Siquijor Province

March 10-12, 2007

Feed the Hungry received a donation of $10,000 from Mr. and Ms. Harry and Rosa Yu and Mr. and Ms Johnny and Betty Ng of Valle Verde, Metro Manila. The couples were recent guests of Pablito and Tessie last October 2006, while attending the wedding of their niece in Lansdowne Golf and Country Club in Leesburg, Virginia. Since Siquijor is one of the last 3 provinces not yet reached by FtH, Pablito and Tess decided to visit Siquijor to do a feasibility study for the construction of 2 classrooms in Siquijor. Jeremiah Opiniano, a UST professor and a long time supporter of FtH, also collected dictionaries from his students for distribution in schools in Siquijor, through FtH.

At 4:00AM on Saturday, March 10, 2007, I sent a text message to Hazel of CFO and to Manny and Fely of Las Vegas that Tess and Pablito are on the way to the airport for the 6:30AM Air Philippines flight to Dumaguete City. Hazel replied that she is going to pass by CFO to pick up the dictionaries donated by UST students for distribution in Siquijor schools while Fely and Manny were also already on the road to the airport. In Dumaguete Airport, after retrieving our luggage, we hired a van to shuttle our party for the 15 minute ride to the Port of Dumaguete, for the ferry to Siquijor, Siquijor Island. At the ferry, we were met by Verna Alih, a local member of the Greater American Siquijorian Association (GASA) of California whom we have maintained a constant email communication since last year to jointly sponsor a project in Siquijor.

The fast ferry to Siquijor is no match to the rough seas between Dumaguete and Siquijor. It was a little bit windy and Bohol Strait, the sea passage, about 25 kilometers in width, is rolling and reeling, with “white caps” (breaking waves on top, meaning rough seas) all over the area. One in our party is very quiet, pale in color, while the other gave back to mother nature what she ate that morning. After about an hour of pitching and rolling, we arrive in Siquijor with a sigh of relief. At the pier, we were met by Leo Mamicpic, brother of Verna, a former resident of Las Vegas, now retired and residing in Lazi, Siquijor; and Ms. Pura Jumadla of the Department of Education, with a list of ALL public schools in Siquijor.

On the way to our hotel, we passed by schools in San Antonio, Cantabon, Pangi, and San Juan. After having lunch in our hotel at Coral Cay, we continue our trip to the other schools in Canmunag, Campalanas, Poo, Kinamandagan, and Lazi. It was a Saturday but there are some students and teachers in the school doing some review work in preparation of the national test. We talked to the teachers/principals about the student population in every school, the number of classroom, the problems facing them, etc. We distributed one dictionary for each classroom and the teachers were very happy about the donation. Fely and Tess gave some chocolates and lollipops to each students and kids in the school. In every school where there are teachers and/or principals, we were treated to fresh ‘butong’ (young coconut) juice and some cookies or merienda or something. Siquijorians are very hospitable and happy people; we forgot the warning given to us before the trip; to be careful of the food in Siquijor that it might be laced with some poison and/or potion of the ‘aswang’ (witch). About a week before our trip, a movie titled “Siquijor, The Enchanted Island”, similar to the Blair Witch US movie, was showing in the local cinemas bringing apprehension to some members of the group.

Leo gave us a tour of the St. Francis of Asisi Church and Covent in Lazi where he and Verna are members of the restoration committee. The floors of the church are big, hardwood, wooden planks, arranged in diagonal pattern and maybe the only church in the Philippines with a wooden floor, about a foot from the ground. Some of the icons and cherubin were stolen from the church. At the back of the altar, Leo showed us a long wooden cabinet, about 4 feet high, about 20 feet long, about 4 feet deep which was possibly made on site as it will not fit through the doors. The convent across the church is probably the biggest in the Philippines and still in use. It is also undergoing restoration. They have established a museum where they displayed some of the priest’s vestments, balusters, icons, journals, etc.

On our way back to the hotel, with Leo, Verna and Pura staying in Lazi, we should be lighter but maybe because of too much food that we ate, our rented van had a flat tire, luckily in front of a store with some people. Manny and Pablito, each ready with a flashlight like a Boy Scout, helped the driver replaced the flat tire, luckily with a spare. I was watching the driver as he tries to look for the jack and release the spare, as if he is not familiar with the van. Manny concentrated on lighting the work for the driver and I signaled oncoming traffic to slow down and watch out for the driver who sometimes is lying on his belly trying to position the jack under the van. For the rest of the trip, I noticed our driver to be driving slowly than before, maybe because the replacement tire is just as bad as the one that blew away.

We had dinner at Coral Cay Beach Resort, where we occupied a one-bedroom, and one bathroom cottage by the beach. It took almost an hour for us to be served our dinner. Most of the other guests are foreigners who learned about Coral Cay from the internet. The owner is an American who works as a carpenter in Lake Tahoe for 6 months in a year and spend the rest of the year with his Pinay wife who stays in Siquijor managing the resort. The owner approached us after dinner and Manny mentioned about the one hour wait for our dinner. He apologized for the service but he has only one cook that night. That night, we ordered our breakfast to be ready by 7:00 AM. the following morning.

We slept through the night without being bothered by any ‘aswang’ but Hazel mentioned that there was a ‘tuko’ (gecko lizard croaking near our bed that night). At 6:45 AM, we sat on the table and our breakfast was ready by 6:59 AM, ahead of time! We checked out of the resort as we have decided to spend some time in Dumaguete City before going back to Manila on March 12, 2007.

Our driver arrived about 7:30AM with a new spare tire. We went on to Lazi to pick up Leo, Verna and Pura for the remainder of the trip. Siquijor Island is shaped like a butterfly, with a perimeter road around the island and a road that went through Mt. Bandilaan and split the island into east and west side. We covered the schools in the west side yesterday and today, we targeted the schools in the east side. We visited the Minalulan ES and Cantaroc PS in Maria. Also, here in Maria, we visited the Salag-Do-Ong Beach Resort, where the government developed the beach and opened to the public with a P10 entrance fee. We drove on along the coast line to Enrique Villanueva where we saw the oldest house in Siquijor, the Cang-Isok House, more than 100 years old. Leo laments the use of metal roofing to protect the house but it ruined the restoration of the house to its original condition of nipa roof.

We had lunch in a coastal restaurant in Larena before we proceeded to a 2:00 PM meeting with a farmer’s cooperative in Lazi. The farmers are seeking funding for their irrigation system using solar power cells to run a hydraulic pump to bring water to their rice fields. We advised the farmers to provide a proposal so that we can properly evaluate the project.

We left Leo, Verna and Pura in Lazi and drove back to Siquijor for the ferry to Dumaguete City. They were going to sort and label some books received from GASA for distribution to different schools in Siquijor. We arrived in the Port of Siquijor about 4:00 PM for the 5:30 PM scheduled ferry to Dumaguete. Our driver stayed with us until we were ready to board the ferry which came in late, about 6:30 PM. We found out that the driver is a contractual employee of the owner of the van, who happens to be an employee of the DSWD. As soon as the ferry arrived, we boarded and bid beautiful Siquijor good bye.

From our trip around the island, from talking with the teachers and principals of different schools, knowing that the student/classroom ratio average about 30 students per classroom, we will recommend to our donors to designate the classrooms to other areas more in need, like the Bicol region. We also found out that the students are having problem with their everyday meals while in school and parents keeping them from school to work in the rice fields, especially from January to March each year. We suggested to the schools to submit a proposal for a Feeding Project for the students.


Pablito
Tuesday, March 20, 2007