‘Paper boat kids’ look forward to college

When President Arroyo delivered her first State of the Nation Address a year ago, she trundled out three children from Payatas — Erwin, Jayson and Jomer — who with a select group of minors from the city dump say their lives have since improved because of scholarships and other forms of assistance.

A year later, the children themselves say their lives are better off. "At least we have scholarships," said Richell Manadong, one of seven children from a depressed community at the foot of the collapsed Payatas dump who enjoy the good fortune of having been chosen by Mrs. Arroyo during her SONA last year as the first beneficiaries of her campaign to uplift the lives of the poor.

"This is the second time since yesterday that we’ve been interviewed by the media," said Erwin Dolera, 10, a small and scrawny child with a wide easy smile and a happy gleam in his eyes when he speaks.

On an early Friday afternoon Erwin has just been dismissed from classes at the St. Vincent Rolling Hills School, where he is in Grade 6.

He is holding a recent issue of the tabloid-sized Philippine Collegian, the student newspaper of the University of the Philippines, which had him and another presidential scholar, Jayson Vann Banogon, 11, on the cover. The caption read: "Pahimakas ng Bangkang Papel (A Paper Boat’s Wish)."

Among their classmates at school, they’ve come to be known by many names: "Mga apo ni Gloria (Gloria’s grandchildren)," "Mga Batang Bangkang Papel (The Paper Boat Children)," even "mga apo ni Mang Pandoy (Mang Pandoy’s grandchildren)."

Erwin’s father Ernesto, an asthmatic 58-year-old, said Erwin, the youngest of four, wants to become a newspaper reporter someday.

"I want to go places," said Erwin in Filipino, smiling. "But I also want to be an accountant because I want to help my parents."

Jayson, sitting on a small bamboo bench, chose to remain quiet. His large round eyes always looked sad, and his voice could barely be heard when he spoke. "I don’t like interviews like this," he mumbled.

He lost both his parents in the Payatas tragedy in July 2000. He and a younger sister are now in the care of their grandmother. On that fateful morning, his mother had sent him to deposit some money in the neighborhood paluwagan (lending association). He never saw his parents alive again after that.

A social worker said for a time, the boy had to undergo psychotherapy because of the trauma he suffered in the aftermath of the tragedy. But he is now doing well at St. Vincent’s where he is the number two student in his freshman high school class.

In less than an hour, three other presidential scholars arrive for the interview: Richell Manadong and Riccadonna Sayson, both 14 and second year high school students, and Christian Custodio, 12, a high school freshman.

All three are enrolled at St. Vincent’s, a private school. Two other scholars weren’t around: Jomer Pabalan, 11, a Grade 6 student at the Kasiglahan Elementary School, and Raysa Sayson, 14, a high school sophomore. The Pabalans and the Saysons have chosen to be relocated to Kasiglahan Village in Rodriguez (formerly Montalban), Rizal.

The five scholars dutifully posed for photos near the ramshackle Dolera residence at Phase II, Lupang Pangako, Payatas B, with the collapsed dump, much of it now covered with a thin green growth, in the background.

Scholarships and benefactors

For the most part, the children and their families have confirmed the information posted on the Office of the President’s website at www.op.gov.ph/childrenofpayatas.asp: Each of them receives a P16,000 educational scholarship a year to cover tuition fees, miscellaneous expenses and daily allowance.

Their parents or guardians also receive a one-time livelihood assistance of P10,000.

Erwin, Jayson and Jomer also have a private benefactor, said to be presidential publicist Dante Ang, who gives each of them P3,000 a month for educational expenses.

"The President has helped us a lot," said Christian Custodio’s mother Edith, 45. "We only wish this could go on until my child reaches college."

She said she fears the year 2004 when Mrs. Arroyo ends her term in office. "What happens if she is no longer President?"

Erwin’s father Ernesto shares the same dread. He said the AMA Group of Companies initially promised to shoulder his son’s education until college and even issued him a scholarship certificate. Later on, however, AMA officials told them they can only offer them a tuition fee scholarship.

"So my son wrote them a letter thanking them for the offer but in the letter he said he can’t possibly survive college with only a tuition fee scholarship," the elder Dolera said.

He said they never heard from AMA officials again. "The scholarship certificate is still with us but we don’t know if it would be of any use," he said.

Mr. Dolera, who only reached Grade 5, has high hopes for his son. He said he used the livelihood assistance extended by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to start a hog-raising business.

Better off

Richell Manadong is a talkative teenager who, like Ricadonna Sayson, wants to take up mass communications in college. It is a desire no doubt stoked by the media exposure they have received since Mrs. Arroyo singled them out in her first SONA. They hope that the President would fulfill her word to support their education until they finish college.

In many ways, the chosen seven are better off than the other children in Lupang Pangako. They alone received a promise of presidential support until college. Close to 300 other children have been enrolled in a scholarship program, but they only receive P10,000 a year and the scholarship is only until high school.

The DSWD said a total of 512 other children will be provided educational assistance.

Lola Anacleta, Jayson’s grandmother, is now running a car accessory business. Mang Donisio Pabalan, Jomer’s father, has opened a gas stove project, although he complains there are few buyers.

Christian’s mother, Edith, now has a sari-sari store, thanks to the P10,000 livelihood assistance from the government. Ricadonna’s grandmother and guardian, Aling Carmen, also opened a sari-sari store and received a bicycle-sidecar from the DSWD to augment the family income. Richell’s mother Ruth used the livelihood assistance to put up a water pump installation business since there is no water system yet in Lupang Pangako.

Roger Dolores, who heads the local neighborhood association Sankap, said days before the President was to deliver her first SONA, DSWD officials met with them to extend Mrs. Arroyo’s desire to help them.

Four points were agreed on: educational assistance for the children of the tragedy, livelihood assistance, justice for the victims of the tragedy, and land for the landless.

He said the President has yet to make good on her promise that the land on which their houses now stand would soon be theirs.

In her SONA, the President said the Payatas children’s dreams were simple: livelihood, education, a home to call their own, and food on the table. "And this in common sense and plain talk is the core of my vision," she had said.

But for critics, the questions remains: what about the millions of other children all over the Philippines?

Indeed, a year after the President’s first SONA, the lives of these select Payatas children have improved significantly, but this only highlights the truth that many others aren’t as privileged.

In the larger picture, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) gave the Arroyo administration a "moderate passing" rate in the government’s investment in basic education, but cited the reforms set in place by the Department of Education.

And although education eats up the biggest chunk of the national budget, the AIM recommends the issuance of long-term bonds to finance long-term teacher education and training.

The assessment said the Asian financial crisis has hit hardest the lowest 40 percent of Filipino households. As a result, the rate of poor children dropping out of school has been greater.