Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers wave to residents of Tacloban while offering aid in the Philippine city following Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013. (Photo courtesy of Tzu Chi Foundation Philippines)
Taiwan educational, humanitarian and religious institutions are strengthening people-to-people exchanges with the Philippines.
Judith O. Casco, a borough chief in the Philippine city of Tacloban, had never heard of Tzu Chi Foundation, a Taiwan-based Buddhist charity, before Typhoon Haiyan struck the country in November 2013. She is now a devoted volunteer with the nongovernmental organization (NGO), a result of its extensive humanitarian work in the aftermath of the storm that killed over 6,000 people and displaced many more.
“Everything was gone. Everyone was utterly hopeless,” Casco said. “I’m truly grateful to Tzu Chi for all it did to improve the situation.”
After providing relief supplies, the NGO launched a variety of programs to expedite post-disaster cleanup, such as paying those in impacted communities to remove debris. Tzu Chi volunteers from Taiwan and around the world also descended upon Tacloban to assist Filipino members with reconstruction projects, including the building of more than 1,700 prefabricated housing units.
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“The cash-for-cleanup drive organized by Tzu Chi was terrific,” Casco said. “I’d never heard of such a thing before, but it really helped communities regain a semblance of normality.”
Founded in 1966 by Dharma Master Cheng Yen (證嚴), Tzu Chi has offices in more than 40 countries around the world. The foundation opened its first Philippine branch in Manila in 1994 and has since recruited about 1,000 volunteers across the Southeast Asian country to deliver humanitarian assistance, offer free medical services and promote recycling. Tzu Chi’s efforts in the wake of Haiyan, the deadliest natural disaster on record in the Philippines, were on a scale unlike any it had previously conducted in the country, drawing greater awareness to its work.
“Locals are still very grateful to Tzu Chi today because we came to their aid in the most difficult of times,” said Alfredo T. Li (李偉嵩), the Philippine chapter’s deputy CEO. “We brought not only aid, but the idea that compassion knows no religious or racial differences.”
In addition to its work in the Philippines, Tzu Chi has a longstanding commitment to helping Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan, who comprise the third largest group of foreign laborers at more than 140,000. The NGO regularly organizes free medical stations at prominent gathering places and offers emergency financial support in case of illness or injury. In recognition of these efforts, the NGO in December 2016 received the Kaanib ng Bayan Award, an honor conferred biennially by the Philippine president to foreign individuals or organizations for their contributions to the country’s progress and development, or for their efforts to assist overseas Filipino communities.
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Compassion and Faith
Tzu Chi was far from the only Taiwan-headquartered NGO to offer aid in the Philippines following Haiyan. Fo Guang Shan (FGS), a fellow Taiwan-based Buddhist charity founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun (星雲) in 1967, stepped forward to provide assistance to those impacted by the storm. It organized collection and donation campaigns and, like Tzu Chi, worked with the Republic of China (Taiwan) government to deliver supplies to disaster areas.
The group first began operating in the Philippines in 1989 by offering religious instruction at an existing Buddhist temple in the city of Cebu. Three years later, FGS opened a small Buddhist center in Manila’s Chinatown area before relocating it to another part of the city in 1993. The facility was named Mabuhay Temple after undergoing extensive renovations from 2002 to 2009.
“FGS strives to change people’s lives through education,” said Venerable Master Miao Jing (妙淨), abbot of Mabuhay Temple. “We hope all children yearning to receive an education can see their wish fulfilled.”
At the invitation of the Philippine government, the group established Guang Ming College (GMC) in 2013. Housed in its Manila temple, the college is the only tertiary education institution founded by a Buddhist organization in the majority Catholic country. It is also the fifth institute of higher learning established by FGS worldwide, following two others in Taiwan and one each in Australia and the U.S.
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GMC has three departments: Buddhist studies, dance and theater, the former of which is unique in the Philippines. The college’s student body of about 100 consists primarily of academically gifted high school graduates from impoverished families in remote regions. Enrollees receive full scholarships and free accommodation for the duration of their studies.
Students are not required to convert to Buddhism, though they are expected to follow certain practices such as vegetarianism. “Parents sometimes have doubts about our school because relatively few people in the Philippines have a good understanding of Buddhism,” Miao Jing said. “To alleviate their concerns, we make trips to the students’ hometowns and talk to their families and even teachers in person.”
