Guide to Caohagan

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Table of Contents
Introduction: The Caohagan Project
Culture
Crime
Diet
Daily Life
Family Structure
Language
Media and American Influence
Religion
Resource Sharing
Relationship with the Natural Environment
Technology
Individual Stakeholders
Sakiyama
Junko
Chiki
Nina
Office Staff
Dana
Institutional Players
Barangay
Lapu-Lapu City
Mr. Sakiyama’s Legal Entities
Social Systems
Economy
Education
Energy
Typhoon Resiliency
Water
Waste
Conclusion: The English Project and Reflection

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Introduction: Understanding Caohagan
Caohagan is a 13-acre coral island in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines. As
part of the Olanga atoll, Caohagan is relatively isolated from the nearest urban centers on the
larger islands of Cebu and Mactan. It is home to a largely impoverished but vibrant community
where family, friendship, and the natural environment are valued over all else. Here people live
on the same seafood and rice diet that their ancestors have enjoyed for generations and make
their living from the sea, quilting, and tourism. However, the natural resources of this idyllic
island are increasingly stressed by overpopulation. With limited access to higher education and
virtually no ability to save what little money they have, the Caohagan people are ill-prepared to
seek employment off-island. Effectively trapped, they find themselves exacerbating dangerous
water shortages in a community that can ill-afford the increasing costs of potable water.
During Winter Term 2015, a group of consultants affiliated with Oberlin College and
Foresight Design travelled to Caohagan to help the community address some of these issues. Our
group, consisting of two current Oberlin students, Jenny Goldsmith and Max Herzog, and one
alumnus, Peter Nicholson, hoped to analyze various social and physical systems with the end
goal of producing concrete suggestions for advancing sustainable development on the island.
Our two-week stay on the island was primarily concerned with data-gathering and
synthesis. We were put up at Caohagan House, the guest house business that is a large source of
income for the island. Our knowledge of the island’s many systems was advanced through
formal interviews with local public figures, informal conversations with community members,
and direct observation. By applying the principles of Systems Analysis, as defined by the work
of Foresight Design, we organized this knowledge into visual and textual representations of
various issue areas in order to try to derive solutions from them.
What follows is an effort to compile as much of this information as possible into at
“Guide to Caohagan;” a text that will be accessible and informative to groups and individuals
who wish to support the island in its efforts at self-reform. Written by Max Herzog, with help
from Jenny Goldsmith, it must be remembered that the descriptions of actors and systems within
should not be accepted as unequivocal fact. It should always be remembered that we are people
that, even beyond our own subjective biases, face significant cultural and language barriers when
working in communities so different from our own. That being said, we feel that a lot can be
learned, both academically and practically, from our analysis.

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Culture
Crime
The Caohagan people pride themselves on the strength of their community. They distinguish
themselves from other islands, especially the urban center of Cebu-Mactan, by their communal
values. A big part of this is a total lack of prosecuted crime and drug use. Essentially all conflicts
or disagreements are resolved interpersonally or mediated by the Barangay. During our stay, we
experienced the first recorded instance of theft ever to occur on Caohagan. Everyone on the
island was extremely shocked; it was a total disjunct with their worldview.
Diet
The cuisine of the Caohagan people consists mainly of fresh seafood supplemented with
white rice, the island’s staple starch. Some fruits grow on the island but very few vegetables.
Packaged foods, imported from Cebu, have become increasingly popular as individual families’
purchasing power has increased over the last twenty years. Guests of Caohagan House are
treated to a sort of fusion between Filipino and Japanese cuisine. Fresh seafood including squid,
fish, and shellfish or meat including pork or chicken are also served with almost every meal.
Eggs, bacon or ham, potatoes, and vegetables are usually served for breakfast. There is always a
side or two of vegetables and a dish of rice. After every meal they serve some type of fresh fruit-
mango, pineapple, and pomelo are the most common.
Daily Life
Caohagan people hold a variety of responsibilities and jobs that shape the course of their
daily life. During low tide, many people of all ages walk out into the tidal flats to collect seafood.
Depending on the time of the low tide this can mean getting up at dawn or even collecting at
night by flashlight. Every morning, people sweep up the leaves that fall over night. Quilters
spend a few hours almost every day on their quilts. The head quilters work in the quilting house,
but many people work in their homes and throughout the village. Almost every day, groups of
(mostly) men make trips to the main island to refill water jugs, and when there is rainwater in the
cisterns there are people in charge of pumping it up into the tower. Most children attend school
Monday through Friday, but sometimes the teachers have to go to the city for meetings, so a
weekday will be swapped with a Saturday.
Family Structure
Following Catholic tradition, families are very large. It is common for couples to have
anywhere from 6 to 13 kids and the near-ubiquity of multigenerational homes means families
become much larger than that. Improved economic conditions since the arrival of Mr. Sakiyama
have created significant migration pressures from other, less well-off islands in the atoll.
Population is growing rapidly despite the largely successful efforts by the Barangay and
Caohagan house to limit this influx. Limiting the number of children people can have or the age
at which they can still live with their parents might become necessary in the near future to
prevent overcrowding. Since almost everyone on the island has many daily responsibilities and
the island is a naturally contained space, children are free to roam around the island, looking out
for each other and performing many tasks that might be delegated to adults in the U.S. They’re
also very responsible about going home at a very specific level of darkness in the evening.

