Historic, Old Churches of the Philippines.

This is a ‘huge’ departure from our visits of historic churches in our part of the Philippines. Here is a story that I feel just has to be told, because, from the  research I have done in the past week, it is very prevalent and something just has to be done URGENTLY. Perhaps, this will move you, the followers of our site and we fervently hope that it will especially prod the ‘others’, who are in high positions to act on this festering problem and to do something tangible for the people who are suffering through the same or similar predicaments as the people in this story.

While tens and perhaps hundreds of people in Philippines are regularly being charged with graft or absconding with the people’s money in one way or another or are caught standing around with their hands out asking for a few hundred pesos to make sure something or other gets done in a timely fashion…the rich just keep on getting richer, but at whose expense?

Now, I may be demonstrating my naiveté in this but did you ever think about what the other side of the graft and corruption story might be?

Well, we have one that defies understanding. In our way of thinking, this is a scandal that gives our entire society a bad name and just as scandalous is the conduct or complete lack of it by some in the political classes and especially the church.

Oh, they all talk a great line, they pontificate and blabber on with empty, meaningless promises and rhetoric and not one of them delivers anything of any substance when and where the need exists.

But there are exceptions to every rule. We are quite fortunate in the Oton area where three of our politicians are really active in providing for the poor and disadvantaged. They are: Congresswoman Janet Garin, MD of the 1^st District of Iloilo, Mayor Vincente Flores of Oton and Captain Guilmar Capaciete of Barangay Buray. All three have developed extensive and very successful health and welfare programs for the poor and disadvantaged in their area.

Some others however, act deplorably and leave those ‘indigent’ people to their own devices; insisting on “playing politics” and not working across party lines to help their indigent constituents be able to live a little better life. That’s the case in some of Oton’s Barangays such Botong and Cabanbanan. Sad…

We just learned about Mary Anne’s plight recently and it is outrageous. She lives in Barangay Botong.

As a result of our observations and research we have decided that something has to be done and done NOW for both her and her family!

Of course, there are thousands, if not millions, of others across the Philippines that suffer the same trials and tribulations as this family; but you have to start somewhere and we’ve decided that we’re going to try to start with this family, because we know of them although not very well.

We’re going to take it slowly, one step at a time and we hope that with time that we may be able to build this effort into something really worthwhile to  benefit more and more people across the province of Iloilo.

This is Mary Anne’s story in brief.

Let me tell you the story of Mary Anne, her husband Ralph and their children (we’ve changed their names, to protect their privacy).

Mary Anne and Ralph are 42 years old; Mary Anne is a high school graduate and Ralph, well, he only finished 3^rd grade. Neither has been employed for the longest time although both are eager to work. Ralph works as a ‘deck hand’/fisherman when ever possible and can do carpentry work. Mary Anne, on the other hand, has been a ‘housewife’ all her life raising 12 children and she has worked as a domestic/household helper for various people in the area as often as possible. Their family of 12 ranges in ages from Matthew aged 21 to the baby, Reina aged 3. They have managed, to just barely exist through the years.

None of the older children have finished elementary school, although two daughters are currently in high school, but one is about to drop out because as she says: “I’m hungry all the time and there’s never any food to eat…”. When we visited, on October 25^th at about 10am – there were 8 family members milling about or helping build their new Nipa hut. None had eaten anything since yesterday’s ‘snack’ in late afternoon. It’s a good thing we stopped at the bakery on the way and brought along a load of pandesal. After visiting I was so moved that I left whatever cash I had in my pockets (less than P100) to Mary Anne and she was off like a shot to get as much rice as possible for today’s lunch. After that who knows?

Mary Anne & Ralph and their brood used to live on 800 square meters of waterfront land that had been owned by Mary Anne’s grandmother’s family since very early on.

This part is truly outrageous!

The story goes that Lola (Grandma), being in desperation over the illness of one of her children, had to borrow money back in 1945 to pay a Doctor who had cared for the sick child. The lender insisted on the land being signed over as collateral for the loan. You have to remember that these folks are functionally illiterate. The loan was for the princely sum of P50 and apparently it was never repaid. The original lender died in 1996 and had, before her death, demanded P80, 000 to release the collateral assignment. That’s an amount allegedly representing the taxes paid on the property for the 51 intervening years. [The land is currently estimated to be worth about P2, 500 per square meter or a total of about: P20, 000,000 – not too bad a return on a P50 loan.]

