A GRUESOME silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic is probably resuscitating a program that past administrations decades back only paid lip service to and never had the gumption nor the political will to implement: “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa” (BP2)! If memory serves, even Imelda Marcos, the flip side to the conjugal dictatorship, only succeeded in leaving a similar concept behind, encapsulated as a haunting slogan. It was not altruism that moved her but her overarching notions of “what could be beautiful.” It was during the 5th International Monetary Fund-World Bank Conference in Manila in 1976 when the dictatorship wanted to show a “beautiful face” as its coming-out party after the 1972 martial law declaration. Central to BP2’s concept was to decongest the slums of Metro Manila, a blight which should be hidden from sight of the world’s bankers, financiers and economists who were here for the conference. What better program than to send back these dregs of society from whence they came.

Depopulate the slums