Making Waves: TAMBULI
Stories of Participatory Communication
for Social Change
TITLE: Tambuli Radio Network
COUNTRY: Philippines
MAIN FOCUS: Community development
PLACE: 20 remote communities
BENEFICIARIES: About 10,000 people for each station
PARTNERS: 20 community radio stations
FUNDING: Tambuli, UNESCO, DANIDA
MEDIA: Radio
There is only one car on the island, and it's the ambulance. Riding on the back of a motorcycle I covered the distance that links Loreto to Tubajon on a thin dirt road and arrived in town after dark, just to catch the last half of the transmission hours of Radio Tubajon. Both Loreto and Tubajon are located in the most remote part of the small Dinagat Island, a bit lost in the north of Mindanao the second largest landmass area among the seven thousand islands of the Philippines. This was only the last part of the trip that started before sunrise in a rented car that took me from Cagayan de Oro to Surigao City during the best part of the day, and continued on a speedboat to Loreto in about three hours.
Six local leaders of different religious confessions are around the table at the recording room of Radio Tubajon DXTT-FM 95.8. Father Kiko Magnaye, a Catholic priest who is also director of the station, is sitting among them. They are discussing the contents and schedule for six months of Langit Sa Yuta (Heaven on Earth)the religious programme that airs every Sunday from 7:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. It is amazing to witness this example of democracy.
As I meet them, the live transmission is done from the nearby control room, separated only by a large glass window. Inside the control room the technician is handling all the radio equipment and he is singing for the audience, aided by a karaoke device. He takes his job very seriously, and pleases his audience with new songs every once in a while. After all, it's already time for Harana ("Party"), the music radio segment that comes right after the religious programme on Sundays.
By 10:00 p.m. the lights will go off in town, and so will Radio Tubajon until the next day. It's only on the air three to four hours every day, but the population depends on it very much. As silence and darkness regain the streets, many, as I do, go to sleep with the echo of words and music from the community radio station.
It happens in Tubajon, in Loreto, and at 18 other stations supported by the Tambuli Radio Network The lives of an equal number of communities have dramatically changed since these small stations were introduced in the Philippines. It is a first for this Asian country and also a first in South East Asia, where mass media is mostly under government control.
Basco, Aborlan, Goa, Banga, Ibajay, St.Teresita, Barangay Imelda, Cabagan, Maragusan, Loreto, Tubajon, Inogbong, Mabuhay and then Lobo, Cabayugan, Cuyo Island, Gonzaga, Sultan Sa Barongis, Ipil and Joló. Twenty Tambuli stations spread out in a country that is already spread over seven thousand islands. From Joló and Zamboanga in the very south, to the southeastern environmental frontier of Palawan to Batan in the extreme north of the country, these small community stations are making the difference. Maybe not for the seventy million Filipinos but certainly for the population of the twenty communities that never before had the opportunity of accessing a radio station that talks about their daily problems and works hand-in-hand with the community to find solutions.
Tambuli is the Tagalo voice for the carabao horn, used traditionally to call villagers for community meetings. It is also an acronym for voice of the small community for the development of the underprivileged. A set of five objectives guides the project: [1]To provide local access to information, [2]To allow villagers to express themselves, [3]To link together as a community, [4]To strengthen the sense of identity, and [5]To transform the audience from mere receivers to participants and managers of a communication system. In short: the empowerment of people through communication so that they will strengthen their community organisations and seek better opportunities for development.
Clear criteria were defined since the beginning for the selection of potential communities to be integrated into the project. It was decided, for example, that Tambuli stations would only be supported in places that totally lacked access to communication, but had potential for social organisation, willingness to pool resources into the project and to interact with other communities.
The engine that makes a Tambuli station work is a multisectoral Community Media Council (CMC). The CMC decides on managerial and programming issues. Most of the members also have responsibility as broadcasters, each one contributes with a programme slot relevant to his or her sector: health, education, youth, agriculture, senior citizens, environment, fishermen, women and legislation among others. In the long run, the CMC should become the owner of the stations.
The programming grid varies from one place to another, as do the contents and the titles of programmes. For example, the programme slot on environment is called Nature is Treasure (Ang Kinaiyahan Bahandi) in Tubajon, We and the Environment (Kita Ug Ang Kinaiyahan ) in Loreto, and Caring for the Environment (Ang Pag-Amping Sa Kinaiyahan) in Maragusan. Tambuli stations also have a feature that is common to most community-based radio stations: useful messages on village meetings, marriages, death announcements, incoming mail, lost cattle, lost children, information on local legislative measures, farmers products, or agricultural services.
A few Tambuli stations have expanded activities to provide interest-free loans, with a system broadly based on the Grameen Bank experience: small loans for poor individuals or community groups to put up income generating projects. Even the broadcasters from theTambuli stations can benefit from loans, as they are mostly volunteers. From its inception the project had 1999 as the end date.
Nevertheless, the need of more community radio stations, the numerous requests from other communities, has convinced Louie Tabing of the need for creating a permanent institution to support future projects as well as the existing network. A Tambuli Foundation has been created to take over the project from the year 2000.