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Language
Caohagan’s native language is Cebuano. Though technically a dialect of Tagalo or
Tagalog (the Philippine national language), Cebuano is distinct enough that many of the older
residents have difficulty communicating with Filipinos from other regions. Many younger
residents understand English fairly well because they learn basic English in school and are
exposed to a lot of English-language TV and radio. However, there is not much opportunity to
practice speaking the language with native speakers so only the few who went to college in Cebu
are fluent or close to fluent. Mr. Sakiyama, Junko, and a couple people from the office staff
speak Japanese, and most of the tourists are from Japan. Most islanders are not fluent and only
people who interact with Japanese tourists know key words and phrases.
Media and American Influence
The Philippines as a whole are heavily influenced by American culture and media. Radio
stations play much of the same popular music as can be heard in the U.S. and the NBA is one of
the most popular sports; The Caohagan People are huge Chicago Bulls fans. Their clothing is
almost the same as what you’d see in any U.S. beach town: t shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.
Religion
As with most of the Philippines outside of Mindanao, almost everyone on the island is
Catholic. A priest comes once a month to give mass in the small chapel located near the center of
the island. The community puts a lot of stake in prayer, even relying on it for protection from
typhoons. Religious iconography is one of the most common decorative features of homes.
Resource Sharing
While each family typically has their own home in the village, there is a strong sense of
community and frequent sharing of resources and spaces. An informal system of reciprocity
exists around a number of essential and unessential resources; family units tend to procure
resources for themselves (or perhaps a small collective) but often share with other families with
the expectation of some kind of payback at a later point. Resources treated this way include
power, food, water, labor, and alcohol.
Relationship with the Natural Environment
The Caohagan people live in relative harmony with the natural environment. The
Community understands its reliance on natural resources for food, water, and shelter, so they
value, even take pride in, responsible stewardship. They established a marine sanctuary just off
the coast because outside people were coming in and using destructive fishing practices,
including the use of dynamite, to harvest the rich source of sea life. They guard it 24/7 to make
sure nobody fishes the area.
Technology
Many islanders have TVs and radios, some have cell phones, and a few have smart
phones. However, there are no computers on the island other than those belonging to the
Caohagan House and Caohagan Association staff. Some people, especially Mr. Sakiyama,
believe that computers would weaken the community by distracting people from their immediate
surroundings, while others believe that it can be used responsibly to improve the lives of those
who live there by having them only in the schools.

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Individual Stakeholders
Sakiyama
The de-facto owner of Caohagan Island. Mr. Sakiyama is a retired Japanese businessman
who worked in publishing in both Japan and the U.S. He sees Caohagan as a model for the ideal
small, sustainable community. Mr. Sakiyama sees his role as more of a preserver and protector
of the culture and environment that make the island special than a developer, still he values
economic development for its capacity to improve the quality of life of the community. Mr.
Sakiyama works closely with the Barangay and Chiki to execute policies and initiatives that he
thinks will further these goals.
Junko
Mr. Sakiyama’s wife. Junko first met Mr. Sakiyama in Japan and visited him a number of
times on Caohagan before they married. It is her interest in quilting that sparked the beginning of
the rapidly growing Caohagan tradition. She began by teaching a few women to quilt in the
traditional Japanese style but these women quickly made the medium their own, eschewing
traditional structures for a free-flowing creative style that has been compared to jazz. While she
is still a quilt enthusiast, Junko no longer teaches, leaving these responsibilities to the three head
Caohagan quilters. She supports the business by being the middleman between the Caohagan
producers and Japanese consumers, taking multiple trips a year to Japan to sell and promote the
quilts. Junko is extremely well-liked amongst the Caohagan people who see her as a truly kind-
hearted woman who understands them well.
Nina
The sixth grade teacher and head of the elementary school. Nina married onto the island a
few years ago (originally from Cebu?). She easily speaks the best English of anyone we met on
the island. She has experience teaching English as a second language to Japanese and Korean
students at an English intensive school in Cebu. She often still teaches there during summer
breaks. She loves life on the island and values the community here highly. Her top priority is to
empower her students to seek opportunities to experience the world and better themselves.
Chiki
A Japanese contractor/humanitarian worker that works with Mr. Sakiyama in his efforts
to manage and improve the lives of the people of Caohagan through the Caohagan Association.
Most frequently working under the umbrella of the Caohagan Association, Chiki has been
involved in consulting about health care on the island and conducting a census to evaluate the
extent of overpopulation. She divides her time between Japan, Caohagan, and Leyte, a northern
island where she does similar work.
Office Staff
Yuko Sugiura: A Japanese graduate student who fell in love with the island and Mr.
Sakiyama’s philosophy after visiting on one of the many study tours of the island conducted by
Japanese colleges. After coming back to the island many times, to do research and just to
vacation, she now serves as the manager of Caohagan house.
Raul: A Barangay Councilman and head of the souvenir retail venture based on the
tourist beach.

