Chap­ter 5

Cre­ative Syn­the­sis, Impli­ca­tions and Recommendations

This chap­ter con­sists of three sec­tions: The first sec­tion dis­cusses ARALPINOY.ORG INC as a Cre­ative Syn­the­sis for Ethical-Pedagogy in Action, a non-stock, non-profit orga­ni­za­tion reg­is­tered under the laws of the Repub­lic of the Philip­pines. It is the writer’s con­crete ini­tia­tive to cre­ate ethical-pedagogical bridge to prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of ethical-pedagogy for sus­tain­able liv­ing. The sec­ond sec­tion is on the impli­ca­tions of this study with the two sub-sections: first, on the ped­a­gog­i­cal impli­ca­tions of Nakakaluwag for Sus­tain­able Liv­ing, “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” (Rela­tion­ships make for a life of ease) is a Fil­ipino artic­u­la­tion and an eth­i­cal ped­a­gogy on how to be just and live in a life-sustaining and life-giving rela­tion­ships. The sec­ond sub-section is on “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as com­mon ground for Sus­tain­able Liv­ing. The third  sec­tion is about the Gen­eral and Spe­cific Rec­om­men­da­tions: first, a rec­om­men­da­tion in gen­eral and to whom this applies in view of the insights offered this study, and sec­ond, a rec­om­men­da­tion for each mem­ber of the com­mu­nity of the DLS-CSB which may also be applic­a­ble to some, if not to all.

The detailed out­line of all the sec­tions and sub-sections of this chap­ter is as follow:

