Petens and Minchels

Chiama Felicho migrates into the minchelar realm

Chiama Felicho was a municipality in Northeastern Mindanao, Philippines. Its name meant "all-time happiness" in Esperanto. The municipality was mostly rural, and had 7 barangays. Like all other Philippines municipalities, Chiama Felicho had a primary school, a secondary school, a fire station, a police station, and a transport terminal. Chiama Felicho's economy relied on farming, fishing, and stonemasonry, barely enough to feed its residents.

What made this municipality stand out however was not its economy, but the collective low self-confidence among its residents. Visitors to Chiama Felicho often noticed that the residents hardly had a sense of purpose other than being happy.

The municipal government itself rarely participated in political events with its peers. It also reminded that Chiama Felicho doesn't deserve to be a municipality and that it must instead migrate into a completely new political system, outside of the governmental universe. The residents likewise had that sentiment.

Despite almost-zero local revenue, the municipal government and component barangays rejected all funding from the national government, arguing instead that such funds are better spent on more deserving projects.

Throughout its history, the municipal officials and their component barangay counterparts complained of the amount of responsibilities that came with working for governments. To reduce workload, the residents slowed down their movements and minimized business operations. Aware of the responsibilities, no residents of Chiama Felico were willing to participate in government, let alone running for public office.

During elections, all candidates that were Chiama Felicho residents expressed anxiety about the incoming responsibilities. The candidates said that they ran for office only to keep the municipality running.

The residents of Chiama Felicho were considering lower-maintenance governance systems, but a gardener with neither experience in politics nor connection to any governmental politicians found one that fits perfectly: the minchel. The minchel has gentle and elastic authority. It has 2 main components: the manager and the planner. The rules of the minchel are expected to be easier to implement and follow.

The residents of Chiama Felicho found the minchel the right place for them. The gardener, along with some officials of the municipal government, established the Order of Chiama Felicho to set up the new minchel.

The municipal government then drafted a bill that the municipality of Chiama Felicho be merged into the neighboring municipality of Fortika Arbaro, a commercial and industrial center. The name Fortika Arbaro meant "fortified forest" in Esperanto. The Order of Chiama Felicho chose the sapmelis as the form of minchel, meaning that elections would be conducted and members would have a voice in how the minchel was operated.

While the bill was being discussed in the Philippine Congress, the residents of Chiama Felicho joined the order in large numbers. In less than half a year, all residents were members of the order. Neighboring municipalities and provinces urged Chiama Felicho residents to continue the municipality. The national government also offered financial and development assistance. However, the residents ignored them completely, and instead continued endorsing minchelar politics.

The Chiama Felicho municipal government prepared for its dissolution by seeing all its employees resign; it also found nobody to replace the resigned employees. The resignation trend continued to the point where the last remaining employees of the municipal government were the mayor, the vice-mayor, and the councillor.

A few weeks before the referendum to dissolve the municipality was conducted, the Chiama Felicho government reminded the residents to vote for the municipal officials of Fortika Arbaro. When the referendum was conducted, virtually all residents agreed to merge Chiama Felicho into Fortika Arbaro.

The Sapmelis of Chiama Felicho revealed its political structure. It had 3 basic components: the manager, the planner, and a component for communicating with other kinds of political entities. The manager component had subcomponents for various areas of labor, while the planner component represented geographic areas. The members of the sapmelis would vote for the planners and the chief manager. The planners would choose the chief planner, while the chief manager would appoint the managers.

Any planner could propose rules or programs from any topics. Any proposed rules or programs that received at least 55% yes vote in the planner component would be considered passed. The chief manager could choose to declare passed rules active or inactive. All passed rules were active by default. Active rules could be implemented by anyone, for as long as the minchel permitted it. The chief manager would assign an appropriate manager to implement the rules.

When the first minchelar election was conducted, the members chose a stonemason as the first chief manager. The elected planners chose the gardener as the chief planner.