Bridging the Gap
By Prof. Henry Funtecha

Barangay Salngan and the Atis of Maoy

(Note: The writer was in Salngan, Passi on May 28-29, 2005 on a field immersion with his graduate students.)

One of the developing barangays of Passi is Salngan. It is about an hour drive along a rough gravel road from Passi City, covering a distance of sixteen kilometers. It has a land area of 11.4878 sq. km. of mainly rolling terrain and limited flat lands. It is basically blanketed by sugar plantations and scattered small rice plots throughout its area. Other than sugar cane, one can also observe bananas, coconuts, bamboos, mangoes and jackfruits throughout the barangay. With its lush vegetation and abundant natural resources, the inhabitants basically thrive in farming.

The name Salngan, according to the barangay folks, is derived from salong , a specie of tree well-known for its usefullness and was aplenty in the barangay prior to the advent of the haciendas or the sugar plantations. Salong is very useful for its sap or resin that is used to start or kindle a fire.

Salngan has a population of more than 2,700, consisting of 461 households. The barangay folks generally lead a simple life. The simplicity of their living is manifested through most of their houses. The walls and floors are mostly made of bamboo and wood. Roofs are made of nipa or cogon leaves, while some of galvanized iron. Most of the houses are two-bedroom affairs, with a living room, dining area, dirty kitchen and an attached toilet and bath. Water is provided by deep wells and is siphoned though jetmatic pumps. The houses are usually elevated one-half or one meter from the ground. The space below is surrounded by a bamboo pen and is reserved for poultry animals as well as a warehouse for farm products. Some affluent families and those with breadwinners abroad own concrete houses with modern architectural designs and facilities. A few moneyed families already own motor vehicles.

Relatively speaking, the barangay is not a typical one. It appears progressive due to its side streets and infrastructures. Aside from the elemntary and secondary school buildings, there are other structures in the barangay like the rural health center, public market, barangay hall, and plaza. There are also churches representing religious groups such as the Catholics, Iglesia ni Cristo, Seventh-Day Adventist, Jehova's Witnesses, and Baptists. Despite the presence of these groups, no animosity has been reported to have occurred among them.

As of this time, electricity still remains as an unrealized necessity for the barangay. Most households use gas or oil lamps, battery-operated emergency lights, flashlights, and pen lights as their lighting support during night time. More or less eight households, including the Catholic Church, are experiencing lighting privileges. Two of these are legitimate electric consumers registered with ILECO-II. While other households are waiting for their electric power grant, they continue to depend on their traditional ways of lighting their houses. Because most of the inhabitants are working in the haciendas owned mostly by the Jamandre and French families, there are few rich people in the barangay. Those working on the haciendas are receiving P40-50 a day, excluding meal, which cannot really sustain their needs. The situation can be one of the reasons why most of the people cannot avail of the services of ILECO-II because of the high service fee and cannot send their children to college.

An interesting destination in Salngan in Sitio Maoy where a group of Atis are residing. Maoy is nestled on a hill covered mostly by coconut trees. No one is certain about the origin of the name “maoy” but maybe because it has plenty of coconuts and many of which are being used as “sanggutan,” or those used in the extraction of tuba or the fermented coconut sap drink. The place therefore, has become a favorite drinking spot due to the abundance of tuba. Thus, the sitio has been known as “maoy” or the unruly drunk.

The six Ati families in Maoy, consisting of thirty-three individuals, do not own the lands that they occupy. Practically, the whole sitio is the property of the Jamandre family and the Atis are considered as tenants. As tenants, they observed the “cuarta parte arrangement—three parts go to the tenants and one part goes to the owner. The two Ati clans in Maoy, the Natividads and the Valencias, have been in the place for a long time already. The pioneering elders have already stayed in the sitio for more than forty years. They started settling in the place during the Martial Law period.

The Atis cultivate upland rice on the hillsides and the remaining open spaces that are unsuitable to rice are being utilized for the planting of banana, corn, sweet potato and cassava. To supplement their income from farming, they also raise range chickens, pigs and goats. From time to time, they augment their protein, requirements by hunting monitor lizard, civet cat, and turtles. In the nearby river, they also regularly catch freashwater fish like tilapia, catfish, mudfish, freshwater crabs, eels, shrimps, and unog , a small oblong kind of tasty bottom fish.

Despite poverty, the Atis also try to send their children to school but, most often than not, the children just finish the elementary grades. So far, there is only one young Ati in Maoy who has reached the college level due to a grant of sport scholarship. He is John Eno, who is unusually tall for an Ati and who is a varsity basketball player at the Capiz State University.

The greatest wish of the Atis in Maoy is to be able to own their lands. The Philippine government, through the Department of Agricultural Reform, has initiated steps to purchase the land from the Jamandres but, so far, nothing concrete has come out of this. Meanwhile, the Atis keep on hoping that someday they will no longer worry about their place of residence and the rental that they are to pay for the land.