From candies to houses

Kasimbayanan volunteers

Upgrade bikers’ candyride

“Kung ikaw ay masaya, mokatawa ka.”

Jake’s version of the popular Christian worship song, gets into a tricky counterpoint to the hammering on their new tin roof.

Jake, 7 years old, has been singing with Glenda, 8, and his younger brothers, as they looked out the window of a 2 x 2 meters bedroom, half of it, a bamboo bed lantay where the four of them lump up and cuddle to sleep in the night, oftentimes with only their warmth as a blanket.

When unlucky and an older kid is already in bed when sleeping time comes, they would have to take on the living room floor, padded only by thin refused cardboard box, a buri mat and making sure they lie in between other siblings for the warmth.

“Mag-ilog mi sa tunga kay aron dili tugnawon,” Glenda, who has lost two of her fingers to an accident when she was younger timidly shared.

Orphaned kids of the Canillos, Jake, also known as Digong in the family and by the neighbors, is the 5th among 10 siblings of Glowelinda Sarco and “Tagalog”.

Tagalog has since died of tuberculosis a year ago.

For the kids, other than the cramped bedroom in the church sponsored Balay sa Gugma house, they also have the living rooms space to sleep in, where they are barely two inches from the flooded yard which used to be irrigated rice paddies.

They are in fact, members of the many Christian churches that sprout in the pockets of poverty in rural Bohol.

Food is hard to come by.

Glowelinda, or Winnie, who is born in Cambangay Norte, an Miguel still has Exequiel, 7 months old whom she keeps in a blanket slung across her front when she help harvest rice so they can have something to eat.

“We see that life for them is hard, and the parents in fact can hardly keep tabs of the kids, much more of their food,” says Cambangay Norte Chairman Roger Ibaoc.

We sometimes bring in a few groceries, or rice, just to make sure they get the food that they would need to survive, but we obviously cant do that all the time, he candidly picked on.

Ibaoc and his barangay council have been on to the Canillos, seeing that this problem would soon barge into the town peace and order situation.

If not probably for the faith and their attendance to their weekly worship sessions, they would have nothing to sing about.

CANDY RIDES

It was last December 27, when on an annual candy ride, mountainbikers on the Christmas candy giving ride personally witnessed the Canilo’s sad plight.

It was raining at that time, and bikers have to walk through half a kilometer of paddies to get to the Canillo kids.

That was when they saw the house needing immediate repair and possible extension for a bedroom and an elevated living room, to keep the kids above the muck, for health considerations.

The family, which now terribly misses their father, gathers their kitchen water from a nearby well, then overflowing to the muddy house yard, due to the rains.

Seeing the opportunity for help, bikers worked a plan to generate the materials needed to fix the house, build an extension room and elevate the living room.

A two plastic drum rain water collector system also needs to be put up to assure the family of potable drinking and kitchen water.

KASIMBAYANAN

As the materials were soon purchased, bikers lugged them from the city to Cambangay Norte, even as local bikers coordinated with the local barangay officials and the Philippine National Police for possible volunteers.

Despite the rains that slowed the delivery of materials, the bikers and the San Miguel Police Station under Police Lieutenant Ponciano Entroliso Jr., sent in Police Executive Master Sergeant Manuel Tupos, Police Chief Master Sergeant Philip Polinar and Police Master Sergeant Michael Guimarangan along with Barangay Cahirman Ibaoc and barangay councilor carpenters to start the repair.

At the hammering of the tin roof, Jake belts out that Christian worship song, and everyone pitches in laughter.

The kids, upon seeing the police officers walking the paddies, scampered to their room, only peeking at the slatted windows.

Parents in his part of town often scare their kids into doing good, using the police as a threat.

“Kamo diay to kuya?” Mariane, one of the kids asked the police volunteers, “nanagan mi kay hadlok mi,” she continued.

“Dili man mi mang-unsa, migo man ming pulis sa mga tawo, basta lang walay dautang buhat, amigo mi nila,” chimes in PCMS Polinar told her.

Through a community oriented policing program in revitalized Kasimbayanan, police are coming out to communities to highlight everyone’s cooperation key role in attaining sustainable peace and lasting development.

With Kapulisan, simbahan at pamayanan all joined in attaining a goal, everything is attainable, PLt Entroliso said.

That day, aside from aligning the posts and putting up the rafter and purlins, the volunteer group completed putting up half of the tin roof, with the promise to return the next week to complete the build.

February 4, 2023, the volunteers walked through the paddies again to the Canillo house to complete the build.

