Dumagats

Vangie just arrived the day before from the US and immediately went to work in giving the Dumagats (an indigenous people, IP) of Rodriguez, formerly Montalban, Rizal some meaningful beginning for the Year 2011. Tess did the preparation for the gift-giving to 300 families AND a separate package for 200 children. With a limited budget of $7 per pack, Tess selected the items from Pure Gold Grocery store and arranged with the manager to repack into individual packages and deliver the 500 packages to Martin’s warehouse in Pasig, Rizal. Rodriguez is some 2 hours away from Manila, through narrow, congested streets and Pure Gold will deliver only up to Pasig. Martin volunteered to deliver the gifts to Rodriguez in their company truck, free of charge. On Dec 28, 2010, we went back to Pure Gold to order additional P100 worth of groceries per package, when we were told that there was some left over budget available to spend in 2010.
 
We were supposed to be in Rodriguez, Rizal by 10:00 AM and Martin decided to meet in Pasig at 6:30 AM, making allowance for traffic delays.  I left Hillsborough Subd. At 5:00AM, waking at 4:00AM, to meet with Eileen A., a new FtH volunteer from Seattle, Washington, whom we met during the conference sponsored by CFO last Dec 8, 2010. I emailed Eileen with 3 possible locations where we can meet but I did not get a reply back. When I left Hillsborough, I texted Eileen that I am on the road and when she replied “ OK, see you soon”, I thought she was not coming and we will see each other on the next mission. When I was some 15 minutes away, already on C-5, she texted again that she’s on the way. I found out later that she was trying to get a taxi since 4:00 AM and finally her cousin checked on her and decided to give her a ride. The moral of the story is email and texting is cheaper but phone, in person, is better to avoid miscommunications.
 
I parked on a Shell gas station on C5 in Pasig and emailed my location and waited until Eileen arrived. It was 5:30 AM; we decided to have breakfast at Jollibee at Tiendesitas before continuing to Pasig. A breakfast of corned beef on fried rice and egg with coffee is very much welcomed by my empty stomach. We were at the warehouse of Martin by 630AM, well-fed, happy and on schedule.

Martin also had to be awake by 5:00 AM to do some last minute grocery shopping for
his New Year dinner party at home, with only about 20 relatives. It was a big sacrifice for Martin to go with us on this mission and leave his duties at home but he knows about 300 families are waiting for us in Rodriguez and away we left his warehouse at 7:30AM in his van, with his truck and 2 guys following us.
 
We passed by San Mateo, Rizal the town before Rodriguez. We noticed a lot of indigenous people (IP), maybe Dumagats or Aetas, dark short people with curly hairs, some with babies tied with bandanas on their front or backs, begging in the streets, living on sidewalk, under canvas tents. About a week before, I read in the papers about Badjaos camping in the Monumento area in Balintawak. These Badjaos are normally living on houses built on stilts over water in Sulu, in Southern Philippines. Same stories about mountain people in Mindanao migrating to Davao City, being housed temporarily in basketball courts, begging in the streets. It only means that ‘progress’ claimed by the government are not filtering to this indigenous people.
 
We arrived in Rodriguez around 9:30 AM, after asking for some direction twice. There were already some beneficiaries waiting in the courtyard of St Rafael Parish Church. We noticed some volunteers hauling lunch boxes and lining them up in the church. We also noticed that some of the ‘natives’ are straight haired, light complexions and doesn’t look liked the IP guys we saw in San Mateo. We talked to a mother with a baby in tow and she told us that they came from the mountain, about 2 hours away, by walking down the mountain and taking a tricycle into town. It appears that some IP had already intermarried with some lowland people and “improving” their race, the real Pilipinos.
 
We backed up the truck and unloaded 800 gift packs, one at a time, passing the pack from one volunteer to another, like a fire brigade. We then distributed lunch boxes of rice and ground beef, with gallons and gallons of water to push it down. After lunch, the IP settled down and Vangie started the program with a prayer and information about FtH, introduction of the volunteers and acknowledgement of the assistance of Martin for the use of the truck.

Vangie invited some natives to perform before the crowd and we were not disappointed. A girl even cried while singing, an adult lady sang with gusto and then a party of 4 dancers and 2 singers, in their native attire, did a native dance but with a Tagalog song, I think. The performers were given some chocolates as their prize and then we proceeded with the gift giving.
 
We started with the 300 adults that were issued a claim ticket, no ticket, no gifts. And the volunteers relayed the passing of the gifts from one volunteer to another until all 300 were served. Some late comers were also given their gifts. It was a smooth operation until some IP decided to form a second line and then a third line, very eager to get their gifts or afraid they will not get any. We had to stop the distribution a couple of times until they form just one line and everything went fine.
 
FtH volunteers then had a quick meeting on how to handle the gifts for the 200 children with no tickets. There are families with 4 or 6 kids and we only prepared for one kid per family, for 200 kids. It was decided that each kid will line up with their mother or father or Lolas and the barangay captain who knows all the families was positioned in front to identify and make sure that only one kid per family will receive the gift. The plan worked and we were finished by 1:00 PM.
 
We said our good byes to Vangie, her sister Loy who requested the distribution of the gifts to the Dumagat people, her brother who brought along his 3 teenage daughters to help in the distribution, and other local volunteers in the area.  Then, on the way back to Manila, Martin treated the very hungry FtH volunteers of Pablito and Eileen and himself to a very delicious Chinese feast at the Shangri-La in Ortigas.
 
It was a very long day, a long journey for me starting at 4:00 AM and ending up about 4 PM, luckily on the same day. Was it worth for the Dumagats to spend a day waiting for $8 worth of gifts, traveling more than 2 hours, one way, from the mountain to the town and then another 2 hours going back in the afternoon? It must be or else they would not have done it. And they were very happy to bring back something without paying for it, a gift after Christmas although some or most of them are not Christians. If the Dumagats are happy, the few Feed the Hungry volunteers are very happy to bring smiles to so many families.
 
 Pablito
Jan 5 2011