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Institutional Players
Barangay
The ruling body of Caohagan is its Sangguniang Barangay or Barangay Council
(colloquially referred to as Barangay or The Barangay), the smallest unit of Philippine
government. The council is made up of one Punong Barangay (Barangay Chairman or Captain)
and seven Barangay Kagawad (Barangay Councilors) who are pluralistically elected every three
years. Though these leaders never run as part of an official party, it is not uncommon for them to
form coalitions and run as a unified government. It seems much more common, however, that
members of the Caohagan Barangay are elected based on their popularity amongst the people.
Members of the Barangay, councilmen and captain alike, are not separated from their
constituents in anything like the way politicians are in the U.S. We often saw councilmen
spending time with other community members to repair a boat, fix a house, or just drink and
socialize. Raul, a well-liked Councilman, is also a member of the Caohagan House staff and the
point person for the local crafts business centered on the tourist beach. The current Captain, the
Honorable Ranilo Abayan, is a member of a very well-respected family that includes four of the
six teachers at the elementary school (three siblings and one cousin) as well as the previous
Captain (his father). The previous Captain remains much respected and is a close confidant of
Mr. Sakiyama.
The Barangay performs a number of important official functions on the island. They
work closely with Mr. Sakiyama to regulate the island’s tourism and use some of the capital they
generate to employ public servants to keep the island clean and safe. They support Mr. Sakiyama
in a number of his other policy efforts, including his ban on cockfighting and logging, and look
upon their relationship with him as one of family members. Mr. Abayan personally reported
thinking of Mr. Sakiyama as a father who has trained him to be a good leader.
The Barangay also provides a venue for local conflict resolution. Citizens often
voluntarily bring their arguments to their councilmen, who mediate a discussion aimed at
creating a mutually agreeable solution. If no solution is readily agreed upon, participants can opt
to submit themselves to direct arbitration by the Barangay or leave the dispute unresolved. It is
extremely rare for any outside legal force to become involved with any issue on the island.
In addition to making and implementing local legislation and mediating conflicts,
Caohagan’s Barangay is the primary link between the island and the larger Philippine
government. This tie amounts to a connection to Lapu-Lapu City, an urban center located on
Mactan and the largest local government in the region after Cebu (see Lapu-Lapu City
Government section for details).
Lapu-Lapu City Government
Lapu-Lapu (named after the Filipino leader who personally killed Magellan) is an urban
center, the second biggest in the Eastern Visayas region after Cebu City, which dominates nearly
all of the island of Mactan. The city government of Lapu-Lapu is the regional governing body
with direct influence over the Barangay of Caohagan. In the Philippine government structure,
large cities function independently of larger province governments, answering directly to the
Office of the President. Since the President rarely interferes with the concerns of political units
as small as Caohagan, Lapu-Lapu essentially is the outside government of the Philippines from
its perspective.

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One of the City’s main responsibilities is to provide support for the health and welfare
systems in their constituent Barangays. Many of the Caohagan people are registered with the
City as in need of public assistance. Through this most individuals and/or families on the island
receive a small cash “honorarium” (i.e. welfare payments) and are covered at public hospitals
under PhilHealth, the national healthcare organization. However, few people take advantage of
this because coverage through Mr. Sakiyama’s nonprofit is more comprehensive and cheaper.
Additionally, after a long campaign spearheaded by Chiki, the City assigned Caohagan a
midwife who is trained in first aid and traditional healing in addition to child delivery.
The City also provides some professional support to the Island. Training programs aimed
at the development of the “livelihood” of the Caohagan people (i.e. some sort of vocational
training) occur yearly. The City also gives a degree of financial support to families with deceased
breadwinners and issues some scholarships (very rare).
Mr. Sakiyama has a good relationship with the mayor whom he says has often cites the
island as an example of good management in speeches. He seems to have mainly exercised this
influence to shut down potential development projects in the region (i.e. preventing Caohagan
from being joined to Mactan via bridge and preventing the construction of a basketball stadium).
Mr. Sakiyama’s Institutions
Over his years of involvement with Caohagan, Mr. Sakiyama has played a role in
creating or developing, three separate legal entities. They are listed below in chronological order
of incorporation.
Caohagan House
Caohagan House, also called “The Hotel” by locals, is a guest house that hosts overnight
tourists (mainly Japanese) on the island. By far the oldest of the three institutions, we don’t have
an exact date on when Caohagan house was founded. What we do know is that its previous
owner was a Filipino from Cebu who was bought out by Mr. Sakiyama when he purchased the
island through the Caohagan Island Club (see below). Since Mr. Sakiyama’s arrival, and the
subsequent publication of his many books, tourism has grown dramatically on the island and
Caohagan House has grown with it. Caohagan house also is the hub for the increasingly vibrant
quilting business on the island. The hotel contracts out quilting work to community members and
sells them abroad through informal connections (Junko and Dana).
Caohagan Island Club Inc.
Incorporated over twenty years ago, this for-profit organization was founded to buy
Caohagan Island from the bank which held it in trust. Because the Philippine government
explicitly prohibits ownership of land within its borders by any non-Filipino (no doubt a legacy
of its colonial history) Mr. Sakiyama founded the Club in collaboration with a number of Cebu-
based Filipino interests. By having a majority of shares in the company owned by his Filipino
associates, he legitimizes its claim to the island. Consequently, it is through this entity that Mr.
Sakiyama exercises most of his political power.
Caohagan Association
Mr. Sakiyama’s most recent creation and the only non-profit entity he controls; the
Association was founded a few years ago to simplify the process of giving back to the Caohagan
community. Among other services, it currently handles all of the fees paid by day tourists,

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pooling this money in a pot used to cover 90% of the cost of treatment at public hospitals for all
Caohagan residents. This coverage used to include much more desirable private institutions but
was changed, at the advice of Chiki, because of cost. Caohagan people look on public health
centers with a degree of fear. In addition to their relative lack of resources, the staff has little
motivation to treat patients compassionately, or even fairly, and many Caohagans consequently
complain of “mean doctors” there. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that these medical
professionals often only speak Tagalo, a language distinct enough from the local Cebuano dialect
that older members of the Caohagan community who didn’t learn it in school can’t understand it.
Still, the Caohagan people favor this coverage over the government-controlled PhilHealth
because it is both cheaper and more comprehensive.

