By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
STO. DOMINGO, ALBAY—WITH a mother’s touch, garbage foil and plastic sheets transform into colorful, fashionable, and useful bags in Barangay Salvacion here.
Wittily labeled “Garbags,” coined from the words “garbage” and “bags,” these recycled handicrafts are being made by members of the Barangay Salvacion Mothers’ Club.
The mothers only started making the bags last October.
The idea of making bags out of trash was conceived in a handicraft contest organized by the club during the village fiesta last year.
Formed in 2005, the club would also hold mothers’ classes every two weeks on different issues—nutrition, child care, gardening, food preparation, health, and child discipline.
Glenda Newhall, the club’s adviser, says beautiful designs emerged out of pieces of garbage, which the villagers turned into hats, slippers and bags.
“The items made out of recycled materials, like foil and plastic packs, turned out to be beautiful and we thought they were salable. This motivated the mothers to make bags for a living,” Newhall says.
Families in Barangay Salvacion needed an alternative source of income following the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Reming,” which devastated agricultural lands.
The villagers, mostly farmers and fishermen, lost regular income since agricultural products like coconut and anahaw would take time to recover fully. The destroyed fishing boats could not be immediately replaced.
The housewives found hope in making bags out of recycled materials.
Product prices range from P50 for a wallet to P300 for an abaca sando bag.
Myrna Belardo, 43, mothers’ club vice chair, says making bags also allows housewives to share their thoughts and talents.
Many hands work together to craft just one bag.
“We have different skills. One may be good in cutting, another may be good in sewing, while still another may be good in weaving. We combine all our talents to create our products,” Belardo, a mother of five children, says in Filipino.
Through making bags, the housewives developed closer ties.
Newhall says that since some of the mothers used to weave “banig” while others used to work in “patahian,” they are skilled even without formal training.
Belardo says they design and make the bags themselves.
Anita Revadavia says the mothers would treat their work as an enjoyable hobby.
Work starts at 8 a.m. at Barangay Salvacion’s multipurpose center. This favors some mothers, whose children are attending day care classes in the adjacent room.
“Some of us would also work at home, once we have finished the household chores. We don’t waste time because we dream of bulk orders someday,” Revadavia says.
Newhall says the biggest challenge they are facing is tapping the export market.
“This kind of product has great market potentials in other countries because of its novelty. We also eye on overseas Filipino workers as potential market,” Newhall says.
Belardo says the bestsellers are the useful grocery bags, which are made of juice packs and the fashionable shoulder bags accentuated with abaca.
She says every batch of “Garbags” were sold out to personal contacts and foreigners.
“We hope to have our own place downtown or in Legazpi City, so that our products will be known to many,” Belardo says.
Saving the environment
While the mothers earn extra from making bags out of recycled materials, they also help save the environment.
A retired nurse, Newhall says she has seen that improper waste management has been choking their rivers, polluting their beaches, creating breeding grounds for disease-carrying insects.
“The children would commonly have respiratory problems due to fumes of burning garbage,” says Newhall, who opened a free clinic for the Salvacion villagers.
“Garbags,” says Newhall, has four goals: to boost the income of families, to recycle and reuse trash, to empower women, and to enable the mothers to develop and manage their own business.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
DOH allays fears of fish poisoning
By Kristine L. Alave in Manila and Ephraim Aguilar and Jaymee Gamil, Inquirer Southern Luzon
HEALTH OFFICIALS YESTERDAY SOUGHT TO allay fears that seafood and fish caught in waters near the capsized MV Princess of the Stars were contaminated as a result of bodies that have not been retrieved in the sunken vessel.
The advisory couldn’t have come at a better time as Masbate provincial officials were battling rumors that marine products from the province were contaminated, causing a sharp decline in fish sale in the province.
Masbate Gov. Elisa Kho appealed to the public to calm down as she corrected rumors that fish caught in Masbate posed health risks to consumers.
“As long as they cook the fish very well, it is safe for consumption,” said Kho, a doctor by profession.
She said the fish scare had brought losses to fishermen in the province.
Dr. Eric Tayag, of the National Epidemiology Center, said most fish species are not carnivores and, therefore, would not eat human flesh.
“Fishes don’t eat humans,” he said. Most fish, he said, eat small plants. Bigger fishes, on the other hand, prey on smaller fishes or other marine animals, he added.
Authorities believed that around 800 passengers were trapped to death inside the ship when it was swallowed by Typhoon “Frank.”
Since the sinking, residents of Romblon and nearby provinces have refused to eat fish caught in the surrounding waters for fear that they have been contaminated by the decomposing bodies.
Dr. Baby Banatin, chief of the Department of Health Emergency Management Service, acknowledged that there is a “psychological” aversion to fish caught near the ferry.
However, she said the public should not be afraid to eat fish and seafood from the Sibuyan Sea, where the ferry sank last Saturday, saying the corpses do not pose a health risk.
“Normally, dead bodies do not pose a threat. The bodies died because of trauma, not diseases,” she said.
The Department of Health officials also said the bodies do not pose a risk to handlers and divers, who use protective gears in scouring the vessel.
Tayag and Banatin said bacteria and viruses die with the person.
“The greatest fear is psychological. Are they prepared to fish out the bodies? Are they prepared to see the bloated bodies?” she said.
Tayag said DOH has raised alerts in Iloilo, Antique, and Capiz provinces against water borne diseases.
Residents in these provinces were urged to boil their water before drinking it.
In Daraga, Albay, vendors and buyers just shrugged off the fish scare.
“If there’s a fish scare, prices would drop. But prices even increased because it’s the full moon and fish catch is down,” Fe Rifo, 30, said.
“We have yet to be poisoned by fish,” she said.
She said she was aware that bodies were surfacing in waters of Masbate.
HEALTH OFFICIALS YESTERDAY SOUGHT TO allay fears that seafood and fish caught in waters near the capsized MV Princess of the Stars were contaminated as a result of bodies that have not been retrieved in the sunken vessel.
The advisory couldn’t have come at a better time as Masbate provincial officials were battling rumors that marine products from the province were contaminated, causing a sharp decline in fish sale in the province.
Masbate Gov. Elisa Kho appealed to the public to calm down as she corrected rumors that fish caught in Masbate posed health risks to consumers.
“As long as they cook the fish very well, it is safe for consumption,” said Kho, a doctor by profession.
She said the fish scare had brought losses to fishermen in the province.
Dr. Eric Tayag, of the National Epidemiology Center, said most fish species are not carnivores and, therefore, would not eat human flesh.
“Fishes don’t eat humans,” he said. Most fish, he said, eat small plants. Bigger fishes, on the other hand, prey on smaller fishes or other marine animals, he added.
Authorities believed that around 800 passengers were trapped to death inside the ship when it was swallowed by Typhoon “Frank.”
Since the sinking, residents of Romblon and nearby provinces have refused to eat fish caught in the surrounding waters for fear that they have been contaminated by the decomposing bodies.
Dr. Baby Banatin, chief of the Department of Health Emergency Management Service, acknowledged that there is a “psychological” aversion to fish caught near the ferry.