Chap­ter 5 Cre­ative Syn­the­sis, Impli­ca­tions and Recommendations

A. Cre­ative Synthesis

ARALPINOY.ORG INC as Cre­ative Syn­the­sis for Ethical-Pedagogy in Action

B. Impli­ca­tions

The Ped­a­gog­i­cal Impli­ca­tions of Nakakaluwag for Sus­tain­able Living

“Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as com­mon ground

        for Sus­tain­able Living

C. Rec­om­men­da­tions

Gen­eral Recommendations

Spe­cific Recommendations

Cre­ative Synthesis

ARALPINOY.ORG INC as Cre­ative Syn­the­sis of the Ethical-Pedagogy in Action

Aral Pinoy seems to appear as some­thing pre-existing in a sense, but the truth is that the present study is an off­shoot of a final paper require­ment with Sis­ter Ann Braudis in a doc­toral sub­ject, Asian Val­ues and Cre­ation Spir­i­tu­al­ity dur­ing the first semes­ter of the writer in the ACA Pro­gram of ASI, school year 2006–2007.  The short study titled, ‘Nakakaluwag: An Affir­ma­tion of A Vision of Per­sons Liv­ing in Peace­ful Har­mony and with Respect for Life and Dig­nity: Towards A Fil­ipino Con­tri­bu­tion to A Sus­tain­able World­view and Global Ethic’ was even­tu­ally pub­lished in Ang Makatao, an ASI Jour­nal (Ingles, 2006, pp.32–43) and has even­tu­ally opened a door of oppor­tu­nity for him to present it in two sep­a­rate con­fer­ences, namely, the Inter­na­tional Con­fer­ence on Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties 2008 (ICoSSH2008), Uni­ver­siti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia on June 18,  2008 and the Pam­bansang Kumperen­siya sa Sikolo­hiyang Pilipino (PSSP2008), Holy Angel Uni­ver­sity, Ange­les City, Pam­panga on Novem­ber 20, 2008. Inspired by this Fil­ipino value nakakaluwag, the fol­low­ing year, 2009, Aral Pinoy was con­ceived as an advo­cacy ded­i­cated to edu­ca­tion for life-giving rela­tion­ships. On March 25, 2009 the writer received an email from Mr. Eduardo B. Ver­zosa, a Fil­ipino pro­fes­sional web/graphic designer based in Nor­way, who expressed his inten­tion to sup­port Aral Pinoy’s edu­ca­tion advo­cacy after read­ing the writer’s blog on free teacher-training for pub­lic schools. Mr. Ver­zosa gen­er­ously shared his website-design tal­ent and web host­ing ser­vices free of charge for Aral Pinoy. By April 16, 2009, Aral Pinoy launched its offi­cial web­site www.aralpinoy.org and by embrac­ing and prac­tic­ing an eth­i­cal ped­a­gogy on how to be just and live in life-sustaining and life-giving rela­tion­ships, even­tu­ally series of pro­grams, projects and activ­i­ties have been done and will con­tinue doing. After the writer’s grace-filled defense pro­posal on the present study on this phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag last June 5, 2010, on August 11 of that same year, he was blessed to for­mally estab­lish ARALPINOY.ORG INC., a non-stock, non-profit orga­ni­za­tion reg­is­tered under the laws of the Repub­lic of the Philip­pines with the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) (with CRN CN201012580 and TIN 007–842-097). Lit­tle did the writer know and real­ize that a 2006 final paper require­ment that gave birth to Aral Pinoy advo­cacy in 2009 will evolve and find its mean­ing, pur­pose and artic­u­la­tion in his 2011 dis­ser­ta­tion, and that his advo­cacy as of 2009 in the same con­text of life-giving rela­tion­ships or holis­tic rela­tion­al­ity even­tu­ally has con­verged to become the present study’s cre­ative syn­the­sis. Aral Pinoy sim­ply means a Fil­ipino (Pinoy) Ped­a­gogy (Aral), which is basi­cally a tan­gi­ble man­i­fes­ta­tion of the writer’s ini­tia­tive to cre­ate ethical-pedagogical bridge in con­crete action for pur­poses of val­ues re-orientation or for­ma­tion pro­gram for sus­tain­able liv­ing based on the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as an alter­na­tive, truly Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogical frame.  Today, the writer sees that Fil­ipinos need pur­poses in their own par­tic­u­lar con­texts and con­di­tions, in their works and lives. Aral Pinoy tries to respond to these needs by involv­ing Pinoys serv­ing their Kapwa-Pinoys (Fil­ipinos serv­ing her/his own countrymen/women), the peo­ple and the com­mu­nity in the field of Edu­ca­tion, be it Basic or Adult Lit­er­acy. By turn­ing our work into min­istry and ser­vice, focused and ener­gized, in our hum­ble way, Aral Pinoy con­tin­u­ously to work with stu­dents, teach­ers and com­mu­ni­ties. To sus­tain this ini­tia­tive, Aral Pinoy helps stu­dents learn and teach­ers teach. Aral Pinoy has and con­tin­u­ously seeks vol­un­teers (groups and indi­vid­u­als) who can be part­ner with Aral Pinoy through its ongo­ing efforts for the improve­ment of teach­ers’ train­ing, stu­dents’ learn­ing, and class­rooms’ learn­ing. With trust in God and con­fi­dence in the mean­ing and pur­poses of what Aral Pinoy is doing, the writer is con­vinced that Aral Pinoy can make a vital dif­fer­ence in the life of the Filipinos.

At the moment, Aral Pinoy is into Ala­gang Silid-Aralan (adopt and nur­ture a class­room) as one the ini­tia­tives to sup­port teach­ers and stu­dents in class­room level. That nur­tur­ing part can­not be sep­a­rated in the process of Ang Ala­gang Silid-Aralan ay Ala­gang Pinoy (to adopt and nur­ture a class­room is to care in a Fil­ipino way). With the writer’s inten­tion to help schools, teach­ers and stu­dents na hindi nakakaluwag (not expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease), he hopes to find peo­ple na nakakaluwag (expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease) who may sup­port this ini­tia­tive. Aral Pinoy is ded­i­cated to edu­ca­tion for life-giving rela­tion­ships (Fuel­len­bach, 1998, Ruether, 2000 & Hornedo, 2009). This is inspired and born out of help­ing and work­ing with the mar­gin­al­ized sec­tors of our soci­ety since the writer’s sem­i­nary for­ma­tion days And to truly make a vital dif­fer­ence in the lives of our fel­low beings (ating mga kababayan), he also envi­sions that one day if God’s compassionate-embrace encloses all of us, more schools for life-giving rela­tion­ships will be built in the rural areas, and these are the schools for life that will sus­tain them.

The writer believes that today, edu­ca­tion is an urgent call to action for and by the rural poor: the indige­nous peo­ple, the rural women, the fisher folks, the farm­ers, the rural youth, the elderly, per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties and the infor­mal sector.

