ENTER the real Sandmen. Not the mythical figure to make little children sleep but the poor man’s issue that makes Balas boys, a moral crusader (That’s Among Ed), the Mount Pinatubo eruption, and the new ordinance on truck loads an awakening Pampanga to make cash out of quarry. What’s on their thoughts, how do they live and why would this author bear the heat and the guts to ride in a truck and shoot photos like you’re in Sahara! 

It’s a hot noon and I was as usual in heels. Shyness and shame did not halt my nerve to ask the topless vulcanizers on the high way of North Mabalacat where was the site of the nearest quarry. Willing enough, they endorsed a resting hauler named Ronald.  

View photos of anti-Charter change rally from around the country
For minute updates follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Ronald, 28, works daily at the quarry of Tabun and Bamban and has two guys with him. Although not living in Pampanga, he already was aware of the quarry issues and was nice enough to give me a quarry story: What’s on their thoughts, how do they live, and why would this author bear the heat and guts to ride in a truck and shoot photos like you’re in Sahara. 

“Napadaan lang kami dito kasi kailangan iparepair ang mga ito,” he said, pointing to metal parts of the truck. 

How often they experience this occurred frequently just now. We will know the reason later why. 

Ronald, although a conversationalist, has to be conditioned to speak. In this way, I have to inquire first about his family and how proud he was being a new dad to his tot who was too friendly to show his pictures and videos.

We got the point, like most haulers, he would work hard for the kid. Most haulers I’ve met were young fathers and most would say they were satisfied with their job. 

The rate? It depends, but for Ronald who works for private company for over five years, he said he earns P600 per trip. Not bad for a median of three trips a day, right.  

Some, like his fellow, would be P300. A meal allowance of P120 a day is supplemented if your boss is generous. Even emergency cash for truck repairs is included.  

“Pero siyempre hindi naman kami regular na manggagawa,” he clarified, “mataas yung kita pero nakakapagod din, halimbawa kami eh dumadaan pa kami sa NLEX, pinapadala sa Bulacan hanggang Paranaque at Batangas.” 

When I looked at the truck, it was empty, which signaled they would come back to the site.  

I quickly asked where they were heeding to and he said, “Hintayin mo kami ha isasama ka namen. Doon pa siya sa papasok ng Tabun at Bamban, wala kang masasakay dun kaya sumama ka na lang sa amin.” 

They would not mind me taking stolen shots.  

Wow, I never rode a truck but guess how it feels? You see the view clearly: how Mount Pinatubo has turned my hometown a big bed filled with sands and stones and how much these sandy jewels could make the Capitol rich.  

In my mind, I was already tracing our old house pre-eruption. Between Bamban, a former Pampanga town, and Tabun of Mabalacat, now a barrio which fate has that of Cinderella, is separated by Bamban River. The wet sands on the river beds of my childhood frolics have been replaced by ugly sight of gray grains of earth. When I stepped down from the truck, my heels were sinking from the soft soil of sands so I walked barefoot and was ready to play like a child once more! 

The haulers led me to the carinderia owned by Ate Lorna to shelter from the torrid rays of the afternoon sun. Ate Lorna had a hospitality I had to endure by serving me adobo made of chicken hearts and badly cooked rice with flies literally flying around the table. You have to pay the price to get a wonderful story. Refuse the chicken hearts and flies, refuse the good people’s story. 

Through her I know Manong Romy so I was very thankful. 

“Marami na ang pinagbago simula ng dumating ang quarry,” Manong Tomy, 46, described Barangay Tabon during the pre-eruption times. 

Having two small children that time, he added, “pero naghuhukay at nag-iipon na kami ng buhangin nun. Wala kaming truck pero naghihiram kami. Gating-gatang nga lang.” 

Now with grown up children of six, Manong Tomy works for the sand just the same. He compares the living before and after, and having no closed ones that have died during the Mount Pinatubo eruption, he said he preferred his life now compared before. 

Long back on early 80s, his means of living were odd jobs to odd jobs, interchanging farming to fishing as well as sand collecting. 

Today, Manong Romy earns P500 daily or more on the quarry in Bamban and Tabun. 

The anecdote of Manong Romy reflects severally the typical Kapampangan psyche to muddle through Mother Nature. This mirrors the Kapampangan common trait of flexibility after the natural disaster. 

After less than two decades, no other province has ever coped up with triumph other than Pampanga after the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption.  Already classified as one of the worst volcano eruptions in the history, the upsurge has lined up even with Mount Vesuvius of Rome dated back on AD 79. Today, there are several towns of the province where quarry is sufficient. 

But how long will this business take? 

Ronald had his own calculation, he said: “Ay hindi na siguro ganoon katagal. Sa tingin ko mga 2015 konti na lang. Hindi dahil sa paubos na ang mga buhangin kundi sa mga pinapatayong mga subdivision.” 

Going back, the site in Bamban-Tabun has made some trucks to repair more often. 

“Yung kasing daan baku-bako. Sabi pagagawa daw,” he said. 

Having been there, I got the eyewitness account. The road was uneven and was indeed risky for truck drivers at night, especially when they are sleepy and thus, more prone to accidents.  

At daylight, it was not that fine, even. Except from the middle men, the roads are not their main problems.  

A load shall not exceed at 13.5 tons, according to them. Also, from the P1,250 (or P1,200) per truck load, it already includes the P300 for the fee (capitol).

For quarry workers here in Mabalacat, another P90 is paid for the local government and two additional voluntary fee for both Barangays Dolores and Poblacion (P10 usually). To sum it up, a total of P410 per trip that will circulate from the government itself, at least locally. 

Too much money from Mother Nature, and how are we going to give it back? 

With ashes of 10 feet high and the natural terrors that goes along with this: the dark sky, sulfuric air, the cyclical earthquake, and lahar surge, Pampanga, which stunning landscape has indeed its great value, had suddenly lost of all it takes.
 
Mang Romy shared an attractive reason when he said that we maybe are wrong if we think the only way to beautify the province is by building commercial residences. 

And while nature has given us once again good economics (through quarrying) out of ruining an already good economics (farming, woodcrafts, the likes) of the yesteryears, most poor people I asked if something really changed on the quality of their lives despite their existing pair of faith and hard work.  

“Sa dami ng pumapasok ng pera eh mukhang wala naming nagbabago sa buhay ng mga ordinaryong tao,” he added.  

For Ate Lorna, however, she said she will still continue working hard in order to feed her family members. Her case was like this: every day, her carinderia is competed by another carinderia on the quarry site. 

She said she’s fine gathering customers. Her store was nearer, with more viands to contend, including the chicken hearts I have painfully eaten that may not be available on the other store.  

After almost two hours of being with the quarry people -- the haulers, the drivers, the vulcanizers, the middle men, and carinderia owner that was Ate Lorna, Ronald, his two ‘back-up’ guys and Manong Romy left the rest with me.  

In this story lays already five anecdotes of five ordinary people, including me as a former resident who romanticized the childhood riverbeds and the rice fields.

Ronald and the rest of the guys helped me look for a jeep in a highway. Already felt the stickiness of the sand, the sun, and the story it gave, all I could think of was to take a bath ASAP and get this feature article done. 

I really thanked them considering I would not be able to see them again. And when I reached the highway, I met a stubborn tanod (who kept on interviewing me, really) and two BALAS boys on an ashy cottage and joked them how famous they were. They laughed a lot. They were a pleasant duo.
 
And so after that, there I took a jeep, finally.