Mary Anne’s family obviously had no way to pay such an exorbitant amount. And so it was left until just last week when the family of the original lender [her son, a lawyer and his wife who is a senior government employee] summarily evicted Mary Anne and her family from their ancestral land and they had Mary Anne’s very humble, tiny nipa hut demolished to make sure they left.

There she is Mary Anne with no ‘home’, no land, not a centavo to her name with 12 children to support and a house to build to provide even the barest of shelter from the elements. Being very resourceful, as most Filipinos are, she and Ralph salvaged as much of their old nipa home as possible and moved a couple of hundred yards down to the beach where they started to build another hut to shelter the family. There is no running water, there are no toilet facilities available and they, former land owners are now squatters on the beach just 50 yards from the ocean and less than a couple hundred yards from their ancestral land.

[I think they need a great lawyer in the worst way. If there's is one out there with a heart, willing to reach out to help this family who have been "royally screwed" out of their land and who is willing to take on the case Pro Bono or even on a Contingency basis, please contact us through the comment section below and we'll put you in touch].

Here’s what that ancestral land looks like after the partial demolition of Mary Anne and Ralph’s family home:

If we walk just a few hundred feet from the above piles of ‘debris’, take a right turn and head down the pathway past several homes towards the beach, we eventually arrive at the site of Mary Anne & Ralph’s new home. There is no help from anyone, not government officials, not even the neighbours who just sit by and watch. That is, except for the older lady seen in the photos above who ‘risked’ helping them out by moving building materials from the roadside pile to the ‘construction site’.

Yes, that’s right; all the while everyone just sat back and watched!

What does that say about our society?

The view  from their new home is truly astounding! It’s actually a very beautiful location overlooking the ocean. When we arrive, the family is hard at work getting their new home up before the rains from Tropical Storm Ofel come again. The rains came last night and there was a veritable deluge – this whole area is under a SIGNAL 2 Tropical Storm Warning and we’re expecting the worst of the storm tonight and tomorrow. How these people have and will manage is truly a puzzlement to me.

Here’s what the new house project looks like to this point.

Nice, eh? So what’s to do?

The first two things you can do to help are:

1. Support, no insist on the speedy passage of the RH Bill, that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is fighting so hard to defeat. Where are they in cases such as these? Where are their morals? In three words: “They have none”. They should be out there in front being community leaders and actively helping poor and disadvantaged persons such as these. If the case of Mary Anne and her family isn’t a classic example of the need for the RH Bill and the services it would provide I don’t know what is. Election time is coming soon, so please contact your congressman and senator and tell them to stop the dithering, and you want, NO you insist the bill be passed immediately if not sooner.
2. Speak with your Barangay Captain, your Municipal Mayor or Councilman, your Congressman and Senator ask them what they are doing to help their constituents who find themselves in the circumstances similar to Mary Anne and her family, they’re called by the completely demeaning and  unacceptable term: “indigents”. Insist on getting the details of their plans (if they have any, which is highly doubtful) and a time schedule for action on those supposed plans…and remember those things when comes election day…

Just as importantly, we have decided that something serious has to be done and we start today.

In keeping with our philosophy of trying to give people a hand up as opposed to a hand out, we are buying the banca (a Filipino style outrigger fishing boat – see photo of an example below) we have been planning to buy since arriving in Philippines almost 2 years ago, putting our 2.5 hp Yamaha outboard motor on it and parking it on Mary Anne’s beachfront.

This is the deal we’ve made with Mary Anne and Ralph:

We (“She Who Must Be Obeyed” and I) will own the boat and we will equip it with life jackets, oars and fishing nets etc…and then, Ralph who is a very proficient fisherman with no boat of his own will be allowed to use it to fish for their consumption… Whatever the catch may be will be initially split 50:50 with us and the balance will be available for sale. Mary Anne will sell their surplus and that will provide them with some money to buy the other things they always need and usually go without such as rice and other staples. That will provide them with a sustainable  amount of fresh food for their table and some extra cash from the sale of the surplus fish to be able to do more than just merely exist.

Maybe, just maybe, this will give them the tools, the hand up and the equipment to breakout of the cycle of poverty that has trapped this family for generations.

As things progress we will re-evaluate and make decisions on what the future may hold…at least we feel that this represents a major hand up for these folks and hopefully they will take full advantage of this rather unique opportunity.

Stay tuned, we’ll keep you posted of progress as things develop.