municipalityof Rizal, the poorest town in the Province of Laguna. Named after Jose Rizal who is the Philippines’ nationalhero, this landlocked and largely agricultural municipality prides itself with its great potential in agroecotourism through its developing Tayak Adventure, Nature and Wildlife Park (TANAW). This local initiative
aims to attract visitors to the municipality to not just promote recognition of this almost forgotten fifth classmunicipality, but more importantly, it reflects the collaborative efforts led by the local government to pursue
local development by not being solely dependent on the internal revenue allotment from the national
government but generating its own sources of revenue as well. While improvements have been ongoing in thearea, there is still much to be done in order to fulfil how TANAW is envisioned as an instrument to thedevelopment of Rizal.
With this in mind, the collaboration among the Graduate School of International Development (GSID) in
Nagoya University, Japan, the University of the Philippines Los Banos, and the Local Government of Rizal
has reaped its fruit through the research undertakings led by the graduate students of GSID through theOverseas Field Work (OFW) 2016. Four groups have worked on food security, ecotourism governance,
language program, and youth and unemployment. Specifically, they analyzed the challenges and opportunities
in local vegetable value chain, the interrelationship among various stakeholders in ecotourism development,
the motivation and the rewards of learning a second language (Korean), and the factors causing youth
unemployment. Their research-based interventions can respond to the identified barriers towards developmentof Rizal based on actual fieldwork, interviews, and interactions with the local stakeholders.
This undertaking fosters mutual benefit in a way that it hones the expertise of the students as well as
benefits the locality through their research findings and recommendations. Indeed, the Overseas Fieldwork is
an opportunity which has not just exposed them with the challenges a poor town in a developing country isfacing, but also serves as a wake-up call on how they can contribute to international development through thefield of specialization they have been developing.
It makes me feel proud to be engaged with the GSID, UPLB professors and students and the staff of theiiMunicipality of Rizal as we support GSID students in jumpstarting their career as future leaders in international
development. This compilation of research is a living proof of hardwork and commitment to extend their hands
not merely as compliance to their academic requirements but in helping to boost the ecotourism and local
development of the Municipality of Rizal.

Aser B. Javier, Ph.D.
Professor
Institute for Governance and Rural Development
College of Public Affairs and Development
University of the Philippines Los Baños
E-mail address: aserjavier@yahoo.com

iii

Introduction
The twenty-fourth Overseas Fieldwork (OFW 2016) of the Graduate School of International Development(GSID), Nagoya University, was carried out in the Municipality of Rizal, Laguna Province, the Philippinesfrom September 18 to October 2, 2016. The OFW is an important part of GSID’s curriculum, designed toprovide students with exposure to the real world development issues in rural areas of a developing country andan opportunity to develop field-based research skills in a group setting. Each year, GSID carries out OFW in adeveloping Asian country in cooperation with GSID’s local partner university. This year, Professor Aser Javier
and other professors of the College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAf) of the University of thePhilippines Los Baños (UPLB Los Baños) kindly accepted to host the OFW, adding to the successful
collaboration of past OFWs in 1994, 1995, 2000, 2004, and 2015. Building on many years of cherishedrelationships between the two universities, OFW 2016 was managed smoothly and it contributed to further
strengthening GSID’s academic exchange and collaboration with this prestigious university in the Philippines.
The Municipality of Rizal is an inland fifth-class municipality, meaning it is one of the poorest
municipalities in Laguna. Rizal has eleven barangays with a population of approximately 17,000. The mainindustries are agriculture and tourism. It is located between relatively developed cities, San Pablo andNagcarlan, a fact which has also defined the development opportunities of Rizal. Rizal has attracted many
tourists to Tayak Hill, which is located in the southern uplands of the municipal territory, 20 minutes distanceby automobile from the town center. Although Rizal was a typical rural town in the Philippines before, therecent achievements under the leadership of current Mayor Antonino Aurelio have been impressive. Thousandsof tourists come to visit Tayak Hill, especially for pilgrimage during Holy Week. In collaboration with the
Korean Language School, Rizal has sent several young townspeople to South Korea for newly created job
opportunities. In various areas such as health, education, and tourism, Rizal has made a leap from its pastthough its local development is still in progress.
Considering the contemporary situation and progress of Rizal’s local development, we divided 20 graduate
students of GSID into four working groups: Food Security (WG1), The Role of Local Government (WG2),
Foreign Language Education (WG3), and Youth Employment (WG4) to study and observe various dimensionsof rural development in a holistic manner. After a semester of preparatory seminars in Nagoya from April toJuly 2016, we made a trip to Rizal in the second half of September. There, we conducted six days of fieldresearch in Rizal and neighboring towns. Although it was a very short period, we could obtain a large volume
of information thanks to the collaboration of Mayor Antonino Aurelio and the people of the Municipality of
Rizal, as well as the vital participation of the professors and graduate students of CPAf.
After the fieldwork in Rizal, the four working groups made several presentations to receive comments andfeedbacks. On September 30, our last day in Rizal after completing the fieldwork schedule, all working groups
presented their preliminary research findings in front of the people of Rizal to share the results and get feedback.
iv

On October 1, we moved to UPLB Los Baños and there again presented the research findings in their tentative
version. On October 26, we also held a presentation session at GSID.
This report is the outcome of all the efforts mentioned above. Students of all working groups elaborated
their analyses in this report, reflecting comments and advice received at the presentation and in the course of
their fieldwork. We not only hope this report becomes a milestone for all the participants of OFW 2016 but
also creates opportunities for community development in Rizal.

Isamu Okada, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Chair of OFW2016 Committee
Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya Universityv

Acknowledgements
We, the Overseas Fieldwork Project faculty and students of the Graduate School of International Development,
Nagoya University, would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to all the people in the Municipality of
Rizal who kindly shared their time and knowledge in support of our project.
Above all, we acknowledge the gentle acceptance and tremendous support of the Honorable Mayor
Antonino Aurelio, which not only made this OFW possible but also provided us a safe and motivating
environment throughout the whole period. We feel proud to be the adopted daughters and sons of themunicipality. We also recognize the support of the Members of Sangguniang Bayan: the Honorable ViceMayor Vener P. Muñoz, the Honorable Councilor Don T. Concordia, the Honorable Councilor Russell John V.
Isles, the Honorable Councilor Bernard C. Suministrado, the Honorable Councilor Julieta U. Urriquia, theHonorable Councilor Mario B. Nicolas, the Honorable Councilor Marvin Austral, the Honorable Councilor
Florante O. Isles, and the Honorable Councilor John Mathew N. Visey. The warm official welcome was notedin the Municipal Resolution no.09-030-2016, issued on the 27th of September 2016. Furthermore, the direct
participation of the Honorable Mayor Tony and Councilors through lectures and interviews were indispensablefor our research and highly appreciated.
Our gratitude must be expressed to the four local guides, Jocel Tidon Tolentino, Marc Almario, Arwin
Sombilla, and Christian Olan Rodriguez Dorado, who stayed with us for the whole course of the visit. They
made incredible efforts to help us find our way, provided countless insights, and we shared delightful moments
together.
We extend our gratitude to Chief Valdez, National Police of the Philippines, and the doctor and nurse of
the Municipal Clinic who supported us in the case of necessities even sometimes without being seen. The
Nanays of the pet bottle house recharged our energy every evening. Rizal Recreation Center accommodated
us with clean beds and a tranquil atmosphere.
We appreciate all the people of the Municipality of Rizal who kindly took part in the fieldwork by providing
information and observations through interviews and questionnaires. We would like to mention the following
people who made our work possible: the Honorable Barangay Captain of Tala, Marvin M. Opulencia; theHonorable Barangay Captain of Antipolo, Mario A. Alad; the Honorable Barangay Captain of Pool, Jacino L.
Monterola; the Honorable Barangay Captain of Pauli II, Cesar C. Austral; Ponciano L. Arban, Jr, Municipal
Planning and Development Officer; Myrna U. de la Pena, Municipal Agriculture Officer; Magdalena P.
Coronado, Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer; Joemark Anthony Tunay, Public Employment
Service Officer; Rhodora Isleta, Municipal Administrator; Frank Concordia, Municipal Administrator; Ronie
Mirasol, Municipal Secretary; Julio A. Sirunay, Patrol Base Commander of CAFGU; Yurie T. Vista, the Head
Officer of Alternative Learning System; Bella Bagsic; Joe Mark; Michael Almario; Leny C. Corcolon; Nyka
vi

Xylene Gen Merch; Rafael Monter Moso; Wilmer of Barangay Tala; Eliza Comendador and members of Sto.
Nino Farmers Association; Fely Bituin; Ester Bituin; Lauro U. Domado; Precy Dumaraos; Marites Dorado;
Eialsa L. Vista; Ohannie Boy S. Urriquia; Nena P. Mater; Leonora Royo; Susan; Benjamin; Josaphat L. Belen;
Flodeliza; Marilou U. Inferio, Felise Fulleria, Jennifer Castilleso, and Dory of Rizal Public Market; Thadeus
Martinez of Haribon Foundation; Laida Asegurado and the staff of Lucy & Elsie; Joanita Ostria of Tala Resort;
Daisy Genove; Michelle of Kliezey Bakery; Tita of Louis Adiel Bakery; Joseph A. Cereza; Gregorio D.
Comendador, Geron Comendador, Gelian Comendador, and Nencaee L. Conein from Barangay Antipolo;
Bryan Arvin N Bituin, Liz Ugan B. Villarins, Juanita Coronado, Merlinda C. Royo, Rodrigo R. Royo, Maria
Pulita Perez, Richel Grace Mendoza, Eddie Seth B. Aupor, Lee Jay V. Esquibel, Abigael V. Monecia, Neil
Stephen D. Royo, Renmark Royo from Barangay Tuy; Ryan P. Cornista, Leslie P. Balona from Barangay Pool;and Aileen L. Coronado and Jovinaloo Perez who kindly participated in interviews from South Korea via
Skype.
We extend our wholehearted gratitude to the professors and students of CPAf, UPLB Los Baños. Dr. Aser
Javier kindly accepted to help with this OFW 2016 on top of all the dedication and sacrifice he has made for
OFWs in previous years and in numerous other partnership projects. He generously gave his time to stay at
GSID during April-July 2016 to assist preparatory seminars, and also paved the safest and most trustworthy
road for our visit to the Philippines. Dr. Evelie P. Serrano, Dr. Ephraim C. Quinones and Dr. Louie A.
Divinagracia guided us in both fieldwork and discussions. Almira Lumbres, Marjorie Don Resuello, Sherwin
Rimas, and Shiela May Abucay joined us for all our good times and bad. For Evelie, Epi, Meme and Marj, thiswas the second year to join us but their energy and professionalism were tireless. We expect our partnershipand friendship to continue forever and together bear more fruit in the future.

Isamu Okada, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Chair of OFW2016 Committee
Graduate School of International Development
Nagoya University

vii

viii

Table of Contents

Foreword .............................................................................................................................................. i
Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... iv
Acknowledgements............................................................................................................................ vi
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................... ix
List of Participants ............................................................................................................................ xi
Program of OFW 2016.................................................................................................................... xiii
Preparatory Seminar at GSID ....................................................................................................... xiii
Interim Presentations of Research Findings ................................................................................. xiv
Presentation of Research Findings at GSID ................................................................................. xiv
Overall Schedule of Fieldwork in the Philippines ....................................................................... xiv
Working Group 1
Characteristics of Local Vegetable Value Chain in the Municipality of Rizal, Laguna .............. 1
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Problem statement ........................................................................................................................ 3
3. Research objectives and questions ............................................................................................... 4
4. Literature review .......................................................................................................................... 4
5. Methodology and limitation ......................................................................................................... 5
6. Results .......................................................................................................................................... 7
7. Recommendations ...................................................................................................................... 14
8. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 16
Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................................... 17
References ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Working Group 2
The Interrelationship between Stakeholders in Ecotourism Development in the Municipality of
Rizal, Laguna.................................................................................................................................... 19
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 22
2. Research objective and significance of study ............................................................................ 23
3. Literature Review ....................................................................................................................... 24
4. Methodology and Limitations .................................................................................................... 31ix

5. Findings ...................................................................................................................................... 34
6. Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................................................ 43
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 45
References ...................................................................................................................................... 46
Working Group 3
Filipino Learners’ Motivation for Learning the Korean Language in Rizal, Laguna............... 49
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 52
2. Problem statement ...................................................................................................................... 52
3. Objectives................................................................................................................................... 53
4. Research question ...................................................................................................................... 53
5. Significance ................................................................................................................................ 53
6. Review of Literature .................................................................................................................. 53
7. Conceptual Framework .............................................................................................................. 57
8. Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 58
9. Findings ...................................................................................................................................... 60
10. Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 69
11. Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 70
12. Recommendation ..................................................................................................................... 71
Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................................... 75
References ...................................................................................................................................... 76
Working Group 4Youth Employment in Rizal ............................................................................................................ 79
1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 82
2. Literature Review ....................................................................................................................... 84
3. Research Methodology .............................................................................................................. 89
4. Results and Discussion............................................................................................................... 91
5. Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 105
Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................................... 107
References .................................................................................................................................... 108

List of Individual and Company Donors to the Overseas Fieldwork Fund ..................................... 113
海外実地研修基金に拠出いただいた個人・企業一覧（受け入れ順） .................................. 114

x

List of Participants
Faculty Members (9)Working Groups

Advisors from
GSID, Nagoya University

Advisors from
University of the Philippines Los
Banos (UPLB)

WG1Akiko Ueda

Louie A. Divinagracia

WG2

Isamu Okada

Aser B. Javier

WG3

Junko Yamashita

Evelie P. Serrano

WG4

Yuki Shimazu

Ephraim C. Quinones

Logistics/Coordination

Jing Liu

Interpreters from UPLB and Local Government Unit of Municipality of Rizal (8)
WG

Name

Sex

Sherwin M. Rimas (UPLB)

M

WG1

WG
WG3

Jocel Tolentino (LGU, Rizal)

F

Marjorie Resuello (UPLB)

F

WG2

WG4
Marc Louie M. Almario (LGU, Rizal)

M

Name

Sex

Almira Lumbres (UPLB)F

Arwin C. Sombilla (LGU,
Rizal)
Sheila May A. Abucay(UPLB)
Christian Olan R. Dorado(LGU, Rizal)

GSID Students (20)
No.

Name

Sex

Nationality

Dept

1

Hana Crawford-Goto*

F

Japanese

DID

2

Chaosarn Chawpaka

F

Thai

DICOS

3

Poonnawatt Kornwika**

F

Thai

DICOS

4

Yuki Yamamoto

M

Japanese

DID

5Prasain Aayusha

F

Nepalese

DID

6

Amibang Awah Martin

M

Cameroonian

DID

WG1

xi

M
F
M

WG2

WG3

WG4

7

Pinkan Mariskania Pasuhuk**F

Indonesian

DID

8

Yuina Kamiya

F

Japanese

DID

9Yuri Matsuoka*

F

Japanese

DICOS

10

Annick Julie Henriette

F

Seychellois

DID

11

Dumas Martin Akwetey*

M

Ghanaian

DID

12

Tianqiong Kang

M

ChineseDICOM

13

Kaneko Misaki

F

Japanese

DID

14

Chiaki Koike**F

Japanese

DICOS

15

Kayo Okumura

F

Japanese

DID

16

Momoko Yabushita

F

Japanese

DICOS

17

Anna Sakakibara

F

Japanese

DID

18

Takuya Hirata

M

Japanese

DID

19

Perera Weerakkodi Arachchige
Waruni Nilukshi Kaushalya**F

Sri Lankan

DID

20

Ezka Amalia*

F

Indonesian

DICOS** Group leader, * Sub-leader,
DID: Department of International Development;
DICOS: Department of International Cooperation;
DICOM: Department of International Communication.

xii

Program of OFW 2016
Preparatory Seminar at GSID

2

Date
April 27, Wed.
14:45-16:15
May 11, Wed.
14:45-16:15

Title of the Lecture and the Lecturer
Introduction to OFW2016 & Campus ASEAN; Team building
By Prof. Isamu Okada, Prof. Yuki Shimazu, Prof. Jing Liu, GSID
The Philippines on the Globe and the Global Filipinos
By Prof. Mamoru Tsuda, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies3

May 18, Wed.
14:45-16:15

Poverty in Rural Philippines
By Prof. Jonna P. Estudillo, National Graduate Institute For Policy Studies

4

May 25, Wed.
14:45-16:15

From Fieldwork Experiences in the Philippines
By Prof. Wataru Kusaka, GSID

5

June 1, Wed.
14:45-16:15

On Research Site
By Prof. Aser Javier, UPLB, Visiting Researcher to GSID

6

June 2, Tue.
14:30-16:00

About the Philippines
By Prof. Mamoru Tsuda, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies

7

June 8, Wed.
14:45-16:15

Current Situation of Local Development and the Roles of LGU
By Prof. Aser Javier, UPLB, Visiting Researcher to GSID

8

June 15, Wed.
14:45-16:15

OFW 2015 Experience & Research Experience in the Philippines
By TA & Participants of OFW2015

9

June 17, Fri.
16:30-18:00

Discussion: Research Question, Concepts, and Research Design
By OFW Committee

10

June 20, Mon.
18:00-19:30

Research Ethics (Joint slot class with DFW seminar)
By Prof. Yoshiaki Nishikawa, Ryukoku University

11

June 22, Wed.
14:45-16:15

How to make research proposal
By Prof. Frank Peddie, GSID

12

June 23, Thu.
16:30-18:00

Mayors’ Attributes and Performance of Local Governments in the Philippines
By Prof. Kenichi Nishimura, Osaka University

1314

June 29, Wed.
14:45-18:00

How to conduct Interview (Joint two-slots class with DFW seminar)
By Prof. Akiko Ueda, Prof. Wataru Kusaka, Prof. Isamu Okada, GSID

15

July 7, Thu.
16:30-18:00

Gender & Migration in the Philippines
By Prof. Chiho Ogaya, Ferris University

16

July 13, Wed.
14:45-16:15

Different Research Methods (Joint slot class with DFW seminar)
By Prof. Isamu Okada, GSID

17

July 20, Wed.
14:45-16:15

Risk Management
By Prof. Takashi Sakai, Prof. Akinari Hoshino, Nagoya University

18

July 27, Wed.
10:30-12:30

Group Presentation of Research Proposal

1

xiii

Interim Presentations of Research Findings
The interim presentation of research findings was held at Municipality of Rizal on Sept. 30th, 2016. Based on thecomments received in Rizal, participants made another interim presentation in the University of the Philippines of
Los Banos on Oct.1st, 2016. Each WG presented for 20 minutes and followed by Q&A session by the participants.

Presentation of Research Findings at GSID
The presentation of research findings was held at GSID by each working group to disseminate and to collectfeedback from colleagues on Oct. 26th, 2016.

Overall Schedule of Fieldwork in the Philippines
Date
Sept.16 (Fri.)

Activities
13:00-15:00 Pre-survey Orientation on OFW2016 at GSID
7:20 Meeting at Chubu International Airport

Sept.18 (Sun.)

9:35 Departure from Nagoya (PR437)
Check-in at SEARCA Hotel, UPLB
6:30 Travel to LGU Rizal, Laguna
8:00-9:00 Introduction to LGU Rizal Flag Raising Ceremony

Sept.19 (Mon.)

9:00-12:00 Opening Program
14:00-17:00 Orientation
18:00-21:00 Welcome party
9:00-12:00 Revision of Research Plan at Rizal Recreation Center

Sept. 20 (Tue.)

13:00-17:00 Field survey by each WG

Sept. 21 (Wed.)- Sept.23 (Fri.)

Field survey by each WG

Sept. 24 (Sat.)- Sept.25 (Sun.)

Free time

Sept.26 (Mon.) - Sept.27 (Tue.)

Field survey by each WG
8:00-12:00 Field survey

Sept.28 (Wed.)

13:00-17:00 Review and Consolidation of Research Data
18:30 Farewell Party hosted by GSID, Nagoya University
8:00-9:00 Courtesy Call with CPAF Dean Dr. Virginia Cardenas

Sept.29 (Thu.)

9:00-12:00 Preparation for Research Results Presentation
12:00-21:00 Fiesta
8:00-15:00 Preparation for Presentation of Research Results

Sept.30 (Fri.)

15:00-17:00 Presentation of Research Results
18:00 Farewell Party
8:00-9:00 Travel to UPLB

Oct.1 (Sat.)

9:00-12:00 Presentation of Research Results at CPAf
14:00-17:00 UPLB Tour

Oct.2 (Sun.)

Depart for Nagoya, Japanxiv

Detailed Schedule of Fieldwork by Each Working Group

WG1
Date

Place

Who

Rizal Municipal Hall

Officers

Mon

Sept.19

Tue

Sept.20

Rizal Recreation Center
Municipal Agriculture Office

Officers

Wed
Thu
Fri
Mon
Tue
Wed

Sept.21
Sept.22
Sept.23
Sept.26
Sept.27
Sept.28

Rizal Municipal Hall
Sto. Nino Farmers Association of Rizal, Laguna;
PAFC; MAFC
Farmers’ homes
Farmers’ homes; market
Farmers’ homes

Officers
Farmers
Farmers
Farmers
Farmers
Farmers

What
Introduction
Ceremony &Orientation
Revision of
Research Plan &Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview

WG2
Date

Mon

Sept.19

Tue

Sept.20

Wed

Sept.21Thu

Sept.22Fri

Sept.23

Mon

Sept.26

Tue

Sept.27

Wed

Sept.28

Place

Who

Rizal Municipal Hall

Officers

Introduction
Ceremony &Orientation
Revision of
Research Plan &Interview
Interview

Farmers

Interview

Officers

Rizal Recreation Center
Municipal Mayor’s Office
Municipal Administrator’s Office
Rizal Municipal Hall
Sto. Nino Farmers Association of Rizal, Laguna
Tayak Hill
Tala; Pauli I; Tuy; PookCAFGU Camp, Tayak Hill; Stores; Cash forWork Beneficiaries; Farmers
Tala Resort and Restaurant; Lucy and Elsie
Cuisine; Rizal Recreation Center
Haribon Foundation

xv

What

Mayor
Officers

Homemade
Candies makers
Officers; Storeowners; Farmers

Interview
Interview

OwnersInterviews

Officers

Interviews

WG3
Date

Place

Who

Rizal Municipal Hall

Officers

Mon

Sept.19

Tue

Sept.20

Rizal Recreation Center
Municipal Mayor’s Office
Alternative Learning System

Wed

Sept.21

Antipolo

Thu
Fri
Mon
Tue
Wed

Sept.22
Sept.23
Sept.26
Sept.27
Sept.28

Pauli I; East; Tuy
PookPauli II
Tala
West Poblacion

Teacher &Students
Students
Students
Students
Students
Students

Place

Who

Officers

What
Introduction
Ceremony &Orientation
Revision of
Research Plan &Interview
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews
Interviews

WG4
Date

Rizal Municipal Hall

Officers

Mon

Sept.19

Tue

Sept.20

Wed
Thu
Fri
Mon

Sept.21
Sept.22
Sept.23
Sept.26

Rizal Recreation Center
Municipal Social Welfare and Development
OfficeAntipolo
Tala
PookPauli II

Tue

Sept.27

Alternative Learning System; PESO

Wed

Sept.28

Palengke

Officers
Unemployed
Unemployed
Unemployed
Unemployed
Organization
leaders

What
Introduction
Ceremony &Orientation
Revision of
Research Plan &Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interview
Interviewxvi

Working Group 1
Food Security

Characteristics of Local Vegetable Value Chain in the Municipality of Rizal,
LagunaGroup Members:
Hana Crawford-Goto *Chaosarn Chawpaka
Poonnawatt Kornwika**
Yuki Yamamoto
Group Advisors:
Associate Prof. Akiko Ueda
Professional Lecturer Louie A. Divinagracia** Group Leader*Group Sub Leader

1Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Problem statement
3. Research objectives and questions
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Questions
4. Literature review
4.1 Significance of vegetable value chain
4.2 Agriculture and poverty reduction
5. Methodology and limitations
5.1 Conceptual framework
5.2 Data collection methods and informants
5.3 Limitation
6.

Results
6.1 The current local vegetable value chain in Rizal
6.2 Price changes in the transactions among actors
6.3 Challenges
6.3.1 Challenges of farmers
6.3.2 Challenges of middlemen and vendors
6.3.3 Challenges of consumers
6.4 Opportunities

7. Recommendations
7.1 Establishment of farmers’ cooperative
7.2 Establishment of a trading post
7.3 Joint program with other institutions
7.4 Value-added processing program
7.5 School lunch program
8. Conclusion
Acknowledgement
References21. Introduction
We cannot deny that food is one of the basic human needs for living. However, there are more than 800 million
people who are currently suffering from hunger in the world (United Nations, 2015). Therefore, food security
is considered to be one of the highest priorities for governments and international organizations. Food security
was defined during the World Food Summit of 1996 as a condition in which:“All people, anytime, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious
food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for their sound lives.” (World Food
Summit, 1996)

Food security consists of three pillars: food availability, food access, and food utilization (FAO, 2006).
Food availability covers sufficient quantities of food production, food processing, water and soil management,
and trade and stockpiling. Food access contains a sufficient system for transportation, equitable distribution,marketing, affordability, and purchasing power. The last pillar is food utilization, which comprises good health,nutritious food, food safety and quality, clean water, and sanitation (United Nations, 2013). As is apparent fromthe statement above, food security is made up of various aspects.
The Municipality of Rizal in the province of Laguna, Philippines was the focus site for this study. The
Municipality is located 25 kilometers east from Santa Cruz, the provincial capital of Laguna, and 99 kilometers
south of Manila, the national capital. The land area is 27.90 square kilometers with the population of 16,820
people as of 2011 (Javier, 2016). One-tenth of all households are engaged in agricultural activities. There are
currently 157 households who cultivate vegetables out of a total of 490 farmers. Main vegetables that are
cultivated in Rizal are chayote, Chinese cabbage, and radish; along with rice, lanzones, coconut and banana.
The main economic income in Rizal, Laguna comes from the agricultural sector; farmers have some difficulties
in their production, financial support and marketing which have created a negative impact on farming families
in such areas as child malnutrition (Javier, 2016).

2. Problem statement
It is said that Asian farmers have long been saddled with inefficiencies within the food value chain fromproduction to consumption (Manalili, 2003). Food value chains play a significant role in determining thequality of farmers’ lives. In our study area, there was a recent problem of over production. Many farmers grew
the same crop without discussing among themselves or studying market trends from the traders. Therefore
there was an oversupply, which resulted in a sharp decline in market value. It is said that improving the supply
chain contributes to enhancing agricultural societies; especially for food access, which leads to household foodsecurity. The problem of not having an organized vegetable supply chain has been revealed as a result of therecent economic losses to farmers in our study area. This study will focus on transactions within the vegetablevalue chains in Rizal as well as major challenges and opportunities within the chain.
33. Research objectives and questions
3.1 Objectives
1. To identify the transactions between actors within the local vegetable value chain in Rizal, which focuses
on radish, chayote and Chinese cabbage farming; and2. To identify the major challenges and opportunities within the local vegetable value chain, specificallypertaining to radish, chayote and Chinese cabbage.
3.2 Questions
1. What are the price changes in the transactions among actors within the local vegetable value chain in Rizal?
2. What are the major challenges and opportunities of the local vegetable value chain in Rizal?