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Social Systems
Economy
Growth Drivers
Sea Life: Many of the Caohagan people collect enough fish, shellfish, shells, or other sea life
that they can sell it to other residents or to day tourists in addition to providing for their dietary
needs. Some people use shells, coral, and shark teeth to make jewelry to sell to tourists as well.
They also make their own sea salt on the island which they both consume for personal use and
sell for profit.
Tourism: Tourists can be split into day tourists and overnight guests. Day tourists pay for
access to the beach, lunch, and can also pay to go snorkeling in the marine sanctuary. Overnight
guests pay per night in the guest houses, for meals in the main house, and for bottled water, beer,
and other amenities as needed. Overnight tourism is managed chiefly through Caohagan House;
the profits go mostly to Mr. Sakiyama. Day tourism is managed through Caohagan Association,
which puts profits in a fund used to subsidize public health care for the Caohagan people.
Quilts: Caohagan is quickly becoming known in Japan and the U.S. for its beautifully
handmade quilts. When Junko moved to the island she introduced quilt making to some of the
local people. They quickly picked up the techniques and began making quilts that are considered
works of art. Junko has worked hard to make them famous in Japan, and Dana is helping to do
the same in the U.S. Quilters are paid upon the completion of the quilt, and then Junko or Dana
take them to sell at quilting shows. Some tourists buy quilts on the island, but the majority of
them are sold abroad. One quilt maker can make about 4 quilts in a year, and there are around
100 quilt makers as of January 2015.
Off-island jobs: Jobs in the city often require people to be fluent or conversant in English.
Since most people on the island are not fluent, it is often difficult for them to get a job in the city.
When people do work in the city they usually need to live there full time, which is an added
barrier for people that can’t afford to move there before starting a job.
Expenses
Water: Since potable water is not piped to the island, nearly everyone must purchase
refillable water jugs from the city.
Food: Even though many families fish daily, they still must purchase food from the main
island to supplement what they cannot catch themselves.
Health care: Even though Saki helps cover health care and has increased enrollment in
subsidized health care programs, islanders still have to pay a portion of the cost that is often still
difficult for them to cover.
Fuel: Families that own generators must purchase diesel fuel on a regular basis.
Education
The only school on the island is Caohagan Elementary, which includes kindergarten
through sixth grade. After elementary school, students must travel to Olanga (the biggest island
in the atoll and its namesake) for high school, which they can walk to during low tide. Most
people on the island do not have the opportunity to attend college. Mr. Sakiyama has provided
scholarships for some students to go to college in Cebu. These students are expected to come
back and teach what they’ve learned to others or work on the island doing what they studied. The
teachers have expressed a need for certain learning tools in their classrooms, including English

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language workbooks and access to a computer. Computer access is very important because
learning about them is part of the state-mandated curriculum and there are questions about how
to use them on the standardized tests. Students are routinely expected to use a computer when
they get to high school and many Caohagans fall behind their classmates from other islands as
they spend time just learning how to use them.
Energy
Wood
Caohagan’s location at roughly 10* north of the equator keeps its climate moderate year-
round, minimizing the need for heat generation. Consequently, wood is used almost exclusively
as fuel for cooking. While wood from locally logged trees was once the main source of energy
on the island, its usage has been stunted by Mr. Sakiyama’s prohibition on cutting down trees.
While fallen trees and branches are still legally collected for firewood, and some trees are
occasionally cut down illegally, a significant amount of cooking is now done with propane
burners. We could not ascertain which fuel is more commonly used but they are both clearly an
important part of the local energy supply.
Fossil Fuels
Gasoline and Propane canisters are frequently imported from Cebu and Mactan. The
purchase of these fuels seems as uncoordinated as the purchase of potable water (see Imported
Potable Water in the Water section). Often used directly by the purchaser, they are also available
for sale at a few of the local stores. While propane is mainly used for cooking (see discussion in
Wood section above), gasoline powers a number of public and private generators that make up
the main source of conventional electric current on the island.
There are three public generators on the island; Mr. Sakiyama’s generator, the Barangay
generator, and the School generator. Mr. Sakiyama’s generator was purchased, installed, and
operated at his expense. It powers the main house, one guest house, the guest bathroom, the
association office, and one strategically placed house in the village (that of Manuelito Abayan,
the third grade teacher). It is usually turned on from 5pm-11pm, although we have seen it on at
other times when power tools need to be used during the day. The Barangay generator was
donated by Lapu-Lapu City during an election year as a way for the incumbent governor to
garner support. Mr. Sakiyama paid to install it. It was supposed to power a number of houses in
the village (maybe all of them? we’re not sure). Unfortunately, it broke only a few years after it
was installed and no one on Caohagan has the expertise to fix it. We’re unsure if the damage is
repairable or not, no one really seems interested in finding out. The elementary school has the
last public generator. Nina, the six grade teacher and head of the school, receives a stipend from
the Lapu-Lapu city school board for fuel to power it. We’re not sure who installed it but it seems
likely that this was the school board as well. It only powers the buildings of the school.
In addition to these public generators, there are a number of privately owned generators,
generally installed in the homes of the wealthier members of the community. We never got an
exact count of the number of these generators but estimates tend to run between five and seven.
The energy produced by these generators is subject to a similar type of community sharing that is
applied to water (see Resource Sharing in the Culture section). We’re not sure exactly how the
transfer of this energy is facilitated. There are wires running between many houses (presumably
installed at the same time as the Barangay generator, though we’re not sure). While these are
certainly the medium of power transfer, it’s unclear how, or if, energy transfer can be targeted to

