Chapter 38
We
Organized Libacao Hinterland
Villages & Lobbied for Roads, a Bridge,
Sanitary Drinking Water & Solar
Electricity, then came Aklan Electric Cooperative
A Baptist
Pastor and church leaders helped hinterland villages to get organized and
collectively demanded from the
government roads, a bridge, drinking
water system and later, electricity.
They got their demand.
Domingo
Bernal was a Baptist church pastor. He
pastored several churches in Aklan and served as Provincial Minister in Aklan
in 1970’s. He saw the difficult life of
the people of the hinterland
villages. Government services to
not reached the people because of the distance and the accessability.
Government
workers found it hard to walk mountain villages, hard terrains, passing small
walking bridges and riding always in bamboo
raft (balsa) when they have loads
–palay, corn, pigs to market and vise versa. Life in the mountains were very
hard.
In
1998, the bridge that connects Barangay
Rosal to Libacao town was finished. It
was built by the national, provincial and municipal government thru the
Barangay Council, Rosal-Ortega
Multi-Purpose Cooperative and the community people. They served as conduit.
Thru many resolutions from the barangays, inspired and guided by the
cooperative, the government responded and built the roads and the concrete bridge.
The years of crossing the river from the poblacion to Brgy. Rosal through
bamboo rafts were now over.
The
building of the bridge, roads and building new roads were done by the
government through people’s strong lobbying,
assisted by Rosal Ortega Multi-Purpose Cooperative and
themany barangay associations in the area.
The
mind and spirit behind the people’s accomplishments was Pastor Domingo Bernal, Treasurer
of the Cooperative. He worked with Mr.
Giovanni Iguiz, Cooperative President. They worked together in educating, organizing, mobilizing the people
for change and developments in Rosal and other hinterland villages. They helped train and organized the people to
lobby and demand from the government
much needed services- roads, bridge, new roads – to
bring people’s products to the market.
ROMPC
thru its educational program has instilled in the minds of the people that
development of the hinterland villages
would not be possible withour roads and bridges that will enable them to
bring their products to the market.The
farm to market roads were necessity for hinterland developments.
Contribution
by the Project
The
government thru lobbying of the people
and ROMPC were able to build the bridge
and the roads. Now, for the first time,
since the creation, the several hinterland
barangays has a bridge and an all out weather road with
available transportation, motorcycle.
Now,
new roads was being built
from Barangay Manika to reach all other hinterland sitios, including two
barangays at the boundary of Capiz and
Iloilo. These new developments will affect
for the better the lives of the
people.
Through
the Cooperative and Farmers Associations, organized in some 10 villages and big
sitios, they will also be able built a sanitary drinking water system. They can build
solar dryers for palay/rice and other grains
with assistance from the government, the people providing labor. With lobbying by the people and the village
associations, the community may be able to get a mini-hydro electric plant. And
now, Aklan Electric Cooperative have started providing them with the
electrice services.
Added Value
by Diakonia
The
cooperative organized with earlier financial assistance from Bromma Baptist
Church , Sweden in1985, undertook training on ecology farming, encouraging
multi-crop system and animal raising for people’s sustained sources for
food. The held invironmental protection
studies and started collective efforts to prevent soil erosion and lanslides, since their
barangay is at the foot of the high
mountain.
Then,
with Diakonia’s assistance starting 1996, the people strengthened and expanded
their lobbying works –to request and demand services from the government’s local,
provincial and national offices. They people studied their rights guaranted in
the Constitution to protect themselves
from repressive authorities, known to have very low respect for uneducated people in the mountains.
During
those times, people in the hinterland villages use mostly primitive methods of
farming. They produce crops barely enough for their subsistence. They do not
practice new farming methods. The soil often erodes. When typhoon comes, of
their were landslides. But it’s
different now. Rosal Ortega Farmer
Cooperatives and Can-awan Farmers Association, were the two barangays, where
the two first Electric Abaca Fiber Stripping machines were
opearated, improving the quality of abaca fiber in the market.
Project
Title: -Consolidation and Expansion Project for
Development Education and
Economic Activities (1999-2001)
Implementing
Partner: Rosal-Ortegar Farmers Multi-Purpose
Cooperative
Project
Location: Brgy.
Rosal, Libacao, Aklan
Story
Teller/Writer: Domingo Bernal & Rudy Bernal, January 28,
2006
Domain
4: Change
in Democratic Governance at all level
PARTNERSHIP
IN DIVERSITY
Best
Practices and Lessons Learned
Final
Evaluation of Diakonia Philippine Programme
PARTNERSHIP
IN DIVERSITY was published December 2007
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