Editorial Preface
The Southeastern Philippines Journal of Research and Development releases Volume 28, Issue 2, with its monumental achievement of being indexed in the renowned Scopus database. This milestone serves as concrete evidence that the SPJRD Editorial Board and the contributions of its authors have effectively reached a global audience. Moreover, the inclusion of its articles from 2021 up to the present in the Scopus database enhances the reputation and credibility of the researchers and promotes research collaboration with international scholars.
The SPJRD continues its commitment with the publication of the September 2023 issue that discusses matters of race, culture, language, and business in the ASEAN, all familiar but still critical and relevant issues to our times. Out of 33 submissions, only five articles passed the stringent peer review process.
Nasirin Abdillah of the Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, in A Fictocritical Narration of the Complexity of Nation-Building in Malaysia, looks at the sociopolitical, cultural, and mythical nuances in the form of creative arts where the genre of fictocriticism serves as a creative contextualization narrating the complexity of the idea of nation and racial identity. Abdillah argues that “the dreams of a truly united Malaysia can be realized through the arts, not necessarily via history subject, and in this case, by creating the story of a nation.”
If the previous article contributes to the idea of narrating the nation – its hopes and aspirations, in the context of creative arts, Cultural Motifs in Blaan Flalok: Revitalization of Oral Lore for Preservation, Development, and Sustainability by John Vianney S. Trocio of the Department of Education (DepEd), Philippines, and his co-writers from DepEd, Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, and the University of Southeastern Philippines, provides more starting points for enduring cultural motifs to be part of the broader cultural appreciation reflected in Philippine arts. Following ethical and credible approaches to working with Blaan, an indigenous people group in General Santos, Saranggani, and South Cotabato, Philippines, the study of Trocio and his colleagues revealed that the frequent Blaan cultural motifs on the flalok included familial relationships, domestic work, tribal war, competitions, animal trapping, and agricultural farming. The study could be used as supplementary readings and positive entry to professionals working with indigenous cultural communities, or partnering for research.
Also concerned with indigenous peoples (IPs) in Mindanao, but this time through linguistics is the paper Politeness Strategies of Manobo Students in a Classroom in Kidapawan City, Philippines by Rea Rodesa Sandoval-Delos Santos of the Ateneo de Davao University and her counterparts from Davao Doctors College, USeP, and Muban Chombueng Rajabhat University-Thailand. Employing qualitative analysis, Sandoval and her co-authors found that the Manobo students have different politeness strategies depending on their relationship with the interlocutors in the classroom interaction. Scholars of linguistics and education will draw insights from the findings that there could be more ways of improving the learning atmosphere with IPs as students.
The last two articles of this issue deal with business. In Preliminary Analysis of Cross-shareholding in the Green Supply Chain and Recommendations for Regulatory Policy in the Philippines, Tran Nguyen Phuoc Thong and Dao Thi Thu Hang of Vietnam National University confirm that the cross-ownership can help businesses in the network share costs, including the cost of producing green products to protect the environment. Deploying the method of jurisprudence, Thong and Hang offer some recommendations that aim to refine policy and legislation in the Philippines to effectively utilize trade credit, equity ratios, and cross-shareholdings in supply chain management.
The other article on business, Predictors of Internet Banking Services Adoption among Depositors in Davao City, Philippines, by Rimark Inhambre of East West Rural Bank, Inc. in Davao City and Rosfe Corlae Badoy of USeP draws attention to the need for heightened awareness of internet banking services, its risks and benefits, in order to increase patronage and protection among the clients.
Rigorously vetted by international experts, we hope this edition will inspire scholars and critics to continuously engage with issues that beleaguer us in order to develop forward-looking projects, activities, and policies. Through this, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development and resilience of our communities in the ASEAN, thereby ensuring a more promising future for generations to come.
Sajed S. Ingilan
SPJRD Editor-in-Chief
