#MINDANAO
I have driven through the Sayre highway from Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro numerous times. It is a pleasant drive through the wide roads that course through the vast undulating landscape of the Bukidnon-Lanao plateau.
Each journey presents new realizations and spurs new reflections. These things I would like to share with you.
Firstly, I don’t feel driving fatigue on this route since the scenery of tilled fields and mountain scape fill the eyes with green. The verdant slopes and hills surrounding Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan beckon you to bask in the glory of two things: God’s creation and how people have made these created things productive, turning them into livelihood.
In recent years, this has been widened to a six- and four-lane highway. I am inspired to see that many of the towns on this route have new business establishments and developments that create income opportunities for countryside residents.
In the drive from Davao to Cagayan de Oro it is easy to see how improved infrastructure brings enterprises that create real economic opportunities for local residents and migrants seeking a better life for their families. Infrastructure is a concrete economic catalyst that facilitates growth.
To illustrate my point, imagine how each new restaurant and hotel built along the road to serve the needs of travelers spurs a demand for local food. Every breakfast in these establishments includes eggs and other ingredients produced by local farms, and uses the labor of residents that earn from such economic activities. Uniforms worn by personnel are made by local businesses and their employees.
The more people stay and dine in a location, more opportunity for income can be achieved. This creates a heightened demand for local produce apart from the consumption demand of local residents. Therefore, each peso spent by people from out of town to purchase these items is an infusion into the local economy.
Such economic gains, when combined at scale at the province or region builds a more robust regional economy that can generate wealth to drive growth and opportunity for many, helping create inclusive development in the long term. The opportunities broaden for the next generation of residents.
Be vigilant against scams
Our tech editor Art Samaniego has an excellent article talking about how to identify and avoid scams on social media platforms which I highly encourage you to read (https://mb.com.ph/2024/3/7/facebook-hoaxes-and-how-to-protect-your-privacy).
Being heavy users of social media, we need to guard against those who would like to harm or take advantage of our accounts for whatever unsavory ends. In my experience, I get requests to connect from friends I am already connected with. This of course seems odd since there seems to be no reason to “reconnect.”
When this happens, I often suggest to friends that when they detect the use of their name and photo to gather social media connections, they should make an announcement to inform others of the fake account.