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a specific house that needs it or if it just becomes accessible to however many houses are wired
together this way. People use these generators to power lights, T.V.s, tools, radios, and PA
systems as well as to charge phones and batteries. Not many appliances are used and no one has
computers.
Areas for Potential Improvement
 Centralization of fuel purchasing could make the process more efficient, saving money
and time. Centralization could also provide an opportunity for coordinated data
collection, allowing for accurate estimates of power needs that would have to be satisfied
by solar or another alternate energy source that is the ultimate goal.
 Centralization of distribution (i.e. the creation of an organized grid) could more
efficiently and equitably distribute power to all households and lay important
infrastructural groundwork for future energy sources (e.g. solar) to tap into.
Photoelectric
A few years ago, Mr. Sakiyama procured a few photoelectric panels from contacts at
Kyocera, a Japanese solar corporation. These panels are currently used to power lights in the
quilting house (thought the panels can now be found outside the Hinay Hinay Cafe as the
growing canopy has reduced the usable light that hits the roof) and partially power the main
house.
Both Mr. Sakiyama and the Barangay are very interested in advancing solar energy as the
main solution to the energy shortage on Caohagan. They want access to consistent light to allow
students to keep up with their studies and radio to keep updated on news, especially warnings of
natural disasters. The Barangay also recognizes the people’s desire for increased access to
televisions, which is currently directly limited by power supply. Both groups recognize the
importance of training members of the Caohagan community to install and maintain any given
source of power the island implements. Mr. Sakiyama has been working closely with the recently
opened Philippine branch of Kyocera, based in Cebu, to assess the feasibility of this project.
Mr. Sakiyama evidently also has a contact with a group that makes small, solar-powered
desk lights. He has a number of these at the office which were donated. It was unclear exactly
who uses them or how often.
 Evaluation of the actual needs of the people could possibly reduce/eliminate the need for
a centrally planned grid. If more solar lamps and/or crank lamps and radios could be
acquired and distributed, the need for large-scale solar could be drastically reduced.
Resisting the temptation to scale up could achieve Mr. Sakiyama’s goals of restricting
development to protect the environment. This tactic could be problematic however
because of the Caohagan people’s desire for more access to modern amenities.
 Development of solar potential is already underway but it is unclear how much
environmental integrity is being taken into account. Perhaps focus on this?
 Unclear how much the establishment of a central grid is part of the solar plan.
Implementation of this sort of thing could make power distribution more efficient and
equitable.

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Batteries
Some batteries are purchased off-island for use in handheld lights or headlamps and
radios. It is unclear what percentage of these batteries are rechargeable. The small lights are
essential for seafood gathering when the low tide happens at night. Battery powered radios are
important for those families who do not have easy access to usable current and are useful to
others because they can be used even when no generators are on.
 If any batteries are disposable, replacing them with rechargeable batteries would save
waste, money, and time.
Typhoon Vulnerability
Caohagan houses are almost ubiquitously light, open-air structures made out of a motley
collection of light materials shoddily crafted together. This relatively weak architecture
combined with coastal living leaves Caohagan extremely vulnerable to any major storm that hits
it. Luckily, the Olanga atoll is sheltered by the larger surrounding islands. This geologic shield
has protected Caohagan from the catastrophic damage more commonly seen in the North.
Most Caohagan people seem to feel very threatened by typhoons. The community relies
chiefly on prayer to protect them and credits God with the relative lack of damage they’ve
suffered from storms over the years. The Barangay is also concerned about typhoons but doesn’t
really have any ideas on how to increase resiliency. They throw their support behind prayer and
enforce the evacuation plan given to them by the City Government. This plan is limited to a
simple designation of the chapel and the main house of the hotel as the shelter sites for everyone
on the island.
Mr. Sakiyama isn’t very concerned about the island’s vulnerability. No one has been
killed or seriously injured by a storm yet so he sees no reason why the island tradition of
rebuilding in the wake of destructive typhoons should ever end. He sees it as a closed loop;
“some building materials wash away but other wash onshore from other islands and the people
make new homes for those whose homes were destroyed.”
 If a typhoon resistant shelter could be funded, it would, of course, ensure greater
community resiliency to storms. Such a project could also be tied into a number of other
community improvement initiatives, becoming a visible symbol of advancement that the
community could be proud of (i.e. reconstructing the basketball court as a typhoon
resistant shelter equipped with both photoelectric and solar desalination panels).
Water
Seawater
As the most readily available form of water on the island, seawater is used for all water-
intensive activities that do not specifically require freshwater. Seawater is gathered by hand, in
many different kinds of containers, for both private and public use. It is heavily used in the
washing of dishes and clothes, with freshwater used only to rinse at the end. Seawater is also
used in bathing. Most of the Caohagan people wash themselves by taking a container of salt
water to an outside area and using a smaller container, or their hands, to pour it over themselves.
They bathe either in their underwear or, more commonly, swimsuits. Adults are almost never

