Angelo’s townmates in Mexico, Pampanga hope for better times

MEXICO, Pampanga —Townmates of Angelo de la Cruz in Barangay Buenavista here are hopeful that they would soon reap the benefits of the media exposure that his release has brought upon their impoverished community.

As the media hype on De la Cruz’s ordeal in Iraq is expected to die down soon, Barangay Captain Alfredo Pineda expressed hope that help from the government and even the private sector will now come their way.

"My priority is (the improvement of) our roads," Pineda, 56, told The STAR recently. "It is a privilege for our barangay to get such exposure arising from the hostage crisis," he said.

An agricultural community with some 1,000 residents, Buenavista encompasses about 200 hectares. Its populated center occupies only a small fraction of this area.

The village’s 202 households are clustered along two parallel roads surrounded by vast rice, corn, and sugarcane plantations, their main source of livelihood, which hardly provide them enough for their needs.

"Most local folk find it hard to make ends meet, so it is common practice to sell their crops even before they are harvested," Pineda said.

The village center itself can be reached via concrete road from Barangay Tangle through some 500 meters of dirt road that turns muddy during rainy days.

"One third of our adult population are jobless," Pineda confided.

He said that majority of families in Buenavista rely only on farming rice, corn, and surgarcane.

"We sell our produce by ourselves. Not even the National Food Authority buys our palay," he said, noting that seedling subsidy from the government seldom comes.

Between planting and harvest time and while waiting for the next planting season, most local folk remain idle as even odd jobs are difficult to find, he said.

For irrigation of their farmlands, local farmers have built their own diversion dam at the Abacan river - the only way to ensure water supply during the dry months.

The road right in front of the De la Cruz’s home is up for concreting as promised by provincial board member Dong Gonzalez after he visited members of Angelo’s family at the height of the hostage crisis.

The concrete road project, however, would cover only some 200 of the 500 meters of dirt road that leads to the concrete road in neighboring Barangay Tangle.

Mayor Teddy Tumang also provided funds for the immediate installation of a deep well pump near the Barangay hall which has a toilet but no nearby water source.

Pineda said that Buenavista’s share in the annual internal revenue allotment (IRA) is P400,000.

"This is for the allowances of barangay tanods, road maintenance, electric bills, and other necessities of the barangay. It is not sufficient," noted Pineda who gets a monthly allowance of only P1,700.

He cited the need for a more permanent irrigation system to ensure water for their farmlands which, if weather is cooperative, yields 17 to 18 cavans of palay per hectare.

Finding work abroad is also not as tempting as it used to be for these "cabalens."

"We only have about seven residents who are working in the Middle East. Many of us have lost interest in seeking jobs in the Middle East since salary there went down from about $500 to as low as $180," said Pineda, who had worked in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s.

He attributed this to the entry of the labor force from India whose pay is much lower than what Filipino workers in the Middle East used to receive.

Pineda cited the case of Angelo, who he said, could sometimes only remit about P5,000 to his family here. Angelo, 46, has eight children, four of them minors.

Angelo’s brother Willy, who is among the few local folk working in the Middle East, said he would discourage his fellow "cabalens" in Buenavista from seeking jobs in the Middle East for it might require them to go to dangerous areas such as Iraq.

Despite such woes their community is facing, Pineda expressed gratitude to President Arroyo for the pull out of the Philippine humanitarian contingent in Iraq, which saved the life of their townmate.

"She was right in her decision, which only shows that she loves her "cabalens" in Pampanga who gave her overwhelming votes in the last elections," he said.