ALABEL, Sarangani (April 5, 2011) – Two Sarangani schools received Monday (April 4) three classrooms worth P1.417 million from Southern Philippines Power Corporation (SPPC) in cooperation with Conrado and Ladislawa Alcantara Foundation, Inc. (CLAFI), Sarangani’s partners in education.

The classrooms, one in Nop Primary School in barangay Spring and two in Pag-asa Integrated School, are complete with comfort rooms, electrical fixtures and lights, ceiling fans, teachers’ tables and wooden chairs. Pag-asa is one of the newly opened integrated schools in the province’s remote villages.

“This means children no longer have to walk long distances nor look for boarding houses in the poblacion just to proceed to high school,” SPPC human resource manager and municipal councilor Joel Aton said.

SPPC Vice President Edgar Sevilles said they see it a company’s obligation to implement their education program in order to improve the communities particularly neighboring the plant site.

“We need to help the communities where our business grows. It is one way of saying how thankful we are for them,” Sevilles said. SPPC is a diesel-powered 55-megawatt power producing plant located in barangay Baluntay.

Pag-asa’s 95 percent population belongs to the Blaan indigenous group. Due to poverty, school principal Edgardo dela Cruz said pupils obviously lack school things and so become uninterested in their studies.

“But we are thankful to Governor Migs Dominguez for recommending the construction of the additional school buildings here from the SPPC,” Dela Cruz said.

Dela Cruz said the school lacks classrooms for the 1st and 2nd year students. “We just wanted our children to finish their education so that they can have a better future,” Dela Cruz said.

Nop Primary School in barangay Spring has 200 pupils but has only one classroom.

“SPPC is really doing something for education for the future of our people,” Board Member Virgilio Clark Tobias said.

SPECTRUM (Sarangani Province Empowerment and Community Transformation Forum) board of trustees chair Karl Vincent Queipo said the project is the product of a collaborative effort between the local government and private partners.

SPECTRUM program manager Janet Escobar said SPPC will build three more classrooms in Nop Primary School this year while the Department of Public Works and Highways is building another two-classroom building in Pag-asa Integrated School.

From 1999, SPPC has donated 24 classrooms, computers sets, books, built water systems, audio-visual facilities, provided teachers’ trainings, scholarships and financial support to students in Alabel schools. (Russtum G. Pelima/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)

Last Friday , Pasali staff and I went up to Sitio Pait, Alabel, Sarangani province together with two visitors from the department of foreign affairs and two visitors from Scalabrini migration center in Manila. They came to see the intervention made by Pasali in a water scarce Blaan community upland.

We had a breath catching going up and a hard time going down to the water pump near a spring because of the very steep, slippery slope after the rain.  One time, I had to walk with my feet and hands to enable me to pass through a cliff- like way. When we arrived at the pump site, we hear the constant pumping of the machine down. There are two pumps. One pump works to collect water in a spring. The other works to pump the collected water up. Knowing these pumps are nature propelled, I and the visitors were simply amazed of the very efficient and sustainable technology designed by AIDFI, a Pasali partner.  Then, we saw the millions worth of pesos pump installed by the Americans nearby that is not functioning and fuel run. We shook our heads of the very unwise investment made by the local government before. An AIDFI pump cost only 14,000 pesos.

The presence of clean water up the mountain transformed their community. It improved their quality of life. As we went back to the top, a mother told me the pump helped them a lot. They don’t have to go down to the spring and only bring limited containers.  Now, they have access to water 24/7 at the top.

As we went down back to where our van is, I encountered a boy carrying a container filled with water going back to his house. I figured out, this boy lives a little bit far from crux of Sitio Pait where the water tank is located. If the boy still walks to get water, meaning, he would have walked more today if the Ram pump was not installed.

Reveren Fabbio Baggio of Scalabrini migration center commented,’’ there are more villages that needs water pumps like this.”

isla parilla

August 7, 2008

For the love of education

ALABEL, Sarangani – Before Flora Paler understood education is for all, she has already chosen to be a teacher, or that it chose her. For Ma’am Flora, teaching is not a profession. It is a vocation.

For one, when education Secretary Jesli Lapus visited the province before this year’s school opening, he announced that the department’s new campaign is bringing more youth back to school.

But Flora, when she was assigned as school head in Tokawal National High School last year, she went talking to tens of parents in the barangay and convinced them to send their children back to school, saying, “Payag ba kayo na ganito lang ang bahay ninyo forever?”

Indeed, there is future to what the 52-year old educator said, and so she had convinced the parents to stop their children labor and send them back to school.

Tokawal National High School (TNHS) is one of the lowliest schools in Alabel town. TNHS was Alabel National High School’s annex campus for six years until it became an independent national high school in 2005.

It has formerly eight teaching force but now reduced to only five. The school head had to squeeze the 234 students to four classes in the four old classrooms.

A makeshift building made of bamboo is used as the office of the Parents, Teachers and Community Association (PTCA). One room is used as a reading center and a faculty room.

One of the two old school buildings with two classrooms was built by the Department of Education (DepED) when the school was established. The other old building was erected by the Southern Philippines Power Corporation (SPPC) complete with comfort rooms and electrical fixtures.