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naked. The third main use for seawater is sewage. Around the island there are banks of five or
six public toilets. Each bank has a saltwater well outside of it from which people draw water to
“flush” their waste into the septic system. The toilets in the guest bathroom, the main house, and
one guest house actually flush thanks to an elevated saltwater tank on the water tower. The salt
water is pumped up there by a small gasoline pump in a process that can take as long as six
hours. Seawater is also evaporated in bamboo trays to create edible sea salt.
Areas for Potential Improvement:
 Investment in solar desalination infrastructure could reduce, or even eliminate, the
island’s expensive dependence on imported potable water. Such an investment could take
the form of the modification/scaling of existent sea salt production infrastructure (DIY
approach) or the purchase of self-contained desalination units such as those manufactured
by F Cubed Pty Ltd.
 Water pump could be solar powered and/or more powerful, decreasing cost and/or time
involved in moving water to the tower.
Rainwater
When Mr. Sakiyama first came to Caohagan, 23 years ago, the island used rainwater for
100% of its freshwater needs. With less than half of today’s population and significantly lower
consumption rates, Caohagan was relatively self-sufficient. Though the dry season (April-May)
posed a significant challenge to the community, self-imposed austerity measures allowed the
people to survive independent of the mainland, albeit at the cost of great personal hardship.
Today, though heavily supported by imported water, rainwater is still a vital part of
Caohagan’s freshwater supply. Nearly every structure on the island has one or two associated
cisterns: large clay jugs, embedded in the ground, which are fed rudimentary roof catchment
systems. Families harvest and use the water captured by their own cisterns while catchment from
some public buildings is pumped (via a small gasoline-powered pump) up into the water tower to
feed the faucets and showers in the guest bathroom, the main house, and one guest house.
Additionally, there is one larger reservoir for rainwater storage that is fed by the catchment
systems of two public buildings (the building that houses the reservoir and the building that
houses the defunct Barangay generator).
Rainwater storage rarely nears its full capacity because capture is limited not only by
frequency of rainfall, but by the efficiency of the roof catchment systems. Many roofs do not
capture a significant portion of the rain that hit their surface because they either don’t have
gutters or their gutters are faulty or incomplete. Still other buildings have thatched roofs which
are totally incapable of any significant rainwater capture.
As a source of freshwater, the Caohagan people mainly use rainwater for drinking and
cooking. It is also used to rinse dishes and clothes after they have already been sufficiently
washed with seawater. Generally, rainwater is not used for bathing outside of the hotel but it is
occasionally used to rinse after people have already washed with seawater.
 Roof catchment systems could be made more efficient, increasing water capture
 Water pump could be solar powered and/or more powerful, decreasing cost and/or time
involved in moving water to the tower.

P a g e | 14
Imported Potable Water
Over the last twenty years, Caohagan water imports from the urban centers on Cebu and
Mactan have gone from nonexistent to an extremely significant part of the island’s potable water
supply. This increase has been mainly attributed to greater demand from a fast growing
population (which more than doubled during this time period). Additionally, economic
development in the wake of Mr. Sakiyama’s arrival has increased the ability of the average
Caohagan household income, making it much more realistic for people to purchase water from
offshore sources rather than cut back on water consumption.
Imported water takes two main forms on Caohagan; bottled water and bulk water. Bottled
water is almost exclusively purchased by Caohagan House for use by guests and day tourists.
Tourists pay a set fee for each bottle and empty bottles are disposed of via the island’s solid
waste system (see Waste section for details). Bulk water is purchased, presumably by volume, by
the Caohagan people for their own use. All kinds of containers, from the 5 gallon blue jugs you
see in U.S. offices to old oil cartons, are taken by boat to urban centers to be filled. Though some
small degree of collective purchasing may exist, our impression is that families generally buy for
themselves or few others. Additional pooling of water resourceshappens once it has already been
purchased (see Resource Sharing in the Culture section).
Because purchasing is so decentralized, no aggregate data of how much water is
purchased over time exists. One woman estimated that her family of 12 went through between 15
and 20 5-gallon jugs per month during the dry season but these numbers are clearly rough and
certainly vary depending on family size and individual consumption habits. While more water is
definitely purchased during the dry season, we witnessed several large shipments of water arrive
during our time there in January. In addition to boats sent explicitly for water, it seemed that a
trip to Cebu or Mactan for any reason was always accompanied by a water purchase.
As freshwater, imported water is used in the same way as rainwater except that it is also
given to tourists in the form of bottled water. Because this water is sealed from the surrounding
environment until the moment of consumption, there is significantly less risk of bottled water
being contaminated by the strains of bacteria that make tourists sick than, for example, rainwater
which stands in open cisterns for days on end.
 Centralization of water purchasing could make the process more efficient, saving money
and time. Centralization could also provide an opportunity for coordinated data
collection, allowing for accurate estimates of water that would need to be produced in
other ways (ex. saltwater desalination) to replace this costly practice.
 Reuse of plastic water bottles as receptacles for bulk water could reduce waste
 Instillation of water filtration infrastructure at Caohagan house could eliminate the
necessity of purchasing more costly and wasteful bottled water.
Waste
Inorganic Solid Waste
Before Mr. Sakiyama’s arrival, inorganic waste was almost nonexistent on Caohagan and
no formal method for its collection and disposal existed. As the economy of the island began to
develop with growing tourism and, later, the quilting business, more people had the spending