It has already been dis­cussed with greater detail in the Review of Related Stud­ies the fol­low­ing four inde­pen­dent stud­ies with four­fold rela­tion­al­ity: Fuel­len­bach (1998): (1) with their fel­low human beings, (2) with them­selves, (3) with nature (cre­ation) and (4) ulti­mately with God; Naga­hama (2006)/ Hornedo (2009): (1) Mak­abayan  (Love for Coun­try), (2) Makatao (Love for Human­ity), (3) Makaka­likasan (Love for nature) and (4) Maka-Diyos (Love for God) and Ramirez (2009): (1) Pro-Country (Maka-Bayan),(2) Pro-People (Maka-Tao), (3) Pro-Nature (Maka-Kalikasan), and (4) Pro-God (Maka-Diyos).

 Fig. 4.

ARALPINOY.ORG INC (a.k.a. Aral Pinoy) LOGO

Photo Image Cour­tesy of Eduardo B. Verzosa

The offi­cial logo of ARALPINOY.ORG INC (Edu­ca­tion Philip­pines) (see fig­ure 4 below) con­sists of the feather pen (blue), the book (blue and red), the Philip­pine flag (blue and red) and the sun ris­ing (yel­low) above the moun­tain hori­zon (blues and red), three stars (yel­low), the text Aral Pinoy which all put together they sym­bol­ize hope for knowl­edge and edu­ca­tion, and at the same time demon­strate a true Fil­ipino spirit. But how do we demon­strate a true Fil­ipino spirit? What proof will make you agree more to demon­strate a true Fil­ipino spirit? What evi­dence will make you believe that the four­fold rela­tion­al­ity is truly a Fil­ipino spirit?

In the Philip­pines, the Repub­lic Act No. 8491, also known as An Act pre­scrib­ing the code of the national flag, anthem, motto, coat-of-arms and other heraldic items and devices of the Philip­pines [Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philip­pines], declares in Sec. 40[1]: The National Motto shall be “MAKA-DIYOS, MAKA-TAO, MAKAKALIKASAN AT MAKABANSA.”

The same Act also declares in Sec. 25[2]: The fol­low­ing shall be the Pledge of Alle­giance to the Philip­pine flag:

Ako ay Pilipino (I am a Filipino)

Buong kat­a­p­atang nanunumpa (I pledge my allegiance)

Sa watawat ng Pilip­inas (To the flag of the Philippines)

At sa bansang kanyang sinasag­isag (And to the coun­try it represents)

Na may dan­gal, katarun­gan at kalayaan (With honor, jus­tice and freedom)

Na pinakik­i­los ng sam­bayanang (That is put in motion by one nation)

Maka-Diyos, [For the love of] (God,)

Maka-tao, (People,)

Makaka­likasan at (Nature and)

Mak­a­bansa. (Country.)

Impli­ca­tions

The Ped­a­gog­i­cal Impli­ca­tions of Nakakaluwag for Sus­tain­able Living

Table 16 shows two jux­ta­posed columns, a side-by-side columns high­light­ing and com­par­ing Hornedo’s jus­tice based on the Bib­li­cal covenan­tal tra­di­tion and, “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” a proverb born out of and together with the Seven (7) Prover­bial Themes (Fil­ipino Proverbs or Mga Salawikain). The first col­umn with the head­ing: ‘Hornedo’s (2009) Jus­tice’ con­tains Hornedo’s Jus­tice in terms of the four­fold rela­tion­ships.  The sec­ond col­umn with the head­ing: “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” con­sists of the Prover­bial Themes.

These has already been dis­cussed with greater detail in Review of Related Lit­er­a­ture and Related Stud­ies the Hebraic Covenant The­ol­ogy in the Old Tes­ta­ment (OT) this jus­tice con­cept which trans­lates to “Right-Relations” or even bet­ter as “Life-Giving Rela­tion­ships” (Fuel­len­bach, 1998). Ruether (2000) has con­firmed that the basic insight of this Bib­li­cal covenan­tal tra­di­tion is to trans­late this right rela­tion into an ethic. Fuellenbach’s four­fold rela­tion­al­ity has also been elab­o­rated in greater detail by Hornedo (2009) when he has spo­ken of jus­tice: “Jus­tice is mean­ing­ful in terms of the rela­tion­ships man/woman has and cre­ates (1) between him/herself and other humans and human insti­tu­tions, (2) between him/herself and nature, (3) between him/herself and him­self, and (4) between him/herself and the Tran­scen­dent [God] (par. 74).

