MikeLigalig.com

Written By Rey Anthony Chiu
Philippine Information Agency

Getting revolutionary was how Ubay regained San Vicente barangay, and after potable water gushed into the area, people are more productive and kids visibly have more play and study time.

For the local head teacher Romeo C. Mariño, the results have been evident all through out the community.

San Vicente earned a United Nations Development Program fund for their potable water supply through the Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office (BPRMO). Now, for the residents of this once-government-forsaken land hidden behind Ubay mega projects, the future indeed looked better.

Here, empowered residents aware of their rights and responsibilities admit there is now a future for their kids.

Then made infamous as a stronghold of the New People’s Army, a future for San Vicente was bleak, admitted barangay officials during an informal forum with a Kabataan News Network crew.

While hosting a brood of red fighters, San Vicente saw a lot of troubles. A barangay captain was slain here. Another troop of military men got ambushed a few kilometers way down southwest of here.

To government officials, traveling 17 kilometers of rough road and exposed to rebel threats plus the prospect of facing death is enough nightmare to risk. This is why people have said government presence then is almost nil in such a damned slice of Ubay.

But that was the past.

Now fully recovered from the choking embrace of the New People’s Army, empowered residents hope they could resist the same threat that has once haunted them, and at the same time resolve each conflict that comes along.

The process of regaining the place however had been just as revolutionary as the indoctrination that was breeding ideologists in the place.

With most people looking at government as a basket of goodies, it was not hard to dissuade people from blaming government for its wanting presence in the area, community organizers claimed.

That time, the barangay has only about 10% of its residents with government, explained Ubay Mayor Eutiquio Bernales during an interview. The rest, he said are either hard-core members of supporters of the movement.

The threat perhaps made former officials adamant in getting into the area and so would government services. The result is a barangay so left behind in development, the mayor who is also a doctor added.

San Vicente was then breeding young and old red fighters mad enough to believe that only by armed struggle can they move out of their sluggish situation.

After the areas was identified as NPA controlled and its people indiscriminately taxed by the movement, the Army’s 302nd Brigade moved in a special operations’ team (SOT) from its 15th Infantry Battalion led then by Lt. Noel Caibigan.

In weeks, the military forces reestablished the government’s presence in the place and started cultivating rapport with the people, Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office (BPRMO) Community Organizer and veterinary doctor Asteria Estoreon recalled.

As soon as the military cleared and held the barangay, Dr. Estoreon and another organizer Lindyl Grado organized the people to help then identify their issues and concerns, Capitol based BPRMO records bare.

Completely left behind, mired in poverty and with barely enough potable water for home-use, BPRMO merited a United Nations Development Project Fund for the organized San Vicente Water Service Association (SAVIWASA).

Now slowly washing the tarnished image as a rebel-infested barangay, local officials here led by Chairman Teresita Dopalco have owned enough confidence to keep the barangay safe from the clutches of the men of the hills.

Willing to give in a follow through activity, Mayor Bernales said the local government is pushing for a squash farming industry, of which the town would source out its squash noodles for consumption to the town’s 44 barangays and outside towns.

Even then, with the government and the civil society now actively involved in aiding the community stand back and regain its rightful place, school children are also gaining the confidence that would allow them to anchor their dreams of a better place for their kids in the future


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