Japanese PM’s wife visits Payatas

MANILA, Philippines - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife yesterday laid a bouquet of white flowers at a memorial marker where hundreds of scavengers died in an avalanche of trash at the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City in 2000.

Akie Abe made her initial stop at the dumpsite’s first phase, including the Likha Pangkabuhayan Inc. shop where she was taught how to do cross-stitching.

Accompanying Abe was Yuko Ishikawa, wife of Japanese Ambassador Kazuhide Ishikawa.

Queuing for several hours under the sun, residents welcomed her at the start of the more than three-hour afternoon visit.

Abe wanted to see how a livelihood program of Salt Payatas Philippines Inc. (SPPI), a Japan-based non-government organization, changed the lives of the Payatas tragedy victims, according to  Jun Komase, an official of the Japanese embassy.

Aya Tamura from SPPI said they have been in the Philippines since July last year coordinating with the Japanese embassy for the visit of Abe, who is “interested in dumpsites” in the country, particularly Payatas.

Abe’s decision to visit the Philippines was her own initiative, Tamura added.

Founded by Emiko Ogawa in 1995, SPPI aims to help educate Payatas children.

When the tragedy occurred in 2000,  SPPI provided  a livelihood program to parents through cross- stitching under the Likha Pangkabuhayan Philippines Inc. and through its exposure, experience and exchange (EX3) program.

 The EX3 program was created for the residents’ empowerment and for them to grow with their business.  

Thirty women from Payatas are currently working for Likha, according to program assistant manager   Loreta Lasin.

Likha adviser Chifumi Oi said Ogawa went to the Philippines in 1995 where she saw a lot of children in Payatas did not go to school.

“Because these families cannot send their children to school… they organized this livelihood program. Their mothers can earn money so that they can send their children to school,” she said.

 Trinidad Flores, a worker of  Likha and a scavenger at the Payatas dumpsite since 1988, became emotional when she recalled her ordeal during the tragedy.