However, she said the public should not be afraid to eat fish and seafood from the Sibuyan Sea, where the ferry sank last Saturday, saying the corpses do not pose a health risk.
“Normally, dead bodies do not pose a threat. The bodies died because of trauma, not diseases,” she said.
The Department of Health officials also said the bodies do not pose a risk to handlers and divers, who use protective gears in scouring the vessel.
Tayag and Banatin said bacteria and viruses die with the person.
“The greatest fear is psychological. Are they prepared to fish out the bodies? Are they prepared to see the bloated bodies?” she said.
Tayag said DOH has raised alerts in Iloilo, Antique, and Capiz provinces against water borne diseases.
Residents in these provinces were urged to boil their water before drinking it.
In Daraga, Albay, vendors and buyers just shrugged off the fish scare.
“If there’s a fish scare, prices would drop. But prices even increased because it’s the full moon and fish catch is down,” Fe Rifo, 30, said.
“We have yet to be poisoned by fish,” she said.
She said she was aware that bodies were surfacing in waters of Masbate.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Ferry sinks; 700 missing
Bodies floating, kidswailing, says survivor
By the Inquirer Staff
WAVES AS TALL AS MOUNTAINS BATTERED THE MV Princess of the Stars and within 15 horrifying minutes, the ferry carrying more than 700 people sank in typhoon-tossed waters off Sibuyan island, one survivor recounted.
“There were many children trapped inside the boat. I could hear them wailing before the boat sank,” said Renato Lanorias, a crew member of the 23,824-ton ferry who survived by clinging to the rope of a life raft until he hit land, along with three others.
Lanorias said he could not forget the hundreds of bodies floating at sea and the cries for help from the victims as the ship keeled over and went under.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross, reported 10 deaths from the vessel. But details were skimpy. It was unclear if the six bodies, including a man and woman bound together, that were swept to Sibuyan were among the fatalities.
The other passengers and crew were considered “missing,” said Gordon. “It could be that the others were trapped inside the ship. If that’s the case, they could still be alive and can be rescued.”
A Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) rescue vessel, battling stormy seas and strong winds, reached the ferry yesterday afternoon, one end jutting out of the water upside-down, more than 24 hours after it lost radio contact. There was no sign of survivors.
“They haven’t seen anyone. They’re scouring the areas. They’re studying the direction of the waves to determine where survivors may have drifted,” said Lt. Arman Balilo, PCG spokesperson.
‘I hope many are all right’
PCG Commandant Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said more rescuers were dispatched to nearby Cresta de Gallo Island south of Sibuyan yesterday. “They will be scouring the other coastal areas to check for the other passengers,” Tamayo said.
“I hope and pray that many are all right,” he said.
However, Tamayo said rescuers on Cresta de Gallo reported late last night that “unfortunately they did not see any body.”
“They’re going to check nearby islands,” Tamayo said.
It was potentially the worst sea disaster to hit the country since the ferry MV Doña Paz collided with an oil tanker in 1987 and left more than 4,000 people dead.
The Princess of the Stars, owned by Sulpicio Lines, sailed from Manila at 8 a.m. on Friday on a 22-hour trip to Cebu City with 626 passengers and 121 crewmen. Among the passengers were 31 infants and 20 children.
Sulpicio Lines, however, said that the ship’s manifest had 725 passengers.
The Coast Guard gave the ferry clearance to depart in spite of storm warnings because it was over 23,000 tons with a capacity of 1,992 passengers.
The other survivors found in Sibuyan with Lanorias were passengers Jesus Cica, Oliver Amorin of Olango Island, and Jessie Boot of Siquijor province, according to Mayor Nanette Tansingco of San Fernando town on the island.
Ferry sank at 11:45 a.m.
Tansingco said most of the survivors had contusions all over the body and lacerations in the head.
She said she also sent a speed boat to check the ill-fated vessel. “They saw the boat upside down with a big hole in the hull.”
Tansingco said at least four bodies were found and children’s slippers were scattered on the shoreline.
Lanorias, in mobile phone interview, said he remembered hitting his face on a rock upon reaching Sibuyan.
He said the overturned ferry sank at around 11:45 a.m. yesterday. Strong winds and big waves apparently broke the lashing that tucked the cargo, causing the ferry to sink, Lanorias said.
A hole in the hull was seen as the ferry lay submerged about a kilometer and a half from the shore of Sibuyan, where it was apparently swept after it listed and toppled farther away—up to 11.2 nautical kilometers (7 nautical miles) off the island, according to the Coast Guard.
‘Abandon ship’
“The waves were almost the size of a mountain,” Lanorias said in a shaky voice. “At around 10 a.m. the ship slowed down and started to dance. I noticed that it was running tilted,” he said in Filipino.
Lanorias said when the captain announced “abandon ship,” many hysterical passengers jumped in the storm-tossed water. He said all 14 lifeboats of the Princess of the Stars were let down but big waves still engulfed some of them.
“We were on a lifeboat for four hours before we reached Barangay Mabini,” Lanorias said in between coughs.
Chief Petty Officer Benito Vidal of the Southern Tagalog Coast Guard Station said his office received reports that the boat had sunk “seven nautical miles, north-southwest of Sibuyan Island, Romblon.”
He said that the ferry had sent a distress signal, saying it had “engine trouble” and “listing,” quoting a report received on Saturday at 12:55 p.m.
Vidal said he had yet to receive reports regarding the current condition of the ferry or the actual cause of its sinking. If the vessel was reported listing, he said that would usually mean the boat really had a hole and was taking in water.
Sulpicio’s last contact
Manuel Espina, Sulpicio Lines spokesperson, said the ferry’s captain, Florencio Marimon, made his last contact with the office at noon on Saturday.
He said the company could not speculate on what happened, saying only that Marimon was a very experienced officer.
Regional Coast Guard officer Cecil Chen said the Princess of the Stars was cleared to leave the port of Manila on Friday morning shortly before the typhoon changed its northwesterly course and slammed across the western islands.
With the typhoon approaching, the vessel was radioed to take shelter, and “the captain attempted to do that,” Chen said. However, the engine failed and the vessel was left stranded in the water off Sibuyan’s southeast coast as the typhoon barreled across the country with peak winds of 170 kph.
“The engine conked out and (with) the vessel dead on the water and no immediate assistance could be rendered on the vessel, it suffered the consequence of drifting to the shallow portion and was grounded,” he said.
Life jackets and debris
Melanie Rotoni, a Sibuyan resident, said she had seen one body as well as debris but no survivors so far.
“Life jackets and debris litter the store. I saw a dead woman in her 40s along the shore, but she was the only body I saw. There is no one else,” she told dzMM radio.
Philippine Navy spokesperson Marine Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said that at 10:30 a.m., the Navy dispatched two patrol gun boats—one from Masbate and the other from Roxas City—with frogmen to help in the rescue operations for the sunken ship’s passengers and crew. With reports from Nikko Dizon and Leila B. Salaverria in Manila; Madonna T. Virola, Jaymee T. Gamil and Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas, and AP, AFP
By the Inquirer Staff
WAVES AS TALL AS MOUNTAINS BATTERED THE MV Princess of the Stars and within 15 horrifying minutes, the ferry carrying more than 700 people sank in typhoon-tossed waters off Sibuyan island, one survivor recounted.