By 5:00 PM, the extension has been completely roofed, the new bedroom now with bamboo slatted floor, amakan and plywood double walls and the a quick photo op with the family, and the second day of volunteer work ended.

The next day, local volunteers again put up the elevated living room and rainwater collector, so the family can have safe water.

Now with a safer house, a decent sleeping space and decent shelter from rains and the heat, Canillos can tick one off from their list of worries.

To the fading lyrics of Kung ikaw malipayon, mopakpak ka, the Candyride volunteers ride off to yet another mission of giving joy to kids and their families, one day at a time. (PIA-7/Bohol)

BEFORE AND AFTER. First picture shows Canillo residence when the Kasimbayanan volunteers arrived and then the Canillo house after three days of volunteer work. The joint efforts of the church, police and community facilitated the repair and building of the house extension. (PIABohol)

HOUSE ON PADDIES. With the house sitting on the paddies, the volunteer group decided to put up an extension where the rooms have to be elevated to keep the kids from sleeping on the cement floor. Volunteer barangay officials and police pitched efforts to put up the tin roof. (PIABohol)

BAMBOO FLOOR. As kids sleep on the cement floor of the house with only a thin cardboard and mats, an elevated floor bedroom and a small elevated dining room was put up from material donations from charitable people. (PIABohol)

CELEBRATING SMALL WINS. After work of day 2, volunteers took a picture of the volunteer carpenters and bikers who facilitated the Kasimbayanan housebuild and fix. (PIABohol)

Dog vaccination way cheaper

Than rabies ‘bite treatment’

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 10 (PIA) –Do the math.

If only pet owners take a little of their time to be responsible in making sure their dogs get vaccinated and properly taken care of, there would be so much savings, that could go to other community priorities.

A dog owner can get his dog vaccinated for a little less than P 50, while he can be responsible for some P10K, to P25K in penalties, plus shouldering the medical expenses incurred and other incidental expenses relative to the victim’s injuries.

He may still spend a little if his biting dog is vaccinated, but that is relatively measly compared to the trouble of having unvaccinated animal best friend.

This as the issue on responsible pet ownership wags its tail as rabies and dog-triggered road accidents hound the province.

Nurse Polizena Rances said during the recent Kapihan sa PIA which brought out to the public the critical information hinted that the government is bankrolling the purchase of anti-rabies shots and the victims undergoing the of rabies treatment regimen that forces them to travel to the animal bite treatment center (ABTCs) four times to be inoculated of the vaccine to stop the rabies virus from getting to the brain.

Rabies virus is almost always carried by a rabid dog saliva and blood and can get to humans by animal bites or by possibly ingesting the virus from dog meat.

In fact, according to the Provincial health Office, they have seen a suspected rabies case where a bite victim showed signs of the disease 15 years after he was bitten by a dog.

While there is no approved treatment for rabies once the symptoms have manifested in the victim, health authorities assert the need for most immediate procedure to arrest the spread of the virus and kill it before it can get to the victim’s brain.

As the virus gets to the victim’s brain, it is always a certain horrible death: body pains, weakness and discomfort, fever, headache progressing to cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, confusion, agitation, delirium, abnormal behavior, hallucinations, hydrophobia and photophobia and insomnia leading to death within 2-10 days after the symptoms of rabies appears.

A treatment for rabies, in post bite treatment means thousands of pesos, the hassle of undergoing four doses of injections: on the day of the biting, on the third day, on the seventh day and on the 28th day, plus the cost of immuno-globulins, Rances said.

On the other hand, as 90% of rabies cases are caused by dog bites, a dog vaccinated against rabies would only cost roughly P30.00, with the vaccine vial for 10 shots costing less than P500.

Meanwhile, if a place has 70% or more of their dog population vaccinated against rabies, it should keep the entire dog population safe, adds Provincial Veterinarian Dr. Stella Marie Lapiz, during the one-hour radio forum.

In the recent years, Bohol has accomplished less than 50% vaccination of its dog population, to which both Rances and Lapiz pinpoint as the cause why there is a sudden surge in human and animal rabies cases here in the recent years.

Rances said, data from the 16 ABTCs in Bohol showed that in the last three years, there were 51,171 reported dog bite incidents reaching treatment, and 15 of these cases ended up with victims dying while manifesting the symptoms.