Table 16. Hornedo’s Jus­tice and the proverb “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag”

Hornedo’s (2009) Jus­tice based on the Bib­li­cal covenan­tal tra­di­tion (Fuel­len­bach, 1998 & Ruether, 2000).	“ Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag”
Rela­tion­al­ity with the Tran­scen­dence [God]. The rela­tion­ship of man with Tran­scen­dence is rec­og­nized legally under the pro­vi­sion of law assur­ing free­dom of belief and reli­gious expres­sion. It pro­poses that “val­ues edu­ca­tion needs to con­front squarely the devel­op­ing reli­gious con­scious­ness of learn­ers, espe­cially their growth towards tol­er­ance and the pos­i­tive appre­ci­a­tion of the reli­gious cul­ture of other peo­ple” (par. 80).	Theme 2 “Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa.” Expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) as2.1 liv­ing the val­ues of faith.2.2 God as the source of life with ease2.3 a mean­ing­ful relat­ing with oth­ers (pakikipagkapwa).2.4 God’s providence.2.5 a blessing.
Rela­tion­al­ity with Them­selves. It is jus­tice to self and to soci­ety to care for one’s devel­op­ment per­son­ally and pro­fes­sion­ally. It is injus­tice to fail to value peo­ples’ poten­tials and grow up to become bur­dens both to them­selves and to soci­ety. Every school child ought to know these facts to moti­vate her/him towards growth and to make her/him per­se­veres to learn and know more (par. 79).	Theme 1 “Ang buhay ay parang gulong, min­sang nasa ibabaw, min­sang nasa ilalim.”  Expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) as–        1.1 a joy­ful feel­ing.-        1.2 hav­ing mean­ing and pur­pose in life.-        1.3 as expe­ri­enc­ing hap­pi­ness.-        1.4 hav­ing sense of well-being.-        1.5 engag­ing the hearts and minds.
Rela­tion­al­ity with Fel­low Human Beings. Doing jus­tice is to rec­og­nize the value and rights of the indi­vid­u­als and to give them their due: Nutri­tion if they are hun­gry, cloth­ing if they are naked, med­i­cine if they are sick, edu­ca­tion if they are igno­rant, deliv­er­ance from bondage if they are oppressed, and so forth. The recog­ni­tion of the rights of oth­ers means the proper ren­der­ing to them of that to which they have a right. Most impor­tantly, the rights of oth­ers are to be read as one’s oblig­a­tion towards them. Human beings rela­tions with their fel­low human beings include institutions.	Theme 5 “Ang hindi marunong lumin­gon sa pinang­galin­gan ay di makakarat­ing sa paro­roo­nan.“Expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) as5.1 generosity.5.2 gratefulness.5.3 giving.5.4 sharing.5.5 compassion. 5.6 grat­i­tude. 5.7 fair. 5.8 love. 5.9 equal­ity.
Rela­tion­al­ity with Nature. Doing jus­tice with nature involves the pro­mo­tion of the benef­i­cence of nature for humankind. It is unjust to soci­ety to resort to hasty aggres­sion upon nature that plagues man in the form of short­ages of nat­ural resources. What is just in deal­ing with nature is the prov­i­dent use of nat­ural resources for the sus­te­nance of society’s necessities.	Theme 6 “Kung walang tiyaga, walang nilaga.“Expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) as6.1 freedom.6.2 responsibility.6.3 empower[ment].6.4 beauty.6.5 opportunity. 6.6 expanse. 6.7 clean. 6.8 com­mit­ment.