“There were many children trapped inside the boat. I could hear them wailing before the boat sank,” said Renato Lanorias, a crew member of the 23,824-ton ferry who survived by clinging to the rope of a life raft until he hit land, along with three others.
Lanorias said he could not forget the hundreds of bodies floating at sea and the cries for help from the victims as the ship keeled over and went under.
Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Philippine National Red Cross, reported 10 deaths from the vessel. But details were skimpy. It was unclear if the six bodies, including a man and woman bound together, that were swept to Sibuyan were among the fatalities.
The other passengers and crew were considered “missing,” said Gordon. “It could be that the others were trapped inside the ship. If that’s the case, they could still be alive and can be rescued.”
A Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) rescue vessel, battling stormy seas and strong winds, reached the ferry yesterday afternoon, one end jutting out of the water upside-down, more than 24 hours after it lost radio contact. There was no sign of survivors.
“They haven’t seen anyone. They’re scouring the areas. They’re studying the direction of the waves to determine where survivors may have drifted,” said Lt. Arman Balilo, PCG spokesperson.
‘I hope many are all right’
PCG Commandant Adm. Wilfredo Tamayo said more rescuers were dispatched to nearby Cresta de Gallo Island south of Sibuyan yesterday. “They will be scouring the other coastal areas to check for the other passengers,” Tamayo said.
“I hope and pray that many are all right,” he said.
However, Tamayo said rescuers on Cresta de Gallo reported late last night that “unfortunately they did not see any body.”
“They’re going to check nearby islands,” Tamayo said.
It was potentially the worst sea disaster to hit the country since the ferry MV Doña Paz collided with an oil tanker in 1987 and left more than 4,000 people dead.
The Princess of the Stars, owned by Sulpicio Lines, sailed from Manila at 8 a.m. on Friday on a 22-hour trip to Cebu City with 626 passengers and 121 crewmen. Among the passengers were 31 infants and 20 children.
Sulpicio Lines, however, said that the ship’s manifest had 725 passengers.
The Coast Guard gave the ferry clearance to depart in spite of storm warnings because it was over 23,000 tons with a capacity of 1,992 passengers.
The other survivors found in Sibuyan with Lanorias were passengers Jesus Cica, Oliver Amorin of Olango Island, and Jessie Boot of Siquijor province, according to Mayor Nanette Tansingco of San Fernando town on the island.
Ferry sank at 11:45 a.m.
Tansingco said most of the survivors had contusions all over the body and lacerations in the head.
She said she also sent a speed boat to check the ill-fated vessel. “They saw the boat upside down with a big hole in the hull.”
Tansingco said at least four bodies were found and children’s slippers were scattered on the shoreline.
Lanorias, in mobile phone interview, said he remembered hitting his face on a rock upon reaching Sibuyan.
He said the overturned ferry sank at around 11:45 a.m. yesterday. Strong winds and big waves apparently broke the lashing that tucked the cargo, causing the ferry to sink, Lanorias said.
A hole in the hull was seen as the ferry lay submerged about a kilometer and a half from the shore of Sibuyan, where it was apparently swept after it listed and toppled farther away—up to 11.2 nautical kilometers (7 nautical miles) off the island, according to the Coast Guard.
‘Abandon ship’
“The waves were almost the size of a mountain,” Lanorias said in a shaky voice. “At around 10 a.m. the ship slowed down and started to dance. I noticed that it was running tilted,” he said in Filipino.
Lanorias said when the captain announced “abandon ship,” many hysterical passengers jumped in the storm-tossed water. He said all 14 lifeboats of the Princess of the Stars were let down but big waves still engulfed some of them.
“We were on a lifeboat for four hours before we reached Barangay Mabini,” Lanorias said in between coughs.
Chief Petty Officer Benito Vidal of the Southern Tagalog Coast Guard Station said his office received reports that the boat had sunk “seven nautical miles, north-southwest of Sibuyan Island, Romblon.”
He said that the ferry had sent a distress signal, saying it had “engine trouble” and “listing,” quoting a report received on Saturday at 12:55 p.m.
Vidal said he had yet to receive reports regarding the current condition of the ferry or the actual cause of its sinking. If the vessel was reported listing, he said that would usually mean the boat really had a hole and was taking in water.
Sulpicio’s last contact
Manuel Espina, Sulpicio Lines spokesperson, said the ferry’s captain, Florencio Marimon, made his last contact with the office at noon on Saturday.
He said the company could not speculate on what happened, saying only that Marimon was a very experienced officer.
Regional Coast Guard officer Cecil Chen said the Princess of the Stars was cleared to leave the port of Manila on Friday morning shortly before the typhoon changed its northwesterly course and slammed across the western islands.
With the typhoon approaching, the vessel was radioed to take shelter, and “the captain attempted to do that,” Chen said. However, the engine failed and the vessel was left stranded in the water off Sibuyan’s southeast coast as the typhoon barreled across the country with peak winds of 170 kph.
“The engine conked out and (with) the vessel dead on the water and no immediate assistance could be rendered on the vessel, it suffered the consequence of drifting to the shallow portion and was grounded,” he said.
Life jackets and debris
Melanie Rotoni, a Sibuyan resident, said she had seen one body as well as debris but no survivors so far.
“Life jackets and debris litter the store. I saw a dead woman in her 40s along the shore, but she was the only body I saw. There is no one else,” she told dzMM radio.
Philippine Navy spokesperson Marine Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo said that at 10:30 a.m., the Navy dispatched two patrol gun boats—one from Masbate and the other from Roxas City—with frogmen to help in the rescue operations for the sunken ship’s passengers and crew. With reports from Nikko Dizon and Leila B. Salaverria in Manila; Madonna T. Virola, Jaymee T. Gamil and Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas, and AP, AFP
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Where did the shelter aid go? refugees ask
By Ephraim Aguilar
Guinobatan, Albay
TEDEA HERRERA HUNG three plastic buckets under the dwelling’s thin iron roofing to protect her children from leaks when it rains. Made of coconut lumber and thin, peeling plywood, the cramped room, measuring two meters by four meters, has bare ground as floor but no windows.
“All I want is a decent and permanent house to stay, for me and my children,” the 43-year-old woman said. Her house was swept away by gushing floodwaters in Barangay Travesia when Supertyphoon “Reming” roused lahar from Mayon Volcano’s slope in 2006. Over 1,000 people were killed or missing.
Herrera is among thousands of people still homeless after major typhoons caused massive devastation in Bicol that year. Villagers from Travesia occupy what is called “transit shelters” at the San Francisco Oval in Guinobatan town in Albay, prior to their relocation elsewhere.
Cynthia Nierva, 39, could not forget what President Macapagal-Arroyo promised them during one of her visits to the province after Reming: “Lahat kayo may bahay, papasok na lang kayo. Susi na lang ng bahay ang kukunin ninyo (All of you will have houses. You will just get the keys to your houses).” She pointed at the same grandstand where the President spoke.
