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Monday, October 27, 2003
Editorial: What do children want?
In Mambaling, dying seems an easier proposition than living.
According to a barangay profile conducted in 2002 by the Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors (Forge) Inc., not one of its 495 respondents had an average family income of more than P6,000.
The sample group, representing five barangays’ total population of 76,036, does not even meet the poverty threshold of P11,089.06 established for Region 7 by the 2000 Family Income and Expenditures Survey.
On the other hand, media has reported the toll in the lives of residents victimized by Mambaling’s notorious street trade in drugs, gang and fraternity wars, and petty crime. Even puffer fish caught in its waters has poisoned whole families. Young people have unaccountably drowned while swimming in the inland waters of the 221-hectare South Reclamation Project.
But poverty is, by far, still the most flagrant culprit.
Subjected to diseases, brought about by malnutrition, water shortage, lack of toilets, polluted environment, obstructed drainage and other problems, what chance does a child have? If she survives, what kind of a life will she have?
Mambaling’s five-year barangay development plan (BDP), formed with the community’s participation, considers the welfare of its children and youth.
Tapping the gender and development committee (GAD) within the Barangay Council and the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC), Barangay Chief Rodolfo Estella, Councilor Wilfredo Go (heading the education committee) and Councilor Edwil Managbanag (for peace and order) are seeking communally acceptable resolutions to conditions putting minors at risk.
In November, officials will be dialoguing with some 60 trisikad operators and their drivers, 40 of whom are minors. These teenagers need to be dissuaded from plying their routes as, Go said, they have stopped attending classes and risk lives by venturing into the highway.
Reacting to reports that the minors are forced to work by abusive parents or to support their drug habits, the BCPC and GAD members will be counseling these delinquents. Although some parents have warned officials that they will regret come election time their strict stance on the underaged drivers, the education committee chair said that they will confiscate the trisikad once these teenagers are caught again plying their routes.
Like many barangays conducting children’s summits to encourage minors’ participation in the community, Mambaling holds sitio pulong-pulongs twice a month. From these consultations, officials have identified the youths’ needs and apprehensions, topped by the drug menace and the ongoing conflict between the Tau Gamma Phi and Alpha Kappa Rho (Akrho), rival fraternities whose members reside in the barangay.
Go said that he has met with local leaders because he believes that the groups can be something other than “hulga sa katilingban” (threat to society). “If they do good for the barangay, they will be acknowledged. If they turn out to be bad, we will see them at (Police) Station 11.”
When the Akrho chapter offered to paint the islands on the road, Go said he feared a clash between hotheads in the open public place. Go, a lay member, involved the Akrho group in distributing and collecting voters’ registration forms while the Tau Gamma focused on church-based activities. The cat and the dog may not eat from the same bowl, but if treated well—“pikpikon ang abaga (patted on the back)”—there is no reason each animal cannot be an asset.
For all its fearsome repute, Mambaling has one sitio in its 42 sitios that is named Kabataan. Go recalled that it is named after a kapilya built by neighbors as “halad sa mga kabataan (offering to youths).” Although few of the young were inclined to take part in religious activities, the chapel grew on the minors because many of them had their non-formal classes and feeding sessions there.
According to the 2002 Forge study of Mambaling, 80 percent of its respondents were not involved in community organizations. Of this group, 53 percent said they were too busy; 34 percent expressed no interest; and 14 percent felt they were too old to get involved.
But, as its barangay officials have learned, the youths of Mambaling are never too young to have a say and a hand in their own development. |
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