The Philippines has come a long way to reach the point where a democratic radio network such as Tambuli is made possible. No doubt Tambuli is the result of a process of struggle for democratisation that started during the Marcos dictatorship. And the man that has been the driving force of the Tambuli project acquired his experience and developed many of his ideas while working at Radio Veritas, a Catholic station that was instrumental in ousting Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Louie Tabing was very critical towards the situation of media in his country. He used to say that media is only motivated by "profit, propaganda, power and privilege". His "PPPP" approach became a solid platform in the struggle for a democratic media. Tabing contacted friends from international organisations to put together the Tambuli project, which started in 1990 with technical support from UNESCO and US$25,000 in funding from DANIDA.
The first station opened in Batanes, a place so remote and isolated that it didn't even get any signals from national radio and TV networks. Next, a full-blown project got support from the same organisations, with a US$900,000 budget for four years. By the end of 1994, five stations were operational and eight by 1996. The project gradually expanded until 1999, adding up to 20 stations. Each new Tambuli operation costs about US$90,000,000 with 60 percent spent on equipment and infrastructure.
Some of the Tambuli stations are actually upgraded Community Audio Towers (CATs), a project that was initially set up with support from FAO in the late 1980s and has been also supported by UNICEF in the late 1990s. CATs are a good example of community participation in a low-cost communication activity. Tambuli added onto some of the existing CATs, providing the transmitter and additional training. Louie Tabing had the vision of taking advantage of the experience already acquired by the community in managing a communication project.
The Municipal Mayor of Tubajon requests "permission" from the radio station to cut some trees and fix a bridge that had collapsed...Why? Because he fears that if he makes the decision without public support he can be later criticised as someone who is destroying the environment. In Maragusan the station has put pressure on local authorities to ban chainsaws and pesticides. The place has a great potential for eco-tourism with its numerous rivers and attractive falls, but has been menaced in the past by gold diggers, and recently by illegal logging and spraying of pesticides.
The environment is not the only concern on the agenda ofTambuli stations; social consciousness has developed on other issues that affect the community. In Camarines Sur, the Goa station convinced its listeners to give up gambling, something that law enforcement had not achieved. These examples are significant of how things have changed since the Tambuli stations started operations.
The cultural and political influence of the Tambuli stations is recognised by local authorities, which have established good working relationships with the CMC. Often local government authorities provided land and materials for building the station premises. The Tambuli radio broadcasters have become so popular in some areas that they were elected to serve as local authorities. The strict code of conduct has been an important factor in regulating the behaviour of broadcasters towards the community.
A whole set of principles, manuals and instructions have been developed to make the experience as sustainable and strong as possible. Far from just giving away some equipment Tambuli stressed the process of training, which includes technical topics but mainly the responsibility of communicating with the poor, a code of conduct for broadcasters, and a deep understanding of participatory development.
The code of conduct embraces issues such as: "Reporting the Truth", "Good Taste", "Fairness", "Innocence of the Accused", "Respect for Rights of Everybody", "Preference for the Positive & Constructive Approach", "Treatment of Hearsay", "Gossip", "Rumours", "Respect for Authorities", "Pinch Hitting", "Cooperativeness", "Care of Studio Equipment", "Conduct Outside the Radio Station", "Solicitation of Advertisement and Funds", among others.
Equipment is very basic: 20-watt transmitters, karaoke amplifiers, and cassette recorders Some stations are already upgrading, on their own, with community and/or local government support.
The main constraint seems to be the lack of communication between the various stations. Most of them do not have access to telephone lines and are located in very remote areas of the country; the stations do not really operate as a network. They do not have the means to link with each other and the Tambuli project has difficulty conveying messages to each station when needed.
The lack of specific legislation recognising the rights of community radio stations has retarded the process of launching new stations. Difficulty in securing a license to operate a radio station has become even more critical now that the Philippine Congress is supposed to issue franchises for any community radio station to operate. A bill is being filed in Congress for an omnibus community media law that will exempt low-powered radio stations from obtaining a franchise from Congress.
This chapter is mainly based on the field visits and conversations with Fr. Kiko Magnaye, Station Manager of Radio Tubajon (Dinagat Island), Pastor Domingo D.Reambonanza, Station Manager of Radio Loreto (Dinagat), Frank Endaya and the team of Radio Maragusan (Davao del Norte) and Louie Tabing, the driving force of the Tambuli network.
A great wealth of information can be found at the Tambuli Web site. Other than the "Newsletter", and a descriptive approach to the Tambuli experience, it also includes a detailed "Code of Conduct" for broadcasters, and even a "Production Manual". The Newsletter is also distributed in print along with other Tambuli publications, as few stations and few people in general have access to the Web. Tambuli the Electronic Carabao Horn by Colin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo-Estrada, in their book Communicating for Development (pages 19 218), is a very complete overview of the experience.
The FAO Web site posts Rural Radio in the Philippines by Fr. Francis B. Lucas, among other interesting articles.
Continued...click here to return to the Table of Contents.
Comments
Great job!!
Kudos to Tambuli people!! Lets continue establishing community radios in remoe areas, the people need them.
Im presetl dooing my thesis on community radio stations. I find this article informative..
were is tambuli now?
I'm willing to help thi.s Tambuli community radio network.
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