“That was what Madam told us, but why are we still suffering up to now?” she said.
A year and a half since Typhoons Reming, “Milenyo” and “Seniang” struck the region, more than 3,000 families have not yet moved to the new houses promised by the government.
Project snag
Even Ms Arroyo’s deputy spokesperson, Anthony Golez, admitted a snag in the implementation of the core shelter projects covered by P7 billion worth of calamity funds for Bicol. Being the worst-hit, the region received 70 percent of the P10-billion Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Effort (CARE) fund apportioned through the General Appropriations Act of 2007.
Golez, executive director of the Bicol CARE Commission, was in Guinobatan on May 16 for a public hearing of the House special committee on Bicol recovery and economic development. The meeting assessed the repair and reconstruction of schools, damaged roads, bridges, flood control facilities, and resettlement projects.
Most of the government agencies had high accomplishment rates, Golez said, except for the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Housing Authority (NHA), which are responsible for housing and relocation.
Following the onslaughts of Reming, the National Disaster Coordinating Council recorded 232,968 destroyed houses in Bicol, 114,394 of them in Albay. But as of May 14, government data showed that only 237 housing units had been completed under the core shelter assistance project of the DSWD.
Only 9.3 percent of the 2,536 units have been funded or 5.8 percent of the 4,100 target. Construction of 1,319 units is still ongoing, said social welfare officer Marissa Paeste, who is in charge of the DSWD-Bicol’s disaster management.
Slow land dev’t
One of the main factors that delay the construction is the slow land development, Paeste said. “Many of the sites are still unfit for construction. The lands are not yet flat. There are still coconut trees to be uprooted.”
She said the local government units and the NHA were responsible for land acquisition and site development. But the housing agency’s regional director, Alberto Perfecto, said his office was not all to blame.
“The construction of houses could be started even if the sites have not yet been fully developed, which is what, in fact, many organizations helping in the relocation had been doing,” Perfecto said.
He reported that the 10 resettlement sites in Albay was already 49 percent complete but bad weather conditions were causing a time lag. “It has been raining the past few months and the soil type in Bicol takes two to three days to dry,” he said.
Site development includes the surveying and clearing of land, building road networks and constructing drainage systems and waterlines.
Perfecto said P240 million of the total P500 million allotted to the NHA under the CARE funds had already been spent.
Corruption charges
Herrera, the refugee, said she was not surprised by allegations of corruption and misuse of calamity funds. “Corruption in the government cannot be avoided. We don’t see what [government officials] are doing secretly, but it’s up to them,” she said.
Too hot at daytime and too cold at night, people in the transit shelters complain, just like in the tent cities they had previously lived for at least 10 months. These conditions have made their children sickly.
Due to Bicol’s erratic weather, slats curl in the plywood walls of the transit shelters while rusting holes gape in the iron sheets that the refugees plug with plastic sheets, sack cloth, scrap wood, and tarpaulin posters of politicians—remnants of past elections.
The little space is just enough for sleeping. Save for the walls, there isn’t anything by way of boundaries. One can hear a neighbor’s baby wailing.
San Francisco Oval, officially known as the Albay Sports Complex, is now far from the athletes’ training ground it was meant to be. It is surrounded by makeshift latrines, while the swimming pool is soiled and filled with accumulated raindrops.
Community life
Despite its depression, the place breathes its own life as a community. One neighborhood created a string of improvised kitchens right in front of the shelters’ doorsteps. Another put up sari-sari stalls while still another earned extra from weaving abaca baskets. Other occupants raise fighting cocks.
“Nagaayos ng electric fan, rice cooker, water jug, plantsa, sandal, at Shellane” is written on the wall of one dwelling.
Since the water source is a common facility, mothers wash clothes in groups and their children take a bath together. Almost everywhere are clotheslines, some clipped with pieces of underwear.
In April, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri passed a resolution “directing the appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry” into the alleged misuse of the CARE funds.
Dredging debris
In Albay, critics are opposing the multimillion-peso dredging projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways. River channels from Mayon’s gullies are heavily silted after Reming swept down volcanic debris, causing lahar flows.
The Roman Catholic Church’s Social Action Center pushed for a labor-intensive method of dredging, meaning that it would be carried out by the public instead of private contractors, so the people could earn from it.
But Golez said he had never heard of any anomalies involving use of the CARE funds. “No dredging project had been approved under [the] CARE, as far as I know. Unless the project has been renamed,” he said.
Critics also allege that funds for the resettlement projects have been misused, causing the delay in the construction of houses. All concerned agencies denied the charge.
Guinobatan, Albay
TEDEA HERRERA HUNG three plastic buckets under the dwelling’s thin iron roofing to protect her children from leaks when it rains. Made of coconut lumber and thin, peeling plywood, the cramped room, measuring two meters by four meters, has bare ground as floor but no windows.
“All I want is a decent and permanent house to stay, for me and my children,” the 43-year-old woman said. Her house was swept away by gushing floodwaters in Barangay Travesia when Supertyphoon “Reming” roused lahar from Mayon Volcano’s slope in 2006. Over 1,000 people were killed or missing.
Herrera is among thousands of people still homeless after major typhoons caused massive devastation in Bicol that year. Villagers from Travesia occupy what is called “transit shelters” at the San Francisco Oval in Guinobatan town in Albay, prior to their relocation elsewhere.
Cynthia Nierva, 39, could not forget what President Macapagal-Arroyo promised them during one of her visits to the province after Reming: “Lahat kayo may bahay, papasok na lang kayo. Susi na lang ng bahay ang kukunin ninyo (All of you will have houses. You will just get the keys to your houses).” She pointed at the same grandstand where the President spoke.
“That was what Madam told us, but why are we still suffering up to now?” she said.
A year and a half since Typhoons Reming, “Milenyo” and “Seniang” struck the region, more than 3,000 families have not yet moved to the new houses promised by the government.
Project snag
Even Ms Arroyo’s deputy spokesperson, Anthony Golez, admitted a snag in the implementation of the core shelter projects covered by P7 billion worth of calamity funds for Bicol. Being the worst-hit, the region received 70 percent of the P10-billion Calamity Assistance and Rehabilitation Effort (CARE) fund apportioned through the General Appropriations Act of 2007.
Golez, executive director of the Bicol CARE Commission, was in Guinobatan on May 16 for a public hearing of the House special committee on Bicol recovery and economic development. The meeting assessed the repair and reconstruction of schools, damaged roads, bridges, flood control facilities, and resettlement projects.
Most of the government agencies had high accomplishment rates, Golez said, except for the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Housing Authority (NHA), which are responsible for housing and relocation.
Following the onslaughts of Reming, the National Disaster Coordinating Council recorded 232,968 destroyed houses in Bicol, 114,394 of them in Albay. But as of May 14, government data showed that only 237 housing units had been completed under the core shelter assistance project of the DSWD.
