CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – A 20-year-old Aeta led 39 other tribal minority scholars in graduation rites at the Angeles University Foundation in Angeles City, the biggest batch of cultural minorities from this province to finish college.
Augusto Laxamana took up criminology and now has a bachelor’s degree diploma to attest to this. He was, however, a standout among the graduating Aeta students as he was also awarded a citation for his being champion in the annual Junior Law Enforcers Association Firing Competition held at the Regional Training School in Magalang, Pampanga.
AUF officials, led by Chancellor Dr. Emmanuel Angeles, noted that Laxamana had also attended seminars on subjects related to criminology, such as forensic lighting system and technology in criminal investigation.
He is the eldest son of Crisencio and Esterlita Laxamana who live in a tribal village in Mabalacat. His father is an employee of the Clark Development Corp. at this freeport.
Most Aetas in Central Luzon have remained illiterate. During the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991, they were displaced from their mountain abodes where they used to survive on hunting and farming and compelled to seek refuge in the lowlands where they found some difficulty in adjusting to new ways of seeking livelihood.
Laxamana was among the 40 Aeta students assisted by the CDC’s Corporate Social Responsibility program, in partnership with AUF.
“My son’s diligence and hard work has paid off. I hope that other locator-firms here in Clark would take notice of this and would inspire them to initiate similar scholarship programs for my people as well as other deserving students within the peripheries of Clark”, the elder Laxamana said after the graduation exercises.
The scholarship program for Aetas, established in 2004 during the term of Dr. Angeles as CDC president, zeroes in on talented Aeta youths living in villages within, or near the Clark Freeport.
The newly graduated 40 scholars are from villages in Mabalacat, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac.
CDC noted that most of the 40 Aetas graduated from education course, but it did not specify how many. The rest took up criminology, business management, hotel and restaurant management, nursing and engineering.
On top of the scholarship program, the CDC has also been providing the Aeta scholars shuttle services between AUF and their villages. – Ding Cervantes