On the other hand, in these biting incidents, when local authorities were able to harvest 85 heads of the biting animals and sent to the national laboratories for rabies analysis and confirmation, 14 of them have turned positive for rabies, reports Dr. Lapiz. (rahc/PIA_7/Bohol)

DOGGING ISSUE. Provincial Veterinarian Dr Stella Marie Lapiz reported at Kapihan sa PIA that there was a time when Bohol attained an 85% dog vaccination rate when for two years, despite biting incidents, there were zero animal rabies and rabies in humans cases. It all boils down to vaccination, which a responsible pet owner must do, she said. With her is Polizena Rances, human rabies coordinator at the PHO. (PIAbohol)

TWO DEATHS BY RABIES IN 2023. With the year just starting, Bohol has now recorded two suspected two deaths suspected of rabies. These however were gathered based on the symptoms the victims exhibited before they died. She added confirmation can be a problem as aside from an autopsy, the cadaver’s brain has to be sent to Manila for analysis and confirmation. (PIABohol)

City-USAID sign MOU on
Wider CSO participation

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Feb 7 (PIA) –Expect an amended city ordinance on civil society engagements, this as Tagbilaran City under Mayor Jane Cajes-Yap signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the enhanced and empowered civil society organization (CSO) for wider sectoral participation in democratic governance.

The MOU binds the City Government and the USAID to cooperate to execute catalytic, sustainable, transparent and equitable economic and governance reforms to spur resilient, broad-based and inclusive economic growth and advance democratic governance in the city.

And through USAID Cities for Enhanced Governance and Engagement (CHANGE), the USAID helps Tagbilaran create an environment of decentralization, enhanced local government service delivery and effective civil society participation in governance.

This, both parties does, by applying Safe Space Approach through the creation of a venue for people and the government to freely communicate to advance shared social change that benefits the marginalized sectors.

Cajes-Yap, who came in to power to continue what her husband and now city administrator John Geesnell Yap II started in 2015, has promised to continue treading the road of civic engagements and building capacities of local sectors to actively participate in decision-making, governance and exacting accountability from authorities who fumble in their sworn missions.

No less than Bohol’s youngest mayor and the first woman city-mayor Jane Cajes-Yap signed the MOU for the city with the authority of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, and USAID Contracting Officer for USAID’s Regional Office of Acquisition and Assistance for the international aid partner.

Riding on the USAID funded Cities for Enhanced Governance and Engagement (CHANGE), Cajes-Yap, who felt that the benefits of the previous USAID Projects in Strengthening Urban Resilience for Growth with Equity (SURGE) in 2015 and CHANGE in 2021 has to be institutionalized for a much longer and sustainable traction in the pull to a more responsive, transparent and accountable city government.

After six years of transformation in the SURGE Project and a few years in CHANGE, we have streamlined our automated processes peaking with the city implementing cashless payments in majority of its main public market vendors and some public transport system, former mayor John Geesnell Yap pointed out.

But still faced with numerous challenges especially in population management and housing, infrastructure development, climate change and disaster action which can potentially deplete the city’s resources if hasty decisions without consultations are done.

Consistent with the local government code, the USAID projects immensely helped the city advance its decentralization of its fiscal, administrative, political authority and the institutionalization of civil society groups in its governance processes.

Across the years, the city has put in place its ordinance on civil society organization engagements, in a bid to nail the role of multi-sectoral and inter-agency participation in governance, but across the years, interesting things have surfaced that allows the city to deepen and strengthen its institutional processes in governance.

On this, during the MOU signing, City Vice Mayor and lawyer Adam Relson Jala hinted that needed amendment in the ordinance, which should open more doors and windows of opportunity for the ordinary citizens to get in the processes.

As calls for active citizen participation in governance echoed across the Harborview or the Bohol Tropics Resort during the MOU Signing, city administrator Yap assured the USAID of its people and resources to man the project management office in Tagbilaran as the city steps into the digital world.

As for the USAID, it intends to furnish Tagbilaran with in-kind support in the form of technical assistance, training and commodities to further its development initiatives, states the MOU which the two parties signed and witnessed by city officials, CSO and the media.

On the other hand, Tagbilaran City would provide counterpart logistical support such as office space, equipment, clerical support for USAID-funded consultants, establishing and filling government positions necessary for the program, support training missions, enacting necessary executive orders and ordinances, accepts commodities and helps in installing these and training staff who will run these commodities. (PIA-7/Bohol)

SYSTEMS FOR EFFICIENT CSO PARTICIPATION. With a new MOU in wider doors for CSO participation in decision making, it also opens windows for accountability, equitable sharing of resources, accessibility and an enhanced system of democratic governance. (PIABohol)

MORE SUPPORT. USAID Contracting Officer of the Regional Office of Acquisition and Assistance Ethan Takahashi and City Mayor Jane Cajes-Yap recently signed the MOU on sharing the responsibilities of a better city processes by creating a venue for collaboration between and among sectors for transparency, accountability and responsibility. (PIABohol)