Abstract
“Engaging the future” in the present paper refers to a course of action taken by individuals orgroups of people who prefer not to neglect but rather tackle social issues that Filipino people presently face. They analyze problems from unique perspectives and attempt to createalternative social institutions to cope with them towards the potential “future” they believe the Philippines has been deprived of in the course of colonization and globalization. To present anexample of such Filipinos, we focus on the founder of the first Health cooperative in the Philippines. Specifically, we read his narratives about his loyalty to the “community” he belongs to. This research intends to make three contributions. Theoretically, it offers an alternative perspective to study individuals and organizations whose natures are not particularly political but who contribute to social reforms in the process of re-democratization after 1986 in the Philippines as a “weak” state. Methodologically, it provides the potential to analyze narratives (autobiographies)of individuals by applying the concepts of Exit, Voice and Loyalty by Albert O. Hirschman. Ethnographically, it details the agency of a Filipino surgeon who dreams about and works for the future where in Filipinos will retrieve their “lost” autonomy through their cooperative movement.