 

 “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” (Rela­tion­ships make for a life of ease) is a Fil­ipino artic­u­la­tion and an eth­i­cal ped­a­gogy on how to be just and live in life-sustaining and life-giving rela­tion­ships. “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” basi­cally refers to any among these four that gives life to and receives it with (1) fel­low human beings, (2) them­selves, (3) nature (cre­ation) and (4) God. In other words, all have the abil­ity to be life-sustainer and life-giver and at the same time have the capac­ity to be enclosed by life-sustaining and life-giving rela­tion­ships. This eth­i­cal ped­a­gogy and its’ appli­ca­tion and prac­tice are sup­ported by the pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion on the Theme 7 “Hang­gang maiksi ang kumot, matu­tong mamaluk­tot” where expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) would mean7.1 hav­ing money to buy, 7.2 con­di­tion,  7.3 earn­ing and sav­ing,  7.4 hope, 7.5 sav­ing for the future, 7.6 sus­tain­ing,  7.7 thrifty,  7.8 hav­ing work, and 7.9 mind-set. 

“Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as com­mon ground for Sus­tain­able Living

This study has come full cir­cle and has come back at the dawn of renewal. Every­thing is mak­ing sense now, but the interpretation-description must stop from what this study has seen so far because this study had already painted a clearer image and big­ger pic­ture of the phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag. The Fil­ipino value nakakaluwag is a dis­tinc­tive cul­tural fea­ture and a unique con­tri­bu­tion to the global ethic [uni­ver­sal value] for sus­tain­able liv­ing. First, after doing a hermeneu­tic phe­nom­e­no­log­i­cal inquiry into our Fil­ipino value nakakaluwag that are embed­ded in the shared-beliefs and embod­ied in the shared-practices of the four­teen (14) multi-sectoral rep­re­sen­ta­tives of DLS-CSB, the writer, with his effort into con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion and research for a sus­tain­able liv­ing, has drawn upon our Fil­ipino cul­tural resource a hermeneu­ti­cal insight: “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” a proverb born out of the Seven (7) Prover­bial Themes (Fil­ipino Proverbs or Mga Salawikain). Sec­ond, the writer has inte­grated the Fil­ipino value nakakaluwag with some Fil­ipino beliefs and prac­tices through the Seven (7) Prover­bial Themes (Fil­ipino Proverbs or Mga Salawikain) in view of holis­tic rela­tion­al­ity and he intro­duces “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” not only as a Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogy in view of Holis­tic Rela­tion­al­ity but at the same time as an inte­gra­tion (prin­ci­ple) that serves as a com­mon ground for sus­tain­able liv­ing (see fig­ures 2 and 3). This com­mon ground is sup­ported and its’ appli­ca­tion and prac­tice are sup­ported by the pre­vi­ous dis­cus­sion on the  (1) Theme 3 “Kung gusto may paraan, kung ayaw may dahi­lan” where expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) would mean: 3.1 solu­tions to life’s prob­lems, 3.2 hav­ing peace of mind, 3.3 free from wor­ries, 3.4 accep­tance, and 3.5 con­tent­ment, and on the (2) Theme 4 “Kung may isinuk­sok, may madudukot” where expe­ri­enc­ing life with ease (nakakaluwag sa buhay) would mean 4.1 selfless-understanding, 4.2 wis­dom, 4.3 life’s les­son. Third, the writer has taken a sec­ond look and even more at the Fil­ipino value nakakaluwag in view of holis­tic rela­tion­al­ity (Fuel­len­bach, 1998 & Ruether, 2000) and he has grad­u­ally unrav­eled these two eco­log­i­cal and social jus­tice val­ues (eco-justice) whereby “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” can be applied and prac­ticed through and can even enhance Hornedo’s ped­a­gog­i­cal artic­u­la­tion of jus­tice in terms of the four­fold rela­tion­ships (2009). Finally, after the writer’s grace-filled defense pro­posal on his study on this phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag last June 5, 2010, on August 11 of that same year, he was blessed to estab­lish ARALPINOY.ORG INC., a non-stock, non-profit orga­ni­za­tion. ARALPINOY.ORG INC. now is the writer’s con­crete ini­tia­tive to cre­ate ethical-pedagogical bridge for the inte­grat­ing prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as an alter­na­tive, truly Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogical frame for sus­tain­able living.