P a g e | 15
money to afford packaged foods and other goods that include non-biodegradable parts.
Currently, the hub of inorganic solid waste collection (i.e. “trash collection”) on Caohagan is the
central trash collection site. This facility is composed of a roughly 40 foot by 40 foot area
hemmed in by a two foot tall concrete wall. People bring plastic bags of trash from their homes
here, where they accumulate until they are taken, by boat, to Cebu by a community member
roughly once a month. When we were there, the central collection site was well past overflowing
its boundaries and trash piled about four or five feet high at the peak.
There are public receptacles across the island which the Caohagan people also use to
deposit their trash. These receptacles allow for some waste segregation, mostly separation
between paper, plastic, and other waste. This is ostensibly to promote recycling but it’s unclear
how effective this is since all of this presumably gets taken to the central collection site where
there is no waste segregation. Additionally, our inspection of the contents of these receptacles
showed that a lot of non-recyclable plastics and other materials were added to the plastics
container. It is unclear to us who empties the containers into the central collection site or how
often; when we were there, all of the containers seemed to be brimming all the time.
No one seems especially concerned with the way trash is disposed of here and no one is
aware of any health risks or other negative effects the trash may be having on the community.
 Basic information sheets attached to public trash receptacles paired with an educational
program tied into either a small amount of class time in the elementary school or a
community gathering would likely be sufficient to at least partially correct erroneous
recycling practices in the community.
 More frequent trash disposal to the main island might decrease risk of illness, but we’re
not ever really sure if that’s an issue here.
Organic Solid Waste
Caohagan has a massive abundance of dead organic material. Mostly leaves with some
coconut husks and other plant matter, this material accumulates daily. As is the case in many
tropical or equatorial regions, the discarded leaves and husks here are slow to decompose
because of a waxy covering that coats them. Not only does new organic waste get created every
day, old organic waste stays for a long time. This phenomena has undoubtedly become much
more severe in the wake of Mr. Sakiyama’s ban on logging.
Currently, the Caohagan people deal with this waste by fastidiously sweeping up all the
leaves with bundles of reeds that serve as brooms. Once they have gathered enough, they dig
holes in the sandy earth and bury them. This process is an everyday occurrence. That is, one
person will sweep the same area every day because there are so many leaves.
 This large quantity of waste could be properly composted in order to increase breakdown
rates and produce usable fertilizers. This would require someone to shred the material and
actively turn it on a daily basis (rather than just burying it). The process could be
additionally improved/accelerated if the cultivation of either vermicompost or a bacterial
solution were to be introduced, but these would require more resources.

P a g e | 16
Sewage
Sewage collection on Caohagan has two main parts: public toilets and the guest toilets.
Public toilets are scattered across the island in banks of five or six blue stalls. There are maybe
five banks in total. Each bank has an associated saltwater well from which community members
draw saltwater with which to “flush” their toilet. The guest toilets have actual flush capacities,
running on saltwater stored in the water tower. These are located in the guest bathroom, the main
house, and one guest house (four toilets in total). Our understanding is that all the toilets feed
into an underground septic system. We are not sure which toilets are connected to the same
septic system (i.e. if there are seven or eight separate septic systems or two or three larger ones).
Apparently the septic allows the most solid sewage to settle out while allowing liquid waste to
flow out into the sea. There is no chemical or biological treatment process.
 Comparative studies of marine life near septic outflows and in other areas could help
evaluate if discharged human waste is having a negative impact on other life.
 If the studies from the previous suggestion indicate that discharged sewage is impacting
the ecology of the island, introducing some sort of sewage treatment system might be
helpful. A biological system would probably be more desirable than a chemical one but
further research should definitely be conducted.

P a g e | 17
Conclusion: The English Project and Reflection
The English Project
Over the course of our stay, we discovered that many Caohagans feel the need for
empowerment through English. English-speaking people from the more rural regions of Visayas
(like Caohagan) have much less difficulty finding jobs in nearby urban centers like Cebu or
Mactan. Currently students learn intro level English in the public schools and hear English on the
radio and TV, but do not get much of an opportunity to speak the language unless they go to
college in Cebu which very few do. In the end, we decided to focus on this fact, using English
education as a leverage point that can not only affect economic development, allowing
Caohagans to better meet their basic needs, but alleviate population pressures by empowering
Caohagans to follow their passions off-island.
Our proposed project will proceed in three phases; the improvement of basic English
education on the island, the establishment of a Caohagan-U.S. exchange program supported by
an intensive English course taught on Caohagan, and, finally, the establishment of the Caohagan
International School for English. Residents have recognized that an opportunity exists to teach
English to students from Japan and Korea. In order to do so they need to become fluent and learn
to teach ESL. To become fluent as fast as possible students need to speak the language as often
as possible. We see an opportunity for an exchange program that sends native speakers from the
US to Caohagan to teach English to Caohagans and that sends Caohagans to the US for one
academic school year to be immersed in the language and learn how to teach ESL. The end goal
is for Caohagan's to take over teaching English on the island and for the US teachers to be
phased out.
Phase 1: Improving Basic English Education on Caohagan
The goal of phase one is to empower Caohagan teachers to improve the English
curriculum in the elementary school on Caohagan. They have expressed a pressing need for
certain technologies that would help them significantly improve the current English curriculum.
First, they need ESL audio tools such as CDs, CD players, and recording devices. These devices
are essential for practicing English via repetition and for students to hear native pronunciations,
as the English teachers in the public school are not native speakers. Second, the school is in need
of computers. Computers could serve as recording devices and audio players, and they would
also have long term effects for the students. Students on Caohagan currently have no exposure to
computers until they go to high school on another island, where they often fall behind other
students because they have to spend a significant amount of time just learning how to use a
computer. Even just a couple computers in the school on Caohagan would help students learn to
type and navigate a computer.