4. Literature review
This literature review aims to clarify the significant areas of this study by examining the related research ofvarious scholars. The structure of this literature review will follow the research objectives and questions that
focus on the significance of the vegetable value chain, together with agriculture and poverty reduction.
Firstly, we would like to examine information regarding the vegetable value chain and understand the
supporting reasons why it is sufficiently effective or not. Secondly, regarding agriculture and poverty reduction,
we would like to show significant linkages between the agricultural sectors and development.
4.1 Significance of Vegetable Value Chain
Kaplinsky and Morris (2000) have adopted the value chain concept by focusing on a full range of necessary
activities to transform products from production to consumers, including final disposal. The value chain has
no common definition but it simply refers to activities in the agricultural sector that can be isolated from themarket system. The main development work is on linking small scale producers to companies that interact
within the value chains because a fully integrated value chain would not involve small producer according tocompetitive advantages. In general, the value chain touches upon broad stages of planning, planting, harvesting,marketing, and consuming; however, some models may provide a more detailed and complex environmental
analysis.
Value chain tracking could help us to understand the flows of agricultural products, marketing, finance andcommunication within the chain. Product movements focus on the advantages and disadvantages that relate to
the distribution of vegetable; for instance, spoilage of products, the quality of vehicles, etc. The importance ofmarketing is to have visible markets for products and to seek out new markets in order to strengthen brandimage for those products. There are some reports which say that in terms of food, the markets are quite small
and the consumption rate is mainly from the household level, not large scale like other kind of products(CFSNS, 2006). Additionally, the Comprehensive Food Security and Nutrition Survey (CFSNS) also foundthat the variations in production depend on the constraints of the household to access inputs; additionally, thelack of seeds and tools are ranked as the most constraining issues. The flows of finance are concerned with the4funds, supports and the needs of actors within the chain. Lastly, the use of ICTs is a tool for promoting value
chain efficiency. The cost of using ICTs is falling due to the increase number of mobile technologies and ICTs
that help in tracking the development projects in remote areas. By studying the vegetable value chain, we could
obtain in-depth reliable information about the opportunities and challenges that each actor faced, in order toprovide recommendations on possible development projects.
4.2 Agriculture and Poverty Reduction
Poor people are concentrated in rural areas and most of them depend on agriculture, which can be aneffective means of reducing poverty (World Bank, 2008). The rural poor have been involved in the agriculture
sector for generations. Agriculture has not only fed them with food but also provided jobs for the rural
populations. In many countries, the growth of agriculture is related to the reduction of poverty; for instance in
China, agriculture growth has reduced poverty in rural areas from 53 percent in 1981 to 8 percent in 2001
(World Bank, 2008) the same trend is taking place in India.
However, the success in agriculture does not always succeed in poverty reduction as in the case of Brazil
where the growth of intensive-farming shifted employment from the local population to high-skilled workers
who have the ability to use those intense-farming technologies. This presents a challenge in how to balancetechnology with local development.
In addition, the reason that agriculture fails in reducing poverty is because the rural farmer, who is the
producer and the starting point of most value chains, face barriers when distributing their products and has lesspower in negotiate the price. Understanding the value chain is important for understanding how rural producer
can engage, or improve their terms of engagement with regards to trade activities. (Mitchell, Keane, & Coles,2009). Hence, improving value chains can help farmers capture market opportunities, create closer business
partnerships and improve their products. Improving value chain performance can increase rural income andemployment and advance economic growth for rural areas. (International Labour Office, 2011).
Moreover, the policies that help in reducing poverty should address small scale farmers so that they havethe ability to compete in the bigger markets. Their possibilities should be expanded rather than monopolizedby giant companies who exploit all the benefits. The main policies that have been used to enhance agricultural
growth are the ability to access assets, for instance, water, land, and human capital; the ability to access markets
and reduce transaction costs and risks; improve productivity; access financial and risk management services;
and improve accountability (World Bank, 2008).

5. Methodology and limitation
5.1 Conceptual framework
To understand problems within the local vegetable value chain, the conceptual framework described in
Figure 1 was used to describe the linkage between local vegetable value chain and development strategies. The
analysis is based on the track of the local vegetable value chain from vegetable planning to vegetable5

consuming in order to figure out the challenges and opportunities of farmers, middlemen, vendors, andconsumers by using business management theory. The analysis will help us to shape strategic plans for further
food security development in Rizal, Laguna.
Figure 1 Conceptual framework

Source: Authors

5.2 Data collection methods and informants
Our research aimed to figure out the characteristic of the local vegetable value chain so the target informants
were our priority. We chose to do our research using a qualitative approach to help us to understand the trend
and the common characteristics and difficulties that each actor faces. We conducted individual interviews, afocus group discussion, and field observation as shown in Table 1. For the literature review section, we used
official government reports, international organization reports, news, related books and articles as secondary
data sources.
We, firstly, distinguished our informants into four groups; farmers, middlemen, vendors and consumers.
However, we found that actors within the vegetable value chain have complex business patterns; for instance,
there are some farmers who also collect neighbors’ vegetables and sell them to market. These people are

Table 1 Numbers of informants

Source: Authors

6

farmers and, they are also middlemen or vendors at the same time. We also found a mixed-business pattern
between middlemen and vendors.

5.3 Limitations
We could not collect enough information to analyze the exact trend of the vegetable value chain and thecharacteristics of each actor because of time constrains. The best way to understand the flow of the value chain
is to track the whole process, from farm planning to customers; however, we did not have the chance to do so.
According to the limitation, we decided to focus on three main vegetables in Rizal, which were chayote,
Chinese cabbage and radish.

6. Results
Results of this study were analyzed based on the two research questions: What are the price changes in thetransactions among actors within the local vegetable value chain in Rizal and what are the major challenges
and opportunities of the local vegetable value chain in Rizal. To carry out the results of this study, we used aqualitative approach as described in the methodology section.

6.1 The current local vegetable value chain in Rizal
We conducted interviews with farmers, middlemen, vendors, and consumers in Rizal to understand theiractivities, opportunities and challenges. We found that most of the local vegetable production is exported outof Rizal, especially to neighboring cities; so, in addition, we decided to conduct two interviews with vendors
in Nagcarlan, a neighboring city of Rizal. Through our interviews, we could comprehend the overall pictureof the local vegetable value chain in Rizal as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Map of local vegetable value chain in Rizal

Source: Personal interviews with farmers, vendors, middlemen andconsumers in Rizal and vendors in Nagcarlan
7

We would like to explain some significant findings about the current local vegetable value chain in Rizal.
Firstly, farmers tended to have separated farming plots for their own consumption by using a multi-farming
system. Most of the farmers plant some chayote and water spinach for their home consumption, because theseare basic vegetables which are often used in Filipino dishes. These farmers separately conduct organic farming
to grow their home consumption vegetable.
Secondly, middlemen play a significant role in terms of distributing vegetable in Rizal’s local vegetablevalue chain. According to our interviews, most of the farmers in Rizal chose to sell their products to middlemen
who provide transportation assistance from farms to markets. Furthermore, we found that middlemen in Rizal
were monopolized, so farm-gate pricing was set much lower in comparison to the market price; however,farmers did not feel a loss with the said price as they were concerned more about time constraints rather thanthe price gap. Farmers said that they felt as though middlemen were part of their family, so even though thenumber of middlemen increased, local farmers tended to sell their vegetables to the same middleman.
Lastly, farmers sold their products directly to local vendors. In Rizal, there were two kinds of vendors
divided by the point of sale. The first was vendors in the Rizal public market who formed a Vendors Association
to set the pricing in the only public market in Rizal; another was vendors operating outside the public market.
The transactions within the local vegetable value chain were complicated because the vegetables moved
across the value chain from local actors to Manila or other neighboring cities. Rizal’s vegetables were not only
feeding and benefiting the populations of Rizal but also its neighboring cities.
6.2 Price changes in the transactions among actors
From our interviews and surveys in Rizal and Nagcarlan, we determined the price changes for transactions
in each of the value chains. The result was carried out by comparing the selling and buying price in eachtransaction from each actor within the value chain. Then, we found the average price by combining the priceof each transaction together and dividing it by the number of our respondents for each transaction. Figure 3,
4 and 5 show the average price change among actors in the value chain for chayote, Chinese cabbage andradish respectively. Unfortunately, we could not fide out the profit changes in each commodity chain because
the time constraints and the difficulties of interviewees to distinguish each commodity’s production cost.
However, the figures are expected to provide a better understanding of the whole picture for transactions ineach of the vegetable chains.
From the figures, we could say that Rizal farmers who sell their product to middlemen instead of directly
to vendors will get a lower price, in the case of chayote the gap is 9.95 peso per kilogram, however, the gap
for radish is less than one peso. The farm-gate price in comparison to the consumer’s buying price contained
a large price gap, which benefited the middlemen and vendors. In case of Chinese cabbage, farmers only sell
their products to middlemen and the price gap between the buying and selling price of middlemen and vendors
in Rizal was 16.37 peso per kilogram. In conclusion, the farmers have limited market options which affectfarmer’s income and conversely benefits middlemen and vendors.
8

Figure 3 Average price changes for Chayote production in Rizal

Source: Personal interviews with farmers, vendors, middlemen and consumers in Rizal and vendors in Nagcarlan

Figure 4 Average price changes for Chinese cabbage production in Rizal

Source: Personal interviews with farmers, vendors, middlemen and consumers in Rizal and vendors in Nagcarlan

Figure 5 Average price changes for Radish production in Rizal

Source: Personal interviews with farmers, vendors, middlemen and consumers in Rizal and vendors in Nagcarlan

96.3 Challenges
Various kinds of problems from individual problems to common challenges were realized from ourresearch. We classified the challenges into four categories using the business management concept - production,marketing, finance and human resources. To narrow down our focus, the main or most serious challenges werechosen among the many challenges, by using a ranking criteria method. Four indicators, impact on actors
income, damage on local production, impact on consumers, and impact on Rizal’s economy, were used tomeasure the seriousness of the issue, and some top seriousness issues were selected to be the focus of thisstudy.

6.3.1 Challenges of farmers
For farmers, they had difficulties in all four categories; production, marketing, finance and humanresources. From the production aspect, pest and disease, natural disaster, and oversupply of vegetables were
the three most serious problems. Firstly, all farmers mentioned their problems with pests and disease; especially,
it seemed that the issue was more serious on chayote and Chinese cabbages than on radish or other root corps.
The findings revealed that some farmers get advice from agricultural input shops when they face the issue ofpest and disease. However, many farmers said that they do not ask for help from others, they either leave theirvegetables to die or keep spreading large amount of pesticides. Here, it can be said that there are issues ofisolationism among farmers, lack of institutions where farmers can go and ask for help, and overuse ofchemicals. There is a high risk of soil instability because the usage of chemical could raise a problem of soil
pollution. Secondly, both low land and high land farmers mentioned about their losses due to annual typhoons.
It revealed that farmers are vulnerable to natural disasters especially from typhoons. Lastly, an extremely
serious problem with production is market saturation at both the local and regional levels. Farmers in Rizal
had no discussions regarding their farming so each farmer individually decided their preferred plants.
Therefore, most of the decisions were made from the market price, which meant farmers chose to plant thehighest selling priced vegetable. In the harvest season, there were oversupply issues, for instance, the price ofradish is normally about 20 pesos per kilogram but during the ‘oversupply’ period, the selling price became
0.50 pesos per kilogram. As a result of high supply, many farmers did not harvest their products. Sometimes
they harvested and gave those products to people for free or kept them for their home consumption, but not for
selling.
We will now move on to the marketing aspect. The lack of marketing information and poor transportation
were the major issues for farmers in Rizal from the marketing perspective. We found out that farmers havevery limited knowledge and information in terms of marketing. Farmers in Rizal only focus on the production
phase, so they were not empowered to seek out new markets. Even in periods of oversupply, they still reliedon middlemen and local markets to sell their products at low prices. There may be other markets with highdemands on several kinds of vegetables, but it was evident that farmers were not trying to explore new markets
for their products. Making overproduced vegetables into value-added products is a common way of reducing
overproduced vegetable during periods of high supply. However, farmers said that they did not want to do
10

value-added production mainly because they only wanted to focus on farming. In addition to this, it seemed
they had no motivation to shift from traditional farming to business-oriented farming. Since Rizal is in a ruralarea, basic infrastructure is still not good, especially in high-land areas. From our survey in Rizal, we foundthat roads in the area were narrow, with steep slopes, and rough, making transportation of produce difficult.
Transportation does not only have an impact on the distribution process but also on vegetable spoilage.
Next, farmers in Rizal faced financial problems such as lack of capital and financial support. All
participated farmers said that they lack capital, as the benefit from farming is not enough to cover the cost.
They often have to rely on their saving or borrow money from relatives or informal finance institutions in orderto buy their inputs. Farmers had to depend on themselves with no financial support from government or otherformal institutions. There were some micro finance institutions such as Card Bank which provide financial
support for farmers; however, it seems there are many difficulties for farmers such as complicated document
procedures, time consuming processes, and high interest rates. Therefore, many farmers borrow money fromthe informal sectors that provide easy access to money, for instance the 56 of Indian company. The problem of
the informal financial sectors was the very high interest, in case of 56, it said that if we borrowed 5 pesos, we
had to repay in 6 pesos or add 20 percent interest to the original price. With these problems, it can be said thatboth lack of capital and financial support from formal institutions made poor farmers became poorer.
Lastly, our research revealed that it is quite hard to change farmers’ concept of farming in Rizal because
farmers are used to the traditional way of farming and there is no successful model for enhanced farming. The
local government tried to implement organic farming by providing trainings and supports; unfortunately, there
was no organic farming in Rizal because there was no model of development in the area. Local people tended
to use the traditional way of farming as it guarantees at least some level of benefit, but for organic farming,
there was no guarantee that farmers would gain any benefit in the first few years.
In addition to general challenges, each commodity had its own characteristics, so farmers found different
challenges for each commodity (Table 2). Farmers planting chayote found a new unknown type of disease
which affected the size of chayote. One of the farmer said that if he found chayote with the unknown disease,
he would have to remove the whole crop and start replanting them again. For Chinese cabbage, one vendor in
the Nagcarlan market mentioned that Chinese cabbages from Rizal slightly had lower quality than cabbages
from the northern part of the Philippines; specifically, it was smaller in size, looked bad and tasted bitter. From
our survey, we found that Chinese cabbages from Rizal had black spots which might be caused by poor qualityof packaging and transportation, so Chinese cabbage from Rizal seemed to have a lower price than cabbage
from other parts of the Philippines. For radish, which is a dry season vegetable, there was a problem ofoversupply during the harvesting period (February to April) as all farmers would plant radish at the exact sametime from January to March because there is no rain during that season. At one point, some farmers took risk
to plant them during wet season (October to December), but the production rate was quite low as the rain
washed out radish seeds. In addition to this, farmers were aware of typhoon during the wet season, so only a
few number of farmers tried to shift their radish planting from January to October.
11

Table 2 Farmers’ Challenges for Each Commodity

Note: The blank spaces mean that there is no specific challenge for that commodity.
Source: Personal interviews with farmers, vendors, middlemen and consumers in Rizal
and vendors in Nagcarlan

6.3.2 Challenges of middlemen and vendors
Middlemen and vendors in Rizal have many characteristics, for instance, middlemen and vendors who only
do one kind of business, farmers who collect neighbors’ vegetables and do business as middlemen and vendors,
middlemen who are vendors and vice versa. However, we will focus on the main challenges of those who
conduct businesses in the distribution process. From our interviews with straight middlemen and vendors, wefound that their main challenges were marketing and finance. Rizal is a small municipality, and the size ofmarket in Rizal is small in comparison with that of neighboring cities. Therefore, middlemen do not find it
beneficial to distribute vegetables from farmers to Rizal’s local market. In addition, farmers in Rizal tended toplant the same kinds of vegetable, which limited the variety of vegetables in the area. One of the middlemen
told us that she had a difficult time finding her preferred vegetables from local farmer because she had no, orvery limited information about what crops each farmer was growing. She had to walk around from village tovillage and talk directly to individual farmers. In terms of financial challenges, local middlemen and vendors
in Rizal did not own vehicles; therefore, they had to rent vehicles, which created additional overhead. The
rental vehicles were old and had high maintenance costs which caused delays in transportation and spoilage ofvegetables. They also mentioned about the problem of high interest loans, which is one of the reason why theycannot own their own vehicles or expand their business.

6.3.3 Challenges of consumers
Even though Rizal is said to be an agricultural municipality, we found out that vegetable prices in Rizal’s
public market was higher than those in neighboring cities. Consumers were having difficulty in accessing avariety of reasonably priced and vegetables. The size of Rizal’s public market is small compared to neighboring
cities, so it can be said that they cannot benefit from ‘economies of scale.’ It can also be said that the size ofthe market makes it difficult for farmers and middlemen to sell their vegetable at Rizal’s public market, because
there is a high possibility that the buying capacity for vegetables is small. Because of this, many vegetablesfrom Rizal go outside Rizal. Some vendors at the market said they buy vegetables from neighboring markets
12even for vegetables grown in Rizal. This inefficient market and distribution system is considered to be thebiggest cause for the high price of vegetables at Rizal’s public market. In addition to this, the Vendor
Association might also have an influence on pricing since they set the daily selling price in the market.

6.4 Opportunities
Rizal is an agricultural society and acts as the vegetable bowl of the Philippines. Even though local farmers
face many kinds of challenges, it seems that there are many opportunities for them to improve and to add morevalue to their products. In Table 3, we provided an analysis of farmers’ opportunities based on the local context.
Table 3 Farmers’ opportunities for each commodity

Note: The blank spaces mean that there is no specific opportunities for that commodities.
Source: Analysis is based on personal interviews with farmers, vendors, middlemen andconsumers in Rizal and vendors in Nagcarlan

In terms of chayote, Rizal’s agricultural land is suitable for planting chayote, however an unknown disease
was found. In order to improve the productivity, the local government and farmers could adopt sustainable
farming technologies and best practices for agribusiness by cooperating with research institutions in otherrelevant sectors. Chinese cabbage, as the high-value vegetable, could bring higher benefits to farmers. Farmers
might adopt sustainable farming technologies to standardize uniform size. In addition, from the survey wefound that Chinese cabbage production in Rizal was high enough to serve markets both inside and outside themunicipality. All commodities had opportunities to be value-added as processed vegetables especially radishes
which face oversupply during harvest season could be processed into many kinds of product such as radish
kimchi, fermented radish, radish soup, dried vegetable soup which would not only decreased he number ofoversupply vegetables but also to increase income for the local people.

13

7. Recommendations
We found that there are several challenges in the vegetable value chain in Rizal. In order to address thesechallenges, we would like to suggest 5 recommendations.
7.1. Establishment of Farmers’ Cooperative
We would like to recommend the establishment of a multi-purpose farmer’s cooperatives within Rizal,
which would involve money lending, input supply, production and post-harvest as well as processing andmarketing aspects. The expected stakeholders are the local government and farmers. It is expected that theserecommendations would solve many challenges for farmers such as their lack of capital, lack of loan sources,
lack of information, poor transportation, limited information, and the problem of oversupply.
For example, one of the biggest problems for farmers in the area was the lack of capital and loan source.
There was no lending institution which could lend money to farmers with low interest or without difficult
document requirements. One of the roles that farmers’ cooperatives are expected to play for farmers is the roleof lending institution. Each member of cooperatives can invest some money and the farmers’ cooperatives caninitiate a lending system with that money. Since the system is run by the cooperative, not by private lending
institutions, interest would be less expensive and the contract documentation could be simplified.
However, there should be some regulations for the form of farmers’ cooperatives since we found out someissues in the current farmers’ cooperative in the area. There is one farmers’ cooperative in Rizal, and thisfarmers’ cooperative was originally established only by farmers. However, some non-farmer joined thecooperative later on, and this was the starting point for corruption within the cooperative; the money was used
for private purposes. One of the farmers told us during the interview that he cannot trust the cooperative
anymore because of this trauma. From this story, we think farmers’ cooperatives should restrict their members
to only farmers in order to rebuild trust. In addition to this, farmers’ cooperatives should start small such as
within each Barangay since members should know each other and can build up trust within the cooperative.
Another recommended condition for cooperatives is that they should be a bottom-up organization, not a
top-down one. One of the successful farmers’ cooperatives in Thailand was run by motivated enthusiastic
farmers; these farmers were actively involved in the operations of the cooperative (Thuvachote, 2006).

7.2. Establishment of a trading post
Currently, most of the economic activities within the vegetable value chain take place outside Rizal. Some
farmers take their products to market in near-by cities, and Rizal market vendors go to these markets to buy
products and bring them back to Rizal for selling. In other words, it can be said that consumers in Rizal arebuying some of the Rizal vegetables at a higher price than necessary because of this market system. We foundout that some of the consumers in Rizal go to markets outside Rizal to buy their produce cheaper.
The establishment of a trading post could bring back these economic activities to Rizal. It is also anticipatedto solve the problem of oversupply because when an oversupply of vegetables occurs in an area, demand14

declines within that area, and the prices drop drastically. However, this does not necessarily mean that there isno demand for the vegetables in other areas. If farmers can bring their products to other areas such as Nagcarlan,
San Pablo and/or Manila, they can sell their products there, while protecting them from the price breakdown.
However, if each farmer produces a small number of units each, they cannot bother transferring their products
to other cities by themselves, since it would be cost prohibitive. If there is a place in Rizal that farmers only
need to bring their products and a distribution companies can transfer all the products together to other cities,
farmers can make some profit without incurring the transportation costs themselves. If it is difficult to establish
a large trading post in the area, it might be better to establish a small trading post in each Barangay.

7.3 Joint program with other institutions
The biggest problem among farmers was the issue of pest/disease. Most of the farmers that we conductedinterviews with said they suffer from pests eating their crops. However, we found that most do not ask for help
from others. Some of the farmers said that they just leave the ill plant and then plant the same plant again next
season. Some other farmers said that they just apply more pesticides to those plants because they believe thatthey can save the plant by applying pesticides.
The local government is trying to provide help to farmers by offering farming practice seminars, but there
are limitations for it since there are only two agricultural officers in Rizal; a system which farmers can gettechnical support from other institutions such as academic institutions like universities or private companies
like telecommunication companies might be a solution for solving the problem.

7.4 Value-added processing program
As we have already mentioned in the previous chapter, most of the economic activities within the vegetablevalue chain for Rizal farmers takes place outside Rizal. In addition to this, there is no value-added process
within the vegetable value chain within the area. We conceive that launching a value-added program within
Rizal will generate additional economic benefit to the area. Expected stake holders for the program would be
the local government, farmers, and local citizens such as unemployed youth.
According to the Ministry of Agricultural Officers in Rizal, there is national support for the establishmentof a processing facility. We recommend the local government to utilize this national support. However, it would
be difficult to start a big project from the beginning. We would thus like to recommend the local government
to start from a small unit project such as a household-base project. They can make value-added products suchas cookies and candies with locally grown vegetables. We surmise this value-added program can also help
solve the oversupply issue in this area. People can make excess vegetables into value-added processed foodand generate additional revenue from it.

7.5 School lunch program
We found out that there are no school lunches provided at schools in the area. People, especially children
were not eating vegetables that much. If the local government can provide school lunches with locally grown15vegetables, it would create a new market for local farmers and it would also help change children’s eating habit
at the same time. In addition to this, it is also expected to generate additional employment for local people if
the local government can bring a school lunch provider to Rizal. The main stakeholders would be the local
government, schools, and farmers. The biggest obstacle for the program would be the budget. However, World
Food Program (WFP), an international organization which is fighting hunger worldwide, provides some
support for school lunches. There is an actual case in the remote town of Upi in Maguindanao, Mindanao in
the Philippines (World Food Program, 2017). The program is called school meals project and it has been
providing school meals to an average of 100,000 children every school year. The area was selected as asupporting site because it was in an area affected by conflict in Central Mindanao. The condition of Rizal isdifferent from that of Upi, so it might not be easy to get the same support as what Upi received from WFP, butthere is still a chance for receiving such kind of support from them.

8. Conclusion
This research sought to identify the transactions between each actor within the local vegetable value chains in
the Municipality of Rizal, focusing on chayote, Chinese cabbage and radish. The analysis of the transaction ofeach commodity shows the price changes among each actor, and shows the economic pathways of eachcommodity, from producers to consumers. We found that the economic activities occur both inside and outside
the Municipality of Rizal. Moreover, this research also sought to identify the major challenges andopportunities within the local vegetable value chain. The analysis shows the challenges faced by each actor,
who cultivates, trades and consumes the focused vegetables. Furthermore, the analysis also shows thechallenges and opportunities for each commodity.
In the effort to identify the transactions between each actor and address the challenges and opportunities,
this research utilized a qualitative approach using interviews, focus group discussion, and field observation as
the primary data. The research made use of official government sources, international organization reports,
and related books and article for its secondary data.
The research found that there are four main pathways through which local vegetables flow in the
Municipality of Rizal starting with home consumption by farmers; secondly, farmers distribute their products
through middlemen to vendors both within and outside Municipality of Rizal; thirdly, farmers sell theirproducts directly to local vendors in the public market within the Municipality of Rizal; and lastly, farmer sell
their products directly to other vendors in Municipality of Rizal. When focusing on each selected commodity,
we found that the flow of each commodity varies. Though, we found the price changes in the value chaintransaction, we could not track down the profit changes in each commodity. Furthermore, through interviews
with various key informants, we found many types of problems from individual problems to common
challenges which we categorized utilizing the ‘business management concept’ of production, marketing,finance and human resources -- carried out by using impact on actor’s income; damage on local production;
16

impact on consumers; and impact on Rizal’s economy as the ranking criteria. The most common challenge ofeach actor in the Municipality of Rizal’s vegetable value chain is lack of capital.
Finally, to address the challenges faced by each actor in the local vegetable value chain, we proposed ourrecommendations based on our observations and results found during the fieldwork in the Municipality of
Rizal. We suggested programs and activities for product improvement, income, and livelihood aspects
pertaining to each actor and commodity in the local vegetable value chain.

Acknowledgement
We would first like to express my sincere gratitude to the people of Rizal, Laguna; Rizal governor andpublic officers for their warm welcome and support; hotel staffs for their continuous support during our stays
in Rizal; and our interview respondents who provide us with significant in-depth information.
Secondly, we would like to thank the GSID faculty members of OFW 2016: Prof. Peddie for his guidance
which helped us frame our research and writing; Prof. Shimazu who procured our scholarships and organized
our performance at Rizal’s Fiesta; and Prof. Liu for providing us with unfailing support and continuous
encouragement throughout our study. We would also like to thank the guest professors for supporting us with
precious information through preparation sessions and GSID friends for all the fun we have had over the past
eight months.
Thirdly, our sincere thanks also goes out to our teammates: Jocel who worked really hard in order toorganize our two-week interviews; Prof Louie for insightful information, comments and encouragement which
widen our research perspectives; Sherwin, as our fifth group member, for the informative discussions and forthe sleepless nights when we were working together before our presentations. In particular, we are grateful toProf. Ueda, our group adviser. The door to her room was always open whenever we ran into trouble or had aquestion about our research or writing. Without her precious supports, it would not have been possible toconduct this research.
Last but not least, we would like to thank Prof. Okada for supervising this fruitful overseas program and
Dr. Aser for enlightening us on research techniques. This accomplishment would not have been possible
without them. Thank you.