Plans are underway to relocate the college to a new dedicated campus in Tagaytay City to the south of Manila, with FGS breaking ground on the site in January. Following the move, the nonprofit intends to expand GMC’s student body and introduce two new departments focusing on music and vegetarian science.
As fostering international exchanges forms a fundamental component of the group’s mission, FGS organizes regular activities aimed at cultivating connections among its students around the world. According to Miao Jing, under one such program, about 30 GMC undergraduates are selected each year to attend the International Youth Seminar on Life and Ch’an—or Zen in Japanese—a major FGS event held in Taiwan since 2009.
Charie Natividad Eusores, a 19-year-old Filipina enrolled in the college’s Department of Buddhist Studies, is a keen student of the FGS philosophy of Humanistic Buddhism, which advocates integrating principles such as altruism into everyday life. “I try to apply the ideals I study when I return to my home village,” she said. “Also through the college, I’ve had the opportunity to visit Taiwan and learn how people live there, which has opened my eyes to the world.”
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Partners in Education
The Buddhist NGO’s exchange programs reflect wider measures to expand tertiary education ties between Taiwan and the Philippines. “There’s a need for Taiwan universities to diversify target countries in recruiting students from Southeast Asia, and the Philippines holds huge potential in this respect,” said Yen Hong-wei (顏宏偉), dean of the Office of International Education and Programs at Tunghai University in central Taiwan’s Taichung City.
According to Ministry of Education statistics, domestic universities enrolled just 212 degree-seeking Filipino students in 2016, compared with 12,689 from Malaysia. One of the groups working to boost this number is the Southern Taiwan University Alliance (STUA). Established in 2014, the association aims to bolster exchanges between its 11 members and universities across the region.
STUA started by forging links with the University of the Philippines (UP), the country’s most prestigious tertiary education system with campuses nationwide and a student body of about 60,000. UP is eager to raise its global status by improving the academic credentials of its faculty, only about 30 percent of whom hold doctorates, according to Wu Eing-ming (吳英明), a professor of public administration at Shu-Te University, an STUA member in southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City.
“We can play a role in addressing UP concerns by helping faculty members pursue postgraduate degrees in Taiwan,” Wu said. “The more UP professors who come to Taiwan, the more interest we’ll draw from Filipino students who want to study overseas.”
STUA’s efforts have garnered support from the private sector. Kindness Hotel, a Kaohsiung-based chain, has established a guesthouse in the southern port city to provide free accommodation for visiting UP scholars. Since the beginning of this year, eight groups of UP faculty members, totaling some 70 people, have stayed at the guesthouse while attending interviews for postgraduate courses at STUA schools. Ten are scheduled to begin their studies in September, with many others expected to follow over the next two years.
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According to UP President Danilo L. Concepcion, there is substantial room for growth in ties between his university and Taiwan-based institutions. “We can also conduct joint research programs in areas such as food security and computer science,” he said.
Concepcion, a professor of law, paid his most recent visit to Taiwan in April as head of UP’s delegation to the first Taiwan-Philippines Legal Collaboration Forum. Co-organized by STUA-member National University of Kaohsiung and UP, the forum is expected to become an annual event held alternatively in the two countries.
Efforts to forge partnerships between Taiwan and Philippine universities have garnered strong support from the governments of both countries. In March, the ROC Ministry of Education and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) under the Philippine Office of the President jointly arranged a tour of Taiwan universities for the heads of 26 Philippine institutes of higher learning. “This marked a significant step in building partnerships between the two sides. Philippine universities used to look to Japan, the U.S. and Europe for international exchanges, but we need to expand our horizons and look to our neighbors,” said Alex B. Brillantes Jr., a UP professor who was CHED commissioner at the time of the tour.
Brillantes expressed confidence about the continued growth of such interactions, citing recent initiatives by the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) to deepen connections with Taiwan organizations. PASUC, which represents 102 public institutions, hosted a meeting in Manila in early July with a 17-member delegation from nine universities in southern Taiwan. The two sides inked several agreements aimed at boosting ties between their schools.
Wu is similarly optimistic on future opportunities for education collaboration, stating that through such efforts Taiwan can play an important role in strengthening human capital development in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations. “Perhaps more significantly, education exchanges will foster mutual understanding and goodwill,” he said.
