By: Butz Muyco
Photo credits: James Brian Flaga and Ronald Christopher Neri
“It was not easy to be hungry and see my younger siblings with nothing to eat.”
Of all the things that have happened in her life, this is the image that has remained vivid in the memory of Bae Arlyn Lundia Palere, an Ata-Manobo.
She was only ten years old in 1996. Yet even after all these years, she can still remember the hunger they endured and the sight of her younger siblings crying because there was nothing to eat.
At that time, rats were heavily destroying the crops in their farms in Sitio Kapatagan, Barangay Gupitan, Kapalong, Davao del Norte. The rice they depended on and root crops such as cassava were almost completely eaten. As their food supply slowly ran out, they would even boil small, yet to mature bananas just to have something to put in their empty stomachs.
There were days when finding something to eat became more important than playing or going to school.
On one occasion, while looking for cassava in another place, she and her two younger siblings almost drowned in the Maguimon River as they tried to cross its strong current.
These were among Bae Arlyn’s first lessons in the hardships of life.
Now 40, Bae Arlyn is married and a mother of five. She is the third of ten siblings.
She attended school in Sitio Kapatagan until Grade 3 and later completed Grade 6 as a working student in Barangay Florida, also part of Kapalong. Like many children of her generation, however, her schooling was cut short when she married at the age of 12.
But her belief in the value of education never ended.
Today, one of her children is about to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, while her youngest is already in Grade 4.
“My dream is for my children to finish their studies.”
Bae Arlyn grew up farming. Her father and mother were farmers as well.
“Before, we would move from one place to another to clear land and plant rice. Rice and sweet potato were what we usually planted. What we harvested was only for our own consumption because there were no buyers like there are today. There were no good roads back then, and money had little value to us.”
At night, their only source of light was sawong—made from tree sap and wrapped with leaves and rattan vines to serve as a torch. They also used it when catching frogs at night, which would become food for the family.
Amid poverty, there was one journey that Bae Arlyn would never forget.
She was only six years old when her two-year-old younger sibling became seriously ill and had to be brought to a hospital. Her father took her along because she was the one who could better understand and speak Bisaya.
Their journey began on a bamboo raft along the Maguimon River toward Tagpupuot. Their journey took more than nine hours. From there, they took a jeepney to Tagum and eventually reached Davao Regional Hospital.
“Back then, we survived through the kindness of others. My father would ask for help wherever he could. Our fellow patients in the ward would sometimes give us food. Whenever the doctor was coming, I would hide in the restroom so they would not see that there was a child staying inside the ward.”
They stayed in the hospital for a month while her younger sibling received a blood transfusion.
As the days passed, their hospital bill also grew until it reached PhP18,000 – an amount they simply could not afford.
Her father was advised to seek assistance from government offices and provincial leaders. Through their appeal to what they referred to as “1081,” and with the help of people who took pity on them, their hospital bill was eventually reduced to zero.
Before they left, a hospital security guard also gave them PhP1,000 so they could buy food and pay for their fare home.
But their journey was not yet over.
They took a jeepney back to Tagpupuot. From there, they walked as far as Sitio Patel, where night caught up with them. At dawn, they continued walking toward Sitio Kapatagan.
For Bae Arlyn, this was more than a journey home. It was a picture of the hardship many Indigenous families endured in those years simply to reach a basic service such as medical care.
After getting married, Bae Arlyn returned with her family to Sitio Kapatagan in 2007.
But the hardships were far from over.
From 2014 to 2017, their community was caught in armed conflict between rebel groups and government forces. Families from the sitios of Mangkay, Kampina, Lunoluno, Kamunoan and Aninipot were forced to evacuate to Sitio Kapatagan.
Their livelihood suddenly came to a halt.
They could no longer go to their farms. The children’s schooling was disrupted. Fear became part of their everyday lives.
“We were afraid that we would be suspected of siding with the NPA, and we could also be targeted by the other side if they thought we were supporting the military. There was nothing we could do at that time, so we depended on government assistance such as rice and canned goods. To make the food last, families with many members, like ours, would make porridge to stretch it.”
Amid all the hardships, there was one day that remained the happiest in her life.
It was the day one of her younger siblings graduated.
“That was truly the greatest joy I have ever experienced.”
After all the hardships and sacrifices they had endured as a family, she watched her sibling walk across the stage to receive a college diploma.
For Bae Arlyn, the diploma represented more than an academic achievement. It was proof that despite a difficult beginning, a family’s future could change.
It is the same hope she now carries for her own children.
Over time, their community also began to change.
“Before, it felt like the government was not there for us. Now, many government agencies are helping us. We have schools up to Senior High School and an Alternative Learning System, a health station, and transportation such as habal-habal because of the improved road network. Buyers now come to our community to purchase our products, and more projects have reached our area. We Indigenous people are now receiving more attention and support from the government.”
Today, Bae Arlyn is no longer only a farmer and a mother.
She is also an active member of the Community-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Team (CBMET) under the Department of Agriculture’s Mindanao Inclusive Agriculture Development Project (DA-MIADP), under the Regional Project Coordination Office XI, representing the women in their ancestral domain.
For Bae Arlyn, her role in the CBMET is more than monitoring projects. It is a way of helping shape the future of her community and ensuring that the children of the next generation will not have to endure the same hardships she experienced.
The road toward development is still long.
Not because all hardships have disappeared.
But because, for the first time in many years, hope has grown bigger than worry and fear.
