Such now is the barrio of Imurung

Title

Language

English

Year

1947

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

·.· .. . . ~ :.· SUCH NOW IS .. THE BARRIO OF IMURUNG I am a barrio teacher assigned to one of the remotest barrios of Baggao, Caga.lTan. I am married. I have only three children now. I used to hava eight, but five of them died during the war. Before the war I was happy and contented, for although I received a meager salary, the cost of liying was then low. I could save a little for future us&. I could send my children to school. I could subscribe to educational magazines and newspapers. I could also afford to buy one or two professional books yearly fCJr my professionaf advancement. I was loved· and respected by the people with whom I . worked and for whom I served, and was looked upon not only as their educatio-nal lead· er but also as their social and moral leader, in fact as their leader in everything that concerned the welfare and advancement of the barrio. Such was I before the war. 'The wa:r came, and all of us know too well how much we suffered from the brutality of the invaders. I need not mention here, for we all know, the sufferings, the fears, the worries, the insults, the threats, tpe indignities, the tortures, the degradation.s, the endlesa privations. we were subiected to by the enemy. Many died during the war, victims of atrocities. In the barrio where I stayed more than 150 people were killed (apparently for no reason) at all. Many died of malnutrition and the lack of medicine, among whom were my five children. The liberation came, and with it came the reopening of the schools. I was reappointed as a teacher and assigned in the same barrio where I was before the 18 by ISABELO PINSON Bt~rrio T•achff war. On my shoulder~, therefore, fell the heavy responsibility of rehabilitating' and reconstructing my school, a similar responsibility which fell, too, on the shoulders of the other barrio teachers like me. We were on our way to re~ covery, for we have already succeeded in repamng our dilapidated school buildings or in putting up one in place of the one burned during the war. But the storms of April 3 and 4, and July 16, 1946 came and when these · stoTIII.! had passed, so had my school bull~ anci the other school buildings in Baggao, Many of my new school equipment& were broken beyond repair and the books, soaked and destroyed beyond recognition. The same storms caused untold misery to my people. Homes were d~roy ed, and so were our rice and corn crops and fruit trees. What the people .could have harvest and save did not last long, and now they are famished and sick. Many have died because of lack of medical care and buried without benefit of religious rites. And still more get sick and more die. Many, too, have left the place to become servants in_ Aparrl, Tuguegarao, and even in Manila. Children less than ten years old were given away in exchange for a few gantas of rice or corn, or even given free to those who were willing to get them. Although the government is doing everything within its limited means to Rend aids in the forms of foodstuffs, clothings and medicines, yet it cannot cope with the situation· What shall I do? My yearly enrolment and my monthly enrolment have now .~rone down very low. My daily at. SUCH NOW IS THE BARRTO 19 tend'8.Ilce is indeed very poor . . Those who come to school are very ir.rezular in attendance. They have no paper, no pencils, no books to use. The school children cannot buy the supplies they need iri school because they lll~ve t.o · money, despite the fact that the pric. es of . these school supRlies an: within the ·reach of all. Sir, my school building is not yet repaired. Its GI roof was riddled with machinegun bullets during the war. So were its posts, beams, rafters and floor. Its walls were removed, blown down by the storm of July 16, 1946. The fence, the pergola and gate, and the toilets are not yet repaired. I have approached several times the officials of th" PTA, the teniente del barrio, and the pupils' parents and requested them to attend to their repair. But they could ,• ) .. · --: only promise to attend to the repair'6 after'-t!1e rice h'S!rVest for . tlieir . time is being devoted to looking fOi- ·som4>thing to eat. Such now is the barrio of Imurung, Baggao. In pre-war days it was one of the richest barrios of Baggao. Now it is one of the poorest, if not the poor'est. Then its people were happy and contented; now poor, unhappy and di~ contented· Then it was full of life; now ·a "ghost barrio" inhabited by sad living human skeletons. I am the teacher here, the spiritual leader, the inspiration for achievement. I have to do my job. I have to do it everu if I died doing it. But in the meantime I look around and ask almost in despair of ever getting outside help: What shall I do? What· shall I do? APOLOGY Because of unusually heavy demand, we have included much civil service review material. In subsequent issues, we shall put out teaching aids. HOUSE BLACKBOARD PAINTS HARDWARE ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES PLUMBING TILES OTHER BU~LDING MATERIAL ]~ M. CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY MAIN STORE-609 QUEZON BLVD. BRANCH NO. 1-511-513 AZCARRAGA MANILA, PHILIPPINES 100% FILIPINO CONCERN \/ I. JUAN MALIXI Civil Engineer Proprietor

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