Rec­om­men­da­tions

Gen­eral Recommendations

Like any other research under­tak­ing, this study does not claim it has cov­ered every­thing nor exhausts all the facets with respect to the topic under con­sid­er­a­tion. While the entire efforts were geared towards the phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag, still there are more to be unrav­eled in the area spe­cific to each that com­prises the four­fold rela­tion­al­ity: (1) with their fel­low human beings, (2) with them­selves, (3) with nature (cre­ation) and (4) ulti­mately with God (Fuel­len­bach, 1998). The writer sees it fit to posit rec­om­men­da­tions in gen­eral and to whom these rec­om­men­da­tions apply in view of the insights offered in and drawn from this study:

1. For future and fur­ther study: The writer rec­om­mends to read the text on nakakaluwag phe­nom­e­non again and again now that we are back at the dawn of renewal so that we will see that phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag in many ways as a child sees it, then our under­stand­ing will be enriched, and we will dis­cover new aspects of the text that we never saw nor thought of before. While every­thing is mak­ing sense and the interpretation-description has stopped from what we have pre­vi­ously seen so far, this whole under­tak­ing has pro­vided the ini­tial glimpse of a clearer image and a bet­ter pic­ture of the phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag, where in the first place, we really do not have to seek too far as we will find them just right here.

2. For the con­duct of gath­er­ing data: The writer rec­om­mends to give lee­way in the con­duct of enter­ing into the Co-Rs’ lived expe­ri­ences and to be flex­i­ble with due con­sid­er­a­tion as to when will they make them­selves avail­able because their sched­ule varies due to the nature of their activ­i­ties (e.g., their work or stud­ies). While it is highly rec­om­mended not to rush things, it is still best to have a set dead­line in mind within man­age­able goals, so that the writer makes sure that the required data are all col­lected and noth­ing or less would be missed or lost. In this case, the 1st set of data was col­lected for a two month period from July 28 to Sep­tem­ber 28, 2010. The 2nd set was col­lected from the last week of July, 2010 until the last week of Sep­tem­ber, 2010. The 3rd set was col­lected between the 2nd week of August, 2010 until the 1st week of Octo­ber, 2010. Tran­scrib­ing and trans­lat­ing all the audio-recorded data which were done for a two month period from August, 2010 until Octo­ber 2010. All the data were col­lected, tran­scribed and trans­lated for a three month period.

3. For future and fur­ther explo­ration of Fil­ipino Proverbs (Mga Salawikain) : The writer rec­om­mends for this recent under­tak­ing on the phe­nom­e­non of nakakaluwag, to appre­ci­ate Fil­ipino Proverbs (Mga Salawikain and be grate­ful for their nat­ural key artic­u­la­tion or re-articulation of any given lived expe­ri­ences. The writer also rec­om­mends to repli­cate their usage by interpreting-describing another set of lived expe­ri­ences through other Fil­ipino Proverbs because these say­ings are steeped in our tra­di­tional Fil­ipino cul­ture and wis­dom (Reyes, 2002) and they impart life’s lessons which express a gen­eral atti­tude towards and truths about our life itself (del Rosario, 2007).

4. For the appli­ca­tion of the Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogy prin­ci­ple: The writer rec­om­mends to intro­duce “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag” as a new proverb born out of the Seven (7) Prover­bial Themes (Fil­ipino Proverbs or Mga Salawikain) nei­ther as a replace­ment of the proverbs pre­vi­ously men­tioned nor a sub­sti­tute for other Fil­ipino proverbs, but as a pre­cur­sor of a truly Fil­ipino applied ethical-pedagogy in view of Holis­tic Rela­tion­al­ity (tri­une, see fig. 1 & 2) and at the same time as an inte­gra­tion prin­ci­ple (sphere, see fig. 1 & 2) that serves as a com­mon ground for sus­tain­able liv­ing. This study does not pro­pose a sys­tem or a pro­gram for sus­tain­able liv­ing, but it pro­poses itself as an ethical-pedagogy prin­ci­ple that any sys­tem or any pro­gram be it on sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, ecol­ogy, eco­nom­ics, pol­i­tics and soci­ol­ogy, ought to be rooted.