Only 9.3 percent of the 2,536 units have been funded or 5.8 percent of the 4,100 target. Construction of 1,319 units is still ongoing, said social welfare officer Marissa Paeste, who is in charge of the DSWD-Bicol’s disaster management.
Slow land dev’t
One of the main factors that delay the construction is the slow land development, Paeste said. “Many of the sites are still unfit for construction. The lands are not yet flat. There are still coconut trees to be uprooted.”
She said the local government units and the NHA were responsible for land acquisition and site development. But the housing agency’s regional director, Alberto Perfecto, said his office was not all to blame.
“The construction of houses could be started even if the sites have not yet been fully developed, which is what, in fact, many organizations helping in the relocation had been doing,” Perfecto said.
He reported that the 10 resettlement sites in Albay was already 49 percent complete but bad weather conditions were causing a time lag. “It has been raining the past few months and the soil type in Bicol takes two to three days to dry,” he said.
Site development includes the surveying and clearing of land, building road networks and constructing drainage systems and waterlines.
Perfecto said P240 million of the total P500 million allotted to the NHA under the CARE funds had already been spent.
Corruption charges
Herrera, the refugee, said she was not surprised by allegations of corruption and misuse of calamity funds. “Corruption in the government cannot be avoided. We don’t see what [government officials] are doing secretly, but it’s up to them,” she said.
Too hot at daytime and too cold at night, people in the transit shelters complain, just like in the tent cities they had previously lived for at least 10 months. These conditions have made their children sickly.
Due to Bicol’s erratic weather, slats curl in the plywood walls of the transit shelters while rusting holes gape in the iron sheets that the refugees plug with plastic sheets, sack cloth, scrap wood, and tarpaulin posters of politicians—remnants of past elections.
The little space is just enough for sleeping. Save for the walls, there isn’t anything by way of boundaries. One can hear a neighbor’s baby wailing.
San Francisco Oval, officially known as the Albay Sports Complex, is now far from the athletes’ training ground it was meant to be. It is surrounded by makeshift latrines, while the swimming pool is soiled and filled with accumulated raindrops.
Community life
Despite its depression, the place breathes its own life as a community. One neighborhood created a string of improvised kitchens right in front of the shelters’ doorsteps. Another put up sari-sari stalls while still another earned extra from weaving abaca baskets. Other occupants raise fighting cocks.
“Nagaayos ng electric fan, rice cooker, water jug, plantsa, sandal, at Shellane” is written on the wall of one dwelling.
Since the water source is a common facility, mothers wash clothes in groups and their children take a bath together. Almost everywhere are clotheslines, some clipped with pieces of underwear.
In April, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri passed a resolution “directing the appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry” into the alleged misuse of the CARE funds.
Dredging debris
In Albay, critics are opposing the multimillion-peso dredging projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways. River channels from Mayon’s gullies are heavily silted after Reming swept down volcanic debris, causing lahar flows.
The Roman Catholic Church’s Social Action Center pushed for a labor-intensive method of dredging, meaning that it would be carried out by the public instead of private contractors, so the people could earn from it.
But Golez said he had never heard of any anomalies involving use of the CARE funds. “No dredging project had been approved under [the] CARE, as far as I know. Unless the project has been renamed,” he said.
Critics also allege that funds for the resettlement projects have been misused, causing the delay in the construction of houses. All concerned agencies denied the charge.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
No Catholic Mass for ‘Ka Bel’ in Legazpi
By Ephraim Aguilar
Inquirer Southern Luzon
BACACAY, ALBAY—PRIESTS IN the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran’s home province have been instructed not to say Mass for him, Bishop Lucilo Quiambao of the Diocese of Legazpi confirmed yesterday afternoon.
The remains of the party-list lawmaker were flown to Legazpi City yesterday morning. Olive Lalusis, Beltran’s fourth daughter, said the family expected that the remains would be blessed in a cathedral in Legazpi.
But because of reports that priests had refused to say Mass for Beltran, the body was taken instead to the Redemptorist church in Barangay Gogon.
Quiambao told the Inquirer on the phone that Catholic priests could not say Mass for Beltran: “Since his remains were brought to an Aglipayan church in Manila, the consensus of the people is that he was not a Catholic.”
He said the Catholic Church had nothing to do with funeral services for those of other religions.
“We have Church laws to follow. It may be a hard decision but we have to defend the rights of the Church,” Quiambao said. “If we say Mass here, people would be confused about the stand of the Church.”
He said that for those of other religions, priests were allowed only to hold an ecumenical service or a prayer for the dead.
‘Sympathizer’
But a Mass was celebrated for Beltran at the Redemptorist church, which had a large “OUST GMA” poster on its fence.
“The Redemptorists are a religious congregation known to be a sympathizer of the masses,” said Tessa Lopez, spokesperson of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Bicol.
“This is not about Ka Bel’s beliefs or religion. It was his friends and family who requested that a Mass be offered for him,” Lopez said.
She said Beltran did not choose his friends and respected everyone’s beliefs.
Fr. Oliver Castor of the Redemptorists was in tears when he blessed Beltran’s remains with holy water.
“For me he was a person who lived an exemplary Christian life through his selfless service to the people,” Castor said.
The priest denied knowing anything about a formal directive from the bishop.
“We would rather not comment on that,” he said. “It is not the issue at hand. This is a time for Ka Bel.”
Beltran baptized Catholic
The widow, Rosario Beltran, was unhappy with the bishop’s stand.
“My husband was a Roman Catholic. They should not judge my husband that way. He was also human. The Church should do what it is supposed to do,” she said.
She added that Beltran was baptized in a Catholic church in Bacacay, and that they were married by a Catholic priest during their golden wedding anniversary on Nov. 16, 2007.
Quiambao, however, said it was possible for a person baptized a Catholic to convert to another religion.
According to Rosario Beltran, a wake for her husband was held at a church of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (or Aglipayan Church) in Manila because one of its founders, Isabelo de los Reyes, was a great labor leader.
Holding banners and streamers, about 500 activists, friends and relatives waited at the Legazpi airport for Beltran’s remains.
One of the streamers read: "Tuloy ang laban (The struggle continues), Ka Bel.”
Inquirer Southern Luzon
BACACAY, ALBAY—PRIESTS IN the late Anakpawis Rep. Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran’s home province have been instructed not to say Mass for him, Bishop Lucilo Quiambao of the Diocese of Legazpi confirmed yesterday afternoon.
The remains of the party-list lawmaker were flown to Legazpi City yesterday morning. Olive Lalusis, Beltran’s fourth daughter, said the family expected that the remains would be blessed in a cathedral in Legazpi.
But because of reports that priests had refused to say Mass for Beltran, the body was taken instead to the Redemptorist church in Barangay Gogon.
Quiambao told the Inquirer on the phone that Catholic priests could not say Mass for Beltran: “Since his remains were brought to an Aglipayan church in Manila, the consensus of the people is that he was not a Catholic.”
He said the Catholic Church had nothing to do with funeral services for those of other religions.
