Thursday, June 19, 2008 Ledesma: Trekking home after the stage show By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
A DAY after the tribal chieftain of Davao City revealed that deep-seated family feud and conflict of ownership over a small piece land were the cause of death of Datu Dominador Diarog, the tribesmen finally packed up and went back to their habitation at sitio Kahusayan in Barangay Guianga.
Finally the show is over for the so-called human rights activists. Tribal Chieftain Joel Unad, who has kept his silence for months over the death of Diarog, said that the root cause of the animosities among the Diarog clan was a two-hectare land.
Chieftain Unad knows the details from where he speaks. He revealed that Dominador Diarog himself was involved in the murder of William Diarog said to be the original occupant of the two-hectare land located near the foothills of Mt. Apo.
The Diarogs are cousins of Unad who regrets that this tragedy is happening to their clan over a two-hectare land. He acknowledged that the case against Dominador was pursued claiming that this will further bring disgrace and shame to the family. This gives credence to earlier report that Dominador later took the widow of William as his wife.
Datu Unad also finally resolved the issue why the name of Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy was unnecessarily dragged into the fray. He explained that a member of the Special Civilian Active Auxiliary under Task Force Davao, against whom Datu Dominador had a personal altercation, just happened to be assigned in the area near Quiboloy's prayer mountain in Tamayong. This SCAA member, Unad reveals, is a nephew of the late Dominador and therefore may indeed be the son of William.
The plot of the story thickens but one thing is sure. The death of Datu Dominador Diarog was made a delectable menu for propaganda of all sides of political spectra including NGOs which, no doubt, made thick albums for funding presentations to their donor foundations. It is the misfortune of Reverend Quiboloy for being sideswiped along the way. It takes only one day to disgrace an innocent man. The ignominy of it all is that it takes years to mend the wrong done.
All these should have been abbreviated if some showoffs in the Provincial Board did not allow themselves to be dragged in the nose by some quarters who had a different agenda. They merely incensed the already confused members of indigenous tribesmen. Had they asked the right questions, they should have found the right answers. They should have looked into who had the motives behind the murder and subordinated their own motives for media mileage. Now the tribal chieftain had spoken. Will they now pursue from where the chieftain guided them to start with their investigation? Or, will they just vanish quietly and steal another thunder from still another dramatic controversy? In the meantime we watch with pity and compassion as the lumads finally trek home after the stage show is over.
By the way, Sunbursts sponsored three grade school pupils this year from the proceeds of this column. One of them I saw tugging along with her mother who was doing laundry for a household in the block next to where we stay. The little girl caught my attention because she has an old school bag, which looked like it was empty. I found out that her father just died and to tie them up with all their needs, the mother has to accept odd jobs like being a laundry woman. Her daughter wanted to go to school but she cannot afford the cost of education she says. (And I thought that it was free). It was then I found out why the bag is empty. I volunteered to shoulder her needs.
The other day, the laundrywoman who is from Agdao, came and left with my helper the list needed by the public school. The items in the list filled up the long size bond. My wife kidded me by asking whether the girl is enrolling in an exclusive school or in a public school. Anyway our kids helped us with the shopping for the items needed. The cost ran up to over P700. Sure this column can afford that but definitely that is a huge sum of money from a slum dweller who hopes to see her child in the grade school.
I looked over the list of items and saw that the school could have still pared down to an affordable minimum what they require the kids. Plain notebooks will do. Instead of placing colored paper under the plastic cover as code for the subject why not just write the name of the subject on the notebook? Why specify a double crayon (16 pcs) when single crayon will suffice? Why use expensive notebooks in the first place when cheaper grade school pad paper will suffice? Instead of faces of actors and actresses and comic characters why not the multiplication table and systems conversions?
There are many more school age children in the slums who wish to go to school. With the cost of "free" education many of them will miss classes again. There is still time to help them. Call the social welfare office of the city if you wish to help.
