Kalahi makes a difference To the Eskayas of Lundag

by aimee | Jul 28, 2012 | Local News / Bohol Balita

Rey Anthony Chiu

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, July 28, 2012 (PIA) – Perched atop the mountain fastness of Lundag in Pilar town, a community of indigenous people has held on to the tradition of the Eskaya for generations.

About twenty kilometers away, in the hazy flatlands west of the mountains lie the town center.

Other than the visual connection, a dirt road that winds up the mountains is the Eskayas only connection to the outside world.

While preserving the culture and tradition ranks high in the government’s priorities for the tribe that occupies the boundaries of Duero, Guindulman, Candijay, Pilar and Sierra Bullones towns, would relegating them in their tiny remote worlds be enough justification that they be kept away from civilization?

This question nagged the past mayors of Pilar town who also thought these people do not deserve shrugs of indifference.

Attempts to connect the tribe to the Poblacion in Pilar started then in the past, but the makeshift road that links the two centers has dilapidated itself, and some portions of it are best navigated on foot.

Although not your all weather type of road, the access drastically cut walking time from Lundag to the town center in half, not yet so ideal for Eskaya vegetable traders to get their products to the market before they wilt.

Spring onions and cabbage can not be sold at premium price when wilted, confesses a woman tribe member.

Remote and inaccessible for most part of the time, especially on rainy days, the Eskayas of Lundag learned high value commercial crop cultivation aided by the high altitudes and the kind of soil that most forest fringed communities.

But with a road carved out of the mountain sides, rains erode the road surfaces and brings in knee deep mud that cuts off the village, said Lundag Eskaya elder Eugene Lloren.

We have to devise a plan to strengthen the portions that are most impassable, said Mayor Wilson Pajo, who was among those chief executives who vigorously believes Eskaya or not, they deserve access too government help like any other minority groups.

But, at a loss of development funds, the town can only do as much: scrape land-slid portions and pray the road retains its form until the next rainy season.

When the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development came, things emerged bright, admits Gualberto Jaspe, Pilar Information Officer.

With it, the Eskaya and the barangay council organized to come up with a community participatory assessment of the village needs, and deciding on fixing the inaccessible parts of the 18 kilometer makeshift road earned no objections.

Funded by the Word Bank, Kalahi helped bond people of the Eskaya and the rural community in Lundag, pushed them to identify more critical portions of the road so the appropriate rehabilitation works could be done to assure the steady stream of vegetable buyers from transporting the products.

When the project funds ran out, another round of project funds from the Millennium Challenge Account opened, and this lengthened the rehabilitation, Gualberto Jaspe said.

Jaspe, who sits as SB Secretary, information officer and personnel officer said the Eskaya and the baragay leaders picked the most difficult parts of the road for rehabilitation and put in community labor to complete the project.

Now after rehabilitating portions of the farm to market roads, tribe traders said getting their products to the town center can be done in 30 minutes, way better than the two hours then.

It also means that their products get less product spoilage owing to better roads, even if much could be desired.

We just make do with the little we have and make sure traders can get their trucks up the mountains, Mayor Pajo added.

This way, we make sure the Eskaya gets a much better financial freedom, even if we would wish they keep their traditions with them, the mayor said.

In Pilar, local officials desire that the Eskaya keep their culture from contamination. But keeping them in their world high up in the mountains deprive them of the services they deserve. The road network is just a link, when people use it, it opens up a different kind of life for their kids.

They deserve it. (30)

A KALAHI MCA feature… Mabini farmers tame Tabunok floods with 300 meter river dike

by aimee | Jul 27, 2012 | Local News / Bohol Balita

Rey Anthony Chiu

MABINI, Bohol, July 21, 2012 (PIA) –Then, most farmers could only look helplessly as the floodwaters from the overflowing Tabunok River creep up and drown their rice crops.

Now, armed with the participatory assessment skills, plus an engineering inspiration, they have high hopes that their efforts give them a good fighting chance against the notorious floods that has claimed several lives here.

For most farmers, “tabunok” spells good harvest. Here, Tabunok is also fatal and destructive.

Tabunok, a local term for rich loam deposits left after a flood, is what most farmers here capitalize to produce the harvest in the more that 150 hectares of rice and prime farmlands.

The rich loam deposit, which the river brings, also causes the river to be called Tabunok.

Tabunok River partly assures people of good harvest when it brings in the rich soil during its flow. And when the water is just a bit too much, the flow also portends death and destruction, when the collected rainwater from the grazing grounds upriver converge to wash down Cogtong Bay, said Barangay Chairman Rodrigo Vallespin.

When that happens, he admits he could not sleep as he has to direct the barangay disaster council to effect the evacuations, knowing that the flooding may not only destroy crops.

When the floods come, it would be in a flash, he said adding that a school girl crossing the ankle deep stream down river was suddenly washed out to sea when the raging water tumbled down.

When the rains come at night, I could not sleep tight, knowing that down the village center, the water built up in the mountains could easily flood the ricefields and endanger the people.

To protect the barangay from the breaching of the river, the people in one participatory situational analysis identified a river control dike to guide the water’s flow and spare the barangay from the gush.

An 80 meter river dike funded by the barangay calamity fund proved to be one huge help then in 2008.

But during bigger rains, the water overflows before the wall, still filling the vast plains, shares Margarita Vallespin.

With several other concerns the barangay has to face, completely putting up the river dike as floodwater control was only a dream for the people. Until Makamasang Tugon (MT) came.

A fund granted by the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to continue the government package of assistance for identified communities previously named Kalahi, the MT stirred the hope of the people of flood-prone San Isidro.

Having already identified the dike as a priority, the barangay tapped the sub-project fund for another 285 meters of flood control dike.

The fund grant is only a sub project, explains DSWD Regional Social Marketing Officer Simeon Remata III, as the primary project is training and mentoring communities to function on their own, driven by the development they earlier identified.

To make sure they get the most out of the funds, the Barangay Sub-Project Management Council decided to implement the project on their own, in a system DSWD called the community force account.

In fact, we made sure that the project is completed within a month, to let us be assured that the dike is in place before the rains come in July, chairman Vallespin, who also sits in the BSPMC admitted.

Implemented in February this year, the 285 meters flood control project even accomplished 15 meter more, Vallespin boasts.

Now snaking along the river path, the dike rises a good two feet above the plains, the approximately a feet above the usual flooding height, the community members attest.

Now with a dike that is designed to protect them and their fields, it is now up to the coming rainy season to prove if the taming of the river works.

It, however is not a problem for the barangay chairman who knows exactly what to do if that happens. (30)

ready to harvest rice during off season rains, confesses Barangay Chairman or feeds solves loess n inundation brings Rain water falling to the vast catch-ment of rolling cattle grazing grounds, collect to small creeks and tributaries until they converge into a river that gushes out to Cogtong Bay.

on an To the sea, Tabunok River flows through Barangay San Isidro as a major blessing to the river delta formed at its mouth Like any