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Monday, February 14, 2011

A Day in Barangay Dalid

The Province of Iloilo has several municipalities with a barangay named ‘Dalid’. The word dalid refers to a fruit-vegetable of a gourd family. The skin covering hardens as the fruit matures so that in some areas, the folks scrape out the inside soft parts and use the outer covering as a container of seeds or even water. This time, I am referring to Barangay Dalid in the town of Alimodian.

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We left Iloilo City at 10:30 in the morning of January 15, 2011. The sun shone so brightly in the city and we were so confident that we will be enjoying the adventure.

Everything went smoothly on the way to the Municipality of Alimodian. Lunch was at the small eatery beside the jeepney terminal. The servers were friendly and the owner was just as accommodating despite the hot and humid atmosphere inside the small restaurant. There was no electric fan inside.

We dropped by the police station at 12:45 in the afternoon to inform them of our desire to visit, take pictures and interview folks in the target barangay. An SOP for safe travel. By 1:00 in the afternoon we were moving out towards Barangay Dalid on a single motorcycle passing Barangay Bagumbayan. It was to say hello to Mrs. Lourdes Aguirre – Jaleco, a very good friend in college and her sister, Vilma who owns a dress shop located in the Alimodian Public Market. Based on the time spent travelling on the road going to Barangay Dalid, it seemed too far; but, based in the actual distance measure – it was quite near. 
The tricycle driver, Rodel, informed us that there are two routes to reach the barangay. We chose to pass through the shallow river with those unfinished beams of the supposedly concrete bridge that stood proudly like sentinels lining from one bank to the other. They’re partly covered with moss now. The project was constructed in the 1990s through the 2nd District Representative, Augusto ‘Boboy’ Syjuco, but was never finished due to sub-standard materials used that were found out when it was audited. What a waste of people’s money!

From there, we travelled through the intermittently rough roads with loose stones and some cemented parts. The cemented areas, the driver said, were done by the former members of the Army Company assigned there. Each covered about a 50-meter span.

So far, the trip was fun. The idyllic scenes were nice as if painted in a canvass until we reached another creek with a bridge that was a combination of steel beams and wooden floor. According to the driver, this was constructed by the Philippine Army engineering unit decades ago. It was noticeable that the long stretches of the banana plantations, often told by the older folks in the city, for which Barangay Dalid was famous, have become mere patches alongside the road.

I asked the driver why there seem to be a sparse banana patch all along when Dalid is known to be a big supplier of banana in the province. He said that most of the damage on the banana plantations were brought about by the typhoons especially that one two years ago – Typhoon Frank. Other than this the marketable varieties seem to have reverted to the smaller versions of it when it has reached so much number of years. “Even the coconut trees have decreased in number that only a few were sighted to be their sanggutan. (That means the coconut tree as a source of tuba.).” declared Rodel.

We reached the 3rd and last creek to cross before we reached the very heart of the barangay. The creek is a convergence for two smaller ones. Here, the motorcycle has to descend slowly because of its 55 degrees fall from the bank and about 45 degrees on the other side.

It was good to note that the barangay has one elementary school named Paaralang Elementarya ng Dalid. It’s playground appeared to be so well cared and it has a little canteen between its two buildings. In fact it was near the school principal’s office. At that time of our visit, the school administrator was out on an official business to the city, we were told.

For years, the problem there was the far secondary schools. Luckily, the Alimodian National Comprehensive High School has opened a secondary school extension in the barangay too. That makes more children  even luckier to be able to attain the secondary education with less expenditures incurred compared to those who still have to attend it in town. Alimodian National Comprehensive High School – Dalid Extension (ANCHS – DaExt) is temporarily located adjacent to the elementary school.

We were able to meet Mrs. Ma Riza S Lasquite, the officer-in-charge of the high school. Over a bottle of soda, she told us that the two buildings they’re occupying actually belong to the elementary school. She commended her teaching staff who worked so hard as actively as regular teachers do even if they receive less because they’re only receiving allowances from the LGU. Her staff were composed of: Mr. Kiev Almira, Mrs. Remalota Reteracion, Miss Vanessa Alla, and Mr. Hanzel Rey Aguidado. Truly, teaching is a noble vocation that's beyond monetary equivalent.

Dynamic leadership involves commitment, selfless service, far-reaching vision, and untiring support to the needs of the students to enhance the learning process. In one side of the wall of the administrator’s office, we observed some reference books and science-laboratory equipment that were neatly placed. “I have solicited these from friends abroad, they’re alumni of the ANCHS main campus,” Mrs. Lasquite declared. Her office also doubles as a small library. 

She hopes that next year they’ll be able to have their own buildings that will be erected on the vacant lots at the back of the building they’re in today. In warm candor she related to us the many difficulties that a student must hurdle from that barangay just to finish the years in high school if an extension high school was not opened in the locality. She narrated the hardships that she personally had undergone every day as a high school student, from this barangay to the town and back. Interesting! We learned that she grew up in this barangay and was the first SK chairman elected. Later, she became Alimodian’s first SK Federation President by virtue of succession when the elected SK President passed away in an accident soon after the election.

We had a nice time taking pictures of important structures and areas around the barangay until it rained. Truly, one firsthand experience is more than enough to prove what a day of conversation nor wordy descriptions cannot express.

After almost an hour of not even a moderate rainfall, school grounds were flooded. Mrs. Lasquite ordered that students be allowed to go home. Some students left their bags and books inside her office cum library. The teachers wrapped their things in plastic bags in preparation for the rainy trip to town. Most of the teachers were from the town and they said, “It is best that we all have to leave early.”

Despite the rains, we went our way back. The motorcycle has to go slower because the road got slippery and soft. To our right, the river has already risen to a height that covered the rice fields (or was it kabaludan?) To our left, some houses were knee-deep in water too. It must have been the inefficient drainage system. We  saw that the road maintenance was not even good. Water from the higher grounds flowed through the middle of the ill-maintained road.


The worst part was when we reached the Siwalo (3rd) Creek. Several folks were already there looking on the creek. Then I saw that they were not mere bystanders but they were travelers stranded because the creek has become impassable. Water rose and the current got stronger making it dangerous to cross. Someone explained that the water of this Siwalo Creek is the convergence of two smaller creeks from the town of Maasin.

We all have to wait for over an hour for the water to go down before someone took the courage to feel the waters. When, finally we did cross, we have to take another route. This time it’s longer because it wound through the areas near the Municipality of Maasin towards the town of Alimodian.

Looking back, visitors may view Barangay Dalid either way as a growing local government unit with many potential professionals that may bring progress, or, as a place so hampered by many obstacles that growth comes in so slow.

I remember the times when my daughter was faced with difficult choices where she will declare: “There are two Chinese characters that mean opposing situations. It can be read sa ‘trouble’ or it can be taken to mean ‘opportunity’. Today, it’s my choice that that will matter."

So the place may be far but the people in that place have always an option. That is, to let it stay as it is now or to let it move forward to progress. Their choice will really matter