References
Asian Development Bank (2015). Asian Development Bank Member Fact Sheet, Manila, The Philippines.
Comprehensive Food Security and Nutrition Survey (2006). Comprehensive Food Security and Nutrition
Survey, Liberia
17

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1996). Declaration on World Food Security, Rome,
Italy.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2003). Trade Reforms and Food Security, Rome,
Italy.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2006). The State of Food Insecurity in the World
2006: Eradicating world hunger-taking stock ten years after the World Food Summit, Rome, Italy.
Kaplinsky, R., and M. Morris (2000). A Handbook for Value Chain Research. Institute forDevelopment Studies, Brighton, U.K.
Manalili, M. N. (2003). Linking Farmers to Markets Through Cooperatives Vegetables Supply Chain Redesign
Options for Kapatagan, Mindanao, Philippines. Paper presented at the Australian Agricultural andResource Economics Society Conference, Perth, WA
Sarker,L. A., Sasaki, T. (1999). Performance of Fruit and Vegetables Marketing System The Case of
Bangladesh. Nouringyoumondaikennkyuujyo, 136.
Thuvachote, S. (2006). Agricultural Cooperatives in Thailand. 2006 FFTC-NACF International Seminar on
Agricultural Cooperatives in Asia: Innovations and Opportunities in the 21st Century, Seoul, Korea.
United Nations (2013). World Economic and Social Survey 2013: Sustainable Development Challenges, NY
United Nations. Department of Economic, & United Nations. Department of Public Information(2015). The millennium development goals report 2015. United Nations Publications.
World Bank (2008). World Development Report, Agriculture for Development.
World Food Program (2017, January 6). Retrieved from https://www.wfp.org/stories/philippines-schoolmeals-bring- maguindanao-community-together

18

Working Group 2
The Role of Local Government

The Interrelationship between Stakeholders in Ecotourism Development in the
Municipality of Rizal, Laguna

Group Members:
Pinkan Mariskania Pasuhuk **Yuri Matsuoka*
Amibang Awah Martin
Aayusha Prasain
Yuina Kamiya
Annick Henriette
Group Advisors:
Associate Prof. Isamu Okada
Associate Prof. Aser B. Javier** Group Leader*Group Sub Leader

19

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Statement
2. Research objective and significance of study
2.1 Research objective
2.2 Significance of study
3. Literature Review
3.1 Ecotourism
3.2 Interrelationship between stakeholders
3.3 Role of stakeholders
3.3.1 Public sector (government) and ecotourism development
3.3.2 Private sector and ecotourism development
3.3.3 International cooperation agencies and ecotourism development
3.3.4 Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and ecotourism development
3.3.5 Community and ecotourism development
3.4 Dynamics of participation
3.5 Community’s perception and expected benefits of ecotourism
3.5.1 Community’s perception on ecotourism
3.5.2 Expected benefits of ecotourism
4. Methodology and Limitations
4.1 Conceptual Framework
4.2 Data Collection Method
4.3 Research Site
4.4 Analysis Method
4.5 Limitation of the Study
5. Findings
5.1 Current Situation of Ecotourism Development in Rizal, Laguna, Philippines
5.1.1 How Tayak Adventure, Nature and Wildlife Park (TANAW) is being developed as an
ecotourism site
5.2 Stakeholders in ecotourism development and their roles
5.2.1 National Government
5.2.2 Local Government Unit (LGU)
5.2.3 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)5.2.4 Local Community
5.2.5 Private businesses
5.3 Community’s perception and expected benefits from Ecotourism development in Rizal
20

5.3.1 Community’s perception on ecotourism
5.3.2 Expected benefits from Ecotourism
5.4 Dynamics of Participation
5.4.1 Awareness5.4.2 Consultation
5.4.3 Decision-making
5.5 Interrelationship of Stakeholders in Ecotourism Development in Rizal, Laguna
6. Conclusion and Recommendations
6.1 Conclusion
6.2 Recommendations
Acknowledgements
References21

1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Rizal, named after José Rizal, the country's national hero, is a 5th class municipality in the Laguna Provinceof the Philippines, which is divided into 11 barangays. It is located 25 kilometers from the provincial capital,
Santa Cruz and 99 kilometers from the national capital via San Pablo City (Local Government Unit, Rizal,2012). It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Calauan, on the east by Nagcarlan, on the west by San
Pablo City, and on the south by Dolores, Quezon; as a result, it is strategically located in the middle of two
progressive municipalities: Nagcarlan and Santa Cruz. With a total population of 15,531 and 3,562 households,
it is categorized as one of the poorest rural municipalities in the country.
The world community, during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio
De Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, adopted Agenda 21 which recognizes the need to formulate and implement
measures to promote sustainable development. In 1995, the Philippines Agenda 21 (PA 21) was promulgated.
It defined specific priorities to pioneer sustainable development in the Philippines. Within the basis ofPhilippines Agenda 21 (PA 21), the Department of Tourism (DOT) developed the National Sustainable
Development framework that encourages the development of ecotourism as an integral part of its sustainable
tourism framework (Andrada, 2002).
Ecotourism became popular in the Philippines in 1991 when the Philippines Tourism Master Plan (TMP)
was formulated by the Department of Tourism (DOT) together with the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) with the objective to establish thePhilippines as a world-class tourist destination under the guiding principle of sustainable tourism development(Pajaro et al, 1997 cited in B.Abat-Parducho, 2015).
Although Rizal is still developing its own touristic identity, which should be unique compared to otherfrequently visited tourist sites in the Philippines; Rizal as one of the poorest rural municipalities in the country
is developing various ways to uplift its socio-economic conditions with the LGU’s mission to develop its region
as an agro-ecotourism based municipality. With the leadership of Mayor Antonino A. Aurelio, ecotourism is
set as one of the priority areas in which to bring positive changes to the community.
Therefore, we analyzed the interrelationship between stakeholders in ecotourism development in Rizal
because the ecotourism framework in the Philippines demonstrates the interrelationship and interdependence
among stakeholders, in which the environment and tourism are considered as the pillars of ecotourism(Andrada, 2002).

1.2 Problem Statement
Rizal is one of the poorest municipalities in the Philippines and it also has one of the highest rates of
unemployment. In terms of revenue generation, most revenue is derived from the central government as per
the measure used for allocation. To counteract this predominance of central government revenue generation,
22

the local government of Rizal has identified ecotourism as an alternative source of income. This initiative of
ecotourism is not completely new, as some form of ecotourism does exist at present; for example, the Tayak
Adventure, Nature and Wildlife Park (TANAW) is a popular tourist destination. The idea is to create more
opportunities for ecotourism activities in the municipality and subsequently for local economic development.
The stakeholder behind this drive for ecotourism development is the Local Government Unit (LGU) and
its role in this process is crucial. Alongside the LGU we also considered the involvement of the local
community and the private sector in the development of the ecotourism sector; we focus on the following threevariables: (1) dynamics of participation; (2) perception and expected benefits and (3) roles of stakeholders.

2. Research objective and significance of study
2.1 Research objective
The objective of this study is to analyze the interrelationship between the stakeholders in ecotourism
development in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna. We decided to analyze the interrelationship focusing on the
dynamics of participation, perception and expected benefits of the local community, and the roles that eachstakeholder plays in ecotourism development.

Research Question
Main research question: What is the interrelationship between the stakeholders in ecotourism development in
the municipality of Rizal, Laguna?

Sub research questions:
1. What is the dynamics of participation of the local community in ecotourism development in themunicipality of Rizal, Laguna?
2. What are the perceptions and expected benefits of the local community in relation to ecotourism
development?
3. What are the roles of each stakeholder in the ecotourism development in municipality of Rizal,
Laguna?

In order to analyze the interrelationship between stakeholders, we decided to first identify the dynamics ofparticipation, the perception and expected benefits of the local community towards ecotourism, and the rolesof each stakeholder, particularly the LGU, local community and private businesses. By understanding all these
aspects, we wish to obtain a clear image of the interrelationship between the stakeholders.

2.2 Significance of study
The significance of this research is as follows:
1. The research is significant given the potential of ecotourism development in the municipality of Rizal,
23

Laguna. Support from ecotourism stakeholders is essential for the development, successful operationand long term sustainability of tourism.
2. The research will help identify the current situation between ecotourism stakeholders in themunicipality of Rizal, Laguna and work towards suggesting a partnership mechanism among thestakeholders for the development of ecotourism in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna.
3. The research contributes to the academic body of knowledge on the interrelationship between
stakeholders in ecotourism development.

3. Literature Review
For the purpose of analyzing and understanding the research, the comprehension of existing literature isimportant as it gives better insights on the background information related to this field. This chapter will help
the readers to understand the interrelationship between stakeholders in ecotourism development in themunicipality of Rizal, Laguna. This chapter is divided into five main themes which include ecotourism,
interrelationship between stakeholders, dynamics of community participation, roles that each stakeholder playsin ecotourism and the perception and expected benefits from ecotourism by the community. First, underecotourism, this study will try to understand the meaning of ecotourism along with its positive and negative
impacts. Second, it will help the readers to clarify how each stakeholder interacts with each other, and howinterrelationship among stakeholders contributes to the success of ecotourism. Third, it will explain the roles
and the importance of various stakeholders. Next, it will explore the importance of participation of the local
people for the success of this kind of tourism. Finally, it will discuss how the community perceives ecotourism
and how benefits are expected to occur in the ecotourism development.
3.1 Ecotourism
Ecotourism which many developing countries embrace as their main policy has considerable potential toachieve sustainable tourism development and facilitate social and economic development of local communities.
It is about combining conservation, communities and sustainable tourism (Snyman, 2016; TIES, 2015;
Mathews, 2002). According to Kiper (2013), ecotourism focuses primarily on experiencing and learning about
nature, its landscape, flora, fauna and habitats, as well as cultural artifacts from the locality. Moreover, shementioned that ecotourism contributes to the conservation of biodiversity; sustains the well-being of local
people; involves responsible action on the part of tourist and the tourism industry; promotes small and medium
tourism enterprises; requires the lowest possible consumption of natural resources; stresses local participation,
ownership, and business opportunities, particularly for rural people; and above all, includes learning
experiences.
As Andrada (2002, p.169) also mentioned, ecotourism policy provides for the “encouragement,
development, management and promotion of ecological tourism, as a tool to support country’s environment,
natural resources and cultural heritage”. Thus, ecotourism has strong impacts on environmental conditions andlocal people’s activities because eco-tourists have a strong interest in the local culture, habit and nature.
24However, without appropriate planning and management for ecotourism, it might lead to environmental, socialand economic damage.
Ecotourism activities which are not performed according to the purpose, the principles and thecharacteristics may cause the disturbance in environmental, economic and socio-cultural fields due to the overintensification that may occur, especially in sensitive ecosystems like rural areas. Therefore, in order to achievesustainability in ecotourism, it is necessary to know environmental, social and economic effects of ecotourism
activities and to consider these effects during the planning process. From this point of view, informing the local
people who are the most affected group about the effects caused by ecotourism in their region is of primarily
importance (Kiper and Özdemir and Sağlam 2011).
3.2 Interrelationship between stakeholders
Building a good relationship among the stakeholders will result in the formation of more effective strategies
to develop and implement ecotourism. According to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2002),
ecotourism is the sector of the travel industry that is formed with the efforts of small or medium sized local
businesses, communities, non-governmental organization and government. It is an effort or a sustainable tool
to conserve the environment, promote local businesses and uplift the socio-economic conditions of the local
people. The success of the implementation depends on stable infrastructure i.e. road facilities, tourist centre,
money exchange, and peace and security. Here, the role of government is to facilitate or create an environment
to boost ecotourism. Particularly, the Ministry of Tourism and Environment should develop such facilities andalso focus on protecting the natural areas.
Similarly, governments at national and local levels should work together to create brand image for the site.
However, to promote the site, the help from outside stakeholders is equally significant. The local communities
and their way to promote their areas through their culture and hospitability is another important aspect. In
addition, the accommodation facilities when tourists visit the areas are another feature for retaining ecotourism
long term. In ecotourism, single stakeholder methods cannot function. Help from the local government who
has the authority to regulate these enterprises, govern land use and control key infrastructure is essential.
Therefore, this shows that a close network between the stakeholders provides advantages in ecotourism
development and is a vital component for the success of ecotourism.
This interconnected and interrelationship between the stakeholders cannot be overlooked when researching
about ecotourism. The level of interrelationship between the stakeholders often determines the success or
failure in ecotourism (Coria and Calfucura, 2011; Eagles, McCool and Haynes, 2002).

3.3 Role of stakeholders
Stakeholders in ecotourism development are defined as parties, groups or individuals whose interests are
directly or indirectly affected by any ecotourism related activity. In the context of ecotourism in the Philippines,
stakeholders can be categorized into the following groups: public sector or government, private sector,
25

multilateral and bilateral (international cooperation) agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), andcommunity people (DENR & DOT, 2014). In this section, existing studies about the role of each stakeholder
will be discussed in more detail.

3.3.1 Public sector (government) and ecotourism development
The role of the public sector or government in tourism development is mainly to provide policy in the formof strategic planning or regulation. In the Philippines, the direction of government policy on ecotourism canbe seen in the National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2022 created by the Department of Tourism(DOT) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
The goal of ecotourism is to provide “environmentally and socially responsible ecotourism that safeguards
the integrity and diversity of its natural resources, provides education and enjoyment to visitors and delivers
larger and more widely distributed income and employment opportunities to the local communities and theirconstituents, especially the women, youth, indigenous peoples, and other vulnerable groups” (DENR and DOT,
2014, p.5).
The government aims to deliver knowledge to visitors about the importance of environmental conservation,
but at the same time create more economic benefit for the community by creating employment opportunities.
Therefore, the policy focus of the national government for ecotourism development is to balance economic
benefit for the community on one hand and necessity for environmental conservation on the other.

3.3.2 Private sector and ecotourism development
The role of the private sector in the development of ecotourism can take many forms. The first form ofprivate sector involvement is infrastructure development, such as the development of a visitor facility, road
construction, or utility construction such as electricity and water. Since in most cases the requirements forfinancing infrastructure development is provided through the government’s budget, the common form ofcooperation with the private sector is through the concept of public-private partnership (PPP) 1.
The second form of private sector involvement is investment from private companies that are commonly
operating in the tourism industry, such as transportation, accommodation, food and beverage, entertainment,
and travel operators. Investment that comes from company of those industries is usually in large scale offinancial and economic flow, and possibly come from either foreign or domestic firms. These types ofinvestment will be realized in a condition where tourism sites attract a large number of visitors, because
investors will seek economic returns for their investments, and the larger the number of visitors, the more
attractive the investment opportunities.
However, this form of private sector involvement will most likely work in mass tourism development
1Hodge and Greve (2007) defined public-private partnership as cooperative institutional arrangements between public
and private sector actors. PPP is viewed as collaboration between public and private institution, with specific arrangement
between both institutions involving organizational and financial aspect, to jointly produce particular products or services.

26where the ultimate goal is to attract a large number of tourists, while the goal of ecotourism development is
not merely increasing the number of visitors, but also to conserve the environment.
One possible way to engage the private sector into ecotourism development is the creation of small scalebusinesses, initiated by local people. Harrison and Schipani (2007) studied about private sector involvement
in tourism in Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) in the form of small and medium scale businesses
developed by local people. They found that over a seven years period, from 1998 to 2005, there was a threehundred percent increase in the number of accommodation establishments owned by local residents.

3.3.3 International cooperation agencies and ecotourism development
International cooperation agencies involvement in ecotourism or tourism in general is in the provision offinancial and technical assistance for development projects. Hawkins and Mann (2006) found the World Bank
taking on an increased role in tourism development. During the period of the Millennium Development Goals,
tourism development was viewed as a potential strategy for poverty reduction through the achievement of
economic growth. This encouraged many multilateral and bilateral development agencies to increase theirinvolvement in tourism development in many developing countries as the goal of poverty reduction is in linewith the agencies’ goal.

3.3.4 Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and ecotourism development
In the context of the Philippines, the presence of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) is crucial. NGOs
play a significant role in environmental protection across the country. NGOs provide an advocacy forpreservation of the environment and work together with other stakeholders like local government units for
identification of ecotourism sites that needs to be protected, and private businesses for the mobilization offinancial resources to finance their environmental conservation projects. However, the role of NGOs in
ecotourism is not only limited in environmental concerns. In the case of ecotourism development in Lao PDR,
in the study of Harrison and Schipani (2007), NGOs also provide technical assistance for local people in thebuilding of small and medium enterprises to support the tourism industry in the country. They engaged in aneffort to increase the business skills of people, and worked together with local citizens to initiate
accommodations and restaurant businesses that could cater to visitors.
According to the study by Duthy and Bolo-Duthy (2003), NGOs played a role as the bridging organization
between the government and P.Os (People’s Organizations) in a community-based forest management programin the Philippines. The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines defined People’s Organizations as bona fideassociations of citizens with demonstrated capacity to promote the public interests and with identifiableleadership, membership and structure. Community-based forest management is done through the participationof P.Os. The study used example cases of reforestation projects in Mount Banahaw and Mount Makiling. It
found that in the case of forest management with community involvement, P.Os show attitudes of resistancetowards the reforestation program because of reasons such as the inability to plant agricultural products due tothe tree-planting, the absence of property rights, and the fact that people must sacrifice their working time to27

participate in the tree-planting program. With the involvement of NGOs that specializes in assisting People’s
Organizations, they facilitate meetings between the reforestation program initiator and the People’s
Organizations, to reach an agreement on the reforestation program. The study also showed that NGOs are acatalyst for community involvement, where they can stimulate and help people to plan, act, and evaluate theirown activities.

3.3.5 Community and ecotourism development
As stated in the National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan, the goal of ecotourism development is todeliver economic benefits to the community in terms of income and employment opportunities. The goal alsomentioned that the benefits should reach all members of the community, including women, youth, indigenous
people, and other vulnerable groups. This means that the Philippine government is promoting the inclusion of
all community members including minority groups to involve them in ecotourism-related activities or at least
the benefits thereof.
Scheyvens (2000) conducted a study on community involvement in ecotourism focusing on gender issues,particularly women’s involvement in ecotourism development in the third world. According to this study, there
are three reasons why gender is an important issue to be considered in community involved ecotourism. Firstly,
to identify how decisions about ecotourism development are made by diverse member of community groups.
Secondly, to ensure that there is good resource management planning to protect natural resources; the study
argued that women are more engaged in environmental conservation compared to men. Finally, to identify how
knowledge from a wide range of community members can benefit ecotourism.
Community involvement in ecotourism activities is also related to environmental conservation. The
community plays a significant role in the effort for conservation although they might not be the leading actor.
NGOs or government institutions initiate conservation projects that will need the community’s participation in
conducting the projects, such as planting trees. The community is needed because of the large scope of the
project that requires a large number of people to participate, and because the sustainability of the project’s
outcome will highly dependent on the community who lives in the conservation areas. The sense of belonging
to the community and the environment will help maintain the project’s outcome in the long term. Kiss (2004)
studied Community-based ecotourism (CBET) projects in Honduras and Kenya, and found that many
conservation organizations conducted CBET in ecotourism sites for the reasons mentioned above. Additionally,
she found that CBET is effective for environmental conservation because communities perceive ecotourism asa source of livelihood, and this strengthens their commitment to conserve the environment. By having theknowledge of conservation, people will try to avoid harmful activities such as land expansion for agriculture
in conserved areas, wild animal killings, and cutting down trees.

3.4 Dynamics of participation
Ecotourism is a sub section under sustainable tourism and is often linked with environment protection as a way
to revive the local economy. In simple terms, it is often described as a way to attract tourists especially to rural
28

areas using its natural and cultural resources (Muhanna, 2006). This has resulted in development or initiationof ecotourism in rural areas without a proper understanding of the term itself; in a sense, when local people
and their culture are exploited, their participation is often limited. Even their understanding about this kind of
tourism is limited so this often hinders their path to participation. Figure 1 clearly depicts the central positionof host communities among the other stakeholders. Thus, in this section of the literature review, dynamics ofparticipation, particularly that of local communities, are further discussed.
Rural communities that are trying to develop ecotourism are also challenged by the need to understandand manage the complex relationship between community and extra-community stakeholders or those who are
affected and those who affect the decision making.

This is an essential element of sustainable tourism

because the involvement of extra-community stakeholders, who tend to focus on maximizing economic value,
could overuse the existing value of community resources. To prevent the exploitation by the other stakeholders,
it is significantly important to educate local citizens about ecotourism and to develop a model that will
empower the local people (Shikida, Yoda, Kino, & Morishige, 2010; Mayers 2005).

Figure 1 Key Players and Stakeholders in Ecotourism Development

Source: DENR and DOT, 2014, p.58

Some scholars like Scheyens (1999) tend to further argue that terms like ecotourism or cultural tourism areoften used as a marketing tool to rural areas, but such tools serve to promote business rather than uplift local
communities. So, these kinds of ventures should not limit themselves to doing business but should prioritize
the environment and ensure the members of local communities have control over the activities taking placeand benefit from those activities. For the assurance of local people to enjoy the benefits, the author uses theempowerment framework. Psychological empowerment, social, political and economic characteristics are usedas different aspects to empower local communities in order to avoid the traps of ecotourism venture;29

psychological empowerment that enhances confidence and self-esteem of the local communities, social
empowerment that promotes community cohesiveness, political empowerment which strengthens local
political structure and local participation in making voices of different groups heard so that it can pave the way
towards community development, and finally economic empowerment that ensures long term economic
benefits. Although economic instruments help communities to control the demand for tourists and increase
revenues, the increased number of visitors will affect the environment and local culture. It requires sustainable
planning to avoid these kinds of pitfalls (Coria & Calfucura, 2012).
Numerous studies have been done on the importance of the local communities’ involvement in ecotourism
development. However, previous studies are generally focused on the importance but have tended to miss theprocess of how to involve the local people and the type of relationships that exist between various stakeholders
in ecotourism development. The degree of involvement of local communities in various decision making andpolicy issues is often determined by the extent to which they can affect or can be affected by these decisions
and policies. If decisions concerning the development of tourism in a region are not made in consultation withlocal communities during the design stage, it will be impossible for local communities to be involved during
implementation. Theoretically, the role of local communities in tourism development in the context of policy
and decision- making depends on the type and level of participatory approach taken within a tourist destination(Muganda, Agnes, & Ezra, 2013).

3.5 Community’s perception and expected benefits of ecotourism
3.5.1 Community’s perception on ecotourism
Community’s perception about ecotourism is an important aspect on ecotourism development, because it
will determine their level of involvement in the activities. The more they have a positive perception about
ecotourism; the more likely they are to participate. However, it does not mean that their knowledge andperception about ecotourism cannot be intervened. Institutions like NGOs, government, or even multilateralorganizations can play a role in capacity building for local citizens.
Laverack and Thangphet (2007) studied community capacity building in two ecotourism sites in Thailand,
Ban Tam-Nong Bia and Ban Mae Kampong, and analyze the application of a participatory approach in the
project. The project was conducted through a series of workshops attended by various groups of people in thecommunity, including village headman, the community ecotourism committee and members, occupation groupleaders, and local villagers. Community people were asked to identify their existing capacity in nine domains(participation, leadership, organizational structures, resource mobilization, external linkages, problem
assessment, project management, critical assessment, and outside agent). These domains served as aframework for the community to better mobilize and organize themselves to have more control over locallymanaged ecotourism. The participants worked with a number of facilitators to assess their weaknesses in eachdomain and formulate a strategic plan to address them. This approach is useful for building community
capacity and encouraging people’s participation so that ecotourism projects can be more locally managed, andit also functions as a framework for community development.
30

3.5.2 Expected benefits of ecotourism
This section discusses the existing studies on community expectation regarding the benefits of ecotourism,
and what those benefits actually are.
Ormsby and Mannie (2006) studied the role that ecotourism play in providing a local source of revenue
and the economic justification from environmental conservation, in Masoala National Park, Madagascar. In
the park, the role of local guides to increase awareness about the environment is significant. Local guides arerecruited through a guide association that provides the training and knowledge needed to perform their job asa tourist guide. As the number of tourists increase, the demand for guides also increases. This condition marks
economic benefits that local people received from ecotourism in their area, and at the same time knowledge
generation and capacity building about the environmental conservation of the surrounding ecotourism sites.
Ormsby and Mannie (2006) also found that a certain proportion of entrance fee revenue is going to a local
management committee fund, which is used for development projects such as road construction andimprovement of public school facilities in the area.
Another study by Gurung and Seeland (2008) was focusing on extending the benefits of ecotourism to ruralcommunities in Bhutan. The study was conducted by surveying tourists about their profiles and theirpreferences for natural tourism activities in the rural areas operated by the local people. It was concluded thatthe majority of tourists who visited Bhutan were in support of ecotourism development that would benefit the
local people in rural areas. In addition, the authors make recommendation in developing locally managed microenterprises such as ecolodges and ecoresorts. The two studies showed that in order to maximize the benefitsof ecotourism for community people, the community themselves must be involved and become leading actorsof the development.
Thus, this chapter also helped us in developing our research methodology. It guided us in understanding
the need to adopt a qualitative method for conducting our in-depth research to identify the interrelationshipbetween stakeholders. Therefore, with the information gathered from the literature review, our study identifies
the key issues and fill-in the interrelationship gap especially from the Local Government Unit side of
ecotourism development, along with two important stakeholders, the private sector and the community.

4. Methodology and Limitations
This chapter explains the design of this research. The first section presents our conceptual framework. The
second section briefly introduces the research site, the municipality of Rizal. The third section explains how
information was collected, and the fourth section describes how the information was analyzed. The last section
introduces the limitations of this study.

4.1 Conceptual framework
31

Our conceptual framework has two parts. At the bottom of the framework, are the variables we used forthis research. These variables show how each stakeholder interrelates with each other and how theirinterrelations influence ecotourism development in municipality of Rizal, Laguna.
Figure 2 Conceptual Framework

Source: Authors

We set three aspects of interrelationship for our variables. Firstly, the role of stakeholders is importantbecause the roles that each stakeholder plays will determine how they interact with each other. Secondly, by
looking at the dynamics of participation, we tried to see if local communities are aware and are empowered toconsult with other stakeholders in the planning and decision making processes about the management andfuture development of ecotourism in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna. If the participation is effective, there
is greater likelihood for the project to be successful. Lastly, perception and expected benefits measure local
people’s knowledge about ecotourism concepts and the benefits they could derive from them. Perception andbenefits are significant since they can influence the people’s level of participation and interaction with otherstakeholders. By identifying the roles of each stakeholder, dynamics of participation, perception and expected
benefits of the community, we analyzed the interrelationships within the frame of ecotourism development.
Therefore, this analysis will answer the main research question. If these aspects are working well for every
stakeholder, ecotourism development in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna will be successful.

