Road of holes: How the depictions of poor state of infrastructure in the story "The Road to

Aras-asan" story reflects the culture, ideologies, and political structure in the context of

rural areas in Mindanao.

Submitted by:

Alyanna Ashley Biruar

Franz Anthony Martin Dy

Ma. Angelica Kusuangco

Gaus Elleo Nadela

Kharl Vincent Villarosa

Submitted to:

Mrs. Shiela Guinal

Purposive Communication

TTh 7:40 – 9:10 A.M.

August 22, 2019

Introduction

In the Philippines today, a deteriorating economic situation can be observed in the rural

households. A person does not have to go far out of the urban cities to suddenly see the stark

contrast of life in rural areas in the Philippines. One of the most notable contrasts between

Philippine rural and urban communities comes in terms of infrastructure. The short story entitled

"The road to Aras-asan" by Rebekah M. Alawi gives emphasis to poor state of infrastructure in

rural areas. It showed how the lack of basic infrastructure can affect the people who lived in such

areas as well as how it affects the travelers and tourists that go by in rural towns. It showed that by

travelling to remote places with not just long roads, but also unfixed bridges and the likes can give

dissatisfaction and disappointment to both the travelers and the locals. The short story is viewed

under the point of view of the mother as she narrates her experiences on the hardships that she, her

family and friends have undergone upon going to Aras-asan. The story ended with them being on

the beach in Aras-asan enjoying themselves after the long strenuous affair of travelling to Aras-

asan and the wedding. The short story, “Road to Aras-asan”, contains several worthy themes; one

theme in particular, the story mirrors how the poor quality of infrastructures in rural areas affect

the lives of the people living there. This paper aims to provide an analysis on the short story “The

Road to Aras-asan” using formalistic and Sociological approach to examine the story in the

economic, cultural, and political context of the Mindanaoan rural society. This paper tries to

answer the question how the depiction of poor infrastructure in rural areas in the story reflects the

culture, ideologies, and political structure in the context of rural areas in Mindanao.
Methodology

In the analysis of the text, the approach used is sociological criticism. This type of approach

examines literature in the cultural, economic and political context in which it is written or

received," exploring the relationships between the artist and society. Sometimes it examines the

artist's society to better understand the author's literary works; other times, it may examine the

representation of such societal elements within the literature itself. One influential type of

sociological criticism is Marxist criticism, which focuses on the economic and political elements

of art (Kenedy and Gioia).

Marxist critical theory employs historical materialism as a functioning approach. The theory

explains the phenomena of ‘changes’ in various material conditions (ways of people producing

life necessities) and how does it influence the social organization. To put it simply, the way

someone works defines his/her aspiration and existence. It formulates a ground-up theory to view

human society – the superstructure (high cultural qualities) which is based on lower cultural

qualities (infrastructure).

Theory:

Historical Materialism

Historical materialism, also known as the materialist conception of history, is a

methodology used by some communist and Marxist historiographers that focuses on human

societies and their development through history, arguing that history is the result of material

conditions rather than ideas. This theory was developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
 Historical materialism springs from a fundamental underlying reality of human existence:

that in order for subsequent generations of human beings to survive, it is necessary for them to

produce and reproduce the material requirements of everyday life. Asserting the importance of the

fact that, in order to carry out production and exchange, people have to enter into very definite

social relations, or more specifically, "relations of production". This relations of production is

reflected upon the relationship between the Infrastructure and Superstructure.

Infrastructure

- The infrastructure is made up of the forces, the means, and the relations of production:

the material "things" of life.

- The infrastructure comprises:

o 1) Forces: the workers, the technical knowledge to perform the work (training,

knowledge),

o 2) Means: the actual materials of production (Work places, Factories, Land, raw

materials, machines, tools, Economy)

o 3) Relations: the interactions between workers as well as between workers and

business owners.

- Simply put, Infrastructure refers to the forces and relations of production—to all the

people, relationships between them, the roles that they play, and the materials and

resources involved in producing the things needed by society.

Superstructure
 - the ideologies that dominate a particular era, all that "men say, imagine, conceive,".

