“…QUETA PU quecami, dacal lang Baluga, malati’t maragul, biyasa lang mamana.”
From that ditty of our bygone youth, the “Baluga” – old Capampangan for the indigenous Aetas – has figured much in our lore. In that instance, as master archers; in some others, as yokels out of their native woods.
Like in those so called “Area jokes.”
(For the uninitiated, “Area” refers to that enclave straddling Barangays Pampang and Sta. Teresita in Angeles City that has – since pre-WWII – catered to blue-collar sex.)
So there was this story of the Baluga who was experiencing hunger during a severe drought in his mountain village and went down to the plains to find some food for his people. His wandering took him to the Area.
In one of the brothels, he chanced upon an open room where a couple were engaged in the tombalibanta position – that’s 69, for you, dummy.
Quickly, he ran out and rushed back to his people warning them that the unat (the straight-haired, as distinguished from them, the kulot – the kinky haired) are in a graver situation of hunger: “Queng danup da, Cuyang,ila nang mipamangan.” (In their hunger, they eat each other.)
And then there was the other Baluga who, after selling his rootcrops at the Pampang Market, sought out the Area for some good time.
Returning to his village, he called for a tribal council to report on the greatest sexual experience he has had: “Lima nang aldo, kaluluwalan ku pa, Apu.” The onset of STD he mistook for continuous ejaculation.
Cry political incorrectness there. Scream racism. Those derogatory tales are nowhere near in disparagement than to the cultural fixity of the unat on the kulot.
Prejudiced as lazy bones that live on dole outs; prejudged as naturally prone to sleep on full stomachs – casting away any activity in favor of dreamland, Aetas for too long have been deemed as truly deserving of their sorry state, as virtually second class citizens in their own country, if not the forsaken children of a lesser god.
Their nomadic, food-gathering natural way of living, totally ignored. Their pre-eminent ownership of the land, completely forgotten. Thus, their exploitation.
A celebration then – and a challenge too – is the rise to excellence of Aeta tribesmen and women. Like the news of an Aeta scholar of the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) and the Angeles University Foundation (AUF) recently earning his bachelor’s degree with flying colors.
Twenty-year old Augusto S. Laxamana, aside from earning his bachelor’s degree in Criminology, was awarded a citation for being the champion in the Annual Junior Law Enforcers Association Firing Competition held at the Regional Training School in Magalang, Pampanga.
Laxamana led eight other Aeta scholars who graduated this year: John Paul Galang, BS in Business Administration; Andrea Tiglao, BS Education; Natalie Lacson, BS Education; Louchelle Capiz, BS Education; Leslie Joy Estardo, BS Education; Elaine Diane Maria, BS Criminology; Mark Rein, BS Criminology; and Lyn Layug, BS Criminology.
The CDC-AUF Aeta Scholarship program, established in 2004 during the presidency of Dr. Emmanuel Y. Angeles at the CDC president, extends scholarships “to qualified and deserving beneficiaries living within the Freeport’s contiguous communities.”
At least 40 scholars, majority of whom belong to indigenous tribes of Mabalacat, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac have benefited from the program.
This is one affirmative action that the kulot must fully exploit to get out of the umbra of prejudice and discrimination and stand as tall and proud as the unat under the light of socio-economic equity.
Black is beautiful, not only in America. Black power too. Carpe diem – Seize the day – is all that the Aetas need to do.
SO WE wrote here sometime in 2008 yet.
And since then, we have not heard of any succeeding batches of Aeta scholars graduating from the AUF or any other school in the Metro Clark area.
At the Clark Freeport itself, subsequent news relating to the indigenous tribes was invariably negative.
So Levi Laus, during his watch at CDC, provided over a dozen Mitsubishi L-300 FB cabs to tribal leaders as part of the joint memorandum agreement (JMA) the CDC signed with them for the development of lands in the Clark sub-zone falling under the ancestral domain.
Instead of conveyances of utility and accessibility, the cabs even turned to objects of animosity and discord among the tribesmen, especially after the vehicles made overnight parking lots of the frontage of videoke bars.
That same JMA was shredded by 1st District Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin as “grossly disadvantageous” to the Aeta tribes with the stipulated profit-sharing of 80 percent to the CDC and only 20 percent to the Aetas.
“That’s tantamount to the real estate agent getting 300 percent more than the landowner himself,” Cong Tarzan said then. Indeed, a total reversal of business practice, if not a perversion of business ethics.
The sub-zone becoming the “Next Frontier” during the CDC presidency of Benny Ricafort’s did not help the Aetas any.
On the contrary, it stirred howls of protest after Ricafort signed a contract with the Philippine Tourism Authority to establish a wake boarding facility at the Sacobia highlands, right where a reforestation project of the indigenous tribes is situated.
Digging a lake on a mountainside, being reforested at that, is one environmental nightmare that simply cannot be allowed to happen.
The Clark International Airport Corp. had its own run-ins with the indigenous tribes after it justified the demolition of buildings, both totally unserviceable and not-so –dilapidated, as “for the benefit” of the tribes.
The proceeds from the scrap materials sold to junkyards and salvagers supposed to be remitted to them.
“An absolute lie!” Cried Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo who had his sights on one or two of the demolished buildings for some food terminal project.
The real beneficiaries of the millions of pesos from the scrap sale were officials of CIAC and some contactors, he alleged and promptly filed a case with the Ombudsman.
Of any agenda for the Aetas in the new leadership at the CDC, we have yet to hear.
Today, August 9, the Philippines together with the international community marks the 17th anniversary of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
Have we given our Aeta brethren any cause for celebration?
