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Effects of Ilaw ng Buhay |
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On family planning, it was a confluence of like ideas from three different persons. Lawyer Ramon Binamira was the son of Protestant parents. He was married to a fervent Catholic lady, Ms. Neny Abueva. He told me he didn’t even know what his religion was. On the various ways of controlling birth, he was unequivocably for the rhythm method. Then there was Msgr. Pelagio Dompor, the Vicar General of the Diocese, who was the lead lecturer on family planning. And there was me. As mentioned before, the Popcom head of the City, Boy Reyes was directed to do away with the quota system. As a result of all this, Tagbilaran City recorded the lowest birth rate in the region for the years 1981, 1982 and 1983.
On environmental sanitation, families in every unit were asked to have sanitary toilets. Where water was available, locally manufactured water-sealed toilet bowls were provided free. Where water was scarce, an antipolo toilet system was the option. In the Ilaw ng Buhay seminar, the participants were told that without toilets they would naturally defecate anywhere in the bushes. Flies alighting on their faces would also alight on their food, exposing the members of the family to the outbreak of disease.
A human interest story was in a unit where 19 of the 20 houses already had their toilets. The house that didn’t have one was occupied by a couple who would leave early in the morning to work, the wife was a lavandera, the husband a handyman. In the evening when they would come home, they would be too tired to dig a pit. The 19 heads of the families agreed to dig the pit on Saturdays. In three weeks, the couple had the toilet.
To prevent mosquitoes from proliferating, simple drainage was recommended. They were told to dig a hole, one meter by one meter and to fill the hole with stones. Waste water from the house can then be funneled into the stone-filled hole.
An occupied, dilapidated house was rented by three men, complete strangers to the barrio folk, they refurbished the house a little to make it a little livable. The unit leader became suspicious of their movements. They would leave early and return late in the evening. The unit leader reported her suspicions to the Barangay Captain, who, in turn, reported the matter to the police. Five policemen were sent to apprehend them in the evening. Recovered were transistor radios, watches, jewelries and an assortment of goods obviously stolen. They were charged in court, found guilty and incarcerated
A couple more of human interest stories:
In Barangay Dampas, nine children were found to be severely malnourished. However, only eight were enrolled in the daily feeding program under the adoption scheme. The city nutritionist scoured the barangay, looking for the ninth child. She found the mother washing the clothes of an affluent family. The nutritionist asked her why she did not have her child included in the feeding program. The mother said that she and her husband were earning enough to be able to feed their two children. The nutritionist told her that she wanted to weight her two-year-old child.
“You come with me,” the mother said, “it is noontime and I’m going home to cook lunch for the family.”
The nutritionist found the child tied to a rope that was fastened to a post to prevent the child from falling to the ground. It was obvious that both mother and father had pride. They did not want their child to be fed by the volunteer Kiwanians. But after the nutritionist argued forcefully, the parents relented. After eight months, the child was restored to normal health.
The morning after the third night of the Ilaw ng Buhay seminar, a brother and sister who had been feuding for a good number of years went to see City Treasurer Sofronio Corloncito.
The cause celebre was a piece of undivided property left by their dead parents. The brother had built his house on a portion his sister said he could not claim since the property was till undivided.
The sister told Mr. Corloncito that after the Ilaw ng Buhay seminar she attended with her brother, she was overcome by compassion and had decided that her brother’s house, which she had demanded to be torn down, stay. The portion where it stood would then be the share of the brother.
I had been trying hard to find what there was in the Ilaw ng Buhay that caused hard, ice-rock hearts to thaw. The best I could come up with was the unspoken message of caring and sharing with those of your neighbors.