- Superstructure, quite simply and expansively, refers to all other aspects of society. It

includes culture (customs, arts, and social institutions), ideology (world views, ideas,

values, and beliefs) and the political structure (the political apparatus that governs

society).

Marx argued that the superstructure grows out of the infrastructure. It states that

there is always a direct relationship between the owners of the conditions of production

and to the actual producers. The material conditions of our existence (infrastructure), what

we produce in order to live and how we go about doing so, determines all else in society

(Superstructure).

Results and Discussion

Theme 1: The depiction of poor infrastructure in rural areas in the story reflect the poor

way of life of people living in Mindanaoan rural areas as caused by poor infrastructure in

rural areas.

People in the rural areas of Mindanao consider the poor conditions of infrastructure a “part

of their way of living”. And with this Mindanaoans in far flung rural areas are used to the poor

way of life. Like the lack of proper communication devices to communicate with people from

other areas, the lack of access to the internet, and the poor state of the public transport system. This

way of living is described in the story with lines in paragraph two as stated:

“Aras-asan turned out to be always a bridge too far, for in the next hundred kilometers of

rough road, with potholes as big as craters of the moon, and rocks nearly as big as boulders
 spewed by some volcano in the remote past, we swayed, rocked, and agonized as the bus

pitched heavily, as in a crazy drunken waltz.”

This description is an actual representation of Mindanaoan rural way of life which is

affected with the lack and poor state of infrastructure. Economically Mindanao has an unequal

disparity in terms of economic growth, with some parts having big differences in economic growth.

This disparity is mirrored with the difference in rural and urban society in Mindanaoan context,

urbanized regions in Mindanao are highly developed regions with economies dependent on

businesses and industry. In contrast, rural regions in Mindanao are poorly developed regions whose

economy is based on agriculture. As one goes out of urbanized regions, stark contrast between the

urban and rural situation can be observed. In the story, this rural description is shown in the fourth

paragraph,

“some decent house, palm oil plantation, orchard or farm, verdant fields – such as lined the

road to Davao City via Agusan del Sur or Bukidnon and Carmen. All that greeted my eyes

was grinding poverty – wretched thatched hovels, most of which sank in stagnant water

from previous downpours.”

Though there are urbanized regions, most of the regions in Mindanao are classified as rural

areas and the difference between the two is noticeable in terms of the condition of infrastructure.

Because of this, in Mindanaoan society classes, both rich and poor, are witnesses to such disparity.

Moreover, this difference is considered to be “a normal thing” for example, if you travel from

Davao to Tagum city, people won't be able to notice the difference between the bustling buildings

of Davao and the farms, dense coconut field, banana plantations, and forests in the trip to Tagum,

not that there is no difference but these kinds of scenery are what the people in rural areas are used
to. This societal problem in Mindanaoan rural areas affects most of the people in the society,

particularly the poor, as heavily referenced in the short story about the lack and poor state of

infrastructure and how it affects the quality of life of the people.

Theme 2: The depiction of poor infrastructures in rural areas in the story reflects the

rampant political corruption in rural areas caused by poor infrastructure.

Poor infrastructure in rural areas can influence politicians to engage in corruption of

government funds. Mindanao obtained the lowest priority in infrastructure investment in previous

decades. Large areas like Agusan del Sur, Davao del Norte, Bukidnon, Basilan, and Zamboanga

have very poor road access, resulting in poor mobility of people, goods, and services (Ramiro, Jr.).

This implies that the poor state of infrastructure in rural areas in Mindanao has lead politicians in

these communities to revert into corruption and abuse of power to compensate for their lower

salaries compared to urbanized communities and places that are nearer the central government.

Corruption of politicians in these places is made possible and prevalent due to the Philippines

having a unitary government in which a central supreme government has control over the country.

This centralized political structure has less control over regions or areas which are far flung and

hard to reach especially in Rural areas. Which is why corruption goes unchecked in most rural

areas (Ayres 2019). The story tries to imply this in the sixth paragraph where the mother states:

“In my mind, I cursed the local and national officials for the dereliction and insensitivity

to the plight of the people”

Being a unitary state of the Philippines is one of the main reasons why there is an imbalance

of power which leads to substandard level of infrastructure in remote areas. this Because poverty

and economic insecurity along with Mindanao rural areas being too far from the center of
Government of the Philippines makes the majority of Mindanaoans prone and susceptible to

money offerings coercive, and monetary inducements and pressures. This way of governing allows

corruption and abuse of power by politicians to occur and continue.