“We have Church laws to follow. It may be a hard decision but we have to defend the rights of the Church,” Quiambao said. “If we say Mass here, people would be confused about the stand of the Church.”
He said that for those of other religions, priests were allowed only to hold an ecumenical service or a prayer for the dead.
‘Sympathizer’
But a Mass was celebrated for Beltran at the Redemptorist church, which had a large “OUST GMA” poster on its fence.
“The Redemptorists are a religious congregation known to be a sympathizer of the masses,” said Tessa Lopez, spokesperson of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Bicol.
“This is not about Ka Bel’s beliefs or religion. It was his friends and family who requested that a Mass be offered for him,” Lopez said.
She said Beltran did not choose his friends and respected everyone’s beliefs.
Fr. Oliver Castor of the Redemptorists was in tears when he blessed Beltran’s remains with holy water.
“For me he was a person who lived an exemplary Christian life through his selfless service to the people,” Castor said.
The priest denied knowing anything about a formal directive from the bishop.
“We would rather not comment on that,” he said. “It is not the issue at hand. This is a time for Ka Bel.”
Beltran baptized Catholic
The widow, Rosario Beltran, was unhappy with the bishop’s stand.
“My husband was a Roman Catholic. They should not judge my husband that way. He was also human. The Church should do what it is supposed to do,” she said.
She added that Beltran was baptized in a Catholic church in Bacacay, and that they were married by a Catholic priest during their golden wedding anniversary on Nov. 16, 2007.
Quiambao, however, said it was possible for a person baptized a Catholic to convert to another religion.
According to Rosario Beltran, a wake for her husband was held at a church of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (or Aglipayan Church) in Manila because one of its founders, Isabelo de los Reyes, was a great labor leader.
Holding banners and streamers, about 500 activists, friends and relatives waited at the Legazpi airport for Beltran’s remains.
One of the streamers read: "Tuloy ang laban (The struggle continues), Ka Bel.”
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
‘Ka Bel’ dies in fall while repairing roof
By Volt Contreras,Norman Bordador aand Ephraim Aguilar
ANAKPAWIS REP. CRISPIN Beltran bolted the Marcos prisons, emerged bloodied from many a street demonstration, and, even in his advanced years, continued to fight the government and face threats of arrest.
From joining a taxi drivers’ union in the 1950s and leading campaigns for higher wages across five administrations, to becoming a three-term lawmaker representing militant labor, Beltran cut an unflinching, if gaunt, figure.
But “Ka Bel” also took these battles home and turned his otherwise private struggles amid the rising costs of living into an extension of his lifelong protest against the system.
His sudden death yesterday at 75 after an accident at 6 a.m. at the family home, a barely finished bungalow whose roof needed repair in time for the wet season, brought to full light the proletarian path he had embraced.
It was his daughter Ofelia Ballate who made the grim announcement of the man’s passing: “Patay na po si Congressman Beltran.”
Ballate was briefing reporters outside the emergency room of the Far Eastern University-Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation Medical Center in Fairview, Quezon City, on her father’s slim chance at recovery when she was told of his heart failing yet again after a fifth attempt at resuscitation.
“My mother and I agreed that if after resuscitation his heart again collapses, he’ll no longer be revived,” Ballate said at 11:35 a.m., breaking into tears.
She said her father appeared to be experiencing pain breathing each time he was revived through an injected medication.
The family was also told, she said, to come to a decision on efforts to revive her father because he appeared to be hanging on to life only as a result of the life-support drug.
“Our family’s decision in case he again went into cardiac arrest is to let him go. We all know that Ka Bel lived his life to the fullest,” Ballate said.
“He was able to raise all of us his 11 children. He was a labor leader, a parliamentarian, an activist, and a very good father,” she said.
Personal is political
Listed as one of the House of Representatives’ “poorest” members since winning a party-list seat in 2001, Beltran refused to pay his electricity bills in April 2002 in protest against the Purchased Power Adjustment rate (PPA) charged by Manila Electric Co.
Then living in a depressed area near the Batasan Complex in Quezon City, Beltran agreed to pay only for the basic charge and not the PPA that accounted for half of his bill, and refused offers of financial aid from friends and supporters.
By October 2002, with his unpaid bills amounting to around P14,600, Meralco cut off his power supply.
It was not the last time Beltran’s politics and personal money problems would become intertwined.
In July 2007, after 15 months of treatment at the Philippine Heart Center (PHC), Beltran had incurred bills of over P1 million.
He was then under “hospital arrest” on rebellion charges filed by the administration, which linked him to an alleged plot to oust President Macapagal-Arroyo in February 2006.
The Supreme Court later voided the charges, clearing Beltran and five other Left-leaning party-list representatives then collectively dubbed the “Batasan 5.”
In his 2007 Statement of Assets and Liabilities that the Inquirer obtained from the House yesterday, Beltran wrote that he still owed the PHC P42,000 as of 2007.
His assets stood at P64,750, including his P50,000 house in Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City. He reported his net worth as P22,750.
Strong heart
Dr. Arnold Corpuz, one of the doctors that attended to Beltran at the Fairview hospital, put the time of Beltran’s death at 11:48 a.m.
He told reporters that Beltran had a laceration on the right side of the head and broken ribs, but the cause of death was “head injuries secondary to a fall.”
Corpuz said Beltran was already in a coma when he was admitted to the Fairview hospital. He said the head laceration was sutured at the North Caloocan Doctors’ Hospital where the lawmaker was taken for initial treatment.
“He had a strong heart. But the head injury was so severe that his breathing and heart kept stopping [after each resuscitation],” Corpuz said.
Beltran’s body was later brought to the hospital’s Room 311 to allow his family to grieve privately.
According to Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Rosario “Ka Osang” Beltran thanked her husband for everything he had done for her and the rest of the family as she held him in a farewell embrace.
“She thanked him for raising their family. They lived a simple life. You could see how much the husband and wife meant to each other,” Reyes said.
During Beltran’s detention under Marcos, it was Ka Osang who delivered her husband’s speeches at rallies. She joined other activists’ wives in campaigning for the release of political prisoners, according to an account of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).
The couple were married for more than 50 years. In the past few years, they lived in a house in Baragay Muzon in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.
Man for others
Beltran was “hands-on with household work,” said his daughter Ofelia Ballate.
“They had a very simple life, with no household helpers... It was not the first time that he went up the roof,” she said.
In Bacacay, Albay, Beltran’s birthplace, his younger sister Gerodia Beltran-Mirafuentes remembered him as a helpful man.
“As long as there was something he could do to help, not just his family but also other people, he would not refuse to do it,” Mirafuentes said.
She said Beltran worked hard even while studying so he could help their parents—farmer/fisherman Paciano Beltran and housewife Valentina Bertes—provide for their schooling.
The second of 10 children, Beltran was born on Jan. 7, 1933.
He spent his childhood in the island village of Tanagan and completed his early education at the Bacacay East Central School and the Tabaco National High School in Tabaco City.
“He tended the school’s poultry farm when he was in high school so he could be free from tuition and lodging expenses,” Mirafuentes said.
He moved to Metro Manila and went to college at the Far Eastern University.