“One new building was constructed for computer laboratory which funding was sourced out from the local government, parents, and subsidy of SPPC’s Adopt-a-Student Scholarship Program,” Flora said.

The computer laboratory accommodates 11 computer sets donated by the DepED, 10 from SPPC, two from the provincial government while Flora and the PTCA are using two more computer sets donated by the municipal government.

When the computers arrived last summer, Flora had to work on putting up electricity in school. Before, students had to walk down to the barangay site for rehearsals.

“Thanks to SPPC again,” the teacher mused.

SPPC, located in nearby barangay Baluntay, when it vowed to help the adjacent barangays as it started its operation of providing an additional 55-megawatt power to the region two decades ago, sees to it that this is carried out for the community in many ways – a clean and green environment, livelihood, health, and education.

There is now an on-going construction of a two-classroom building from the DepED.

When I happened to meet Flora for the first time at the provincial capitol, she said she came from the provincial engineering office to ask people there help make an old water pump in school work again to provide water for the construction. This would supply water to students, too, who buy drinking water at the canteen during break time.

“She did not waste her time sitting down in her office. She is a very active school head,” said 3rd year high school Loraine Gultia, 14.

“Salamat at meron na kaming bagong facilities like computer room, electricity, new school building,” student Hazel Mae Dollaga said.

Teacher Divina Gracia Fernandez said it really counts when the school in-charge sources out funds and put them for the school’s development and the teachers cooperate.

Once more for the teacher with her call for education, “It is the source of becoming each of us a better person and an asset to the community.”

November 28, 2008

Celebrating Sarangani’s people, culture, resources

ALABEL, Sarangani — Turning Sweet 16, young Sarangani Province, seen with so much potential by its founders, now flies like a colorful butterfly with its 6th MunaTo Festival.

Truly celebrating its rich history and cultural heritage, Sarangani pays tribute to its natural bounty and artistry of Sarangans that this year’s “Ang Galing Mo, Sarangan” theme oozes with artistic passion and business, hard work and volunteerism, innovations and peace effort put altogether towards prosperity.

“I was told that MunaTo means first people, but for me, you mean people first,” said Vice President Noli “Kabayan” de Castro in his opening message.

De Castro was guest-of-honor during the province’s 16th Foundation Anniversary and 6th MunaTo Festival formal opening on Thursday at the Capitol grounds.

De Castro led the ground-breaking ceremony of the Provincial Capitol Employees Village in Alabel earlier.

De Castro lauded Sarangani’s initiative of finding its real potentials for development particularly in tourism.

“When the late congressman James L. Chiongbian first fought for the province and before the historic March 16 1992 for its independence, Sarangani was seen to have the capability to prosper and become a model province,” de Castro recalled.

“Now these dreams are fulfilled because its people and its leaders work together in unity.”

At the Kalyak Sarangani, visitors and Sarangans themselves see Sarangani’s artistry. Kalyak Sarangani is an exhibit booth of award-winning photographer Cocoy Sexcion with his collection of Sarangani’s “Sights and Faces” and Tboli artist Ronald Tamfalan’s indigenous paintings.

“Photography is more than just light and composition,” said Sexcion. “It is real life I want to capture at the right moment and that’s what we want people to see to inspire them again more than just to remember.”

“I wanted to capture the positive side of life. I wanted people to appreciate little things through photography.”

Sexcion discovered his art in photography in 2004 inspired by Sarangani’s beautiful sceneries and its unique people being once a stranger to the place. Sarangani is home to multiculturalism. Here, Muslims, Christians and lumads live together in harmony as evidenced by multi-dialects: Sarangans speak Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilongo, Ilocano, Blaan, Tboli, and Maguindanao.

Ronald Tamfalan is a Tboli who finished school in Falel Community School. Falel is a Tboli community in Kiamba town.

Tamfalan should have learned better education, but despite the school’s inaccessibility for educational assistance like reading books and more number of teachers (the school has one volunteer teacher for 15 years), but he said his inspiration to paint came from his fellow Tbolis and his surroundings, and put them on canvasses.

Ronald makes oil paintings. His trademark is his Tnalak, a native clothing, in oil.

But he also uses soil like reddish clay, barks of trees and dyes of leaves, in his canvass.

Governor Miguel Dominguez is one of Ronald’s fans and buyers. Other visual artists in South Cotabato and General Santos City began to appreciate his unique tribal paintings and concepts of visual arts.

“Difficulty has its own way of making struggle to sharpen and purify life in art,” commented Ali Al Nezzar, director of Kalinawa Art Foundation, a non-government organization from Canada.

“True artists by necessity and passion are committed to doing their art. It is the spiritual force within the human being the moves the imagining and the making of art,” he said.

Sexcion and Tamfalan are indeed true examples of “Ang Galing Mo, Sarangan.”

A search for successful Sarangans was conducted on November 29 with the criteria on the field of innovations, excellence, and volunteerism.