5. For the legal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogy prin­ci­ple: The writer rec­om­mends to rec­og­nize and acknowl­edge that the Holis­tic Rela­tion­al­ity or the four­fold rela­tion­ships as embraced and prac­ticed by the fol­low­ing inde­pen­dent authors who are com­ing from very dif­fer­ent back­grounds and ori­en­ta­tions: Fuel­len­bach, 1998; Naga­hama, 2006; Hornedo, 2009 & Ramirez, 2009, includ­ing the writer him­self, Ingles, 2009 that all of them though work­ing sep­a­rately have one thing in com­mon: they are united with one motto based on the Repub­lic Act No. 8491, Sec. 25 (1998): “MAKA-DIYOS, MAKA-TAO, MAKAKALIKASAN AT MAKABANSA.”  

6. For more Fil­ipino ethical-pedagogy bridges: The writer rec­om­mends estab­lish­ing or cre­at­ing ethical-pedagogical bridges in con­crete action or any sim­i­lar to which, where they serve as venues for pur­poses of val­ues re-orientation or for­ma­tion pro­gram for sus­tain­able liv­ing based on the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag.” Respond­ing to this call, the writer has ini­tially estab­lished ARALPINOY.ORG INC. (August 11, 2010.), a non-stock, non-profit orga­ni­za­tion basi­cally as a tan­gi­ble and liv­ing proof of his sin­cere effort to make a real­ity this ethical-pedagogical bridge as a middle-in action.

7. For the more trans­la­tions in local lan­guages and inter­na­tional lan­guages of Nakakaluwag (Life with ease): The writer rec­om­mends to speak more and to trans­late more in var­i­ous local lan­guages and even in dif­fer­ent lan­guages spo­ken in the world the con­cept Nakakaluwag (Life with ease). The writer has man­aged to trans­late the term Nakakaluwag from Taga­log to Cebuano, Ilocano/Ilokano, Hiligaynon/Ilonggo, Pampangan/Kapampangan, North­ern Bicol, Pan­gasi­nan, Maguin­danao, Tausug, Maranao, Kinaray-a and South­ern Bicol. Trans­la­tions were done, and all these were made pos­si­ble through per­sonal com­mu­ni­ca­tions using Face­book, an online social net­work­ing site where peo­ple can exchange dig­i­tal messageshttp://www.facebook.com/facebook. This time, the writer looks into  the trans­la­tion of Nakakaluwag in dif­fer­ent lan­guages spo­ken in the world.

Spe­cific Recommendations

The four­teen (14) Co-Rs are the multi-sectoral rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the ter­tiary edu­ca­tional com­mu­nity of the DLS-CSB who com­prised of the fol­low­ing: two (2) school admin­is­tra­tors, two (2) teach­ers, two (2) reg­u­lar staff, two (2) tuition-paying stu­dents, two (2) non-paying stu­dents, four (4) agency/concessionaire hired employ­ees.  On the basis of these rep­re­sen­ta­tions, the fol­low­ing are the writer’s rec­om­men­da­tions for each mem­ber of the com­mu­nity of the DLS-CSB enu­mer­ated below and in view of his con­ver­sa­tion with them. The writer also observes that a spe­cific rec­om­men­da­tion for each may be applic­a­ble to some, if not to all:

8. For the School Admin­is­tra­tors: Like Fuel­len­bach, 1998; Naga­hama, 2006; Hornedo, 2009 & Ramirez, 2009, they should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Rowel val­i­dates when he said: “Human indi­vid­ual has no bound­ary or bound­less.” And what does this ask from the School Admin­is­tra­tors? And to whom this mes­sage applies? Co-R Rowel added: “When I asked him [a friend who helped him] how I can pay him back, he replied to me say­ing… You help the very first per­son in need of your help… if you are able to do it… then, you already paid me back.” School Admin­is­tra­tors must do the same.

9. For the School-Social Devel­op­ment Prac­ti­tion­ers: They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,”which Co-R Nelca val­i­dates when she said: “In my mind it is more than this, this is not sim­ply an issue of mate­r­ial things but an issue of liv­ing a total qual­ity of life.” And Co-R Nelca rec­om­mends: “Work­ing full­time with the com­mu­ni­ties, while I can say that their basic needs and con­cerns for sur­vival are very much valid how­ever, there is really a need to edu­cate, sus­tain and inten­sify envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion along side with poverty alle­vi­a­tion. Peo­ple must real­ize that they are very much part of the envi­ron­ment. I just observed that peo­ple who expe­ri­ence life with ease (nakakaluwag) are more empow­ered and able to respond to the needs of the environment.”

