Produce from Alcala shunned due to SARS scare

ALCALA, Pangasinan — The trying SARS experience of Barangay Vacante here is not over yet.

Despite the government’s declaration that Vacante and the rest of Alcala are SARS-free, traders still refuse to buy Vacante’s produce of tobacco and corn for fears that the produce may carry the virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Greeting President Arroyo and other government officials with placards during her visit on Friday, Vacante residents asked Mrs. Arroyo to ease their burden.

The President and her party visited Vacante Friday to officially lift the 14-day quarantine imposed on the town after Toronto-based nursing aide Adela Catalon and her father, Mauricio, were declared the country’s first two SARS fatalities by health officials.

One placard read: "Madam President, help us sell our tobacco so we can pay our debts." Another placard sought an increase in tobacco prices and yet another said, "We are not afraid to die of SARS. We are afraid to die of hunger. We can’t sell our tobacco."

Five-foot-high and 10-foot-long bundles of unsold tobacco were stacked near the stage where the President spoke to dramatize the barangay residents’ plight.

Teresita Alberto, 55, who has been growing burley tobacco since 1964, told The STAR they used to sell their tobacco for P37.50 per kilo. Now, she said, even at the bargain price of P5 to P15 per kilo, there are no buyers for the tobacco.

"Our former customers no longer want to come here, they are afraid of getting SARS," Alberto said.

The barangay’s corn crop also remains unsold, despite the cut in prices from P7.80 per kilo to P6.50 per kilo.

Rep. Mark Cojuangco, the congressman for Pangasinan’s fifth district, said the problem of low tobacco prices "is not isolated (to Vacante)," it "is not isolated to this area. It’s all over."

Cojuangco said the Vacante residents had to abandon their crops for the two-weeks they were under quarantine he added.

"They are harder hit (by SARS)" in this way, he said, adding that the President’s visit would soon normalize the life of Vacante’s residents.

Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will use the experience of Vacante residents as a model for a nationwide fight against SARS at the barangay level.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina Jr., who was with the President at Vacante Friday, told barangay residents the Vacante experience will be presented at the national anti-SARS summit at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City which began yesterday.

Lina said he sent DILG personnel to Vacante to document the preventive measures taken by Vacante residents.