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A player from Brgy. Timugan (White) shoots the ball while players from Brgy. Lalakay (Pink) tries to do a rebound.
by Gumamela Celes Bejarin
At 3:30 pm today, the Timugan Basketball Court echoed of good humored laughter and screams as the crowd cheered for the basketball players in pink and white.
The Gay Basketball was organized by the Los Baños Group (LBG) and the BIG Basketball as a pre-fiesta event for Barangays Bambang, Baybayin, Lalakay, and Timugan.
“Ginawa ito para sa kasiyahan ng mga tao,” said Randolph Tolentino, LBG CEO and Vice President. Although this is their first time to organize the event, Tolentino said they may organize it yearly because of its success.
“We consider them as part of our community dahil tao din naman sila na nakakapagbigay ng saya sa lipunan,” Tolentino said when asked why they considered gays as the participants. “We respect their personality,” he added.
According to Mark Joseph Marti, one of the audience, he wanted to watch the event because it is not usual for gays to play basketball. He said that he enjoyed watching the game.
“I joined the game just for fun,” said Mike Nico Paner a player of Brgy. Timugan. He also said that the game was both tiring and fun.
Em-Em Mendoza, a player of Brgy. Lalakay said, “Masaya kami dahil as a gay, di namin naeexperience magbasketball talaga. Napatunayan namin na hindi lang mga lalaki ang nakakapagbasketball.”
For today’s game, Brgy. Lalakay won against Brgy. Timugan with the score of 16-12.
Tomorrow at 3:30 pm, gays from Brgy. Bambang and Brgy. Baybayin will also play at the Timugan Basketball Court.
According to Tolentino, the championship game for the gay basketball is not yet scheduled.
By Kamille Anne C. Anarna
The municipality of Los Baños and the Sangguniang Bayan, in partnership with Workabroad, is currently holding a job fair at the municipal covered court of Brgy. Baybayin in Los Baños, Laguna.
About 38 local and 28 international agencies and companies are participating in the said event.
As of 12 noon, 542 job seekers from Los Baños and 114 from other municipalities have already registered. Those wishing to apply for jobs are encouraged to bring their resumes and sign up at the booth of their chosen agency or company.
The event will run until 3pm this afternoon.
by Ladylove May B. Baurile
Los Baños organized a month-long celebration of the Yuletide season and this year’s Bañamos Festival. Activities lined up for Paskuhan sa Bagong Los Baños are as follows:
“Kahit na lately merong mga calamities, kahit na maraming nangyari sa Los Baños, atleast ma-feel ng mga tao na yung Christmas nandyan parin,” explains Municpal Tourism Officer KC Manaquelod.
Paskuhan sa Bagong Los Baños is part of the town’s Bañamos Festival, an annual festival that used to be celebrated in September. This year’s celebrations were moved to December as the local government focused on providing assistance to the flood affected barangays of Tadlac, Mayondon, Malinta, Bambang, Bayog, and Baybayin.
by Gumamela Celes Bejarin
At 3 pm today, the Los Baños Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office (MSWDO) distributed relief goods to flood-affected residents of Barangays Bambang, Baybayin, Bayog, Malinta, Mayondon, and Tadlac.
Flood-affected residents of Barangays Bambang, Baybayin, Bayog, Malinta, Mayondon, and Tadlac line up to receive relief goods from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
MSWDO Officer-in-Charge Luzviminda Alvarez said that about 1,800 families are expected to each receive a 250-peso worth of goods.
“Malaking tulong na rin sa amin yung kaunting natatanggap namin. Nagpapasalamat na rin kami dun,” said Gloria Asajar, a resident of Brgy. Tadlac. Nally Insepto, a resident of Brgy. Malinta, also said that her family is thankful for the assistance that they received.
MSWDO coordinates with the Region IV-A Office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the distribution of aid to calamity victims.
A child stands in front of their house found in Maahas, Los Baños relocation site. The relocation site has 76 houses which the Municipal Urban Development and Housing Office built for informal settlers of Barangays Bambang and Lalakay.
by Asle Carey A. Ciscar
The woman wailed when she saw their clothes, utensils and other belongings washed out from their house in Bambang, Los Baños. The sight was painful for Irene Malana, 44, who had their house cleared during the havoc of Habagat or southwest monsoon in August.
Malana said it was past midnight of August 8 when they heard a huge blast due to collapse of terrain and rocks from the mountainside. She said that upon hearing the blast, residents immediately ran to the evacuation center because of fear for massive landslides.
“Akala namin hanggang doon nalang ang buhay namin kasi may gumuguho dito, mayroon din dyan, meron pa doon. Kasabay pa nun yung napakalakas na daloy ng tubig na may kasamang mga bato [We thought that our lives would end there because there were landslides everywhere. Synchronous to it was flashflood that carried away rocks], she said.
Malana was one of the 496 informal settlers in Bambang who were displaced from their houses due to massive flooding, rockslides and landslides. Yet despite the risks of informal settling in Bambang, barangay officials said that the number of informal settlers is increasing. From 1,345 families in 2008, they already have recorded 1,800 families in the first quarter of 2012.