4.2 Data collection method
For this research, we adopted a qualitative case study design. Interviews were used as the primary datacollection method. We conducted a total of 24 in-depth interviews with individuals and groups including 8
from LGU officials and 6 from local private enterprises (such as homemade candy producers, private resorts
and a restaurant), 9 from the local community, and 1 from an NGO. For sampling, we requested a local guide32from the LGU to look for respondents we believed were important to our research and appointments weremade for us. To supplement the interviews, we did walkabouts (informal interviews) with ordinary citizens
along the streets of Rizal in order to get more information regarding their perceptions and expected benefits
about the ecotourism development in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna. The main informants here were youths,
some mothers and other local people. Also, the nature of our research allowed us to do field observations of
the ecotourism site in which the municipality of Rizal is in the process of developing. This experience enabled
us to see what is taking place in terms of ecotourism development and to participate in tree planting activities
for environment conservation. For secondary data, we reviewed some documents from the local government
which were relevant to our study.

4.3 Research site
We conducted our research in the municipality of Rizal, Province of Laguna, Philippines. Our interviews
took place in the municipal hall, offices of LGU officials, offices of barangay captains, a military patrol basecamp, private factories, resorts and restaurants, and on the street. Also, we visited TANAW, which is the main
tourist attraction in Rizal, and interviewed people who lived surrounding the site including farmers, store
owners and members of a military patrol base (Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit, or CAFGU) who areproviding security in the area.

4.4 Analysis method
We did a thematic analysis of each developmental project related to ecotourism, and looked at how the
stakeholders interacted with others within the projects. The three variables mentioned in section 4.1 were used
to analyze the interrelationship among the stakeholders.

4.5 Limitation of the Study
Our research study faced some limitations. The most obvious limitation is that of time. Due to our busy
schedule during the fieldwork, we could not focus on our research theme as much as required. We could notinterview any person from the national government, so this study does not cover the role of the national
government as much as it would have been. We realized that the responses from the national government would
have added more insight to the role of the public sector. Also fewer respondents from the local community
were interviewed. We interviewed members from the farmers’ association and some storeowners at TANAW
but other people within the community such as youth and women’s groups would have added more
perspectives on the role of the local community. Since the main theme for our study was on the role of local
government, the data we collected might have been biased towards the local government; however, weconstructed the interview questions in a way that enables us to disclose information about the involvement ofother stakeholders outside the local government.

33

5. Findings
5.1 Current Situation of Ecotourism Development in Rizal, Laguna, Philippines
The ecotourism development in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna, is being carried out through a series ofprojects that are complementing each other and that are centered on the development of a historical hill in
Rizal called Tayak Hill. We found that the municipality of Rizal is promoting the development of Tayak Hill
as a potential ecotourism destination with the name “Tayak Adventure, Nature and Wildlife Park (TANAW)”.
The major projects that are being carried out under the umbrella of developing ecotourism in the municipalityof Rizal is the reforestation of the national protected area around the Tayak Hill by the Department ofEnvironment and Natural Resources (DENR) under its National Greening Program and Rain Forestation
project by an NGO called the Haribon Foundation. Other projects that are being carried out for the developmentof ecotourism are infrastructure projects such as water, road, solar lights, rain catchment dam and otherfacilities for tourists such as steps, gazebos, zip line, tourists’ center, administrative building etc.

5.1.1 How Tayak Adventure, Nature and Wildlife Park (TANAW) is being developed as an ecotourism site
Tayak Hill, because of its religious component with the presence of a giant cross, has been attracting many
tourists each year especially during the Holy Week Season when Christians of the Roman Catholic Churchcelebrate Easter, a day considered sacred by the Christian people. This is an additional feature in themunicipality of Rizal, Laguna, which is unique to the region. After a feasibility study was carried out on theconception of Tayak as an ecotourism destination, the municipality was favored with a comprehensive masterplan by representatives from the University of the Philippines Landscape Architecture Department. This wasused to gain the recognition of TANAW by the Department of Tourism (DOT) as a potential ecotourism
destination. However, this project has yet to be fully funded, which when funded will provide the community
with more opportunities.
Even though it is not fully funded, some of the infrastructure projects have been implemented due to thepersonal initiative of the mayor to solicit funds from different agencies such as the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Agriculture (DOA) for the road project and from othercorporate sources. Also, revenue from the entrance fees collected when thousands of tourists visit TANAW
each year is being plough back into some of the facilities for tourists which are nearly 50% complete according
to the mayor. Furthermore, the tourist center was built following a loan from the World Bank in 2015 but wassuspended due to some problems with the contractor. Implementation of projects is being guarded by advices
from the tourism council 2 while the local council that represents the local community enacts ordinances toensure that there are policies and guidelines for implementation. To ensure security in TANAW, the Local
Government Unit (LGU) is also soliciting the help of the 59thMilitary Infantry Battalion (CAFGU, which

2
Setting TANAW as a priority propelled the municipality of Rizal to be seriously engaged in a holistic development of
tourism for the whole community. In this case, the tourism council was created to oversee, undertake and monitor theplanning and implementation of tourism plans and programs (Executive order No. 17, Office of the Municipal Mayor,2015).

34

stands for Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit) patrol base from Cavite, Laguna who maintains peace andorder. In addition, CAFGU also benefits from tree planting activities as they receive payment from the LGU
for each tree they planted.

5.2 Stakeholders in ecotourism development and their roles
In order to analyze the interrelationship of stakeholders involved in ecotourism development in themunicipality of Rizal, Laguna, we had to identify the various stakeholders who are involved and the roles theyplay in the development of ecotourism. The role each stakeholder plays is anticipated to affect the way theyinteract with each other. According to the National Ecotourism Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2022 in thePhilippines, the stakeholders in ecotourism may be grouped into public sector (national, regional and local
governments), private sector, multilateral and bilateral agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
as well as various communities (DENR & DOT, 2014).

Referring to the National Ecotourism Strategy andAction Plan 2013-2022, we analyzed the interrelationship of stakeholders by identifyiny the stakeholders thatare involved and defining their roles. As such, the following stakeholders whose interests are directly or
indirectly affected by any ecotourism related activities and the roles they play in its development wereidentified.

5.2.1 National Government
The institutional framework for ecotourism development in the Philippines as guided by the National
Tourism Act of 2009 provides the basis for the existence of hierarchy in ecotourism bodies (DENR & DOT,2014). As such, the national government plays an important part in the development of ecotourism. They
provide funding, policies and guidelines for various projects and monitor the implementation of such projects
by the LGU. In the municipality of Rizal, the following national government agencies were identified as
playing a certain role in ecotourism development.

5.2.1.1 Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
The DENR is the agency that is responsible for the conservation, management, development, andsustainable use of the country’s environment and natural resources. They are in charge of the conservation of
biodiversity through management and development of the National Protected Area in TANAW.

5.2.1.2 Department of Tourism (DOT)
According to the Tourism Act of 2009, the DOT formulates national tourism policies and the national andregional tourism master plans. They are involved in encouraging and promoting the development of tourism
locally and internationally as a major socio-economic activity. From our interview with the mayor, we foundthat for the promotion of TANAW, the DOT coordinates promotional activities and sends regular invitations
to the LGU to present their ecotourism plan for other businesses and sectors to see. This is done at least twicea year. The mayor even went further to say that they will be sending two people to the DOT for tour guiding
seminars (in-depth Interview with the mayor, 26 September 2016).
35

5.2.1.3 Department of Agriculture (DOA)
Another agency that also played a vital role in ecotourism development in the municipality of Rizal is the
Department of Agriculture (DOA). The LGU solicited and received funds from the DOA for the farm to market
road construction project leading to TANAW and at present the project has been completed.
Other departments which were also relevant in promotional activities for development of TANAW include theDepartment of Trade and Industry (DTI) that organized local regional economic development for productdevelopment and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that are involved in the foodand cash for work programs.

5.2.2 Local Government Unit (LGU)
As regulated by Local Government code (RA 7160 and RA 9593), LGUs are tasked to prepare andimplement their own tourism development plans, enforce tourism standards, and collect statistical data for
tourism purposes as well as implement other national tourism development initiatives respectively. They also
create permanent positions for Tourism Officers.

In Rizal, we found that the LGU is implementing the

National Greening project of DENR in the protected areas of TANAW as well as prepared and currently
implementing their own ecotourism plan (TANAW). We also found that as a personal initiative, the mayor issoliciting funds from different government agencies where he attends seminars and conferences and promotes
Tayak as an ecotourism site. In addition, he receives donations from other sources (private individuals, groups,
organizations or businesses) which are used for the provision of infrastructures such as the steps that go up thehill. Also, through the mayor’s personal relations with businesses such as resorts and restaurants, byrecommending guests or customers personally to these businesses, he has been able to promote themunicipality of Rizal by word of mouth. We equally found that before Tayak Hill was being prioritized as
TANAW, it was previously the initiative of the former Vice Mayor Ferdinand. He was tasked by the mayor tocarry out research and promotion activities of Tayak Hill. In this way, he created a group of young people who
were capacitated in organizing different promotional activities such as developing brochures of Tayak and ofother establishments, a website, t-shirts and collecting samples of local products which were sent to the nationaland regional government for exposition and promotion. However, all these activities are no longer being
continued since the leadership period of vice mayor has ended.
Within the LGU there are organs which are involved in the development of ecotourism in the municipalityof Rizal, Laguna. These include:a. The tourism council headed by the Municipal Administrator which has the main function of overseeing theplanning and implementation of the tourism programs. In addition, they give advices to the mayor on thedevelopment activities of TANAW.
b. The local council which has legislative powers and is responsible for the passing of resolutions andordinances for the promotion and development of TANAW. The local council is said to be the representativeof the local people as it constitutes the league of barangays represented by the heads of each barangay. They
support the efforts of the LGU in the development of ecotourism in Rizal. Such efforts include relating
36

Photo 1 Steps Constructed with Donations from Private Individuals and Businesses

Note: These are steps constructed to facilitate movement of people up the hill of TANAW
Source: Photos taken during field visit of TANAW

information from the LGU back to the community as well as ensuring general welfare of their communities.
During our interview with the barangay captain of Tala where TANAW is located, he stated that they issue
permits to individuals or groups who are interested in planting trees (Interview with the captain of barangay
Tala, 21 September 2016).
In our observation, we noticed that most of the efforts in ecotourism development in the municipality of
Rizal are coming from the mayor, who, on his personal initiatives solicits funding from different agencies andis engaging different people to implement the projects. Although we also observed involvement of the tourism
council and local council as part of the LGU, their involvement is not substantial in the planning andimplementation of the projects.

5.2.3 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)
During our fieldwork, we found that the Haribon Foundation, an NGO, is an important stakeholder in
ecotourism development in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna. We had the opportunity to interview thechairman of this NGO which we found out that with assistance from the LGU and DENR, they are
implementing a Rain Forestation project in TANAW as a component of their conservation or environmental
management programs with funding assistance from their private corporate partners. They operate inpartnership with Environment and Natural Resource Guards Incorporated (ENRGI) also known as the People’s
Organization (P.O) created by the LGU to enable them to carry out their projects. Their activities also include
empowering the community through the P.O by providing technical assistance.

5.2.4 Local Community
The local community is an important stakeholder in ecotourism development. According to the National
37

Strategy and Action Plan 2013-2022, the local communities are the hosts at the front line as direct providersof goods and services. However, most of their role in ecotourism development in Rizal seems to be limited toproviding labor for tree planting activities. In our discussion with the mayor, he stated that the local council
represents the local community and enacts laws to ensure that there are policies and guidelines for
implementation of projects (in-depth interview with the Mayor, 20 September 2016). During our fieldwork we
identified and interviewed the following groups:
a. Santo Nino Agro Forestry Farmers Association
This is an association that is made up of farmers who are residents at TANAW. As residents in this area,
they provide maintenance by cutting grasses and protecting the trees. Also, they were involved in flattening
the farm-to-market road to be able to transport their products to the market and were hired as laborers for the
cash and food work programs. We also observed that some of the members of the association are owners of
local stores at TANAW where their products especially vegetables such as chayote, cabbage, tomatoes, radish
etc are sold to tourists who visits TANAW. During our field visit, we noticed how some tourists were buying
these vegetables.
b. Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU)The CAFGU are members of the 59th Military Infantry Battalion patrol base from Cavite, Laguna. Uponthe request of the LGU, since parts of Tayak Hill have been recognized as a nationally protected area, they
provide peace and order. We found that they do not only protect the environment and people such as reporting
illegal cases of tree cutting to the LGU and providing first aids to tourists, but they also benefit from tree
planting activities from the LGU and DENR 3.

5.2.5 Private businesses
The private sector includes those providing services on transportation, accommodation, food and beverages,
entertainment, travel trade and other support entities. During our fieldwork we identified the following private
businesses whose activities are directly or indirectly linked with ecotourism in the municipality of Rizal,
Laguna. They include resorts and restaurants, homemade candy makers and small store owners. They provide
accommodation and food for tourists, produce and sell local products as well as support the LGU through wordof mouth promotion.

5.3 Community’s perception and expected benefits from ecotourism development in Rizal
Local people’s knowledge of ecotourism concepts and the benefits they could derive from it is significant
as it can influence their level of participation and their interactions with other stakeholders. Their inability andlimited capacity to understand the key objectives and concepts of the ecotourism projects which is being set asa priority in the economic development of the municipality of Rizal, Laguna, may hamper their participation.

3

In our interview with one of the CAFGU workers who happens to be a farmer as well, he mentioned that apart from hisallowance from the national government, he has been able to gain another source of livelihood whereby he could staywith his family and participates in tree planting activities where he gets Php 5 per tree planted.

38

5.3.1 Community’s perception on ecotourism
Local people’s knowledge can be enhanced through capacity building. It is important for the local people
to understand the conception, importance and purpose of the project which is being developed to improve theirlivelihoods. In our fieldwork, we found out that there is limited knowledge on the concept of ecotourism. The
concept is not widely understood by local people. Most of the people we interviewed perceived ecotourism to
be focused only on environment conservation while other aspects on local people’s knowledge and how they
can take part in it to improve their well-being was not well perceived. However, we found that the NGO,
Haribon Foundation, under the Rain Forestation project is playing an important role in providing capacity
building to the People’s Organization through proper training on tree planting to restore the forest in Tayak,
but this is limited to the project they are carrying out.

5.3.2 Expected benefits from ecotourism
In terms of expected benefits from ecotourism, the obvious and most crucial benefits a community canenjoy from ecotourism are environment conservation and economic benefits. Conservation of the environment
and the identity of the municipality of Rizal, Laguna, as a tourist site are special benefits that are shared by not
only the local community members but also all the stakeholders. From our interviews, we found that the
expected benefits from ecotourism as perceived by the community are in terms of environment protection,
employment opportunities such as job creation, increased revenue generation by the LGU through entrance
fees and payment for other services provided, income to the businesses and local people from sales of
ecotourism products as well as increased in the identity of the municipality of Rizal, Laguna, to be well known
locally and internationally.
Although ecotourism in the municipality is still at the early stages of development and is not a fullycompleted project that will provide the community with enough opportunities, it is already providing benefits
to the region. Some businesses indicated the existence of demand for temporary employment during the holy
week to take advantage of the increase of visitor activity during this time period. During this time, local
businesses are able to put up stalls and sell their products to the visitors going up Tayak Hill. Furthermore,income from entrance fees collected by the LGU in 2015 stood at Php 391,330.00 (Office of the Municipal
Mayor, Municipality of Rizal, 2016). In addition, through the projects implementation, the local community
has experienced an increase in income generation. Members of the farmer’s association already experienced
an increase in sales during the holy week. Also, we found that the local community has gained employment
opportunities through the cash for work or food for work programs, specifically under DENR Greening
Program and the Haribon Rain Forestation Project. As a final point, project-based employment is also available
on the road construction and water catchment projects. However, these are all short to medium term
employment as all the above mentioned projects are only for a specific time period.

5.4 Dynamics of Participation
Local communities, either directly or indirectly, encounter both positive and negative impacts of tourism
activities, and thus their participations are crucial to ensure that tourism-generated benefits meet and satisfy
39their needs. To analyze the dynamics of participation of the local community, we examined participation fromthe aspects of awareness, consultation, decision making and interaction with other stakeholders. As Kim et al.
(2014) asserted, if local communities are empowered to consult with other stakeholders in the planning anddecision-making processes about the management and future development of tourism in their areas, there is agreater likelihood that tourism will be more successful and sustainable.

5.4.1 Awareness
From our study we found out that the awareness towards the development of TANAW was apparent within
the community. There seems to be a general awareness on activities in the municipality of Rizal, Laguna, as awhole, as observed during its flag raising ceremonies. However, information about ecotourism has been
disseminated within the community mainly through informal channels. Members of the community were wellaware of the development, with some of the locals already reaping benefits. The dissemination of information
to the local community was more as a result of informal communications through social media and word of
mouth within the community rather than through official consultation with the head of barangays or municipal
officers. Since the barangay captains are part of the local council representing the community, they aresupposed to relay information from the LGU back to the community. Despite this channel of communicationfrom the municipal office to the head of the different barangays, information is not disseminated well to the
local community.

5.4.2 Consultation
In general, consultations to and from the Local Government Unit and the local community are attained
through the local council, where each head of the nine barangays have the opportunity to discuss any issue
regarding his or her barangay. During our interview with the farmers’ association, they acknowledged of having
had a meeting with the Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Officer (MENRO) who briefed them on
the overview of the LGU’s plan. However consultation with them for the construction of certain infrastructure
projects at TANAW does not take place 4. In another interview with a CAFGU member, he said that meetings
with the LGU are held once or twice a month but discussions are not particularly about the ecotourism in
TANAW. Formal meetings with the mayor are usually held every holy week when many tourists visit TANAW.

5.4.3 Decision-making
The decision-making process was approached on a project basis according to the national government
requirements. It should be noted that with regards to project initiation and planning, the decision-making
process was mostly within the LGU due to some regulations from the National Government Agencies forexample due to funding requirements. However, we found that the local council represents the voice of thecommunity and so gives advices to the LGU on the activities carried out.

4

The farmers mentioned during the interview that an area which used to be their basketball court was used to construct
the tourist center without their knowledge and consultation. They were surprise to see when work for the construction ofthis building had already started without the LGU informing them.

40

5.5 Interrelationship of Stakeholders in Ecotourism Development in Rizal, Laguna
Having identified the stakeholders whose activities are directly or indirectly related to ecotourism in Rizal
and their defined roles as well as the community perception, expected benefits and dynamics of participation,
we analyzed the interrelationship between these stakeholders in order to know how they interact with eachother and how this interrelationship results in the development of ecotourism in the municipality of Rizal,
Laguna. The diagram below describes the interrelationship between the stakeholders involved.
Figure 3 Interrelationship of Stakeholders

Source: Created by authors

Given this diagram, we analyzed the interrelationship of the stakeholders based on their interactions witheach other. Each of the cycles represents a stakeholder and how they are related to each other by a connectionof arrows. The arrows show the degree of the interrelationship based on the intensity of interaction. The thickblue arrows indicate high intensity based on its formal interaction, while the light blue arrows show lessintensity or informal interaction.
The analysis of interrelationship among stakeholders is done from the perspective of the LGU, since theplanning of ecotourism development is the initiation of the LGU. Based on this, we observed that the LGU has
a formal relationship with national government agencies since they provide the policies and plans on which
the LGU has to follow. However, interaction of the LGU with the local community and other stakeholders
depends on the type of project.
According to the LGU, the local council represents the voice of the local community. In this way there is41

a formal relationship between the LGU and the local community. This is expressed when the local council
communicates with the mayor by giving advices on the activities that are implemented. Apart from theinteraction within the local council, the residents of Tayak Hill also communicate with the LGU through thefarmer’s association and the Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Officer (MENRO). Through thismechanism, the residents were able to further discuss some pertinent issues such as the reallocation of thesettlers surrounding Tayak for the expansion of its development 5. But this interaction seems to be mainly
through informal means.
The LGU also has a formal relationship with the CAFGU patrol by soliciting their help to maintain peaceand order at TANAW. They do not only protect the environment and people but also benefits from tree planting
activities from the LGU and DENR. Since parts of Tayak are nationally protected areas, as a requirement toprotect these areas there is a high level of interaction between the LGU and the CAFGU. Upon the request of
the mayor, the CAFGU members assist in providing security and other activities.
As far as the NGO-Haribon Foundation is concern there is a good relationship with the LGU. This
relationship is however strengthened formally with the Environment and Natural Resource Guards
Incorporated (ENRGI) commonly called the Peoples’ Organization (P.O) created by the LGU through anagreement that enables the NGO to work with the P.O in carrying out tree planting activities. Through thesemeans, the P.O is empowered through capacity building trainings by the NGO and is able to get information
on how to participate in the ecotourism development.
Regarding the interactions with private businesses, we noticed that this was mainly through informalinteractions but limited mostly businesses with a personal connection to the LGU or the Mayor specifically.
The LGU has a good relationship with some businesses 6 and has been successful in persuading some private
businesses to donate funds towards ecotourism development. We also found that interaction of the local
community with private businesses is mainly through business relations. With concerns to the restaurants andresorts, interaction is mostly with the farmers at Tayak through the sale of farm product. The resorts andrestaurants buy some of their products from the farmers at Tayak Hill while the store owners at Tayak Hill also
buy products from the candy makers and sells. Also, there seems to be a good relationship between therestaurants and resorts 7.

5.6 Discussion of Results
This analysis indicates that there seems to be little interaction between the LGU, the local community and5Through interview with store owners around TANAW, we found that they received information about LGU plan tobuild tourist facilities; therefore, they need to resettle to different place. However, the source of this information is notclearly identified by the store owners.
6
In our interviews with one to the restaurants, Lucy and Elsie Restaurant, we found out that the LGU has a very good
relationship with them and are considered as one of the active private partners with the LGU. The interrelationship is
strengthened by giving donations in cash and food during events organized by the LGU and provides discounts to guests
brought to the restaurant by the LGU.
7
One of the resorts, Tala Resort told us that they order food from Lucy and Elsie restaurant and gets recommendation of
guests from Rizal Recreation Center, another accommodation provider in Rizal.

42

the private businesses, but there is a formal or direct relationship between the LGU and the national
government agencies and the NGO. This is because the LGU’s source for funds comes directly from thenational government agencies relating to TANAW according to the funding for specific projects (roads,
reforestation, water etc.) with well-defined standards and guidelines stating the responsibilities of eachstakeholder. All the LGU does is to identify the right people to implement the project. As such there is no
standard way in which the LGU interacts with other stakeholders. The involvement of the local community ismostly limited to implementation through labor provisions. Conversely, the local community through the P.O
and the local council show some formal relationship with the LGU but this relationship does not have a strong
tie between all the stakeholders 8. Equally, the LGU recommends guests to these businesses but there seems to
be no established or formal mechanism for interaction between the LGU and the businesses. Lastly, most of
the projects carried out are initiated by the LGU; other stakeholders do participate in the planning dependingon the type of project and the regulations from the national government agencies.

6. Conclusion and Recommendations
6.1 Conclusion
Tayak Adventure and Nature Wildlifepark (TANAW) is an ecotourism project that has just started withpotential for growth in the future. It has become an important development project implemented by the LGU
and designed to be a source of economic development for the municipality of Rizal, Laguna, and meant todeliver social and economic benefits to the local community. However, the findings showed that involvementof stakeholders outside the LGU is minimal, and the communication with these stakeholders is mainly done
through informal channels.
On the other hand, a strong relationship among stakeholders exist with regards to environmental
conservation. The LGU works together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
and the NGO-Haribon Foundation along with involvement from the P.O which consists of community people
who conduct conservation activities surrounding TANAW.
A close relationship among stakeholders should exist for the purposes of delivering benefits to themunicipality of Rizal. From our interviews with one of the LGU staff, we found that the LGU does not havethe capacity to fully undertake a comprehensive project for the development of ecotourism in the municipalityof Rizal that will involve all the stakeholders. Most of the employees at the LGU do not have the capacity or
knowledge about ecotourism to undertake such a project. Additionally, the local people have neither beenorientated to the direct benefits or impacts that ecotourism might provide them nor how they could participate(interview with the Executive Secretary of the LGU, 27 September 2016). The objective of ecotourism isenvironmental conservation and empowerment of local people in order to improve their well-being. For this8

We observed that some of the private businesses such as Tala Resort and Rizal Recreation Center, the LGU sometimes
inform them on events and activities about TANAW but this only through word of mouth information.

43

purpose, if the local community has the capacity to operate their own enterprises, they will be able to standalone and the LGU will have less burden taking care of their needs. As such, the involvement of stakeholders
like private businesses and the community itself is essential. The potential for increasing involvement of thesestakeholders in the future was observed during this research.

6.2 Recommendations
For ecotourism to be implemented successfully, local ecotourism stakeholders must work closely with eachother in the development and implementation of the plan.
1. As there are three existing plans to develop ecotourism in TANAW, i.e. master plan developed by the
LGU, architectural plan designed with the help of the University of the Philippines LandscapeArchitectural Program and a third plan proposed to the World Bank to for funding. However, threedifferent plans tend to create confusion during project implementation. Therefore, adapting andfollowing a comprehensive plan for TANAW is necessary. Along with this, creating a feasibility study
and market research study for

management of ecotourism development is recommended.

2. As the majority of the project is driven by the current mayor, setting policies that will ensure
continuation of the project into the future is necessary. It is important to ensure sustainability not onlyin terms of environmental sustainability but also sustainability of the project 9 . A mechanism formonitoring and evaluation as well as an ordinance to ensure continuity after the term of the mayor
ends is imperative. We found there is a Technical Working Group created to ensure sustainability byconducting monitoring and evaluation from our interview with the Executive Secretary but the status
on which they are actually working does not seem clear. Also, the mechanisms to ensure funding
and to utilize those funds in investment of the project are also essential.
3. From our research, we found that opportunities exist for the private sector in the municipality of Rizal
to take advantage of the ecotourism project. For this to be successful, capacity building exercises thatwill better train private businesses is necessary. Training or educating local communities andbusinesses about ecotourism should be included in the development plan.
4. It is equally important to create a good mechanism for partnership and coordination among
stakeholders. Creating specific associations for each stakeholder is important as per our findings; there
is a communication channel between the local people and the LGU through the local council. However,
local businesses do not have the same mechanism to communicate with the LGU. Hence, creation ofan association for the strengthening of communication between local businesses and the LGU should
be promoted. Furthermore, conducting regular meeting with each stakeholder is important in

9

We observed that just as the research and promotional activities carried out by the former Vice Mayor Ferdinand were
not continued after he stopped being a vice mayor, the project to develop TANAW might not be sustainable in the future
after the mayor’s last term of office finishes. This is because most of projects especially in terms of sourcing for funds
seem to be only the personal efforts and initiative of the mayor.