P a g e | 18
Phase 2: Creating a Caohagan English Intensive Program and a Caohagan-U.S. Exchange
This phase will begin the proper overhaul of English education that Caohagan wants and
needs. Its immediate goal is to produce a self-sustaining system through which Caohagan can
grow its English education system. To this end, it aims to produce both a large number of
students proficient in English and a small number of students qualified to teach English. Phase 2
has three main parts: the selection and training of American teachers, the intensive English
education of Caohagan students by American teachers, and the preparation of a few outstanding
Caohagan students to be English teachers on the island through a year-long study abroad
experience in the U.S
American English teachers will be selected from a pool of applicants recruited mainly
from Oberlin College's graduating class through a two-tier process. First, potential participants
will submit a written application designed to assess their relevant experience and ability to use
the opportunity productively. Those that are determined to be eligible for the program will then
be invited to participate in a round of interviews with members of the steering committee to
qualify as full participants. Once selected, participants will undergo an intensive training
program in ESL education and be logistically prepared for their role in Caohagan.
Once arrived in Caohagan, American teachers will begin instructing an intensive English
course to Caohagan high-school graduates and, possibly, a few high-school students. This
intensive will meet daily and be conducted according to a curriculum decided jointly by the
teachers and the steering committee during the teachers' preparation. During their off-time,
teachers will be free to pursue their interests and enjoy the natural beauty of the island and its
people as a guest of Caohagan House.
Once the English intensive is in session, the priority of the American teachers will be to
select two outstanding students to be designated Future Teachers. These Future Teachers will be
sent to the U.S. for a year-long immersive experience designed to inculcate for English fluency
and ESL teaching capacity. Upon their return to Caohagan, these teachers will, after a training
period under the current American teacher, they will take over instruction of the English
intensive and commence Phase 3.
Phase 3: Establishing Caohagan International School for English
The goal of phase three is to set up an English school on Caohagan for Japanese and
Korean students run by the Caohagan teachers trained in phase two. One on one intensive
English schools are becoming very popular on the main island near Caohagan and are a great
opportunity for Caohagan to participate in a growing business. Setting one up on Caohagan
would create jobs on the island and serve as a great source of pride for the community.
In order to create the school, a facility needs to be chosen or built, Caohagans need to
become fluent in English in phase two, and Japanese and Korean students need to be recruited.

P a g e | 19
Mr. Sakiyama, the owner Caohagan House, is willing to provide the facility. Caohagan teachers
should not need training beyond phase two, but could continue their education by connecting
with English teachers on other islands- a process that Mr. Sakiyama could facilitate. The
program is still in need of funding for curriculum and advertising materials. Based on space
available on the island, it would be ideal to have 5 students there at a time, which would require
5 teachers.
Reflection
Prior to this trip, I had what I would call a simplistic, academic understanding of the
cultural and economic dynamics of globalization. As a good Oberlin student, trained by
discourse of environmental justice global inequality, I knew of the flaws of classic modernization
theory by rote:
 Economic liberalization entrenches poverty amongst disadvantaged peoples instead of
catalyzing universal wealth accumulation.
 Ubiquitous information technology threatens indigenous culture rather than causing
blanket improvements to standards of living.
 The developed world is neocolonially instrumental and paternalistic, rather than
altruistically supportive, in its dealings with developing nations.
My belief in these tenets as truths logically led me to a total rejection of global capital, and
globalization in general, as a locus or mechanism for positive change. Nothing good could come
from within the system that, by its very nature, produces so much evil.
Coming to the Philippines with these views, I felt ready to fully support Mr. Sakiyama in
his project of maintaining a traditional Caohagan as a model small sustainable community (an
ideal which resonated deeply with the Obie in me). He preached appreciation of the culture for
its joyous simplicity, tight-knit community, and dedication to sustainability to his Japanese
colleagues in seven separate books. He had no explicit designs to exploit the people’s labor or
their resources. He was outright opposed to contaminating the local culture with his own. He
seemed to be the absolute antithesis to the coercive neocolonial presence that I had come to
expect from the global core, someone who truly wanted to protect people from globalization.
Despite this seemingly ideal situation, I began to happen upon unexpected threads of
discord. As I became more involved in the community, these threads wove into a tapestry of
discontent. A number of people that we talked to, mostly adults aged 25-35, expressed
frustration, resentment, and even outright dislike for Mr. Sakiyama. They felt that his agenda was
unnecessarily isolating the community from the outside world, repressing their potential without
anything remotely resembling their consent. They wanted increased access to electricity,
education, and technology. They wanted computers, especially in the elementary school where
students had to learn computer skills from pictures and cardboard cutouts for standardized tests.
They wanted to ameliorate restrictions on tourism to increase both income and exposure to the

P a g e | 20
outside world. They wanted better English education to increase their mobility and power within
and beyond the Philippines. They wanted globalization and they wanted it for good reasons.
This realization sent my Oberlin brain reeling. How do I reconcile my beliefs about the
negative qualities of globalization with these people’s desire for real, tangible improvements in
their lives? I couldn’t tell them they were wrong, that their desires were manufactured by the
core, that they were falling into a cycle of exploitation. Somehow these things didn’t seem so
true anymore. They could derive real, immediate improvements to their quality of life by
learning English and assimilating into the Philippines’ liberal economy, what could cultural
isolation offer them?
While the Caohagan Project didn’t undermine my beliefs about the evils of globalization
per se, it certainly helped me evolve a more nuanced view of globalization and development. It
brought up questions of agency and responsibility. When can a person or community freely
decide what is best for them? Under what conditions do we think of a people as coerced or
forced into a choice? What right do I, or anyone, have to tell people that globalization is bad
from an academic standpoint when it has the potential to bring so much real-world good into
their lives? While I’m not yet able to answer these questions fully, the fact that they are floating
around in my head allows me to look at my beliefs with a more critical eye. This, I believe, is the
greatest lesson I drew from my experience working on this project.

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