Increased informal settlers
Records from Municipal Urban Development and Housing Office (MUDHO) show that the increase is not in Bambang alone, but in the whole Los Baños, Laguna. From 6,366 families in 2011, MUDHO has recorded an increase of 462 families in 2012. Bambang has the highest number of informal settlers among the municipality’s 14 barangays.
According to National Statistics Office (NSO), it has a total population of 109,210 in 2011, about 31% of which are informal settlers or squatters. Los Baños is located just 63 kilometers southeast of Manila, which also has its problems with informal settlers.
According to MUDHO Administrative Assistant Annie Dimaano, the increase was highest since the start of informal settling survey in 2002. She said that even if no relocation of informal settlers from Manila to Los Baños was taken, the increase was still incurred due to increased number of immigrants from different provinces such as Sorsogon, Bicol and Quezon.
Comprehensive inventory
In response to informal settling problems, MUDHO has started in August its first Comprehensive Inventory of Informal Settlers. The inventory involves demographic and economic profiling of informal settlers in the whole municipality, as well as other factors that would help MUDHO in establishing appropriate solutions.
“Hindi tapal-tapal na solusyon ang gusto ng present administration, kundi permanent solutions. Kung walang inventory, kung ano lang makita, yun lang ang masosolusyunan [The present administration wants not selective but permanent solutions. If there’s no inventory, only those problems seen can be solved],” said Dimaano.
Dimaano added that the result of the inventory will be the “basis of MUDHO in establishing comprehensive, permanent and rational shelter plan” to address informal settling problems in the municipality.
Relocation
MUDHO has also been relocating residents from Bambang, Lalakay and Tuntungin-Putho to relocation sites in Maahas and Lalakay.
The program called Core Shelter Assistance Project (CSAP) provides “typhoon resistant housing units” for families who were greatly affected by typhoons Milenyo and Reming. Each family-beneficiary will receive P70 000.00 cost of assistance and will build their housing units themselves. It was implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development of Region IV-A under the Administrative Order No. 76, Series 1998.
Dimaano said that through CSAP, they already have relocated a total of 124 families. She said that 100 more houses are being constructed for the CSAP housing project. She added that based from the partial result of the comprehensive inventory in August, they are now making an inventory of collected housing sites where they could establish community settlements that are “far from danger”.
Dimaano also admitted that the ongoing construction of housing sites is not enough to cater the needs of informal settlers in Los Baños. She said one of the major problems they face is to find an idle land where the informal settlers can be relocated.
Meanwhile, Lilibeth Pondivida, a former resident of Bambang, was one of the residents relocated to Maahas relocation site. She was living in upper Dampalit then and experienced numerous rock slides and flashfloods.
“Ngayon maayos na tulog namin. Hindi tulad noong nasa taas, inisip mo lagi na baka may babagsak na bato. Kung bumaha man dito, hanggang talampakan lang at hindi pa malakas ang agos,” said Pondivida.
Employment woes
Pondivida, however, said that living is far difficult in relocation site than in upper Dampalit. She said that they could depend their living in resources available in upper Dampalit, such as various crops, drinking water and firewood; while not even a single crop can be planted in the relocation site. She added that people in the relocation site could hardly get stable jobs since most of them have not finished their education.
“Kung bumabagyo, mas magandang tumira dito. Pero kung okay naman yung panahon, mas maganda dun kasi mas madali ang buhay sa taas [It’s better to live in relocation site if there are storms. But life is easier in upper Dampalit],” Pondivida said.
Matilde Erasga, livelihood officer of Gender and Development (GAD) Los Baños, said that GAD has been conducting livelihood trainings for women development. Dubbed as “One barangay, One product”, the program mobilizes 30 female residents in each barangay.
As the program title implies, women are trained on how to produce a particular product which they can sell for a living. Erasga added that the program provides capital for the participants so that they can be able to start a small business.
Erasga cleared that the program is not offered for informal settlers alone. But according to her, barangay officials, who determine the program beneficiaries, focus on mobilizing informal settlers because “they need it more than anyone else.”
Everyone’s task
Since the whole municipality is affected by the problems of informal settling, Dr. Esteban Godilano, a member of the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines, said that everyone should get involved and participate in addressing them, like helping the local government in monitoring areas and prohibiting people who plan to build houses illegally. He said the government, on the other, should secure stable jobs for informal settlers, as well as lead and support everyone’s effort.
“If we would be able to tap issues on informal settling, informal settlers would contribute to the development of the municipality,” said Dr. Godilano.
He said that informal settlers could provide benefits to the municipality as most of them provide blue collar jobs such as construction workers, carpenters and laundresses. He said that, if mobilized, they could also help in cleaning, rehabilitating and restoring the environment.
“Ang parte ng problema ay parte din ng solusyon [A part of a problem is a part of solution as well,” he added.