44

developing and implementing the ecotourism plan.
5. In the municipality of Rizal, we found that the influx of tourists is high during the holy week. So,
creating events during the off season to attract tourists in a sustainable manner should be considered
for offsetting the decrease in revenue during off season. Additionally, generating an efficient revenue
management plan should ensure the correct allocation of funds, such as making a feasible andcomprehensive plan for entrance fee collection and how to use and distribute the profits. The creationof a revenue management plan is necessary for the proper allocation of funds for future expenses thatwill arise with the development of the TANAW. The LGU will need funds for public goods such as
garbage collection, sanitary facilities, maintenance of the area, cleaning, distribution of water andothers. All of these expenses will need to be factored into the entrance fee calculation, for the attraction
to remain profitable. Additionally, the entrance fee also need to include the conservation factor, as
funds will also be needed for further environment conservation activities, e.g, the monitoring of thetree planting program. On the other hand, the revenue management plan should allocate a proportionof the profits to the barangay Tala, as this development is part of their jurisdiction.
6. Using more creative media to promote TANAW as an ecotourism destination such as social media10or
creating package tours with travel and tour agents is recommended. Also, promotion through trade fairs
is also an avenue to attract more tourists both from domestic and international market.

Acknowledgements
We would like to show appreciation to the people who supported us in conducting this research.
Thank you to Mayor Antonino Aurelio, and all the local government officials, who were willing to answer
all our questions during interviews and the entire Rizal community for their warmth reception andaccommodation. We wish to express our gratitude to our local guide from the Municipality of Rizal, Mr. Marc
Almario, who helped us in many ways during this research. We are extremely grateful to Miss. Marjorie
Resuello, from UPLB, who accompanied us during the interview process and gave us inputs into our research.
We equally express our sincere gratitude to Professor Isamu Okada from Nagoya University and Professor
Aser Javier from UPLB as well as our group supervisors, who patiently advised us during the field research.
We would also like to thank Professor Liu Jing, Professor Francis Peddie and to all the Nagoya University and
UPLB professors who joined the fieldwork in Rizal.
Finally, we are thankful to the staffs at the Rizal Recreation Center, and to our driver, and all the people in
Rizal who have welcomed us warmly and made us feel like we were home during our entire two-week stay.

10

There used to be the existence of some social media existing by the LGU created by the former Vice Mayor Ferdinandsuch as a website called Batang Rizal.

45

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48

Working Group 3
Foreign Language Education

Filipino Learners’ Motivation for Learning the Korean Language in Rizal,
LagunaGroup Members
Chiaki Koike**
Dumas Martin Akwetey*
Kayo Okumura
Misaki Kaneko
Tianqiong KangGroup Advisors
Prof. Junko Yamashita
Assistant Prof. Evelie P. Serrano** Group Leader*Group Sub Leader

49

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Problem Statement
3. Objectives
4. Research question
5. Significance
6. Review of Literature
6.1 Foreign Language
6.2 Motivation
6.3 Effort
6.4 Performance
6.5 Reward
6.6 Environment
7. Conceptual Framework
8. Methodology
8.1 Study area
8.2 Scope
8.3 Respondents
8.4 Data collection
8.5 Analysis
8.6 Limitation
9. Findings
9.1 Korean Language Program in Rizal
9.1.1 History
9.1.2 Entry requirement
9.1.3 Process of the program
9.1.3.1 Process during the program
9.1.3.2 Process after the program
9.2. Demographic profile
9.2.1 Profile of the participants
9.2.2 Characteristics
9.3. Motivation
9.3.1 Personal motivation
9.3.2 Family’s motivation
9.3.3 Support for family
9.3.4 Teacher
9.3.5 Negative factor
509.4 Benefit
9.4.1 Personal
9.4.2 Family
9.4.3 Local Government Unit
9.5 Local Government Unit involvement
9.5.1 Mayor
9.5.2 ALS: Alternative Learning System
9.5.3 Program Coordinator
9.5.4 Teacher
10. Discussion
10.1 Introduction to Korean Language and Culture
10.2 Youth empowerment
10.3 Alternative sustainable livelihood strategy
10.4 Measures towards sustainability of the program
10.5 Opportunity to go to Korea is not guaranteed
11. Conclusion
12. Recommendation
12.1Teacher
12.2. Local Government Unit
12.3. Implication
12.4 Formalization Framework
12.4.1 Consultation
12.4.2 Strategic Planning
12.4.3 Implementation
12.4.4 Monitoring
12.4.5 Evaluation
Acknowledgement
Reference

Abbreviation
ALS
LGU
POEA
TESDA

Alternative Learning System
Local Government Unit
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
Technical Education and Skills Development Authority51

1. Introduction
The Philippines is a multilingual country with 176 local dialects. For the public education system two official
languages are used as mediums of instruction: Filipino and English. National educational policies havechanged through the history of colonization, which has created unique characters. There were influential
arguments over educational problems stemming from great the diversity of languages. However, globalization
has brought favorable opportunities for the Filipino people to have overseas experiences due to their goodcommand of English. The Philippine Statistics Authority estimated the number of Overseas Filipino Workers(OFWs) who worked abroad during the period from April to September of 2015 was 2.4 million. (Philippine
Statistics Authority Republic of the Philippines, 2016)
Rizal is an inland municipality in the province of Laguna located 25 kms from Sta. Cruz, which is theprovincial capital of Laguna and 99 kms from the National Capital Region. In the land area of 27 sq.km, themajority of people speak Tagalog as their ‘mother tongue’ with other minor dialects such as Bikolano andBisaya spoken by a small number of the populous. There are different types of educational institutions
including 5 preparatory schools, 5 elementary schools and 2 secondary schools. An appropriate ratio among
students, teachers and classrooms is necessary to achieve good outcomes for education. However, overcrowded
classroom is a critical issue to be solved in the national high schools (Javier, 2016).
Korean language education in Rizal is the focus of our research. By definition, unlike mother languages, it
is impossible to acquire foreign languages naturally, as there are no situations where foreign languages are
spoken in daily life. 1 Therefore, people are supposed to have purposes or motivations to learn foreign
languages. In the Philippines, English is one of their official languages, and students are taught particularsubjects in English at schools. However, Korean language is never spoken unless they choose it as a foreign
language to study.
The mayor’s connection with a private company created the possibility for Rizal’s residents to develop
their careers in South Korea. The local government provides a Korean Language Program that enable local
people to have beneficial opportunities for the future. Similar to the national trend, the number of overseas
workers from Rizal has also been constantly increasing since 2008. Our interest is to identify Filipino learners’
motivation of learning the Korean Language in Rizal. We try to explore how foreign language education
contributes to sustainable development in a rural area using interviews and observations (Nishimura, 2016).

2. Problem statement
The dream of most young people in Rizal, Laguna is to avoid engaging in agricultural activities to escape fromthe economic hardship associated with agriculture in the rural communities. The youth have embraced Korean

1

Yamashita. J, personal communication at GSID, Nagoya University in 2016.

52

language education in Rizal with the hopes of gaining access to work in Korea as contract workers for a better
income to improve their economic conditions back in their community.

3. Objectives
1. To determine the scope of the Korean Language Program in Rizal.
2. To determine the demographic profile of participants in the Korean Language Program.
3. To analyze the motivation of participants in the Korean Language Program.
4. To identify the benefits available for participants in the Korean Language Program.
5. To examine how the local government is involved in promoting the Korean Language Program.

4. Research question
1. What is the scope of the Korean Language Program?
2. What is the demographic profile of participants in the Korean Language Program?
3. What is the motivation of participants in the Korean Language Program?
4. What are the benefits available for participants in the Korean Language Program?
5. How is the local government involved in promoting the Korean Language Program?

5. SignificanceThe findings from this fieldwork will enhance our understanding about how both external and internalmotivations lead to rewards. This will help us understand the barriers that youth break in order to promoteeconomic growth in the Rizal, Laguna community.

6. Review of Literature
Scholars have developed theories to emphasize the role of motivation in foreign language acquisition andachievement. Our knowledge about the Korean language learners in Rizal, Laguna is partially curtailed by theunavailability of literature and information on the program due to the geographical location, which lacks
attention from scholars. Since attempts to find existing literature on motivation for Korean Language learningin Rizal has not yield any results, given the fact that the program is new and not well known yet, we haveadopted Vroom’s expectancy theory (1964) as our conceptual framework. Vroom (1964) believes effort,
performance and reward are essential factors of people’s motivation for their actions. We added environment
as another essential factor. Our literature review is centered on works related to motivation for foreign language
learning.

6.1 Foreign Language
According to Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (1998), “foreign language” is distinguished53

from “second language”. The difference of those two words is based on the geographical condition of where
the language is spoken. The former definition implies that the language to be acquired is hardly used in thecommunity, while the latter suggests that the language is broadly spoken in such business or educational
occasions. Unlike mother languages, it is impossible to acquire foreign languages naturally as there are nosituations in which foreign languages are spoken in daily life. Therefore, people are supposed to have certain
purposes or motivations to learn foreign languages.

6.2 Motivation
According to Williams and Burden’s (1997), “motivation may be construed as a state of cognitive andemotional arousal, which leads to a conscious decision to act, and which gives rise to a period of sustained
intellectual and/or physical effort in order to attain a previously set goal.”Gardner (1985) defined motivation in his social-psychological model as “the combination of effort plus
desire to achieve the goal of learning language plus favorable attitude toward learning the language.”
According to another definition by the international encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, “achievement
motivation is important determinant of aspiration, effort, and persistence when an individual expects that theirperformance will be evaluated in relation to some standard of excellence.”
Dörnyei (1998:121) made the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. He emphasized thatwhiles intrinsic motivation relates to actions done for personal benefit, extrinsic motivation deals with an actionthat leads to some external rewards.
Csizér and Dörnyei (2005) further indicated that motivation is a concept that explains why people behaveas they do rather than how successful their behavior will be. They found that although motivation obviously
matters with respect to how successful learning is likely to be, several factors also affect the strength of therelationship between motivation and outcome.
Clément, Dörnyei and Noels (1994) showed integrative motivation, linguistic self-confidence, and theappraisal of the classroom environment as factors of facilitating second language education.
Bonner and Sprinkle (2002) explained motivation created by these two factors: (1) the expectancy about
the relationship between effort and a particular outcome, (2) the valence (attractiveness) of the outcome, leadpeople to choose a level of effort that they believe will lead to the desired outcome. Especially for learner’s
motivation, Harrell (1985) indicated a learner's motivation to achieve academic success can be accurately
predicted from two primary variables, the attractiveness of achieving academic success and the expectancy
that effort will lead to academic success.

6.3 Effort
According to OXFORD English Dictionary, effort is a physical or mental energy that you need to dosomething.
54

Bonner and Sprinkle (2002) explain that effort is constructed by direction, duration, intensity, and strategy
development. They also stated that effort refers to the amount of attention that an individual devotes to a task
or activity during the period of time. Related to Vroom’s expectancy theory, they pointed out that increases in
effort are presumed to directly lead to increases in expected performance.
According to Wakai and Iwasaki (2004), one of the factors regarding differences in the ability of foreign
language learning is one’s belief of language learning. How learners make active efforts can depend on it. They
argued teachers need to understand learners’ beliefs and improve education based on it. Needham (1978)
argued student goals are important. It will influence student behavior independently of student ability andeducational constraints. There are wide varieties of personal goals students pursue. Under them, certain
conditions must be met in order to maximize individual student's satisfaction. In allocating total available timeand effort between different activities including leisure, full-time or part-time employment, and coursework, astudent's satisfaction is maximized. Effort devoted to learning may also produce satisfaction directly if a
student derives satisfaction from the activity of study itself. Likewise, the results of that effort such as
knowledge, scores on tests, or grades may yield satisfaction.
Gardner (1999) provided confirmation that parental support is related to the learners’ attitudes toward thelearning situation and language learning effort.
Dörnyei and Csizér (2005) believed that the foreign language learners’ willingness and engagement, which
are determined by their confidence in dealing with the languages, enhance interests in them. They indicatedthat the learners’ motivation and consistent efforts interact with personal feelings, which may lead to better
performances as a result.

6.4 Performance
The multidisciplinary journals share suggestions of some scholars that performance can be placed under avariety of conditions (Nation & Newton, 2009) in influencing language learner’s speaking or writing ability.
Vroom (1964) mentioned a person's performance is believed to be determined primarily by two factors, theperson's ability and the person's motivation to achieve success. OXFORD English Dictionary defines
performance as how well or badly you do something. Harrell (1985) proposed that a student's motivation to
strive for academic success is positively related to the student's actual academic performance.
Geiger (1996) indicated considerable individual difference with regard to specific motivators. While forsome an enhanced feeling of personal satisfaction from doing well in a learning situation is the prime
motivation for achievement, others consider the course’s applicability to their future jobs as a significant
motivator to perform well. Krashen (1982) explains that a variety of affective variables has been confirmed tobe related to success in second language acquisition research over the last decade but most of those studies
examined the three categories: motivation, self-confidence and anxiety. Scovel (1978:134) argued there is aconsistent relationship between the academic performance of a language student in the classroom and theirlevel of anxiety to achieve that performance. He quoted from Chastain (1975)’s words: “perhaps some concern
55

about a test is a plus, while too much anxiety can produce negative results.”
6.5 Reward
OXFORD English Dictionary defines reward as a thing that you are given because you have done
something good. In Williams and Burden’s framework (1997), reward is defined as one element of the natureof interaction with significant others as an external factor. Skehan (1991) stated reward is the results of learning,and comes from outside the individual. It influences motivation and concern consequences of learning that are
manipulated by others.
According to Coombs and Cebula (2010), they can find evidence of a positive bilingual effect on earnings.
It is said that language skills can lead to rewards. In HemaMalini’s words (2014), employees around the world
are motivated to work and perform effectively based on the kind of positive rewards they expect to earn as aresult of their performance.
Go (1996) suggested, at a micro level, the worker’s savings and remittances have been used by theirfamilies for their daily consumption, the education of other household members, the payment of debts, and thepurchase or repair for the house. Go also states that there is a strong sense of duty and loyalty among members
within Filipino families. They work abroad to support their families in order to provide them with a better
future and a more comfortable life. According to answers from Go’s questionnaire, half of the respondents
learned about their job opportunities from friends, who were either in the Philippines or who had been or were
working there at that time.

6.6 Environment
Earlier research indicates the important effect of a person’s environment in language learning. OXFORDEnglish Dictionary defines that environment is the conditions that affect the behavior and development ofsomething. Williams and Burden (1997) classified internal factors and external factors in their framework ofmotivation in language learning. The learning environment is one of the external factors including several
elements such as comfort, resources, time of day, week and year, size of class and school, and school ethos.
Dörnyei (1998) also suggested that there is a connection between environmental factors and the process ofdecision-making. Citing his words, “the various stages of the decision-making, action-implementation andaction-controlling process would also need to be connected to a number of learner-internal and externalvariables such as personality traits and macro/micro-environmental factors.” According to Neustupny (1999),
there are three types of environments for learning a foreign language. Those are the form of teacher
management, form of learner management, and the form of natural acquisition.
Gao (2006) described the environment as mediating agents or significant others (language teachers,
language learning experts, classmates, celebrities, family members, friends, or print materials). From them,language learners try to find support for their language learning process, and that often has an impact on thelearners' strategic use. Gardner (1985) emphasized his identification that parent’s active and passive role isvery significant in their children's language learning process. Asgari (2011) said parent’s encouragement56

facilitates children’s learning. On the other hand, passive role entails parent's attitude and attitudes towards thesecond language community. Active roles play an important role on the improvement of attitudes andmotivation in the child that could manage second language acquisition. Gardner (1985) added the parents'
positive attitudes towards certain language communities would serve to support an integrative motivation in
the students; though they might state negative estimations about the other language community at the sametime. In either an active or a passive role, the parent’s attitudinal personality could influence their child’s second
language proficiency.
Although there are difficult conditions to maintain governance due to the complex history of the colonial
period and geographic characters consisting of more than 7000 islands, the Philippines has succeeded informulating a relatively stable national and local government. Local governments have been fulfilling their
duty actively, following the law which former Prime Minister Aquino established in 1999. Local governmentsin the Philippines are divided into provinces, municipalities and barangays and they are entitled to promote
regional development. Barangays are a unique autonous system in the Philippines. They are composed ofgovernment and parliament which operates based on opinions from local residents. In general, they provide
administrative services such as agriculture assistance, health, and social services. However, somemunicipalities provide their unique services in particular areas. Sidel (1999) described mayors in thePhilippines as “Boss” utilizing coercion and prerogative derived from their official positions to control local
residents. In the words of McCoy (1994), leaders of the Philippine local government seek their own and theirclose allies’ personal interests.

7. Conceptual Framework
When people are motivated to act, they will become even more motivated to increase their efforts if they canbelieve better performance will create more reward. In the context of our study, people will become more

Fig.1 Conceptual Framework

Source: Authors57

motivated if they can have a chance to work in Korea by studying the Korean language harder to achieve better
results. In this occasion, we assume environmental conditions, curriculum of the program, and understandingof family influences this process. The chart below illustrates this relationship.
1. Motivation makes people take action.
2. People make efforts to perform better.
3. People believe that performance will lead to a desired reward.
4. People get the reward(s).
5. Expectations of better/more rewards increase motivation.
6. Environmental conditions influence other factors.

8. Methodology
8.1 Study area
Rizal is a municipality in the province of Laguna, the Philippines. It is located in the southern part of Laguna
and is a landlocked municipality located 25 kilometers from the provincial capital Santa Cruz and 99
kilometers from the national capital San Pablo. There are 11 barangays. In Rizal, the local government provides
Korean Language Program for local people. Program participants have the chance to work as contract workers
in Korea after completing the program. They are expected to get rewards such as high income and a improved
life.

Figure.2 Map of Laguna, Philippines

Figure.3 Map of Rizal, Laguna

Source: Figure.2 © worldatlas (arranged by Misaki Kaneko)
Figure.3 © Eugene Alvin Villar, 2004.

58

8.2 Scope
The study shall focus on determining the motivational factors of participants in the Korean Language
Program in Rizal, and the benefits they receive. The study shall also focus on the promotion of the Korean
Language Program provided by the LGU. This will help to facilitate our understanding of their situation.

8.3 Respondents
There were 26 participants. Our respondents were the mayor, the vice mayor, two Alternative Learning
System (henceforth ALS) coordinators, the teacher, ten students, five families, and five unemployed youth. In
terms of ALS coordinators, they were former and current coordinators. In terms of students, the study consistedof four categories such as five students who were going to Korea, two students who work in Korea, two
returnees, and one student who dropped out the program. The details of student’s profiles are mentioned later.

8.4 Data collection
A qualitative case study method was conducted in three Barangays: Tuy, Pook and Antipolo. Mainly. We
collect data in two ways.
Firstly, interviews were conducted. We did individual interviews directly and indirectly using focus groupinterviews. For Local Government Unit (henceforth LGU), we did individual interview to know thebackground and current situation of the Korean Language Program. We also did individual interviews withstudents to survey their motivations and their needs. Two students who work in Korea were interviewed
through Skype. For unemployed youth, we did a focus group interview to survey their current situation andhow they got the information about the Korean Language Program.
Secondly, we conducted field observations by visiting school building and family’s houses. We observe
environmental factors such as how large and where school facilities are, living environment, family situation,and geographical condition.

8.5 Analysis
The study used narrative and qualitative analysis. Definitions of participants’ motivation, benefits and LGU
involvement are the main analysis of this study. The data we got through interviews and field observation wereused. We also reviewed secondary data to define some terms and concepts.

8.6 Limitation
This study expected to provide suggestions to the people of Rizal and the local government for improving theirlives through the Korean Language Program. However, because of time limitations, the number of the
respondents was constrained. We also had the limitation of language; we needed to have a translator to conduct
our interviews. Moreover, the access to information was limited. Due to these limitations, our scope and59analysis were not in-depth. Thus, there is a need to research and analyze the Korean Language Program to agreater extent.

9. Findings
9.1 Korean Language Program in Rizal
Korean language programs are not new in the Philippines. There are Korean language programs going on
in Metro-Manila and other municipalities. The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority(henceforth TESDA) and Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (henceforth POEA), for instance,
is designated at the national level for the certification of prospective applicants who intend to use the Korean
Language Program to travel to Korea. As we drove from Manila to Rizal Laguna, we noticed posters along theroad advertising either the Korean Language Program or work opportunities in Korea.
On the other hand, the Korean Language Program in Rizal Laguna is under the support of the municipal
Alternative Learning System (ALS). In Rizal, the Korean Language Program is totally free. It was initiated bymayor Antonino in collaboration with the first coordinator of the program who served from 2012-2013. The
coordinator’s duty as prescribed is to arrange venues for the classes and see to the smooth continuation of the
program. The Korean Language Program in Rizal is part of the strategic measures adopted to provide
alternative sustainable livelihood for the youth.
In collaboration with the LGU, a native Filipino (a returnee from Korea) has been employed to teach in the
program. During the interview, we discovered that the first batch of beneficiaries who live and work in Korea
sometimes offer financial supports for the organization of the program. Aurelio (2016) mentioned the programis meant to be offered free of charge to enable youth to have knowledge in the Korean language, seek
employment with Korean companies, and to turn youth who are liabilities into assets.

9.1.1 History
The Korean Language Program in Rizal, Laguna began in 2012 after months of talks between Mayor
Antonino Aurelio and a group of youth from Rizal who were in Korea at the time through a similar program.
The Korean Language Program, as such is offered free of charge, yet the process of getting certification to
travel to Korea and to secure a well-paid job is financially demanding. However, the few beneficiaries haveevidence to show that the Korean Language Program creates diversified paths towards achieving sustainable
livelihood outside the Rizal Laguna Municipality.

9.1.2 Entry requirement
Prospective candidates of the program are expected to be:
1. Rizal born unemployed youth
2. At least High School level603. Must be willingness to learn the Korean language
4. Must have the ability to learn the Korean language
5. The unemployed youth must be at least 37 years old or below

9.1.3 Process of the program
The program was first announced by the mayor during a flag raising ceremony. And the barangay captains
were tasked to inform the unemployed youth.

9.1.3.1 Process during the program
The program is offered once in a year for one and a half months. The classes are conducted four to five
hours per day. Currently the program has a native Filipino who teaches Korean vocabularies and uses roleplaying in Filipino. The role playing is based on daily life situations such as shopping, going to the hospitaland life experiences. This approach has proven to be effective for current and past students.

9.1.3.2 Process after the program
After the Korean Language Program in Rizal is completed, the beneficiaries are left to their own fate toregister with TESDA/POEA for the national examination. The candidates who successfully pass the national
examination are certified by TESDA/POEA as eligible to work in Korea. The individual takes financial
responsibility for his or her travel expenses to Korea. From our study, it came to light that many of thebeneficiaries have even resorted to borrowing from family members, relatives, friends and even the mayor for
their travel to Korea. The first thing many of such borrowers did was to settle their loans with the first two or
three month worth of salaries before any attempt to send remittances back home. Although participation in the
Korean Language Program in Rizal does not guarantee automatic job security in Korea, many current and past
students still desire to proceed to register with TESDA/POEA as required, for the national examination andcertification, which allows them to travel and work in Korea.

9.2. Demographic profile
9.2.1 Profile of the participants
We were able to discover several common characteristics of the participants of the program. We
interviewed 10 participants, and we divided them into four groups: students not yet contracted to go to Korea,
workers in Korea, returnees, and dropout of the program. The first group who finished taking the program, but
did not have a contract to work in Korea because some of them failed the national examination and others havenot taken the exam yet; there were five people: two males and three females. Their age is from 22 to 40 years
old. Two of them finished two-years vocational training, two of them graduated from college, and another one
graduated from university. Although one of them is a factory worker, others are unemployed. All of them got
the information of the program from their relatives. About the second group, they finished taking the programand passed the examination and have worked in Korea; there were two females, 26 and 29 years old. One is ahigh school graduate, and another finished vocational training. They are working at different factories in Korea.
61

The one got the information through her LGU, but the other heard about the program from her relatives. The
third group is people who had finished their contract in Korea and have returned to Rizal; there were two males,
aged 26 and 36 years old. One is a high school graduate, and the other person graduated from college. Theyboth are unemployed because they just came back from Korea. One got his information about the programfrom his relatives, and the other got it through his friends. The last group was participants who dropped out
the program. It was a woman who is 24 years old. She graduated from high school, and now is working as abaker. The source of the information was from her relatives.

Table 1 Profile of the Participants
Source ofinformation

Sex

Age

Education

Occupation

1. Students
not yetcontracted

M: 2
F: 3

22-40

Vocational: 2
College: 2
Undergraduate: 1

Unemployed: 4
Factory worker: 1

Relatives: 5

2. Workers in
Korea

F: 2

26, 29High school: 1
Vocational: 1

Factory worker: 2

LGU: 1
Relatives: 1

3. Returnees

M: 2

26, 36

High school: 1
College: 1

Unemployed: 2

Relatives: 1
Friends: 1

4. Dropout
the programF

24High school

Baker

Relatives

Source: Authors.

9.2.2 Characteristics
60% of the participants are unemployed; moreover, almost all of them were unemployed when they started
taking the Korean program even though 80% of them are in their 20s. They all graduated from secondary
school, and some of them took tertiary education. Only one person got the information from the LGU because
she was a member of the first batch that the LGU disseminated the information to. On the other hand, 90% of
the respondents got their information from their friends or relatives such as their siblings and cousins, whotook the program. In addition, we interviewed 5 out of school people. They all got their information from theirrelatives who took part in the program.

9.2.3. Situation of Rizal
Rizal Laguna is a 5th class municipality located about 99 km from the city of Manila. It is located in the
middle of two progressive and promising cities. The inhabitants are mainly into agriculture. The municipal
government’s source of income is solely from municipal funds and local income generated from business taxes
which are supposed to be used for infrastructural development.
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Poverty and unemployment are situations that no one would deliberately opt for in life. However, Rizal asa 5th class municipality lacks economic opportunities and job security that could otherwise help alleviate
poverty for its youth. Findings OFW4 (2016) estimate that 4,792 of youth representing 37.9% of the total
population of 12,642 in Rizal, are unemployed, with 7,850 representing 62.1% of the population are employed.
This uncalled for situation of the youth makes life uncertain for many youth in the municipality of Rizal. The
youth who do not want to engage in agriculture as a means of livelihood have no other choice than to migrate
to metro-Manila or more developed municipalities to look for work. Those who do not want to live far awayfrom their families, commute daily for work to nearby municipalities. Their earnings are still not enough tosustain the family in situations where the youth are expected to be the bread winner of the family, and he/ sheis expected to earn enough money to live a comfortable life and take care of aging parents or footing the
medical bills of aging/ailing parents. As part of promoting development in the municipality, the LGU has set
five developmental agendas to be translated into action for improvement of the people’s wellbeing. Despite
this approach, the youth of the municipality still cannot find meaningful sustainability livelihoods besides
engaging in agriculture.
The Korean Language Program has emerged as a measure to empower the youth to rise up beyond theircurrent conditions. The Korean language which was introduced in the municipality creates and provides
prospects for employment for successful youth who are able to go to Korea to secure a job. It is expected thatthe municipality would be able to generate income from the property tax to be collected from the returnees.