But he had to work, first as a gasoline boy and then as a taxi driver to support his studies.
Beltran also took up labor management at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
He studied in the day and worked at night, Mirafuentes said.
“Our father worked so we would have something to eat. The food we ate were the fruits of his hard work as farmer and fisherman,” she said, adding:
“Growing up to these realities, my brother always wanted to help our parents. He sacrificed for the welfare of his younger siblings.”
Mirafuentes said it was Beltran’s simplicity and service for others that distinguished him from most politicians.
“If we needed to get rich, our family could have long been rich. But he refused all [offers]. Since the Marcos regime, he always got imprisoned for standing for his principles,” Mirafuentes said.
“Even if my brother was a political prisoner, we were happy, because we knew he was able to help many people,” she said.
Labor organizer
From being a member and eventual president of the Yellow Taxi Drivers Union and the Amalgamated Taxi Drivers Federation, he rose to become a full-time labor organizer in the ‘60s.
During the Marcos regime, Beltran was among the political activists incarcerated. He escaped on Nov. 21, 1984, after two years of detention.
He was said to have been sheltered by the communist New People’s Army and waited for the overthrow of Marcos in 1986. That same year he became chair of the KMU, taking over after the murder of Rolando Olalia, and later chair of the Bayan in 1993.
In 1987, he ran for senator under the Partido ng Bayan ticket and lost.
At the time of his death, Beltran was on his third term as a party-list representative.
The 14th Congress credits him with authoring bills seeking a P125 across-the-board wage increase and the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law, instituting reforms in the coconut industry, and declaring Jan. 22 as National Farmers Day, among others.
Free man
Beltran’s relatives in Bacacay expressed gratitude that he died a free man.
“We are thankful that he faced a natural death, that he did not die in prison or from a bullet,” they said.
Said Mirafuentes: “He was a politician of the poor. He died a poor man.”
ANAKPAWIS REP. CRISPIN Beltran bolted the Marcos prisons, emerged bloodied from many a street demonstration, and, even in his advanced years, continued to fight the government and face threats of arrest.
From joining a taxi drivers’ union in the 1950s and leading campaigns for higher wages across five administrations, to becoming a three-term lawmaker representing militant labor, Beltran cut an unflinching, if gaunt, figure.
But “Ka Bel” also took these battles home and turned his otherwise private struggles amid the rising costs of living into an extension of his lifelong protest against the system.
His sudden death yesterday at 75 after an accident at 6 a.m. at the family home, a barely finished bungalow whose roof needed repair in time for the wet season, brought to full light the proletarian path he had embraced.
It was his daughter Ofelia Ballate who made the grim announcement of the man’s passing: “Patay na po si Congressman Beltran.”
Ballate was briefing reporters outside the emergency room of the Far Eastern University-Nicanor Reyes Medical Foundation Medical Center in Fairview, Quezon City, on her father’s slim chance at recovery when she was told of his heart failing yet again after a fifth attempt at resuscitation.
“My mother and I agreed that if after resuscitation his heart again collapses, he’ll no longer be revived,” Ballate said at 11:35 a.m., breaking into tears.
She said her father appeared to be experiencing pain breathing each time he was revived through an injected medication.
The family was also told, she said, to come to a decision on efforts to revive her father because he appeared to be hanging on to life only as a result of the life-support drug.
“Our family’s decision in case he again went into cardiac arrest is to let him go. We all know that Ka Bel lived his life to the fullest,” Ballate said.
“He was able to raise all of us his 11 children. He was a labor leader, a parliamentarian, an activist, and a very good father,” she said.
Personal is political
Listed as one of the House of Representatives’ “poorest” members since winning a party-list seat in 2001, Beltran refused to pay his electricity bills in April 2002 in protest against the Purchased Power Adjustment rate (PPA) charged by Manila Electric Co.
Then living in a depressed area near the Batasan Complex in Quezon City, Beltran agreed to pay only for the basic charge and not the PPA that accounted for half of his bill, and refused offers of financial aid from friends and supporters.
By October 2002, with his unpaid bills amounting to around P14,600, Meralco cut off his power supply.
It was not the last time Beltran’s politics and personal money problems would become intertwined.
In July 2007, after 15 months of treatment at the Philippine Heart Center (PHC), Beltran had incurred bills of over P1 million.
He was then under “hospital arrest” on rebellion charges filed by the administration, which linked him to an alleged plot to oust President Macapagal-Arroyo in February 2006.
The Supreme Court later voided the charges, clearing Beltran and five other Left-leaning party-list representatives then collectively dubbed the “Batasan 5.”
In his 2007 Statement of Assets and Liabilities that the Inquirer obtained from the House yesterday, Beltran wrote that he still owed the PHC P42,000 as of 2007.
His assets stood at P64,750, including his P50,000 house in Barangay Commonwealth, Quezon City. He reported his net worth as P22,750.
Strong heart
Dr. Arnold Corpuz, one of the doctors that attended to Beltran at the Fairview hospital, put the time of Beltran’s death at 11:48 a.m.
He told reporters that Beltran had a laceration on the right side of the head and broken ribs, but the cause of death was “head injuries secondary to a fall.”
Corpuz said Beltran was already in a coma when he was admitted to the Fairview hospital. He said the head laceration was sutured at the North Caloocan Doctors’ Hospital where the lawmaker was taken for initial treatment.
“He had a strong heart. But the head injury was so severe that his breathing and heart kept stopping [after each resuscitation],” Corpuz said.
Beltran’s body was later brought to the hospital’s Room 311 to allow his family to grieve privately.
According to Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Rosario “Ka Osang” Beltran thanked her husband for everything he had done for her and the rest of the family as she held him in a farewell embrace.
“She thanked him for raising their family. They lived a simple life. You could see how much the husband and wife meant to each other,” Reyes said.
During Beltran’s detention under Marcos, it was Ka Osang who delivered her husband’s speeches at rallies. She joined other activists’ wives in campaigning for the release of political prisoners, according to an account of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).
The couple were married for more than 50 years. In the past few years, they lived in a house in Baragay Muzon in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.
Man for others
Beltran was “hands-on with household work,” said his daughter Ofelia Ballate.
“They had a very simple life, with no household helpers... It was not the first time that he went up the roof,” she said.
In Bacacay, Albay, Beltran’s birthplace, his younger sister Gerodia Beltran-Mirafuentes remembered him as a helpful man.
“As long as there was something he could do to help, not just his family but also other people, he would not refuse to do it,” Mirafuentes said.
She said Beltran worked hard even while studying so he could help their parents—farmer/fisherman Paciano Beltran and housewife Valentina Bertes—provide for their schooling.
The second of 10 children, Beltran was born on Jan. 7, 1933.
He spent his childhood in the island village of Tanagan and completed his early education at the Bacacay East Central School and the Tabaco National High School in Tabaco City.
“He tended the school’s poultry farm when he was in high school so he could be free from tuition and lodging expenses,” Mirafuentes said.
He moved to Metro Manila and went to college at the Far Eastern University.