Theme 3: The depiction of poor infrastructures in rural areas in the story reflects the

increase and presence of insurgencies or rebel groups as caused by poor infrastructure in

rural areas in Mindanao.

Mindanaoan rural and far-flung areas are known to be hotspots of insurgency groups such

as the NPA. The rural countryside provide insurgency groups suitable environment to stage their

operations. Insurgents find the rural countryside to be favorable for their aims is because is the

kind of people residing in the rural countryside. People in the rural countryside have more tendency

to engage in insurrectionist activities as they are most likely to be discontent in the performance

of the government due to being exposed to poor living conditions brought about by the poverty

and the lack of infrastructure project. They are more susceptible in taking up ideologies that seem

appealing to their sense of value as they aspire to have parity in the distribution of wealth. Most

common of such ideologies is communism which seeks equality in terms of distribution of wealth

and roles in society. The feeling of wanting change lingers most to those who experience the

disparity of economic growth. the presence of of insurgent groups in very remote areas was stated

in the story:

“No breathtaking scenes broke the unvarying topography and desolation. There were only

trees and rocks, and steep inclines and a sharp curve it was a futile effort to cut down travel

time because what we actually “spared” ourselves from was miles and miles of cemented

road. Since we had to travel at a snail’s pace because of the harsh terrain, no economy of
 time was realized that was NPA-infested territory. Not even the gay Ferdie would have

relished an encounter with the NPA as a kind of adventure. I could only shudder at the

thought of us being marched off to the rebels’ lair and held captive.”

Conditions in rural areas enables insurgencies to rise up against the government easily as

the government cannot respond to them fast enough. For the infrastructures in communication and

transportation taken for granted in economically developed areas typically do not exist in far-flung

rural areas. These lack of infrastructure serves as an advantage for insurgents as they are less likely

to be detected by the authorities.

Conclusion

In the story the we found three themes relating how the depiction of poor infrastructure in rural

areas in the story reflects the culture, ideologies, and political structure in the context of rural areas

in Mindanao. The first theme shows how the depiction of poor infrastructure in rural areas in the

story reflect the poor way of life of people living in Mindanaoan rural areas. Second, The depiction

of poor infrastructures in rural areas in the story reflects the rampant political corruption in rural

areas caused by poor infrastructure affects, and third, the depiction of poor infrastructures in rural

areas in the story reflects the increase and presence of insurgencies or rebel groups as caused by

poor infrastructure in rural areas in Mindanao.

The most recurring and dominant theme among the three is the first theme. The theme was

heavily emphasized in the story as vivid descriptions of the experiences of the mother of her

hardships while travelling to Aras-asan while travelling twice. The depictions of the poor state of

infrastructures in the story “The Road to Aras-asan” set in some provinces in Mindanao shows
resemblance to the actual state of Mindanao in terms of cultural, political, and social aspects. the

Poor state of living as extensively described with very detailed depictions about the lack and the

poor state of infrastructures in Mindanaoan rural areas reflect the Economic aspect of Mindanaoan

society. A society whose rural regions poorly developed whose economy is mostly dependent on

agriculture. The story also depicts the relationship between infrastructure and political structure of

rural areas depicting Mindanaoan people as well as the state of politics in which the Philippines in

general, is governed. Mindanaoan politics characterized with its highly decentralized political

structure far from government centers taken advantage of political families and factions struggling

for power by any means and most of the time neglecting the needs of the people. Politicians are

viewed by the people as corrupt, unjust, and power hungry. Also, it is heavily influenced by its

unstable society filled with insurgency groups causing fear not only to its people but also its ruling

class and private investors usually avoiding investments in Mindanao as shown which affect the

development of underdeveloped areas as a result of slow growth in infrastructure.

Thus, it is very important for the people to build knowledge and competencies in issues pertaining

to inequality and people empowerment to support rural and agricultural development in the region

and ensuring that in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all programs and

projects, their impact on socially deprived and disadvantaged groups, and primarily people in the

rural area is adequately taken into account.