9.3. Motivation
9.3.1 Personal motivation
The table 2 shows student’s motivation to take the Korean Language Program. Generally, most students
had motivation to help their family as a main motivator. As mentioned above, they are typically from poorfamilies. Almost all would like to try to improve their lives by working in Korea. Thus, owing to this motivation,high income, employment opportunities, and remittances also became a motivation. There were also
motivations such as personal interests and impacts of family and relatives. These all were linked to the main
motivation. Regarding personal interests in Korean Language and Culture, some students raised it as amotivation. However, those were because knowledge about Korean Language and Culture are useful when
they work in Korea. The impacts of family and relatives are mentioned in next section.
In the students that we interviewed, we found two students whose priority is not working in Korea. Their
motivation was different from others who want to work in Korea. For example, S7 was a housewife, and 40
years old. She has a husband and two sons. She conducts religious activities from Korea. Although she wasover the age limit to work in Korea, she was interested in Korean Language and Culture. The teacher
acknowledged her participation in this program because of her strong willingness to learn. Therefore, she could
learn Korean through this program. Her learning was supported by her husband, and she wanted to do manythings by learning Korean. She also wanted to try to communicate with tourists from Korea. She would like toutilize her knowledge of Korean Language and Culture in a future side job. Moreover, she tried to learn Korean
63

for her religious activities. At this time, she teaches basic Korean to members of her religious community inthe church. Her personal interests are stronger than students whose priority it is to work in Korea. In the othercase, case S8, it was certain that the respondent’s motivation was to go to Korea for work. However, it was a
3rd option for her; she has other priorities. She said if she can not fulfill her first or second priority, she is goingto go to Korea. As opposed to others, she just considered this program as one of her options.

Table 2 Students’ Motivation to Take the Korean Language Training
S1 (Student not yet contracted)

S2 (Student not yet contracted)

S3 (Returnee)
S4 (Student not yet contracted)

S5 (Worker in Korea)
S6 (Worker in Korea)
S7 (with different motivation)

S8 (Returnee)
S9 (Dropout the program)
S10 (with different motivation)
Source: Authors.

・To learn the language and the culture
・To work
・To earn money for his family
・To learn the language
・Personal interest in Korean Language and Culture
・Employment opportunity
・To earn money
・To help family
・Job opportunity
・To follow her husband (family reunion)
・Job opportunity to support family
・Personal interest in foreign language
・To work in Korea
・To send money
・To go to Korea
・Employment opportunity
・Encouraged by husband
・Personal interests - communication with tourist- religious activities
・Future side job (tutorial)
・Free program
・Employment opportunity
・Influenced by cousin to join
・To go to Korea

9.3.2 Family’s motivation
Family’s motivation has a strong influence on students’ motivation. From our interviews it was determinedthat family members often encouraged students to join the program. Family members would also like toimprove their lives. They consider working in Korea as a good opportunity to get a higher income. Almost allof them have family or relatives who worked in Korea and improved their lives. They knew some successful
cases of working in Korea. Thus, family members encouraged the students to join the program.

9.3.3 Support for family
As mentioned above, support for family was students’ main motivation. Many Filipinos go abroad or toother cities to work and support their family because they suffer from poverty. They send remittance to improvetheir family’s economic situation and life. Some people working in Korea were successful in doing so.
64

Therefore, others tried to follow them.

9.3.4 Teacher
From the interviews of students, we found that the teacher affected student’s motivation. Although theteacher did not directly influence the students, the teacher had a strong influence especially in the classroom.
Mainly, there were two factors.
The first was the teacher’s character. Many students prefer friendly, bubbly, funny and strict teachers. They
also wanted teachers to understand their needs for learning. According to the students, the current Korean
language teacher coincided with their ideal. All students said that he was always friendly and bubbly, and tried
to understand what difficulty students had. Thus they could enjoy the classes and maintain their motivation.
The second was teaching method. Enjoyable and practical class activities were effective. For example,
many students said that the most interesting class activity was role playing. It was conversation practice using
everyday life in Korea such as greetings. The quiz was also popular. In the quiz, vocabulary and numbering
were asked. Students studied hard to work well in these activities. As previously described, activities wherestudents use their knowledge can enhance students’ motivation.

9.3.5 Negative factor
Although students had high motivation, there were some factors which have some negative effects on
students’ motivation. Here is an example case of one student who dropped out of the program. S6 is a young
lady who has a big family including small children. She decided to join the program because her cousin who
went to Korea encouraged her. Although she started to study Korean, it was difficult for her to understand,especially numbering. In addition, it was getting too hard to continue studying because she had to take care ofher nephew.
Moreover, the reason why she dropped out is not only because of her home environment, but also some
negative factors that affected her motivation. In her interview, she said not having a guarantee to work in Korea
and her financial situation created problems. No matter how hard she studies Korean, she could not go to Korea
unless she passes the difficult national examination. Even if she could pass it, she would have to wait for a job
offer from a Korean company. These factors decreased her motivation. Moreover, this process is costly.
Students have to pay money out of pocket. Almost all of them including S6 had difficulty in doing so. The cost
was a heavy burden for them and they sometimes give up working in Korea because of it.

9.4 Benefit
9.4.1 Personal
Profile: We interviewed 10 students including 2 returnees, 2 working in Korea, 5 immediate past students
and 1 who dropped out from the program.
All of them said they gained knowledge of Korean Language and Culture.
65

After taking the program, students can take the Korean language examination; if they pass, they can work
abroad (only 2 respondents mentioned this, but obviously the program can prepare students for the examination
to work in Korea).
Two of the students who have worked in Korea or will be working in Korea (2/4=50%) mentioned theirlives improved after working there. Two of them (2/4=50%) mentioned they could save money for investment
or to start their own business.

9.4.2 Family
All the family members (of students working in Korea) we interviewed mentioned they get financial
support from the students who are working in Korea.
Also, all of them mentioned they used the financial support to pay for their living expenses, including daily
expenses, bills, buying new furniture and equipment, also home renovations.
All of them mentioned they use the money to support other siblings or education expenses for their children.
Two of them mentioned they have extra money for new investments like renting land. One of them said
the financial support freed her from farming.
One of the family members used the money for healthcare expenses (to cure her eye problem).

9.4.3 Local Government Unit
Most of the former students who are now working in Korea or have been back in Rizal, choose to build
new houses after they earned additional income. The local government can collect land taxes after the residents
built their new houses. Until now, we learned this is the only way that the local government can receive benefits
from the program.

9.5 Local Government Unit involvement
The Korean Language Program in Rizal has been supported by LGU involvement in many regards. We
interviewed four main actors involved in this program: the mayor, the former and current program coordinatorof the Alternative Learning System and a Korean language teacher.

9.5.1 Mayor
Antonino Aurelio was first elected as the city mayor of the municipality of Rizal in 2010 and since then hehas been implementing his prominent initiatives by fostering new businesses and several social programs. In
2012, there was an active trading business ran by a Korean company which contacted him about recruiting
Filipinos to work in Korea. The potential of expanding employment made the mayor start considering a Korean
Language Program because only communication skills in Korean were requested by the company. His primary
aim for starting the program was to help local people work abroad to improve their livelihoods. Since the66

Korean Language and Culture Program started in 2012 with the support of POEA and TESDA, more than 200
local residents have been given the opportunity to learn Korean Language and Culture at no financial cost.
His contribution to the program extended into financial support for program graduates who were going towork in Korea. He was asked to lend money since they could not afford to buy air tickets, even though they
had been accepted by Korean companies. At first he lent money on the condition that they will return backafter they get their first salary from the Korean companies, and later he created a pay-forward system in which
they lend the money to graduates in the next batch instead of paying back the mayor. The mayor assumes that
he no longer needs to provide support, since graduates started to organize the program on their own. He
mentioned that nowadays workers in Korea send money to support the program. He believes that the program
will be sustained by the local residents without any future LGU involvement.

9.5.2 ALS: Alternative Learning System
The municipality of Rizal has the Alternative Learning System to provide various non-formal education
programs. ALS has been organizing several livelihood programs and skills trainings by partnering with NGOs
and other educational organization. The Korean Language Program is one of main programs which ALS
promotes. ALS also considers the welfare of its elderly populace by conducting an Adult Literacy Program forthe elderly or members of the Senior Citizens Association of Rizal Laguna. The municipality received the
National Literacy Award in 2014 and 2016 for their literacy related programs.
The municipality houses the ALS Manpower Training Center which has been a venue for seminars andtrainings for the out-of-school youth, unemployed youth and interested citizens. The Korean Language andCulture Course was initially held in the building, however the course has moved to the Polytechnic Universityof the Philippines building due to a typhoon in 2013. Due to a lack of a capacity at the center, they are now
constructing a new building to accommodate their programs. The current program coordinator mentioned that
there is a possibility that the Korean program will be run in the new ALS building.

9.5.3 Program Coordinator
Ms. Bella Bagsic was a former program coordinator at ALS from 2012 to 2013. The Korean Language
Program first started when she was working in the position. Since she supported the mayor’s willingness tohelp unemployed people in Rizal get stable jobs, she and the mayor visited households one by one to look forpotential participants. The recruitment of students for the first batch was tough for them as no one knew about
the program and most people did not believe the program could be effective. However, more people became
willing to enter the program after they knew the results of the first batch students. She also asked TESDA for
support to make a syllabus. Their curriculum was designed for 3 months with 100 teaching hour. Overall, sheassesses the program positively and acknowledges its sustainability even after the mayor withdrew her fromthe position.
Mr. Yurie T. Vista is the current program coordinator starting from Sep 2013. He was elected with the67

support of the previous coordinator due to his experience of advocacy for out of school youth. Although hehas been working as the ALS program coordinator for about three years, his knowledge about the Korean
Language Program was relatively limited since there are many different duties assigned to his position. With
his responsibilities, he found a venue for the course and has been monitoring students’ attendance and hearing
the needs of trainees and trainers. When he started supporting the second batch of the students, information of
the program was only advertised by the mayor during the city’s flag ceremony.
In contrast to the positive assessment of the previous coordinator, he raised some issues regarding thesustainability of the program. First, he mentioned about the lack of ordinance and effective mechanisms toorganize the training. Apparently, there is no local regulation regarding the literacy program therefore humanand financial resources assigned to the program are limited. He revealed that TESDA and PESO helped to
identify an instructor, and prepared study materials for the program; however as time went on their supports
decreased. While the mayor’s office is still involved in the program, there is no specific post in charge of the
Korean language program. He maintained that the program can not be sustained without a proper ordinance torequest support from both national and regional authorities.
Moreover, he added there is a lack of a proper monitoring system for evaluating the program. They can’t
assess the effectiveness of the program to make improvements since they do not stay in contact with graduates
and returnees to get their feedback. He suggested that a monitoring and evaluation system should be
implemented to improve sustainability,

9.5.4 Teacher
Arwin Sombilla has been a teacher of the Korean Language Program in Rizal since 2013. He used to workin Korea as a factory worker for a couple of years. Before going to Korea, he took a 100-hours language
training provided by TESDA in 2004-2005 to learn how to communicate in Korea since there was no freeprogram in Rizal at that time. The mayor was developing a strategy to get more people in Rizal into the Korean
language program for working overseas therefore Mr. Sombilla was often contacted by the mayor for
consultation regarding to the Korean language program.
After coming back from Korea, he was asked to become a member of the Korean Language Program.
When he joined as an observer for the 1st batch, he found that the program suffered from a teacher shortage,
which made him decide to become a teacher. He registered in TESDA to take part in an orientation, seminars
and a demonstration outside of Rizal. His salary was paid by the mayor personally when teaching the 2nd batchof students, but after the 3rd batch financial support shifted to the graduates working in Korea.
Nowadays, he is a responsible member of the program. His duties cover not only teaching but also
preparation of study materials and monitoring the attendance. He is even asked to provide tutorial lessons.
Although it is not a part of the program, he receives satisfaction from helping the community.

6810. Discussion
10.1 Introduction to Korean Language and Culture
One of the good perspectives of the program is the introduction to Korean Language and Culture. As weshowed, all participants said they have gained knowledge about Korean Language and Culture. In addition,
there are two characteristics of the program. One is the trust between the teacher and students. The teacher
always tries to grasp the students’ understandings and listen to their voice. For example, when students raised
their voice that they were having difficulties understanding numbers and time, the teacher took time to workwith them until they could understand. The teacher’s positive attitude led to better participation andunderstanding by the students. Another characteristic is the unity of the students. Since Rizal is a small
municipality, students already knew each other when the program commenced. Through taking the program,they easily were able to help each other; for example, taking notes for the people who were absent, and studying
together outside of the classroom. It also helped them to understand the contents of the classes. Although it isbasic knowledge, students could gain proficiency in the Korean language in order to improve their lives.

10.2 Youth empowerment
One of the greatest contributions of the Korean Language Program in Rizal is to expand employment
opportunities for local residents thinking to work in Korea. Before the program started, there were only alimited number of people who could complete the procedure for working in Korea due to lack of informationand financial assistance. Potential workers might have given up completing all processes when they could notafford the expense of learning Korean and registering for the examination. However, thanks to the mayor’s
ambitious initiatives and generous supports, they are provided with a beneficial chance to join a free language
program to acquire basic language skills. The travel expenses are covered by donations from past beneficiaries,
which also reduce the burden.
In addition to provisions for employment opportunities, we found that the program succeeded in promoting
youth empowerment since it is designed for the unemployed and out-of-school youth and, in fact most students
are younger than the required age of 37. As one of the 5th class municipality in the Philippines, Rizal has beentackling the serious problem of lack of job opportunities and high unemployment among the young generation.
Through the Korean Language Program, they managed to utilize young workforces by sending workers aboard.
Workers in Korea gain opportunities to earn more money than they would back in their hometown so that they
can support families to improve their livelihoods. Inevitably, those benefits are restored to the community
through consumption and tax payments. As a result, youth vitality generated through the program leads tocommunity development.

10.3 Alternative sustainable livelihood strategy
Through the Korean Language Program, many unemployed youths are able to opt for an alternative
sustainable livelihood. It provides a process where unemployed youth are able to find an alternative choice toonly engaging in unattractive agricultural practices such as farming. Unemployed youth can find a new path69

with prospects for long-term life improvement and development for the municipality.
A well-paid job in Korea does not only secure the future of the youth, but it lifts them from the situation ofpoverty where they are able to support the family and provide for the livelihood of the entire family.

In aninterview with the father of a beneficiary it is evident that his family business has improved; he is able toemploy more relatives and neighbors and his tricycle manufacturing business is flourishing.

10.4 Measures towards sustainability of the program
The LGU helped to start the first batch of students in 2012, including finding the teacher and school facility,
distributing the information of the program, keeping the applicants’ list and reporting it in its annual report,etc.
But from the 2nd batch, the teacher is now supported by the graduates. No more announcements made by the
LGU. From the information we collected, word-of-mouth advertising is now prominent. It seems that most of
the participants now heard about the service from relatives who took part in the program before.
Also from the information we gathered from the interviews and observation, we noticed that the learningmaterial now are sufficient. Students’ relatives who took part in the program might give their textbook to thestudents, or the students share textbooks with others, or use hardcopies of the textbook.
However, we learned that, although the LGU helped to find the venue, most students responded that they
are having a hard time getting to class because it is quite far and transportation is limited.

10.5 Opportunity to go to Korea is not guaranteed
Although the Korean language training brings a good job opportunity to the people of Rizal, it is notguaranteed. There were two factors which prevented some students from working in Korea.
Firstly, whether students can get the opportunity is conditional on their ability to pass the national
examination. The national examination provided by TESDA is hard for students. To pass it, students had tocontinue studying after the Korean Language Program finished. However, the passing rate is small (1st batch:no data, 2nd batch: 35%, 3rd batch: 5%). Although the reasons why students could not pass are unclear, we thinkthat a longer-term program that enriches class contents might improve the students’ pass rate.
Secondly, students’ financial situation is also a factor. The cost to working in Korea is high. They have to
pay for taking the examination, going to Manila, getting a VISA, and going to Korea. In fact, without saving
and/or borrowing money, they cannot go to Korea.

11. Conclusion
The Korean Language Program has emerged in a more organized way to empower the youth, support theirlivelihoods, and turn liabilities into assets.
70

The opportunity to learn the Korean Language and Culture has become a channel to travel abroad andsecure job opportunities. This can help people earn a higher income, support themselves and improve family
life. The LGU is also able to generate revenue from the taxes collected from returnees who build new homes.
Although the program is free and creates prospects for economic gains and life improvement for the
beneficiaries, the scope of the program is limited to only a few families. To ensure the sustainability (longterm continuity) of the program, proactive actions need to be taken by the LGU. Therefore, ourrecommendations are to incorporate the Korean language into the formal school system to widen the scope ofcoverage for the beneficiaries. To improve the system of information dissemination, the LGU could designatea special office for the Korean Language Program. Also as a way to improve the chances to the unemployedyouth, the LGU could designate a classroom in the new ALS building.

12. Recommendation
12.1 Teacher
The low pass rate on the national examination of Korean language is a primary issue that needs to be solved.
To assure that the participants can obtain work in Korea, the teacher is required to improve their teaching skills,
communication skills, and be up to date with what is going on in Korea. There are two reasons that support
this recommendation. Firstly, according to interviews with the participants, they are concerned about theuncertainty of going to Korea, and the low pass rate on the national exam, which increases their anxiety.
Secondly, the participants who have taken the examination mentioned that the most difficult part of theexamination was listening because there were differences between the Filipino teacher’s pronunciation and thenative pronunciation that they heard. It occurs because there is no language environment in place for teacher
to practice and update their Korean language skills. The language is changing, or the teacher is forgetting thelanguage because they have been back in Rizal for a long period of time. Therefore, to improve the quality ofcontent, we propose that teacher training takes place. There is a “curriculum development course,” which is afree online program provided by TESDA. The teacher will be able to learn how to develop a curriculum andcompose an effective program for their students.

12.2. Local Government Unit
According to our findings during interviews, we would suggest that the LGU strengthen its propaganda
efforts; in order to disseminate information regarding the Korean Language Program more efficiently. The
LGU can create an information office to organize and promote the propaganda activities. In addition todisseminating the information from barangay to barangay, the LGU can also put up posters around Rizal. Using
megaphones and social network tools such as Facebook and Twitter the LGU can announce recruiting
information before the program registration date to make sure more people can get the program informationand the details about enrollment.
We would also suggest that the LGU develop and implement policies for the formalization of the program.
71

In order to do so, the LGU should create a sustainable system for the program. In the near future, the LGU
might have to consider hiring a sub-coordinator or someone specifically designated to the Korean language
program that can monitor the program and its evaluation more efficiently. A better monitoring and evaluation
system can identify potential problems as well as other details in order to improve the program and improvesustainability.
From our findings, we learned that most students have a hard time getting to class because it is quite far
and transportation is limited. So we also suggest that the LGU provide space in the new ALS building forclasses.
According to our findings, we also recommend the LGU to incorporate a Korean language course into its
senior high school. For example, offering the Korean language course as a new foreign language option from
grade 11, so that more young people from Rizal can have a chance to learn Korean as a foreign language which
may provide them with an opportunity to work in Korea after graduating.

12.3 Implication
Rizal, Laguna is a fifth class municipality with less economic opportunities than other LGUs. As a ruralmunicipality, local residents depend mainly on farming or agriculture for a living. Since there is no large scalecompany in Rizal, the only job one can do is to engage in a family business such as being a baker or tricycle
driver. Due to the lack of higher education facilities, most high school graduates are not able to pursue higher
education, as a result, they are not able to secure stable jobs. Therefore there is a high youth unemployment
rate. For instance, according to the statistics of the Department of Labor and Employment Republic of thePhilippines (2011), out of the total population of 12642, only 7850 are employed, while 4792 representing
37.9% are unemployed. This situation has contributed to high poverty among youth. The only solution forthem is to migrate to a more developed municipality or seek opportunities to work abroad.
There is a need to make the program more effective. This Korean Language Program if well-organized
could also help the LGU in its responsibility to empower local people, especially youth and women. This could
partly facilitate the LGU’s development agenda into concrete action.

12.4 Formalization Framework
This framework shows our proposed process for the formalization of the Korean Language Program.

72

Figure.4 Process of Formalization

Source: Authors

12.4.1 Consultation
Based on our study, it is empirical that the introduction of the free Korean Language Program in Rizal
Laguna has to a certain extent changed the socio-economic situations of its beneficiaries. However, since it isshort-term in nature, the pace at which the prospective students are able to acquire the language is constrained.
After our study and analysis of the Korean Language Program and the potential it provides the beneficiaries
for socio-economic development in the Rizal Laguna municipality, we think that the Korean Language
Program ought to be formalized into the school system to ensure its sustainability. Despite the benefits of the
program, there is the likelihood that the scope of the program could continue to benefit only a few families.
However, to ensure that a wider range of families can benefit from the program, formal recognition of the
program needs to be adopted. For instance, some stakeholders pointed out during our interview how the lackof ordinance and effective mechanism for evaluation remains a challenge, which also constrains thesustainability of the program. To ensure the sustainability of the program, there is a need to adopt the following
process for the formalization of the program. There are 4 stages within the process. The framework for theformalization ought to begin with a comprehensive roundtable discussion between the LGU and the parents ofprospective students, representatives of past student associations if there are any, and other stake holders andactors connected with policy implementation authority. For long-term and effective implementation,
consultation and engagement among stakeholders should be put into practice. The agenda for the consultationmust also include analyzing the prospects of Korean language education for younger generations by various
stakeholders. These members should consist of LGU members who are involved in the Korean Language
Program such as mayor, vice mayor, councilors at the municipal office for education and employment,barangay captains, ALS coordinators, teachers as well as the officers from POEA and TESDA. Returnees,
graduates, representatives of worker’s association in Korea, and high school presidents should also be invited
to the discussion and share their opinions. This method of integration will help to promote the interest of theyounger generation towards language acquisition and thereby creating future employment opportunities.
7312.4.2 Strategic Planning
Stakeholder consultation should be followed by strategic planning. A steering committee needs to be set
up to draw-up the action plan, taking into consideration the employment of a certified Korean Language
teachers in accordance with the ministry of education modalities regarding information dissemination. The
committee must also determine the school level at which the program should be incorporated, the year for the
program to take off, access to teaching and learning materials, curriculum and the length of study, assistancefor students to register for exams, visa applications, and air ticket purchases. The committee should be charged
with the responsibility of ensuring stakeholder participation. The committee could go back to a roundtablediscussion and submit its proposal to the LGU and stakeholders for review.

12.4.3 Implementation
The LGU must review the committee’s proposal for implementation. The strategic planning must be
followed by passing through the LGU’s appropriate process of policy implementation.

12.4.4 Monitoring
Monitoring from different perspectives is helpful for this program. Pattern Continues Assessment andgeneral examination must be put in place in collaboration with the national examination authority. This typeof monitoring could include weekly oral and written examinations to facilitate and monitor the progress ofstudents at every level of their study. The monitoring process should take into consideration Jacqueline DE
Carlo (2007) monitoring process to demonstrate accountability. A system should be instituted to create room
for annual assessments, student self-assessment and assessments from the point of view of the stakeholder. A
peer review forum should be implemented to provide room for students to survey their peers and give feedbackof their proficiency. A formalization process could also be implemented in such a way that will enable
beneficiary student returnees of the current Korean Language Program to have familiarization activities withthe prospective learners.

12.4.5 Evaluation
Once the LGU invests in the Korean language, its efforts must not be wasted. Re-evaluation andamendments to policies related to the Korean Language Program should also be part of the modalities forevaluation. External evaluation is necessary for the improvement of the program. A special office designatedto the Korean Language Program could be accountable to the LGU and provide it with an annual report. The
students could fill out an evaluation sheet in order to collect their suggestions. A teacher’s evaluation sheet
could include such things as teaching methods, student performance, curriculum, facility and duration ofteaching. Every perspective must be considered and reviewed regarding the progress or short-comings of the
program to be implemented and incorporated.

74

Acknowledgement
We would like to express our deep appreciation to all the people who supported us in conducting this research.
First, we would like to thank the Rizal municipality, local government officials, Alternative Learning
System coordinator, old citizen’s association, our driver and security for their assistance and support. Without
their support, we would not have been able to conduct meaningful research.
To Arwin C. Sombilla, our local guide who arranged interviews and accompanied us through the interviews,
also to our student partner and interpreter Almira Geles B. Lumbres from the University of Philippines Los
Baños we offer our thanks and gratitude.
Our appreciation also goes to our supervisors, Professor Evelie P. Serrano from the University ofPhilippines Los Baños and Professor Junko Yamashita and Professor Francis Peddie from Nagoya University,
for their advice, assistance and corrections during the preparation, field work, presentations and final reportwriting.

To OFW 2016 organizers, Dr. Aser B. Javier from the University of Philippines Los Baños, Professor Liu
Jing, who organized the field trip to Rizal, Laguna and took care of us before, during and also after the trip
with all necessary documentations and support we thank you.
We would also like to thank Professor Isamu Okada, the chairman of Nagoya University’s OFW 2016 team.
We are also grateful to the other OFW 2016 working groups for sharing ideas and camaraderie during our trip
to the Philippines.

