Early Xmas treat

Saturday, December 10, 2011

IN DAVAO City, there is this group of men who love to go where they should no longer be - in mountainous and riverside terrain and put real meaning on the word off-road. The best part of this group’s addiction is that it’s not only for fun.

The thinking is that, since we’re already where many have not gone, might as well bring in the stuff that are needed because very few can go.

And so, with a little personal messages through Facebook and an exchange of mobile phone numbers, a civic action was whipped up last November 30 by the Davao Eagle Volunteer Group in coordination with the Kinaiyahan Foundation Inc. (KFI) at Sitio Malikongkong, Barangay Marilog in Davao City, where the KFI has livelihood development and reforestation programs going. An early Christmas treat!

Malikongkong is 11 kilometers of rough road from Crossing S along the highway of Marilog, just after sitio Upper Kibalang and right before sitio Balite.

Regular four-wheel vehicles can still reach sitio Upian from Crossing S. The rough road becomes worse after sitio Upian, and that was where the offroaders were put to a test -- a test they made peanuts of. They wanted more river crossings. There was just one river crossing, across Upian River. They wanted mud and rocks. The earth was dry. But then, they were riding their offroad vehicles.

Malikongkong can be reached only by habal-habal. Thus, the arrival of 14 offroad vehicles in a village of just around 150 families with more children than anyone can ever imagine was already a big event. To many of the Matigsalogs in Malikongkong, it was their first time to see vehicles on four wheels.

The sheer distance, the prohibitive cost of habal-habal and even horse ride fare has cut off many from even reaching the highway to see vehicles zip by.

The 14 vehicles at first appeared too many for a civic action activity that took them only days to make a plan and execute. Behind the wheels and riding along were Eagle Offroaders president Jojo de Juan, Davao Eagle Volunteer Group program director Richard T. Cagape Sr., Toto Derequito, Beni Venus, Rocke Selga, Aldo Cunanan, Jericho Agudo, Lloyd Abella, Nathaniel Tan, Boyet Dadan, Altams Altamera, Kashmir Leyretana, Jerold Mauro, Shirwin Kwan, Jiggy Diaz, Abet Lim, and Deo and Owing.

But as the day progressed, it turned out, they were bringing so much for so many; Martinez, a young leader of the tribe couldn’t help himself he was overwhelmed and full of gratitude to what he described as the “biggest ever event their sitio has witnessed.”

The day started with the free feeding. Tuna lugaw, five big vats loaded in one pickup. It was initially intended for 600 children, but it turned out that each vat could feed a lot, and thus the children and the adults just kept coming back for more.

Next came the juice, candies, and biscuits packs. This time the packs are only for children, but since each pack contained more than one candy and biscuit, even adults were seen sucking on lollipops.

Next, the gifts for the 150 families consisting of one plastic water container, one mosquito net, rice, canned goods, and noodles. That was the wow factor there. Water is hard to come by in Malikongkong, their water source is more than a kilometer away. Thus, water containers are badly needed but hard to come by.

While the distribution for the gift sacks was ongoing, there was a sudden rush toward yet another set of vehicles. It turned out that those vehicles were loaded with the goodies that were donated on the night before the civac, there was no more time to divide and pack them. And that became the highlight for the children for they were made to sing and cheer and wave to win a toy, a pair of shoes, notebooks, and ballpens.

And because the rough road to Malikongkong was not challenging enough, although it is already so bad such that only motorcycles run through it, these Eagle offroaders are eyeing yet another project area by KFI farther up and down the mountains where the terrain drops to the Davao River. This time, only horses bring people in and out of this sitio, those who don’t have a horse have to walk for long hours. This is a trip I look forward to.

In the meantime, the search is on for willing partners for a water system. Without access to water, sanitation and hygiene can never be properly addressed and maintaining a backyard garden for daily sustenance would be difficult too. In those mountains, long denuded by multi-billion logging operations, the soil can turn dry, very dry.