* Vicente Escasinas and Scoth Ubanan of Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, gather sand and gravel washed into a Sitio Lupa creek by rainwater runoff from a nearby development.
* The men clean, sack, and deliver the recovered construction materials—selling sacks for ₱50 to ₱60 each—to generate supplemental income when masonry work is unavailable.
* Earning ₱100 to ₱1,000 weekly, the unpredictable labor helps Escasinas support his four children in high school and college despite erratic weather and uncertain customer demand.
FOR most people, a heavy downpour is something to endure. For 50-year-old mason Vicente Escasinas and 42-year-old Scoth Ubanan of Barangay Tisa, Cebu City, it can also signal the start of a day’s work.
They wait for the rain to stop and the creek in Sitio Lupa to subside. Only then do they head down to look for what the rushing water has left behind.
Community runoff
Runoff from a nearby private development carries sand and gravel from its construction area downhill toward the creek, where some of the material accumulates downstream in the community.
When the current weakens and the creek becomes safe to approach, the two men begin digging through the wet deposits.
They separate usable sand and gravel from mud, leaves and other debris, clean the material, fill sacks with it and prepare it for customers who need construction materials for small building or repair projects.
What begins as rainwater and runoff eventually becomes a few sacks that can be sold for P50 to P60 each.
For Escasinas and Ubanan, the work is an occasional livelihood—one that has no fixed schedule or guaranteed income but becomes useful when construction work is unavailable.
Supplemental income
Escasinas’ main livelihood is masonry. But construction jobs do not always come one after another. When a project ends, there can be days or weeks when there is no site to report to and no regular wage to bring home.
That is when the sand and gravel become an opportunity.
“Maka-abag-abag gyud,” Escasinas said, describing the income as something that helps him get through periods when his regular work is unavailable.
The earnings are modest and unpredictable. On some days, he makes only P100 to P200. A larger order can bring around P500, while he estimates the activity can earn about P1,000 in a good week.
“Dako kaayo ka tabang,” he said.
Family support
The money does not replace his income as a mason, but it gives him something to contribute to his household while he waits for his next construction project.
That matters especially because Escasinas has four children—two in college and two in high school.
School expenses, food, transportation and other household needs continue whether or not a construction contract is available.
The sand and gravel trade does not solve those financial pressures, but even a few hundred pesos can help stretch the family budget during lean days.
The work itself is far from easy.
The men cannot enter the creek while the water is still rushing after a strong downpour. The current can be high, and the ground wet and unstable. They have to wait until the water recedes and leaves deposits behind.
Once the creek becomes accessible, they begin digging.
The material is rarely clean. They remove mud and debris, fill sacks with the usable sand and gravel, carry them out and prepare orders for delivery.
When enough material accumulates, Escasinas said they can collect about 50 sacks.
Customers mostly come from nearby communities, where residents need small quantities for construction and home repairs. Some orders are only a few sacks; others can reach 20 to 30.
The usual price is P50 to P60 per sack. Deliveries farther away can cost about P70, depending on distance.
Ubanan said they deliver the orders themselves, adding more physical work after the material has already been collected and cleaned.
A large order can mean several hundred pesos in one transaction. But there is no guarantee that one will come.
The men may spend hours collecting and preparing the material and still sell only a few sacks. At other times, an unexpected order can turn a slow day into a more profitable one.
Their income therefore follows no dependable pattern.
It depends on how much rain falls, how much runoff reaches the creek, how much sand and gravel are deposited, how much the men can recover and whether customers are looking to buy.
Unpredictable weather
The weather is both the source of their opportunity and the reason they have to wait.
They need enough rain to carry material downstream, but too much rain can make the creek dangerous and delay the work. Light rain may leave too little material. Strong rain may leave more, but the men must wait longer for the water to subside.
Even after the creek becomes safe, there is no assurance that enough usable material remains—or that a buyer will come.
According to the men, the owner of the nearby private development is aware of their practice and allows them to collect the sand and gravel washed down into the creek.
They said the arrangement also helps remove some of the material that could otherwise accumulate in the creek and obstruct water flow.
For the two men, the arrangement means they can collect the material without paying for it and turn it into a source of extra income.
From a distance, the deposits along the creek may look like little more than mud and sediment left behind by a passing storm.
For Escasinas and Ubanan, they represent hours of work.
The rain brings the material. Their labor gives it value.
They dig it out, sort it, clean it, sack it and deliver it before they receive payment. What the water leaves behind eventually makes its way from the creek to their customers—and, for Escasinas, toward a household whose needs do not wait for his next construction job.
The livelihood is fragile precisely because it depends on circumstances neither man can control.
If there is little rain, there may be little to collect. If the water is too strong, they have to wait. If enough material accumulates but no customer comes, the work may yield little.
There is no daily target that guarantees a paycheck.
There is only the possibility of earning something.
For workers who depend on irregular construction jobs, however, that possibility is valuable. A day without a masonry contract does not necessarily have to be a day without income.
So when the next heavy rain comes, Escasinas and Ubanan will wait for the creek to settle.
Then they will return to the deposits, collect what they can, fill the sacks and wait for someone who needs them.
The rain may determine when the opportunity arrives.
But it is their labor that turns what the water leaves behind into something they can bring home. /