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78

Working Group 4Youth Employment

Youth Employment in Rizal

Group Members
Waruni Nilukshi Perera**
Ezka Amalia*
Takuya Hirata
Momoko Yabushita
Anna Sakakibara
Group Advisors
Assistant Prof. Yuki Shimazu
Assistant Prof. Ephraim C. Quinones** Group Leader*Group Sub Leader

79

Table of Content
1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Research Objectives
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Significance of the research
1.6 Limitations
2. Literature Review
2.1 Youth and Unemployment
2.2 Characteristics of unemployed youth
2.3 Characteristics of family of unemployed youth
2.4 Skills Mismatch
2.5 Economic Factors of Youth Unemployment
2.6 Government Policy and Youth Unemployment
3. Research Methodology
3.1 The Conceptual framework
3.2 Target group
3.3 Research Design
3.4 Key informant interviews
4. Results and Discussion
4.1 The Characteristics of the Youth4.1.1 Age and Education level
4.1.2 Gender
4.1.3 Location
4.1.4 Work Experiences and Entrepreneurship4.2. The Characteristics of the Family
4.2.1 Employment and Education Status of the Parents
4.2.2 Family Income and Number of Family Members Living Together
4.3. The Existing Business Sector
4.4. Economic and Sociopolitical Factors
4.4.1 Lack of Information dissemination
4.4.2 Lack of the understanding of Youth’s demand for Vocational Training
4.4.3 Expectation of assistance
4.5 Summary of findings
5. Recommendations
80

Acknowledgement
References

Abbreviations

CW: Cash for Work
SCA: Seed Capital Assistance
LRA: Local Recruitment Activities
WHIP: Workers Hired in Infrastructure Project
CBLA: Cash for Building Livelihood Assistance
PAF: Pre-Employment Assistance Fund
ST: Skills Training
SPES: Special Program for Employment of Students

81

1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
On September 25th 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which
includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, flight inequality and injustice, andtackle climate change by 2030 (United Nations 2015). Employment is targeted in goal 8 of the SDGs; “Promotesustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work forall.” It says that stable and well-paid jobs are the only way to achieve poverty reduction. While this goal focuseson well-paid jobs, it is not the only factor for achieving poverty reduction. Our research attempts to identify
other factors for achieving poverty reduction by focusing on youth unemployment. Moreover, while stable andsustainable jobs are a key factor for reducing poverty; our research identifies additional factors that influence
poverty at the local level.
Based on the ILOSTAT database, ‘unemployed’ consists of all people of working age who are willing to
do an occupation, who are currently available for work, and who are seeking an occupation (International
Labor Organization 2015). Nowadays, nearly 2.2 billion people live below the US$2 poverty line (United
Nations 2015) and over 40% of the youth in the world are either unemployed or have a job but live in poverty(International Labor Organization 2016). Additionally, nearly 50% of the developing world’s population is
youth and children (UN 2015). It can be suggested that there is a possibility for development which can bebrought by those youths in the world. Therefore, youth employment plays an important role in poverty
reduction.
In employment creation, the main actors are government, private sectors and self-employment(International Training Center ILO, 2011). In order to identify the factors of unemployed youth, it is necessary
to understand the relationships among the actors and the reality within the sphere of employment creation.
According to modern economic theory, the unbalance between supply and demand in the labor market creates
unemployed youth (International Training Center ILO, 2011). They pointed out that either higher supply ofyoung workers in comparison to labor demand or less supply of skilled workers than labor demand causes the‘unbalance’. Moreover, social conditions are also factors creating unemployed youth. According to the reportpublished by International Labour Organization (1996), age, gender, family background, educational status,
race, disability, rural/urban locations, and family wealth or income or social class are independent factors that
affecting whether young people could get a job or not (International Labor Organization 1996, pp1-25).
This research attempts to identify the factors which influence youth unemployment, how each factor
influences youth unemployment, and what the local government can do to deal with youth unemployment in
Rizal, Laguna, Philippines. For this research, we defined “unemployed youth” as those who belong to the agegroup 18 to 30 years, which are willing to do an occupation, currently available for work, and seeking an
occupation, based on the definitions provided by the Philippines Statistics Authority, the Government of thePhilippines, and the Philippines Youth in Nation Building Act.
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1.2 Problem Statement
In Rizal, the local government has tried to increase employment opportunities by developing tourism andagriculture as well as promoting support systems for unemployed youth such as skills training and short-term
employment programs. However, the factors creating 40% unemployment in Rizal have not been identified
yet; specifically, characteristics of unemployed youth and their families, skills and educational mismatch, andthe demand from the labor market. Without knowing those factors, it will be difficult for the local government
to identify actual problems affecting unemployed youth in Rizal. Additionally, the relationship between eachfactor is needed in order to identify and solve the mismatches between each of them. These identifications help
to modify local government policies and support for youth unemployment in Rizal based on the real situationand demands from society.
1.3 Research Objectives


To describe the factors of youth unemployment in Rizal.

To analysis the factors of youth unemployment in Rizal

To provide recommendations for the LGU on youth unemployment in Rizal.

1.4 Research Questions
Main Research Questions
What are the factors which influence unemployment in Rizal?

How does each factor influence youth unemployment in Rizal?

What can the LGU do to deal with youth unemployment in Rizal?

Sub Research Questions
What are the characteristics of unemployment youth in Rizal?

What are the family characteristics of unemployed youth in Rizal?

What are the mismatches between required qualifications for an occupation and the qualifications owned
by unemployed youth?

What are the economic and sociopolitical factors which affect youth unemployment in Rizal?

1.5 Significance of the research
The focus on youth employment is one of the best ways to enforce the potential for poverty reduction andeconomic growth. Rizal is the poorest municipality in Laguna and has approximately 40% unemployment. The
local government has been encouraging economic growth by promoting tourism, agriculture, and education.
From these facts, it can be suggested that how the government can encourage or support people to get involved
into this strategy is important. Thus, this research hopes to help the local government to identify what factors
have constrained the youth employment in Rizal, and which parts the local government should focus on inorder to improve the situation. This will be accomplished by providing insight on the factors influencing youth
unemployment in Rizal, including the characteristics of unemployed youth, their families as well as the
economic, social and political conditions in Rizal. Additionally, this research hopes to help the local
government find new ways to tackle the issue based on the actual demand, experience, and situation of the83

people in Rizal, by providing recommendations based on our findings. These contributions might create aplatform for discussion on how to tackle youth unemployment in other poor cities, especially those with similar
characteristics to Rizal.

1.6 LimitationsFirstly, time constraint can be raised as a limitation of this research. Because only 8 days were allowed for
our field work, we decided to reduce our sample size and go with a narrower focus on specific aspect of youth
unemployment in Rizal. Therefore, this research could not achieve robust results on the factors of youth
unemployment in Rizal.
Secondly, a lack of capability to select participants for the interviews influenced our sampling method.
Because we were not unable to select the participants according to our criteria, we interviewed unemployedyouth who were introduced by barangay officers. Therefore, there might be a bias in the characteristics of
selected interviewees.
Thirdly, the language barriers constrained our communication with interviewees. Since we interviewed
participants through translators, what the interviewees described might have been occasionally changed by
the translations based on the translators’ understanding. Therefore, it constrained our ability to understandexactly what our interviewees may have been describing.
Lastly, a lack of availability of updated secondary data constrained our capacity to identify the criteria ofparticipants and the concrete problems in youth unemployment in Rizal as well as the characteristics ofyouth unemployment in each barangay before going to the field. Therefore, this constraint influenced oursampling method and identifying problems based on actual data.

2. Literature Review
2.1 Youth and Unemployment
According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) (2016), youth isdefined as a transition period for a person from childhood to adulthood and a more fluid category in terms ofage. However, the United Nations defined the age range of youth as from 15 years old to 24 years old forstatistical purposes. In relation to education and employment, youth is also defined as a period when a person
finishes her or his compulsory education in their respective countries and finds their first employment (United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 2016). However as the current trend shows thelength of unemployment for youth, is affected by the age range definition for the youth.
The Philippines is one of the countries that enjoy the high number of young people with median age of
22.3 years (Canlas & Pardalis, 2009). The number of working age people (above 15 years old) in thePhilippines accounted for 64.2 million in 2013 and young people within the age range of 15 to 24 years old
84accounted for 20% of the total population (ILO Country Office for the Philippines, 2015). With the highnumber of young people, which is projected to increase in the upcoming years, the labor force in the Philippines
will continue to rise. According to ILO, in 2013, 41 million people enter into labor force; however, this highrate did not affect employment opportunities, especially for young people. In 2013, 7.1% of the total population
was unemployed with the youth account for almost one-half of that number (ILO Country Office for thePhilippines, 2015).
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), unemployed people are those who are jobless,but want to work, available to work and actively seeking employment. This definition has been contested due
to cross-country differences, such as the limit of working hour especially part time labor and those who are
regarded as outside of labor forces, neither in education nor employment or training (NEET) (O'Higgins, The
Challenge of Youth Unemployment, 1997). Various factors contributed towards unemployment among youth.
According to Pantin (1996), social conditions of youth such as age, gender, family background, educational
status, race, disability, rural/urban locations, and family wealth or income or social class are independent
factors that affecting whether young people could get a job or not.
2.2 Characteristics of unemployed youth
The main factors attributing to unemployment among young people are: age and educational qualifications,gender, voluntary unemployment, social background related to poor mental health and work motivation, andlocation.
Firstly, since age correlates with educational qualification, it can be one of the main factors affecting youth
employment. According to Furlong (2007), the youth aged 16-19, those who had left full-time education earlier,
are less likely to be in employment or training and seeking work than those who completed post-compulsory
education; among the youth aged 20 to 24, those who are in higher education, have a greater opportunity to
become established in the labor market; and, among 25 to 34 year-olds, the proportion of unemployment tends
to be highest among those who have no qualifications (pp. 110-114). Additionally, young women aged 25 to
34 and who are unqualified school leavers tend not to be seeking work due to childcare responsibilities(Furlong, 2007).
Secondly, gender is also one of the main factors of unemployed youth. Hommer and Russell (2004) pointout the differences of employment commitment, experience, and destinations of unemployment between males
and females. They insist that “women will experience less psychological distress from unemployment thanmen because women’s role as mothers and home makers is likely to be considered more important than theirrole as workers and being unemployed does not thread women’s identity” (Hammer & Russell, GenderDifference in Employment Commitment among Unemployed Youth, 2004).

It can be said that personal

perspective, tradition, and culture about women’s roles cause differences in unemployment between males andfemales.
Thirdly, there are voluntary unemployed youth. Hammer (2007) differentiates them into two types. The
85

first one is young people who want to try different types of work before they find the job that best suits theirabilities and interests and the other is young people who do not want either permanent jobs or more permanent
integration into the labor market. Therefore, there are also young people who are willingly unemployedbecause of those perspectives.
Fourthly, as Hummer (2007) claims, youth who have dropped out of school, have more health problems
and a higher frequency of drug use than others. Also, they have a higher probability of being outside the labormarket. Moreover, those who had found a job were likely to be located in the secondary labor market, which
has unsatisfying conditions, and affects worker motivation.
Lastly, the location of residence for youth is a major factor. It is because education, training, andemployment opportunities tend to be in urban areas Furthermore, social dysfunctionality and alienation also
tends to be higher in urban areas (ILO Country Office for the Philippines, 2015).
2.3 Characteristics of family of unemployed youth
We consider that characteristics and influences of family have a significant affect on youth unemployment.
This can be defined under both qualitative and quantitative phases.
Normally in Philippines, the average number of children in a family can vary from three to four and if thefamily is suffering from poverty, there is a high possibility to find many unemployed children who are staying
at home and depending on the parent’s earnings. The attitudes and practices in the Philippines arecomparatively different from most developing countries in the world. Most children are staying with theirparents even after they get married and continuing their normal routine that they followed before getting
married. This will lead the family into a more deteriorated situation and the cycle will continue on to the next
generation.
Due to rapid population growth and lack of education, qualifications are the most prioritized problem for
unemployment. However, if there is a kind of stimulus attitude within the family to be unemployed, it will put
the problem into a more draconian situation especially if there are many family members in the family and thehousehold income is low, this situation will generate more unemployed youth in the family unit. This is because
when the number of children is high in the family, it will limit the access to education and training (Orbeta, Jr.,
2005). It will lead to uneducated and incompetent youth to the society. Mapa (Jesus & Mapa, 2015) pointed
out that“Certain household characteristics are also influential factors in employment transitions.
For instance, as the number of employed members in the household increases, thelikelihood of an unemployed member to exit to employment decreases. In the same way,
the more reliant a household is on assistance from abroad or domestic sources, the lesslikely it is for its job seeking members to be employed. ” (Jesus & Mapa, 2015)

86

The above paragraph highlights another special factor about the family structure. If many members of thehousehold are employed, there is less possibility for the youth to be involved in a profession. But in a very
poor area like Rizal the opposite effect may take place. Moreover, there may be some family members who
work in foreign countries and most young people depend on their money, which decreases their motivation towork.
The household income is another issue that creates some chronic problems related to unemployment. If thehousehold income is low, the main priority of the parents is to feed their children, which leaves no income toallocate to education or any other training program (Orbeta, Jr., 2005). This cycle is likely to repeat throughthe next generation. Most of the time the children have to be the dependents of their parents for their entire life
because they do not have capacity to find a good job although they may have innovative ideas, they are notcapable of implementing those ideas due to lack of monetary assistance and skills. This limits their ability to
become entrepreneurs and to accomplish their own path to success.
2.4 Skills Mismatch
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) (2016) pointed out that college graduates took about a year and highschool graduates took up to 3 years to find work. It also mentioned that many of those unemployed youths
moved into informal jobs, which are often part-time and pay less. There are two major reasons for high youth
unemployment: labor demand-supply mismatch and/or skills mismatch (Asian Development Bank, 2016). The
demand-supply mismatch problem means that the number of jobs created cannot absorb new entrants into thelabor force in addition to the existing 2.5 million unemployed people. For example, according to PSA, the total
number of job openings from January 2013 to June 2014 was 753,092 (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2016).
On the other hand, the number of new entrants was estimated at 912,000 in 2012 (Philippine Statistics
Authority, 2013). It is actually difficult to compare these two figures since the time period is different, but here
we would like to make calculation easily. The number of new jobs for a year which is simply doubled would
be around 1.5 million and is less than the sum of 912 thousand new entrants and 2.5 million existing
unemployed people.
Another reason is mismatches between the education and skills young people have and the needs of thelabor market. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE, 2011) revealed that despite huge amounts
of unemployment, employers had difficulty to fill vacancies due to a shortage of competent and qualified
applicants. One area suffering this skills mismatch is the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, suchas call centers. The International Labor Organization (ILO) working paper mentioned that the Philippines is
expanding its BPO global market share and is now considered as the third leading source of BPO services afterIndia and China. The Philippines’ share of revenue in this industry accounted for 6.7 percent in 2008 andslightly rose to 6.9 percent by the end of 2009 (Canlas & Pardalis, 2009). This growth in demand for BPO
professionals, however, cannot be matched by adequate supply of skilled and qualified applicants.
According to Rodolfo (Rodolfo, 2005), a key weakness of applicants for call center positions is Englishlanguage proficiency (Rodolfo 2005). For those mismatches in the BPO industry Canlas and Pardalis (2009)87

argued that increased participation of young people in education and training has not necessarily led to anincrease in skills, especially communication skills. The reasons why many young people with higher education
qualification suffer from unemployment are an under-subscription in some priority courses, oversupply of
graduates in others and level/quality of education for higher level IT skill positions (Canlas & Pardalis, 2009).
ADB (2016) also insisted that“…. improving the relevance and quality of technical and vocational training programs andstrengthening certification frameworks will help overcome such mismatches. More programs areneeded to provide employment services, such as career guidance and coaching for young people
when they leave school”. (p.247)

2.5 Economic Factors of Youth Unemployment“One of the most important determinants of youth employment is the strength of the economy as a whole.
When the aggregate level of economic activity and the level of adult employment are high, youth employment
is also high.” (Freeman & Wise, 1982). These days, the Philippine economy is in good condition; it ranks 9th
among Asian countries with a GDP growth rate around 5.8% in 2015 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan,2016). However, the adult employment rate was 6.3% in 2015, the second highest in Asia (Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Japan, 2016). In addition, the foreign direct investment was low and resulted in low job creation.
According to ILO (Elder, Haas, Principi, & Schewel, 2015), to achieve economic expansion in a particularcountry, two major elements should be tackled: poor working conditions and the informal sector. At the sametime, social protections also should be implemented in the agricultural, self-employment sectors and eveninformal sector, as opposed to orthodox points of view where social protection is only implemented in formal
sector such as industry and public services. By providing social protection for the informal sector where themajority of poor people work, the government can help them in increasing their income and at the same time
reduce poverty (Elder, Haas, Principi, & Schewel, 2015).
Moreover, the existence of employment services is also important to help young people in the rural areas
obtain jobs, especially in matching skills to available employment opportunities. At the same time, young
people also should know the function of such services in the rural areas so that they can receive the benefits
from it. In addition, with the tendency of the services to only benefit those who have skills and qualification,
it is important for them to also target the disadvantaged youth (Understanding Children's Work (UCW)
Programme, 2015).

2.6 Government Policy and Youth Unemployment
Youth unemployment issues have gained relevance in development discussions, especially given thecurrent trends. In 2014, a total of 73.3 million youth were unemployed globally, with the unemployment ratearound 13% (International Labour Organization, 2015). It also has become one of the major concerns forgovernment agendas. The role of government in tackling youth unemployment is important especially as88

government policy on economic activities such as labor market policies could also affected the youth and theiremployment in the short and long-run (Biavaschi, et al., 2012).
The Philippines has implemented decentralization to have a quick and better response to the needs of thelocal people. Hence, the role of local government in addressing their local people’s problems is important. The
local government could play a role by creating policies that could create employment such as skill development
policies and labor market policies as the local government understands the reality of its particular area better
than the national government (Office of Youth Affairs Tasmania, 1999). Moreover, as ILO (2015) stated, youth
unemployment could also be affected by the local labor market particularly in employment opportunities (p.
23). However, labor market policies may not be the only policies that the government implements in regards
to tackling youth unemployment (National Treasury Republic of South Africa, 2011).
Rizal is a municipality which is located at the foot of Mt. Banahaw and Mt. San Cristobal and is currently
developing eco-tourism and planting trees as one of development strategies. Eco-tourism could become oneof the main forces to tackle youth unemployment, even though the government should calculate the cost andbenefits of doing so. Drawing an example from the experiences of Thailand, the government of Thailand
implemented agro tourism strategies in a mountainous area. The government aimed to create employment for
the local people in the mountainous area in order to develop its agricultural sector (Choenkwan, Promkhanbut,
Hayao, & Rambo, 2016). However, according to Choenkwan, Prokhambut, Hayao, & Rambo (2016), agro
tourism in some cases created negative impacts in diverting human resources from the agricultural sector to
the service sector (p. 163), which resulted in a declining number of agriculture products. By learning fromThailand’s experience, eco-tourism in Rizal could help in creating jobs for the youth who could not be absorbedby the conventional labor market.

3. Research Methodology
This chapter includes the structure of research and the methodology used to achieve the research objectives.
The research has adopted a qualitative approach using semi structured interviews to gather data from thetargeted groups.
3.1 The Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework in figure 1 has been developed to probe the factors that influence highunemployment in Rizal, which is compound by the main four aspects as outlined in Section 2. Semi structured
interviews were conducted with selected local government officers and three business units in Rizal in order
to investigate the impact of programs implemented by the local government to mitigate the unemployment rate
and to identify the gap between existing market demand for labor and the mismatch of skills and qualifications
possessed by the youth.

89

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework

Source: Authors

3.2 Target group
The target group comprised unemployed youth ranging from 18 to 30 years old (according to Philippines
government, children below age 15 encountered as child labor. Therefore, in this research we considered age
18- 30 youths as the target group) and currently seeking jobs, the parents of unemployed youth, local
government officials (Mayor of Rizal, Laguna, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
Officer, Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Officer, District Supervisor, Department of Education,
District of Rizal and Nagcarlan, Permanent Teacher of Alternative Learning System) and business units in
Rizal. Three business units were selected based on the magnitude and the number of workers involved in thebusiness. Two bakeries and one resort were interviewed to gather data.
3.3 Research Design
The primary target of the research is to identify the factors which influence unemployment in Rizal andcognize the imperative actions that should be taken by the local government unit. Therefore, qualitative
research has been conducted by using semi structured interviews as the main data gathering method. The
primary intension of using a qualitative approach is to get a better idea about how youth and other stakeholders
respond to unemployment, how their attitudes and opinions are formed, and how the target group is affectedby existing issue.
3.4 Key informant interviews
The researchers have identified unemployed youth and family members as key respondents to answer
research questions one and two, which focuses on amassing data regarding characteristics of unemployed youth
and their families which enhance the issue of youth unemployment. The basic details, skills and competencies
of unemployed youth have been identified through semi structured interviews; additionally, interviews with90

family members were conducted to understand the current situation of the family and the impact it has on thefamily’s youth. The municipality of Rizal, Laguna consists of Barangays, but due to time constraint research
was conducted in only four of them. Table 1 illustrates the number of respondents in each Barangay.
Moreover, local government officials and three business units were main respondents which helped us toanswer questions three and four. These questions focused on the mismatches between required qualifications
for an occupation and the qualifications owned by the unemployed youth as well as economic and socio
political factors which affect youth unemployment in Rizal. The Department of Social Welfare andDevelopment (DSWD) Officer and Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Officer were interviewed togather data regarding special programs implemented by the local government in order to abate the rate ofunemployed youth. These included such things as Skills Training, Special Program for Employment ofStudents, Cash for Work, Seed Capital Assistance, Local Recruitment Activities, Workers Hired in
Infrastructure Project, Cash for Building Livelihood Assistance (CBLA) and the Pre Employment AssistanceFund. Furthermore, the business units were interviewed to understand the demand for labor and the mismatch
between required skills and qualifications.

Table 1. Unemployed Youth and Family Interviewed in Each Barangay
Unemployed YouthBarangay

FemaleNumber of family
members

Male

Pauli II

3

3

5

Tala

1

5

6

Pook

1

5

6

Antipolo

4

1

5

Total

9

14

22

Source: Authors

4. Results and Discussion
The results were analyzed based on the research questions formed as the basis of this study. Our analysis
also uses data collected during the fieldwork, as shown in the methodology. The results were categorizedaccording to the four factors which affect youth unemployment in Rizal, Laguna, Philippines: (1) the
characteristics of the youth; (2) the characteristics of the family; (3) the existing business sector; and (4)economic and sociopolitical factors. The introduction of results under each factor will be followed bydiscussion.
4.1 The Characteristics of the YouthAccording to the literature review in Section 2, the characteristics of youth could be one of the factors
which influenced youth unemployment. In this section, the characteristics of youth include age, educational
91

qualification, gender, location, past experiences, and future plans. Each sub factor influenced other sub factors.
By looking at those sub factors, we could determine the most significant sub factor under each of the youth
characteristics; at the same time, we could also hear from the youth, which may lead to better conditions forthem.
4.1.1 Age and Education level
As we mentioned in our introduction, according to the government of the Philippines, youth are thosebelonging to the age group 15 to 30. However, youth under the age of 18 years could be considered as childlaborer. In our research, our targeted group was youth between the ages of 18 to 30. According to thosecategories, Figure 2 introduces the age distribution among the 23 unemployed youth whom we interviewed:
Figure 2. Age Distribution

Source: created by Authors

For the 17 year old unemployed youth, they are considered as ‘child labor’ if they engage in economic
activities. However, from the data, we could see that those who are categorized as youth are vulnerable interms of employment. They were either unemployed or could only work in seasonal jobs.
Several studies on youth unemployment has mentioned the importance of education attainment among theyouth (Zepeda, Leigh, Ndirangu, Omollo, & Wainaina, 2013; Rapten, 2014; Khurram, et al., 2013). By
obtaining higher education, the chance for young people to gain employment increases, as opposed to thosewhom graduated from primary or secondary education. However for poor people, formal education is hard toachieve; especially in terms of financial and transportation burdens.
Rizal is a town located between two industrialized towns where services such as formal education areavailable. Thus, the youth of Rizal has to travel to neighboring town to receive higher education. The cost oftransportation and tuition fees are considered high and became one of the reasons why a lot of youth in Rizal
92

drop out of school, which in turn, affects their opportunities to find work. Among the respondents, Figure 3
shows the distribution of education qualification:

Figure 3 : Education Attainment

Source: Authors

According to our findings, only 2 out of 22 respondents completed their higher education, while the rest
either completed secondary levels or primary levels of education in Rizal. The most important reason for
dropping out of school is financial constraint on the family. As most of the respondents came from poorfamilies, their families could not finance their higher education. For female respondents, teenage pregnancy is
the main reason why they drop out of school. This data is supported by the data from the District Supervisor
for Rizal and Nagcarlan, Department of Education, the District of Rizal and Nagcarlan which revealed that themain reason for youth dropping out of school in Rizal is financial problems and early pregnancy. Moreover,research conducted in Bangladesh and Kenya found that unemployment was higher among those with primaryand secondary levels of education, and those who only attain primary and secondary levels of education tend
to come from low income households (Zepeda, Leigh, Ndirangu, Omollo, & Wainaina, 2013; Rahman, 2006).
The low level of education also influenced youth’s opportunities to access decent work which in turn leads
to a lack of experience. United Nations (2013) also observed that lack of experiences in employment among
youth leads to difficulties in accessing decent work. These situations, in turn, lead to a prolonged
unemployment period and/or push them to take multiple part-time jobs while waiting for a better job
opportunity (United Nations, 2013). This view is similar to our research findings which showed that most
respondents conduct seasonal or part-time work while waiting for a better job opportunity.

4.1.2 Gender
Gender is one of the sub factors that may lead to youth unemployment. The embedded notion in societythat still prevails regarding the role of women in the household and in the society is one of the reasons that the
number of unemployed women youth is higher. Even with the massive campaigns on women empowerment,
we could not deny that some parts of society still discriminate against women.

93

In Rizal, according to the data by the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinating Office in 2011,
more women over the age of 15 are unemployed compare to men. As shown in Table 2, the Municipality of
Rizal recognized the need to provide opportunities for those who are unemployed.

Table 2 : Labor Force Population by Sex and Employment Status in Rizal
SEX

POPULATION(15 YRS AND OVER)EMPLOYED%UNEMPLOYED%

Female

6394

3295

51.5

3099

48.5

Male

6248

4555

72.9

1693

27.1

Both Sexes

12642

7850

62.1

4792

37.9

Source: Comprehensive Land Use Plan 2011-2021, Municipality of Rizal

Among the female respondents, we found that early pregnancies are one of the reasons why they could not
find employment. For those women, it is hard for them to return to the job market as they were expected tolook after their babies, elder family members, and/or helping in house chores. Even though they are expecting
to reenter the job market, only low wages jobs in the informal sector such as in sari-sari store or seasonal jobs
are available. Sari-sari stores are convenience stores which are located almost in all neighborhoods in thePhilippines and sell basic commodities for the community. The stores are mostly owned and operated by family
members, although sometimes they ask neighbors to help operate the stores.
These difficulties of reentering the job market are not apparent among the male respondents. These findings
are supported by Clark and Summers (1982) which argued that the difference between women and men in theemployment sector lies in the difficulties of reentering the labor force (p. 204). Thus, the notion of gendered
distribution of roles within the household affects employment opportunities.
4.1.3 Location
The location where the youth live is also one of the sub factors that influenced youth unemployment. Whilethe current trends show that the unemployment rate is higher in urban areas compares to unemployment rates
in rural areas (Muiya, 2014; Canlas & Pardalis, 2009), this is also due to the high number of youth in rural
areas as well as the high rate of urbanization. Since rural areas could not provide employment opportunities,
rural young people tended to migrate to urban areas to find better jobs and better wages. However, at the sametime, urban areas provide limited capabilities for employing rural youth migrants. Thus, the high rate of urban
youth unemployment is closely related to lack of opportunities in the rural areas (Zepeda, Leigh, Ndirangu,
Omollo, & Wainaina, 2013; Rahman, 2006). Moreover, access to education and training are also easier to getin urban areas.
Rizal is located between three second class municipalities, Calauan, Nagcarlan and Dolores and a firstclass municipality, San Pablo, which offers more employment opportunities. Known as a rural agricultural area,
the employment opportunities which are available is low paying and limited, such as seasonal jobs and94

temporary jobs from the government. For example, for those who choose not to work in neighboring cities,
usually end-up working in sari-sari stores, bakeries, and short term jobs provided by the local government.
According to our interview, unemployed youth prefer to migrate to urban areas in the Philippines as itprovides more employment opportunities and better wages compared to Rizal. The local government should
not ignore the fact that 95.7% of the respondents also would like to work outside Rizal. The willingness of the
youth to migrate out of Rizal, either abroad or to other cities shows the lack of opportunities for the youth toobtain decent work in Rizal. This is in line with an argument by Cartmel and Furlong (2000) in which young
people in rural areas tend to move out of their community to have a better life (p. 7).

