Waiving govt relief amidst food crisis

HAPPY WEEKEND

By Gina Dizon

SADANGA Mayor Gabino Ganggangan waived relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the people of this municipality in this times of enhanced community quarantine due Covid-19.   

In his Facebook post, Ganggangan “instructed our Municipal Social Welfare and Development (MSWD) to relay our message that our municipality will not be availing of these food packs even if the lockdown will be extended”

Emphatic of being the leader in charge of his people, Ganggangan issued a statement relaying, “it is during these kinds of economic hardships such as ‘food shortages, hunger and famine that the ‘richer or better of’ (kadangyans) among a clan or village are expected to aid their needy relatives by lending their surpluses.”

“Should this crisis extend longer to the extent that our needy families really run out of their rice supplies, we shall mandate the kadangyans of every barangay to open up their rice granaries (agamangs) to sustain us through to the next harvest season”, the mayor added.

The rice aid given by the ‘kadangyan’ is not given for free however. 

The mayor in a phone interview said, “rice borrowed shall be returned when the borrowing household shall have their rice harvest in a practice we call ‘pagawat’.” 

With a poverty incidence of 37.43% as of 2015, this 5th class municipality with a 56 million internal revenue allotment (IRA) is a rice farming community composed of some 85% farmers and the rest in government and private business among a 9,181 population.

Rice is harvested in one cropping and rice supply lasts for three to four months. The farmers have just planted rice seedlings last December and shall be harvesting this coming July.

Sadanga resident Isabel Ossog Baniaga in her Facebook comment regarding Ganggangan’s statement said. “…. We’re short in food supply, the products are imported outside the municipality i.e. rice, vegetables and poultry and yet he decided to waive the relief, that 2day relief goods is a great help. Napadashak mt ah na ligat ash ili, adi umanay na sinamar enggana next harvest. Kagawis py na kakadangyan kayman tay inpagawat cha. Ngem asa et adu na naadiyan, nagchay na kapayepayeo, maid mavaar tay they prefer ay makiraffo ha tapin na ili, is that self-sustaining?". (I experienced the hardship of life in the village. Rice supply is not enough till the next harvest. Good that the kadangyan lend their harvest. The problem is that many ricefields have been abandoned, eroded and no laborers are ready to farm because they prefer to work in other places.)

Ganggangan recognizes the economic situation in Sadanga.

In his statement, Ganggangan said  “it’s not that we don't have poor and needy families but I believe that we as tribal communities still have and should sustain our "built in" and homegrown or indigenous social structure, values, and practice of taking care of our respective relatives or kins, neighbors ,or kailyan in distress during hard times or economic crisis.”

The mayor along with the indigenous people’s mandatory representative (IPMR) Jimmy Gawidan shares the statement that the culture of the people is meant to help each other in difficult times. That those more capable help their less capable relatives in times of need.

Sadanga just like any other place in the country is suffering from the effects of Covid 19 that has practically paralyzed business and stilled movement of people with the lockdown of municipalities and cities in almost all parts of the country. This includes the paralysis of work and unavailability of finance and food especially among informal workers and the poor sectors of society earning less than the poverty threshold of  P10,481 a month  records from the Philippine Statistics Authority say. 

In the midst of the corona virus, Sadanga declared a lockdown with no one allowed to enter or leave the town since March 23 till  the executive order shall be lifted.  

Mountainous and landlocked Sadanga is bounded on the north with Kalinga province, on the west with Abra province, on the east with Barlig of Mt Province and on the south with Bontoc and reached via Bontoc-Sadanga road and trek routes in interlinking barangays of Belwang of Sadanga, Pasil in Kalinga and barangay Bangaan of Sagada. 

God bless Sadanga on how they cope with their food needs in times like this. Till the time that the quarantine shall be lifted and the corona virus shall go away and people are back to normal where they shall go on their regular work and life.   

Ganggangan though is not waiving the financial aid as the emergency subsidy program (ESP) in DSWD’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP); and the Covid Adjustment Measures Program (CAMP) and Tulong Pangkabuhayan sa ating Displaced and Disadvantaged (TUPAD) workers implemented by DOLE, and other livelihood packages in the SAP. 

Referring to the amelioration program of DSWD where the “poorest of the poor” are beneficiares, Baniaga added, “It would be better nu tapiyan na Sadanga LGU tapno rakoan da na pagey/other agri-products na kakadangyan, nu adi man umanay wada samt na tapin na imported products ay rako csa poblacion…” (It would  be better if the Sadanga LGU shall buy the rice and other agri products of the kadangyans. If not enough, there are commercial products sold at the Poblacion.)

Asked what they do with their quick response funds (QRF) supposedly meant for food relief and other emergency needs in times of disaster, Ganggangan said they shall talk about it with the barangay leaders.

               Quick response funds composing 30% of the 5% disaster funds of the regular income of the local government unit are meant to be used in times of disaster like food relief. In this times of the corona virus and how the Philippine government has dealt with the pandemic. Here, the before the Department of Social Welfare and Department (DSWD) shall distribute the necessary food relief, the LGU first of all has to disburse its QRF spending this in food relief.   

A phone interview with IPMR Gawidan and the Poblacion barangay secretary refer the decision to their mayor with some other iSadanga favoring the decision of their mayor as noted in Facebook posts.

Some iSadanga though are apprehensive as received by Windel Bolinget who heads Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) asking if there was ‘collective decision’ on the statement of the mayor commenting further that said decision of the mayor is an act of “arrogance”.

Whatever the sentiments of the people of Sadanga are whether they are for or not, they shall deal with their own mayor and how to deal with food crisis where such is the case.

This ideological way of handling this food crisis much as being culturally-based and economically autonomous, on the other hand, faces a reality that times are changing and economic and educational needs are changing too.

So too with people from Sadanga who migrated to Baguio and other places outside of the town to look for work. 

Including those from barangay Belwang who have to look for a living such as farm work in the tourist town of nearby Sagada.