10. For the School Teach­ers: They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Joe val­i­dates when he said: “I have taught many things the­o­ret­i­cally, then after so many years I have real­ized that they were not that effec­tive. How­ever if what I have taught had been seen, wit­nessed and put into prac­tice, then they are all learned (tala­gang natu­tu­tu­nan).” Co-R Joe rec­om­mends: “Ordi­nar­ily, to feel life with ease (nakakaluwag) it per­tains to a life of ease in mate­r­ial things. How­ever, it is also pos­si­ble that you feel life with ease (nakakaluwag) in terms of knowl­edge when you are gifted with intel­li­gence. Now that you have ease in knowl­edge (nakakaluwag sa kaala­man), you should teach and share what you know.”

11. For the School Staff/Employees: They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Mari­cel val­i­dates when she said: “In a way I’m lucky because I have sta­ble job, I’m blessed though my salary is not that really big. My hus­band and I, we put together our income. We have good rela­tion­ship, our earn­ings our good so I can say our life is run­ning smoothly (maayos yung takbo ng buhay). And once in a while we also help finan­cially my fam­ily side and also his side” Co-R Mari­cel rec­om­mends: “Peo­ple should be care­ful in han­dling their finances. If you have enough money for the fam­ily, just buy only what you actu­ally need on a daily basis. If there are things you want to buy but not that impor­tant, that would be the last pri­or­ity. In other words, be thrifty, pri­or­i­tize and buy only the things that you basi­cally needed.”

12. For the Tuition-paying stu­dents: They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Ben­son val­i­dates when he said: “You can expe­ri­ence life with ease (nakakaluwag) as long as you help or give impor­tance to peo­ple by help­ing them because by doing so it pro­vides color to your life.” Co-R Ben­son rec­om­mends: “When­ever you know that some­one is in need, then you have to share to her/him what­ever you have in what­ever way you can, so that you will  help ease her/his sad­ness and you turn it into joy. And I also joy­fully feel inside me when you make oth­ers happy.”

13. For the Non-paying students/ Schol­ars: They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Me-Ann val­i­dates when she said: “Not all the time, not all the days that we are on the same con­di­tion that what hap­pens today will sim­ply repeat tomor­row. On the other time and on the other day that would mean fresh and new expe­ri­ence.” Co-R Me-Ann rec­om­mends: “Life sim­ply goes on and on (tuloy tuloy lang ang buhay). Just keep on hold­ing on to God and do not ever give up.”

14. For the Agency Hired Employ­ees (Maintenance/Photocopy Machine Oper­a­tors): They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Lorence val­i­dates when she said: “One day I will be able to live a bet­ter life (makakaa­hon din ako, nakaan­gat sa buhay). As long as I have enough for our daily needs, to me that is okay. What mat­ters is that my sib­lings are okay. I just observed that oth­ers may have a bet­ter life (nakakaan­gat sa buhay) but the fam­ily is never sat­is­fied, and some­time the mem­bers of that fam­ily would opt to live a sep­a­rate lives (watak-watak).  On my part, we are just con­tented with what is just enough for us, what mat­ters for me is we are all together and com­plete.” Co-R Lorence rec­om­mends: “We should not be spend­ing every cen­tavo like there’s no tomor­row (huwag mag­pakasasa sa kung ano meron ka). We should spend, but not exces­sive spend­ing. We have to be thrifty, we have to save (kailan­gan magtabi). ”

15. For the Non-School Employ­ees but work­ing inside the cam­pus (Can­teen Sales­per­sons): They should con­tinue to embrace and prac­tice the prin­ci­ple of “Anu­mang nakapag-uugnay ay nakaka­pag­paluwag,” which Co-R Elvie val­i­dates when she said: “To expe­ri­ence life with ease (nakakaluwag) is to see all together in my life: God, myself, our fel­low beings (mga kapwa tao) and our nature (kalikasan). For with­out them, I will never be here and I will never enjoy the life I have.” Co-R Elvie rec­om­mends: “We have to be thrifty (masinop) and we have to save up money (mag-ipon) for our future so that in times of needs we have avail­able resources to sus­tain us (may­roon kang madudukot).”