4.1.4 Work Experiences and Entrepreneurship
United Nations (2013) in their 2011 World Youth Report emphasized the difficulties faced by young
people in accessing decent work (p. 11). Today’s labor market for decent work requires prospective workers
to have specific skills. Moreover, for those who want a high income, they need years of work experiences.
Thus, it will make it harder for youth who has limited work experiences, either for those who are leaving school
early or for fresh graduates. The difficulties then multiply when it is combined with the location where therural youth come from.
In our survey, we found that respondents only had limited or no work experiences. From 22 respondents,
19 had work experiences. However, their work experiences were limited to seasonal jobs or low skilled jobs
such as house cleaner, bread sales, and shopkeeper. Their length of work was also short due to the nature of
the job. Factors for short-term employment included seasonal jobs, bankruptcy, and personal reason such as
unexpected family issues or early pregnancy.
However, the lack of job experiences encouraged them to have a better job in the future or to establish theirown business. According to our survey, 91.3% of the respondents would like to have their own business, and7 out of 20 respondents want to establish their business in Rizal even though currently they do not know whatkind of business. One particular reason is to help their families. While this could be a way for the local
government to improve the local conditions in terms of youth unemployment by giving capital for startups, thegovernment should not ignore the fact that 95.7% of the respondents also would like to work outside Rizal.
The willingness of the youth to migrate out of Rizal, either abroad or to other cities shows the lack ofopportunities for the youth to obtain decent work.

95

Figure 4 : Future Plan
Start Their Own Business
4.3%
4.3%

Working Outside of Rizal
4.3%

95.7%

Yes

91.3%

Yes

No

No

Already have

Source: Authors

4.2. The Characteristics of the Family
Several researchers have investigated the relation between youth unemployment and family characteristics.
According to those researchers, family characteristics could affect youth unemployment and thesecharacteristics include, employment and education status of the parents, resources such as income within thefamily, and the number of family members living together (Caspi, Wright, Moffitt, & Silva, 1998; Miller, 1998;
Orbeta, Jr., 2005). In this section, we will divide the section according to the previous researchers`
characteristics of family, which are: employment and education status of the parents; total income within thefamily; and, the number of family members living together.

4.2.1 Employment and Education Status of the Parents
Research has been done to investigate the relation between parent’s employment and education to theirchildren unemployment status. Known as ‘intergenerational transfer,’ researchers found that youth who haveunemployed parents will likely be unemployed too (Micklewright, 1989; O'Neill & Sweetman, 1998;
O'Higgins, YTS, Employment, and Sample Selection Bias, 1994). At the same time, for those who have parents
with low level educational attainment, they are also likely to be unemployed.
According to our survey, most of the fathers of our respondents graduated from high school, while themother mostly graduated from elementary school. As we have mentioned in the characteristics of youth section,
most of the unemployed youth who we interviewed graduated from high school, but did not continue theireducation any further. Similarly, most of the parents engaged in low skilled employment. For the fathers, theiremployment range from welder, driver, butchers, security staff in Saudi Arabia to stockman. For the mothers,
the employment status also ranges from housewife to barangay counselor. The low skilled employment of theparents made them less likely to help their children finding decent work (O'Higgins, The Challenge of Youth
Unemployment, 1997).
Even though a rural area known to have collective characteristics where neighbors helps and knows each96

other, it seems that it will not help the young population to have a decent job. This is due to the characteristicsof Rizal itself where the available employment opportunities only provide low wages, whereas the youth would
like to have better employment opportunities with higher wages. Most of our respondents also used to havethe same work as their parents or other family members whom they got from their parents or other family
members. This situation, in turn, is repeating the cycle of low skilled employment or unemployment among
the youth.

4.2.2 Family Income and Number of Family Members Living Together
According to Miller (1998), young people who come from low income families have a higher probability
to be unemployed or working in low skilled jobs. In our survey, one of the reasons why the youth leave school
early or could not attain higher education is due to financial constraint by the family. The lower the income of
the family, the higher the possibility for the youth to leave school early which will affect the skills andknowledge needed to have decent work. Moreover, the number of family members living together also affected
youth unemployment. In relation to family income, the bigger the size of the family living together, the smaller
the money allocated for education or training. This situation is particularly rampant among the low income
families, including those who fall under the poverty line. As Orbeta Jr. (2005) observed, the lower the incomeof the family, the higher the need to allocate money to basic needs such as food (for survival) and the lesslikely for the family to allocate their income towards education or training programs. Moreover, Campos(2013) in his study on youth unemployment in Brazil also pointed out that a higher income could help easingpressure early in employment by giving youth a sense of security.
We tried to calculate family income by adding the monthly incomes of the parents, other family members,
and allowances from the government. From our survey, we found that 9 out of 22 families of the unemployedyouth belongs to poor families, 9 families belong to low income but not poor families, and the rest belong tolower middle income families as shown in Figure 5. Among them, the average number of family members
living together is five members as shown in the Figure 6, while according to the government of the Philippines
the national average Filipino household size is 4.6. The income categorization is according to the 2012 Family
Income and Expenditure Survey by the Philippines Statistics Authority (Albert, Gaspar, & Raymundo, 2015).
According to this survey, the average number of family members living together is five; those who have total
income less than 7,890 PHP per month are considered to be poor.2 For those who have incomes between 7,890
PHP and 15,780 PHP per month they are considered to be low income but not poor family, while those whohave monthly incomes between 15,780 PHP to 31,560 PHP per month are included in the lower middle income
class (Albert, Gaspar, & Raymundo, 2015). We also categorized those who are members of the 4P (Pantawid
Pamilyang Pilipino Program) as poor families.3

2

The current exchange rate of PHP and USD according to the Central Bank of the Philippines by January 9, 2017 is
US$ 1.00 equivalent to PHP 49.466.
3
According to the Government of the Philippines, 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) is a humandevelopment measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, toimprove the health, nutrition and the education of children aged 0-18.

97Figure 5. Family Monthly Income

Monthly Per Capita Income

10
8

9

9

6
4
4
2
0
Poor
Low Income (But Not Poor)
Low Middle Income

Source: Authors

Figure 6. Family Household Size

No. of Family Members Living Together
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

7

4
3
2

2

2

7

8

1

2

3

4

5

6

Source: Authors

4.3. The Existing Business Sector
Cartmel and Furlong (2000) observed that youth unemployment in rural areas is caused by the quality of
the available work, which they categorized as unfulfilling, either in terms of wage or work. The low quality ofjobs promoted rural people to find work in urban areas where it was seen as a land of opportunity. However,using dual labor market theory, the urban area only could have absorbed a limited number of migrants fromthe rural area due to the skill requirements, and leave those who could not compete in the informal sector whichsometimes has worse condition than staying in the rural area.
The Municipality of Rizal is known for its small medium bakery enterprises. A lot of people in Rizal are
working in the bakery industry, including young people. However, the wages which were provided isconsidered as unfulfilling. According to our interview with two bakeries in Rizal, for those who work part time98

in baking bread they receive a maximum of 2000 PHP per month, while for those who work packing the bread
receive only 50 cents per pack. The requirements are also low, as they only need basic literacy and math towork as shopkeepers. They also usually recruit their workers through informal channel such asrecommendations from consumers or neighbors.
Another business that is available in the municipality is the Rizal Recreation Center (RRC) where it
provides religious retreat. It also offers employment opportunities that range from manager to kitchen helper.
The requirements also differ; for those who wants to apply for manager or reception, they should have a college
degree or related diploma. Meanwhile, for those who could not satisfy the requirements, they can apply forcleaning and working in the kitchen with wage around 1,750 PHP per week.

Table 3 : Details of Business Units in Rizal Laguna
Nyka
Factory
Percentage of
Youth

Bread
Production
Store

25%

RRC
Manager, Reception

50%

Most of employees
Full-time 75%
Part-time 25%

Cleaning,
Kitchen

Employment
Status of Youth

Part-time

Full-timePart-time

Income500/week???

50
cents/pack???

1,750/week

No

College degree and related
diplomas

No

Educational

No

Qualification
Requirement

Trustwort Basichy
Literacy/
Cooking Math
Skill

Recruitment
methodRecommendation

Offering OJT

YesLivingRizal

in Loyal and hard working

RecommendationYes

Formal Interviews
Recommendation
Yes

Source: Authors

4.4. Economic and Sociopolitical Factors
The Department of Labor and Employment revealed that despite a large amount of
unemployment, employers had difficulty filling vacancies due to shortages of competent andqualified applicants (DOLE, 2011).

The existence of employment services is also important for young people in the rural areas to obtain jobs;
especially in helping to match skills with available opportunities. At the same time, youth should know the99

function of such services in the rural areas so that they can acquire the benefits of those services. In addition,with the tendency of the services to only benefit those who have skills and qualifications, it is important for
those programs to also target the disadvantaged youth. (Understanding Children's Work (UCW) Programme,
2015)
4.4.1 Lack of Information dissemination
In Laguna, the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) plays an important role in promoting full
employment and equity of employment opportunities for the people. PESO “is a non-fee charging multiemployment service facility or entity established or accredited by DOLE in Local Government Units (LGUs),
state University and Colleges (SUCs), Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and Community-Based
Organization (CBOs).” (Provincial government of Laguna Website) The function of PESO is as follows:(a) Encourage employers to submit a list of job vacancies in their respective establishments in order tofacilitate the exchange of labor market information services to job seekers and employers by providing
employment services to job seekers, both for local and overseas employment, and recruitment assistance toemployers;(b) Develop and administer testing and evaluation instruments for effective job selection, training andcounseling;(c) Provide people with entrepreneurship qualities access to the various livelihood and self-employment
programs

offeredbybothgovernment

andnon-governmentorganizations

at

the

provincial/city/municipal/barangay levels by undertaking referrals for such programs;(d) Undertake employability enhancement training/seminars for jobseekers as well as those who would liketo change career or enhance their employability.
(e) Provide employment and occupational counseling, career guidance, mass motivation and values
development activities;(f) Conduct pre-employment counseling and orientation to prospective local and overseas workers;(g) Provide reintegration assistance services to returning Filipino migrant workers;(h) Perform such functions and willfully carry out the objectives of this Act.
Source: Provincial government of Laguna Website

So, through these functions, PESO aims to ensure the prompt, timely and efficient delivery of employment
service to the constituents of Laguna.
However, as a result of our interview, we revealed that the information dissemination of assistance fromthe LGU, such as recruitment fairs did not work well in the municipality of Rizal. We conducted the interview
with the officer of municipal social welfare and development, to know what kind of assistances the LGU
provides to unemployed people. According to the officer of municipal social welfare and development, theLGU provides the following programs: Skills Training Program, Special Program for Employment of Students,
Cash for Work, Seed Capital Assistance, Local Recruitment Activities, Workers Hired in Infrastructure Project,100

Cash for Building Livelihood Assistance (CBLA), and a Pre-Employment Assistance Fund. It means that the
LGU provides a variety of programs to unemployed people with various needs; however the number of
unemployed youth who received the assistance from the LGU was limited. Because of our survey, we revealed
that only 5 unemployed youths out of 22 respondents received assistances from the LGU.
According to our survey, we found that the lack of information dissemination is a serious problem in themunicipality of Rizal. In our interview, we asked about the unemployed youth’s knowledge of programs
offered by the LGU. Seventeen unemployed youth know that the LGU provides assistance to unemployedyouth, while their knowledge on the programs was limited. Figure 8 show what kind of programs unemployedyouth know about.

Figure 7. Knowledge of Program Which Unemployed Youth Know

Program

Knowledge on Programs
OTHER
PAF
CBLA
WHIP
LRA
SCA
CW
SPES
ST

0
0
0
0
3
0
14
2
3
0

5

10

15

No. of Youth
ST: Skills Training,
SPES: Special Program for Employment of Students,
CW: Cash for Work,
SCA: Seed Capital Assistance,
LRA: Local Recruitment Activities,
WHIP: Workers Hired in Infrastructure Project,
CBLA: Cash for Building Livelihood Assistance
PAF: Pre-Employment Assistance Fund.

Source: Authors

From this bar chart, it turns out that unemployed youth’s information of assistance is limited, even though the
LGU provides many kinds of assistance programs.
Moreover, we observed one job fair which was held at the Community Center which provides opportunities
for unemployed people to apply for jobs. There were some people who were writing job applications andwaiting for interviews. Photo 1 shows the job fair which we observed.
In the municipality of Rizal, that kind of job fair is held irregularly. However, some unemployed youth
who we interviewed do not know the existence, exactly time or place of the job fair. Thus, the information of
the recruitment service, job fair as well as the assistance of the LGU does not spread well.

101

Therefore, it can be said that the programs and employment services for unemployed people do not function
sufficiently because of a lack of information dissemination. Nevertheless, this kind of assistance is important
for the unemployed youth looking for job opportunities. There are still many unemployed youth in themunicipality of Rizal, because of the inability to access employment service.

Photo 1. Situation of Job Fair at Community Center

Source: Authors

4.4.2 Lack of the understanding of Youth’s demand for Vocational Training
Vocational training has the potential to reduce the problem of unemployed youth. According to the WorldBank (2012), “well-designed pathways from school to work can help young people to make a successfultransition and prevent societal and individual, potentially persistent damages from spells of unemployment or
exclusion at a young age.” In addition, the education and training systems are major factors in paving the way
from school to work. Basic education such as primary and secondary education is necessary as a foundation;
however available evidence shows that vocational training can establish an early link with employers, acquire
skills relevant in the labor market and to move towards skilled permanent positions (World Bank, 2012).
Nevertheless, vocational training is considered as important for resolving the problem of unemployedyouth, the opportunity for vocational training is restricted in the municipality of Rizal. As a result of our survey,
only 3 unemployed youth out of 22 respondents has the experience of vocational training.
Moreover, our finding is that the provided vocational training does not fulfill the demand for theunemployed youth in the municipality of Rizal. We conducted an interview with the head officer of theAlternative Learning System, to know what kind of vocational training is provided. In addition, we asked theunemployed youth to understand what kind of vocational training they want to take. Based on the results of
our interviews, Figure 9 indicates the lists of vocational training which is provided, and that unemployed youth
would like to take.
102

Figure 8. Lists of Vocational Training

Source: Authors

As you can see in above two lists, while unemployed youths ask for the various opportunities of vocational
training, the provided vocational trainings options are limited in the municipality of Rizal. Therefore, providing
various opportunities for vocational training for the youth is necessary because of the mismatch between supply
and demand. The number of training courses offered for unemployed youth is either low or irrelevant, which
decreases the motivation of the unemployed youth to participate.
4.4.3 Expectation of assistance
The role of government in tackling youth unemployment is important especially as government policy on
economic activities such as labor market policies have a short term and long term effect on youth
unemployment (Biavaschi, et al., 2012). The local government could play a role by creating local policies thatcreate employment such as skill development policies and labor market policies since they understand therealities of local citizens better than the national government (Office of Youth Affairs Tasmania, 1999).
It was revealed that the understanding of the LGU was insufficient in terms of vocational training. We
asked respondents what kind of assistances they expect from the LGU for both youth and their families. Figure
9 indicates their expectations for assistances by the LGU.

The pie-chart shows that most unemployed youth desire financial assistance for going to school in order togain the credentials for their ideal jobs. However, most of the assistance from the LGU is for helping
unemployed youth find temporary work. In addition, as we already mentioned above, there are mismatches interms of vocational training. As you can see from Figure 8, some unemployed youth seek vocational training
103

Figure 9. Expectation of Assistance from LGU

Source: Authors

link with white-color jobs such as computer programming and accounting. However, almost all of thevocational training provided by the LGU is related to blue-color jobs, like bread production and soup making.
Therefore, there is also the mismatch between the LGU and the youth in terms of assistance.
We asked family what kind of assistance they would like. They hoped to get financial support to start a
new business or help their children finish their education. Therefore, this also means that the financial
assistance is needed immediately. Furthermore, several families require help for their children’s employment.

4.5 Summary of findings
We conducted our survey based on our conceptual framework which considers four factors: characteristics
of unemployed youth, characteristics of family, matching (educational, skill, demand), and sociopoliticalfactors. Through our field survey in the municipality of Rizal, we found several things that contributed to youth
unemployment. We summarized our findings in Table 4.

Table 4: Summary of Findings
Factors contributed to youth unemployment
Factor 1:
Characteristic of unemployed youth

Findings
・Low education level/ No specific skills
・The highest level of education among the youth ishigh school→Drop-out from the school because offinancial problem
・Teenage Pregnancy
・Entrepreneurship・High rate of changing their job frequently due tofinished contracts, taking care their family,
unfriendly working environment, illnesses, etc.
104Factor 2:
Characteristic of family

・Large number of family
・Low household income

Factor 3:
Matching (educational, skill, demand)

・The types of working: More part-time workers
offered by the enterprise than the full-time workers
in the case of municipality of Rizal
・ The way of employment: The network to theenterprise is consider as more important than the
educational level for qualification
・Lack of a fixed information dissemination system
in some Barangays
・Mismatch of the vocational training between the
demand and supply
・Mismatch of the assistance provided by LGU

Factor 4:
Sociopolitical factors

Source: Authors

5. Recommendations
Considering our findings from the fieldwork, we came up with four recommendations which support youth
and families and two recommendations which support business enterprises.
The first recommendation is to create a career and entrepreneur consulting desk in PESO. Though most of
the interviewee answered they want to have jobs outside of Rizal, they did not know how to apply, and theyusually got jobs through recommendations from friends or relatives. So we suggest PESO to have a consulting
desk and offer counseling services, access to internet to see online job information and seminars by cooperatingwith the entrepreneurial course offered by Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), which has acampus in Rizal. Also for those who want to start a business, the desk can offer to write recommendation
letters to the bank or microfinance institution so that the youth can obtain capital.

Figure 10 : Image of Career and Entrepreneur Consulting Desk

Source: Authors

105

Our second recommendation is to empower youth organizations to eliminate the mismatch between supply
and demand. We found that most youth are not familiar with the various support services being offered by the
LGU and what youth really want from the LGU is not being offered. Thus we suggest the LGU empower youth
by creating a Samahang Kabataan, which is a Barangay-level youth organization; then distribute information
to that organization. By establishing a youth organization, youth can share the information from the LGU
amongst themselves, and they might be able to help each other to start up their own businesses, such as asouvenir shop at Tayak Hill, a soup making shop, or a Sari-Sari store. They can also use the organization as asounding board to raise issues and concerns to the LGU, opening a new channel for smoother communication
between the local government and its youth.
The third recommendation is to create a better information dissemination system. As we already explained,
youth do not know about the programs or support offered by the LGU, even though there is support available.
We suggest for the household to use a text blast system, and for youth organizations to hold meetings with theBalangay officers.
The last recommendation for youth and family is education and training. Education is the main factor ofyouth unemployment and many of them drop out because of financial problems. 23% of unemployed youth
answered they would like to have scholarships as government support. Since it would be difficult for LGU
alone to provide scholarships, we suggest them to utilize private fund sources, connect with graduates from
PUP, and private businesses. Next, we suggest the LGU to provide training which meets the special needs ofthe youth. 3 of our respondents are disabled and 7 of the female respondents have babies. Those youth cannot
attend training held in the municipal center or training held for long periods of time. The LGU should have ademand survey to those who need training, and consider their time and location constraints. Lastly, we
recommend strengthening the Alternative Learning System (ALS). Actually there is an ALS in Rizal but there
is only one permanent teacher despite many dropouts. We suggest allocating more money to hire an additional
instructor and strengthen relations between the LGU and the private institution in order to adapt the program
to market demand. In addition, we suggest the LGU to offer longer livelihood programs through the Technical
Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which is the official government agency tasked withmanaging and supervising technical education and skills development in the Philippines. Since currently, there
is only one week-long livelihood program being offered.
Our recommendation for business units is to focus more on the demand side of the labor market in orderto create new opportunities for unemployed youth in Rizal. We suggest that the local governments promote
existing business units and hire more employers from the Rizal area by providing incentives like tax
reductions/subsidies when businesses are hiring more youth from Rizal. Furthermore, encourage businesses touse local ingredients when they are manufacturing their products, which assist the youth of Rizal by opening
new job opportunities in agriculture, animal husbandry and etc. Additionally, the local government should
maintain a favorable environment for businesses by developing support services in Rizal, for instance,
infrastructure, banking, insurance and communication as well as maintain data of unemployed youth to assist
106businesses when recruiting employees.
Moreover, as for potential growth in new business units, it is recommended to utilize the abundant natural
resources in area such as coconut, banana and other fruits and vegetables to develop the processed food industry,
make other products like herbal soap, kimichi and etc. We discovered that organic farming products have ahigh demand which can be easily be started with available natural resources like land, fertilized soil, water andetc. The main hotel which is located in Rizal is buying their ingredients from the nearest city due to theunreliable and insufficient market in Rizal. As a final point, there could be considerable impact if Rizal canuniquely brand a product that will attract consumers to the area.

Acknowledgement
We would like to give our humble gratitude to all the people who supported us in conducting this research.
Firstly, we would like to thank Mayor Antonio Aurelio, the local government officials, and all the peoplein Rizal, Laguna for their warm welcome and assistance.
Secondly, we would like to thank our local guide from the municipality of Rizal, Mr. Christian Olan R.
Dorado, who coordinated our interviews and supported all our activities throughout this fieldwork. We also
would like to give our gratitude to Professor Ephraim C. Quinones and Ms. Sheila May A. Abucay from the
University of Philippines Los Baños who supported our interviews, activities, and final presentation in Rizal.
Thirdly, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to Mr. Magdalena P. Coronado from theMunicipal Social Welfare and Development, Mr. Joemark Anthony B. Tunay from the Public Employment
Service Office (PESO), Mr. Yurie T. Vista from the ALS (Alternative Learning System), and Nyka Xylene Gen
Merch from the Genobe Barkely in Baranguy Pook who kindly accepted our interviews and gave us significant
information.
Fourthly, we would like to thank Mr. Mario A. Alad (Barangay Captain of Antipolo), Mr. Marvin M.
Opulencia, (Barangay Captain of Tala), Mr. Jacino L. Monterola, (Barangay Captain of Pook), Mr. Cesar C.
Austral, (Barangay Captain of Pauli 2), and Mrs. Leny C. Corcolon, (District Supervisor for Rizal andNagcarlan) for supporting our interviews and giving us precious information.
Lastly, we would like to express our deep appreciation to Dr. Aser B. Javier from the University ofPhilippines Los Baños as well as all Nagoya University professors for coordinating, supporting, andsupervising this constructive fieldwork.

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112

List of Individual and Company Donors to the Overseas Fieldwork Fund
(In order of receipt)

Year 1991

Aichi Steel Corporation

Otake Corportaion

The Daisan Bank, Ltd.

Tsushima Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Toyoda Machinary Corporation

Tomita Co., Ltd.

Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc.

Showa Seiyaku Co., Ltd.

Okaya & Co., Ltd.

Hotta Setsubi Kogyo Co., Ltd.

The Tokai Bank, Ltd.

Sankichi Kondo, CPA

Central Japan Railway Company

Nakamo Sun Route Co., Ltd.

Nagoya Railroad Co., Ltd.

Hayashi Yaokichi Co., Ltd.

Toyota Industries Corporation

Kazuo Oguri

Japan Transcity Corporation

Matsukazeya Co., Ltd.

Takisada Co., Ltd.

Toyota Motor Corporation

The Hyakugo Bank, Ltd.

The Kitankai

Shikishima Baking Co., Ltd.

Hoyu Co., Ltd.

Chuo Seisakusho, Ltd.

Daito Sanshin Co., Ltd.

Toyoshima & Co., Ltd. Nagoya headquarter

Yamasei Sangyo Co., Ltd.

Toho Gas Co., Ltd.

Tachibana Shouten Co., Ltd.

Matsuzakaya Co., Ltd.

Asahi Kako Co., Ltd.

Maruei Department Store Co., Ltd.
Muto Shoukai Co., Ltd.

Year 1992

Yoshiyuki Hattori, CPA

Sintokogio, Ltd.

Nagoya Mitsukoshi, Inc.

Dai Nippon Construction

CPA Mitsuoka Akira Office

TOENEC Corporation

Howa Setsubi Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Aichi Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.

Kowa Company, Ltd.

The Tono Shinkin Bank

Daido Steel Co., Ltd.

The Juroku Bank, Ltd.

Sankyo Kasei Sangyo Co., Ltd.

UNY Co., Ltd.

NGK Spark Plug Co., Ltd.

The Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank, Ltd.

NGK Insulators, Ltd

Pacific Industrial Co., Ltd.
Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.
Nippondenso Co., Ltd.
Aisin Seiki Co., Ltd.
Toyota Tsusho Corporation
Taguchi Fukujukai Foundation
The Aichi Bank, Ltd.
The Bank of Nagoya, Ltd.
The Chukyo Bank, Ltd.
113

海外実地研修基金に拠出いただいた個人・企業一覧（受け入れ順）
平成 3 年度

財団法人田口福寿会

株式会社大竹製作所

株式会社愛知銀行

津島興業株式会社

株式会社名古屋銀行

富田株式会社

株式会社中京銀行

昭和製薬株式会社

愛知製鋼株式会社

ホッタ設備工業株式会社

株式会社第三銀行

公認会計士 近藤三吉

豊田工機株式会社

株式会社ナカモ・サンルート

中部電力株式会社

株式会社林八百吉商店

岡谷鋼機株式会社

小栗和夫

株式会社東海銀行

株式会社松風屋

東海旅客鉄道株式会社

トヨタ自動車株式会社

名古屋鉄道株式会社

社団法人キタン会

株式会社豊田自動織機製作所

ホーユー株式会社

日本トランスシティ株式会社

大東三進株式会社

瀧定株式会社

山清産業株式会社

株式会社百五銀行

株式会社立花商店

敷島製パン株式会社

朝日化工株式会社

株式会社中央製作所
豊島株式会社名古屋本社

平成 4 年度

東邦ガス株式会社

新東工業株式会社

株式会社松坂屋

大日本土木株式会社株式会社丸栄株式会社トーエネック

株式会社武藤商会

愛知トヨタ自動車株式会社

公認会計士 服部義之

東濃信用金庫株式会社名古屋三越

株式会社十六銀行

公認会計士 光岡朗事務所

ユニー株式会社

朋和設備工業株式会社

株式会社大垣共立銀行

興和株式会社

太平洋工業株式会社

大同特殊鋼株式会社

豊田合成株式会社

三協化成産業株式会社

日本電装株式会社

日本特殊陶業株式会社

アイシン精機株式会社

日本ガイシ株式会社

豊田通商株式会社
114