In November 28, Chief Justice Reynato Puno inaugurated the Tamdanan sa Balaud, a “Justice on Wheels” project initiated by the Provincial Legal Office. The provincial government purchased a bus worth P900,000 to bring the court to the barangays and speed up the administration of justice among the communities.

De Castro lauded the provincial officials’ initiative in building a housing community project for Capitol employees in Alabel and urged provincial leaders to further do projects for Sarangani’s “poorest of the poor” through a joint venture scheme with the National Government.

Dominguez despises armed conflicts that occurred in Maasim, Kiamba and Maitum towns during the past few months.

“Sometimes we have to take one step back, but we must take five steps forward to tell the good news to our people,” he said.

Fabli Gu Ni, a tribal trade fair, exhibits Sarangani’s business potentials showcasing the seven town’s One-Town One Product. Also, these booths show miniatures of their tourism potentials like the waterfalls of Kiamba, world-class diving of Maasim, Maitum’s anthropomorphic jars, Isla Parilla in Alabel.

As what de Castro had said: “This rich history and beauty is a result of the blending of many cultures and traditions. As the Vice President, I promise to be a promoter of tourism in Sarangani. I am confident that Sarangani will have its leaps and bounds, and why you can count on my support always is because ‘Ang Galing Mo, Sarangani’.”

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Justice on wheels rolls out in Sarangani

ALABEL, Sarangani — Sarangani’s Justice On Wheels, a bus-turned-mobile court, rolled out for its maiden trip Monday (January 12) to the provincial jail, resolving cases of 93 inmates who are now free men after a day in court.

Most of them have served the term of their sentence and some were already “overstaying.”

But Judge Oscar Noel said hearings will continue overtime for 69 cases involving more than 100 detainees.

“With the Justice on Wheels, the hearing was requested by the detainees who are willing to plea bargain for lesser offense and plead guilty so that they can be released if the possible sentence will be lesser or just equal to the preventive detention,” Noel said.

“One thing would be sure that today they would know why they are going out of jail and what would be their penalty,” the judge said.

“(The mobile court) is actually just like a regular court, only we are bringing justice closer to the people. Nothing is special except that we are now hearing their cases at the bus,” he added.

The Justice on Wheels Project is under the Supreme Court’s Justice Enhancement and Empowerment Program (Jeep). In Metro Manila, it started with two buses of the Supreme Court (SC).

But “it is only the first time in the country that a local government unit donated a bus to the SC to be used as mobile court,” Noel said.

The Justice on Wheels, he added, can really help declog and expedite court proceedings especially where municipalities are separated and it would require a lot of expenses for litigants to bring their witnesses to testify in court.

“Those who are coming from Maasim, Kiamba and Maitum towns would have their cases heard in their respective municipalities,” Noel said.

Records show some detainees have been detained at the provincial jail for 18 years now.

Joery Labuayan of Malungon town was accused of illegal possession of firearms and cattle rustling when he was 18. After spending 17 years in prison, Labuayan finally leaves the jail Monday (January 12). If convicted, he could have served lesser jail time.

“I blame nobody for what happened, it’s just that we are poor and I know nothing to defend my case,” Labuayan said in vernacular.

Jacinto Jayno, 53, was accused of murder and sentenced to eight years and one day to 12 years imprisonment. Jayno was released after pleading guilty to a lesser offense and having spent 13 years in detention.

Leodigario Watin, 59, with three others, has spent 18 years in jail for frustrated murder but convicted for physical injuries.

Roberto Mustafa, after spending 13 years in prison for robbery of a carabao and some mamon (a kind of cheap bread), had his last hearing five years ago and realized his past: “Magpakabuotan gyud ta (We have to be kind always),” Mustafa said.

“We really thank the government for giving us another chance to live a normal life,” he added.

The provincial legal office reports part of the reasons of the clogging of dockets is the very slow movement of cases. Cases filed in 1997 are still in court, mostly due to the absence of witnesses, being too expensive for their part to be brought to court.

A single litigation for a complainant from the municipality of Maitum will cost him P5,000 and his witnesses to come to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the capital town Alabel for a hearing.

The RTC in Sarangani has in its latest statistics more than 3,000 cases pending and unresolved. The prosecutor’s office on the other hand is receiving the influx of a minimum 15 cases per week.

All these will be resolved by the sole provincial prosecutor of the province. At the prosecutor’s office, there is already a pending 1,500 cases left unresolved by the previous fiscal on duty.

Due to clogged dockets, the provincial jail has exceeded its projected capacity of inmates by 50 percent.

These inmates are either waiting for their arraignment for many years already, or for dismissal of their cases due to lack of witnesses.

The Provincial Government provides P9-million subsidy per year to run the provincial jail.

The Justice on Wheels is a source of hope for inmates still behind bars, a jail official said.

The provincial initiatives in helping out in the dispensation of justice are a fulfillment of a social responsibility as well as moral obligation, according to a Justice on Wheels briefer.

The speedy administration of justice is part and parcel of the direction of a progressive approach on peace and development in the province.

“The objective of the mobile court is to help ease out the dockets of the court by providing a venue of trial in the municipality the mobile court can be transported,” the briefer stated.

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