But he had to work, first as a gasoline boy and then as a taxi driver to support his studies.
Beltran also took up labor management at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.
He studied in the day and worked at night, Mirafuentes said.
“Our father worked so we would have something to eat. The food we ate were the fruits of his hard work as farmer and fisherman,” she said, adding:
“Growing up to these realities, my brother always wanted to help our parents. He sacrificed for the welfare of his younger siblings.”
Mirafuentes said it was Beltran’s simplicity and service for others that distinguished him from most politicians.
“If we needed to get rich, our family could have long been rich. But he refused all [offers]. Since the Marcos regime, he always got imprisoned for standing for his principles,” Mirafuentes said.
“Even if my brother was a political prisoner, we were happy, because we knew he was able to help many people,” she said.
Labor organizer
From being a member and eventual president of the Yellow Taxi Drivers Union and the Amalgamated Taxi Drivers Federation, he rose to become a full-time labor organizer in the ‘60s.
During the Marcos regime, Beltran was among the political activists incarcerated. He escaped on Nov. 21, 1984, after two years of detention.
He was said to have been sheltered by the communist New People’s Army and waited for the overthrow of Marcos in 1986. That same year he became chair of the KMU, taking over after the murder of Rolando Olalia, and later chair of the Bayan in 1993.
In 1987, he ran for senator under the Partido ng Bayan ticket and lost.
At the time of his death, Beltran was on his third term as a party-list representative.
The 14th Congress credits him with authoring bills seeking a P125 across-the-board wage increase and the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law, instituting reforms in the coconut industry, and declaring Jan. 22 as National Farmers Day, among others.
Free man
Beltran’s relatives in Bacacay expressed gratitude that he died a free man.
“We are thankful that he faced a natural death, that he did not die in prison or from a bullet,” they said.
Said Mirafuentes: “He was a politician of the poor. He died a poor man.”
Friday, May 16, 2008
NFA closes 200 rice outlets in Bicol
LEGAZPI CITY—THE National Food Authority (NFA) closed at least 200 retail rice outlets in Bicol for overpricing, hoarding and other violations, NFA officials said yesterday.
Jose Guevarra, NFA assistant regional director, said 48 outlets were closed in Albay, 46 in Camarines Sur, 39 in Sorsogon, 32 in Camarines Norte, 30 in Catanduanes and five in Masbate.
Guevarra said the retailers were also facing other charges, like violations of the Consumer Act. Their accreditation have either been indefinitely suspended or cancelled outright, he said.
The most common offense was overpricing. Guevarra said some retailers sold government rice at P25, higher than its original price of P18.25.
Overpricing
“The selling without price tags is an attempt to fool the consumers while rice diversion involves the rebagging of NFA rice. Both boil down to overpricing,” Guevarra said.
He cited a 20-percent increase in the number of violators in late March, when the government became stricter in monitoring the distribution of rice.
By mid-April, he said, the number decreased, indicating the success of government monitoring.
Guevarra said the NFA quickly approved new permits to sell to retailers to ensure no disruption in distribution. Bicol has around 3,000 accredited rice outlets.
Three high-ranking NFA officials in Bicol are also facing administrative charges for allegedly colluding with dishonest traders.
Flood of complaints
Their cases were still being heard at the provincial level, where there are internal auditors, an investigation and prosecution directorate, and a hearing officer, Guevarra said.
He said the NFA had been receiving complaints through anonymous phone calls, letters and media reports. All are subject to investigation.
As of yesterday morning, Bicol had a buffer stock of 687,000 bags of NFA rice, good for 54 days.
An additional 304,000 bags are expected to arrive aboard two cargo ships at the Tabaco City International Port this weekend.
Maria Asagra, 38, of Barangay Cabagñan in Legazpi City is a constant buyer of government rice from the NFA truck that tours villages weekly.
She said she had never been a victim of overpricing since she was buying directly from the NFA. “I don’t buy NFA rice from the public market since the queues there are longer,” she said.
She said around 200 villagers in their place would buy rice from the NFA truck every Tuesday, the schedule of distribution in Cabagñan. Tickets are being distributed to the buyers.
Every purchase is limited to 4 kg but, Asagra said, she and her daughter would line up so the family would get 8 kg.
Guevarra said the price of commercial rice as of Tuesday ranged from P29 to P32 per kg, depending on the variety.
Rice supply worldwide was predicted to be tighter as a cyclone devastated rice farms in Burma and further put pressure on world supply of the staple.
The Philippine government effort to obtain bids for rice suppliers from Thailand and Vietnam failed as no bidder from either country took part in a recent tender. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
Jose Guevarra, NFA assistant regional director, said 48 outlets were closed in Albay, 46 in Camarines Sur, 39 in Sorsogon, 32 in Camarines Norte, 30 in Catanduanes and five in Masbate.
Guevarra said the retailers were also facing other charges, like violations of the Consumer Act. Their accreditation have either been indefinitely suspended or cancelled outright, he said.
The most common offense was overpricing. Guevarra said some retailers sold government rice at P25, higher than its original price of P18.25.
Overpricing
“The selling without price tags is an attempt to fool the consumers while rice diversion involves the rebagging of NFA rice. Both boil down to overpricing,” Guevarra said.
He cited a 20-percent increase in the number of violators in late March, when the government became stricter in monitoring the distribution of rice.
By mid-April, he said, the number decreased, indicating the success of government monitoring.
Guevarra said the NFA quickly approved new permits to sell to retailers to ensure no disruption in distribution. Bicol has around 3,000 accredited rice outlets.
Three high-ranking NFA officials in Bicol are also facing administrative charges for allegedly colluding with dishonest traders.
Flood of complaints
Their cases were still being heard at the provincial level, where there are internal auditors, an investigation and prosecution directorate, and a hearing officer, Guevarra said.
He said the NFA had been receiving complaints through anonymous phone calls, letters and media reports. All are subject to investigation.
As of yesterday morning, Bicol had a buffer stock of 687,000 bags of NFA rice, good for 54 days.
An additional 304,000 bags are expected to arrive aboard two cargo ships at the Tabaco City International Port this weekend.
Maria Asagra, 38, of Barangay Cabagñan in Legazpi City is a constant buyer of government rice from the NFA truck that tours villages weekly.
She said she had never been a victim of overpricing since she was buying directly from the NFA. “I don’t buy NFA rice from the public market since the queues there are longer,” she said.
She said around 200 villagers in their place would buy rice from the NFA truck every Tuesday, the schedule of distribution in Cabagñan. Tickets are being distributed to the buyers.
Every purchase is limited to 4 kg but, Asagra said, she and her daughter would line up so the family would get 8 kg.
Guevarra said the price of commercial rice as of Tuesday ranged from P29 to P32 per kg, depending on the variety.
Rice supply worldwide was predicted to be tighter as a cyclone devastated rice farms in Burma and further put pressure on world supply of the staple.
The Philippine government effort to obtain bids for rice suppliers from Thailand and Vietnam failed as no bidder from either country took part in a recent tender. Ephraim Aguilar, Inquirer Southern Luzon
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