An impressive achievement — four members of your family holding critical positions in various levels of government. From Councilor, to Mayor, to Congresswoman, to Governor.
The entire Province of Negros Oriental is now under your family’s political control.
Needless to say, the citizenry is unsettled. But this is our reality.
I speak on behalf of dozens who would like to, but cannot speak up, dozens who will not speak up because of an underlying sense of futility, fear of repercussion, and uncertainty as to what this all means to us.
In times like this, I look to the past, and use my memories to help me determine whether I should give in to the silence, and feeling of inadequacy, or hope that it will be okay.
I remember my mother’s words, and her praise of Scooby’s and Sans Rival and how these establishments gave Sillimanians, in particular, and Dumagueteños, in general, a chance to enjoy well-prepared foods at reasonable prices, served in places that were kept clean, the washrooms in particular, and open to walk-ins, and staff who were well-trained, and knowledgeable of their products.
My mother, Aida Banogon, a longtime Spanish teacher at Silliman, would always say, “This is because the Sagarbarrias care, it’s not just about the money for them.”
I hang on to these words now, more than ever, and hope that my mom was right all along.
With this hope, I ask the Sagarbarria family to look into aspects of our lives that have been plaguing so many in the last number of years. And take action because you can.
Most important to me, and first on my list — because I stand for the vulnerable in any community — please give back to our blind masseurs a decent centre, similar to the one they had before Felipe Remollo had it torn down to build a road out to the sea for heavy trucks and equipment needed to build the Pantawan. Ipe promised the blind masseurs a replacement clinic; to this day, they are still waiting.
There is talk that one will be provided to them in barangay Talay, on one of the backroads.
Frankly, this should not even be an option for the blind in our City. They do not have the freedom of travel that most of us do, and I doubt their clients are prepared to pay much more for a pedicab to take them all the way out there.
Very many of our blind, and those with impaired vision, are determined to make a living for themselves. Testimony to their desire to be contributing members of our society. They refuse to be dependent on dole-outs (ayuda) as much as they can help it. And their number is growing.
Let us help them, and give them and their coordinators the added support they need.
Although we are being led to believe that Dumaguete is doing a good job of managing its waste now that we have a Materials Recovery Facility in Candauay-Camanjac, anecdotes from people who live in the vicinity say otherwise.
Neighbours are seeing a much higher incidence of illnesses and death in the last couple of years, perhaps not readily provable because no one tracks this kind of data. Hence, a reliance on their personal stories.
Experts are not convinced that the air quality surrounding the gasification pyrolysis unit in the MRF is ideal. They are not even able to prove this, one way or the other, because they are not permitted to enter the MRF to check out the unit that is used to burn our waste — plastic, toxic materials like batteries, and food waste.
Please allow scientists and experts in the academe in our midst, like Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, to examine the process and the facility at the MRF.
I am quite hopeful that this time, our voices will be heard by the new Administration, led by the Sagarbarria family.
I am aware that Barangay Calindagan — then headed by Maisa Sagarbarria until she became Dumaguete vice mayor, and now-congresswoman — was among the five barangays that implemented the Zero-Waste work in the City.
For a change, we have a strong advocate in government who can ensure what’s best for us and our children. It would be best if Zero-Waste systems for the entire City, and for that matter the whole Province, will be adopted, and funded.
Bayawan City is touted to have an excellent waste management system in place. Perhaps we can learn from them.
We believe in progress. But steps taken to achieve this goal without public consultation, without transparency in project planning and implementation, without certification from the right departments like DENR, doesn’t end well.
And it definitely doesn’t end well when Project Information Sheets are not posted in strategic places for the public to read. Did anyone see a Project Information Sheet at any time when the Pantawans were being constructed? I have yet to find a person who actually did.
And on this, I ask you, Gov. Chaco Sagarbarria, to check with DENR as to why they are doing nothing to stop or correct the dumpsite that’s been created in San Jose, La Libertad.
DENR, when alerted over two years ago about it, issued an ECC report to Emmanuel Limkaichong Iway, mayor of La Libertad at the time, that there were many steps his LGU had to take to create a landfill site not far from the Magin-in (San Jose) River, one of the widest rivers in Negros Oriental.
Fast forward. Everything in the ECC was ignored. The area is now an open field dumpsite with medical waste, like syringes, lackadaisically disposed there, along with everything else.
My attempts earlier this year to get DENR engaged again, alerting them to the dire situation, has only resulted in a polite email saying “Acknowledged”. What does this even mean in the context of the situation? This is a major concern.
Human beings are now faced more and more with diseases unheard of before. The San Jose dumpsite in La Libertad — not a landfill as was claimed it would be — may be brushed off as a “one of”, not to be taken that seriously, but if one LGU can get away with it, what’s to stop the other LGUs from doing the same?
What new diseases will we experience, as animals help themselves to, or are exposed to toxic waste, and we encounter these infected animals in our daily lives?
What about the children who play in the area? What about the “fresh water spring” that the local folk source their drinking water from? What will the farm produce now be — with toxins they absorb from the tainted soil? Corn, coconut, mango, banana, avocado, calamansi — daily staples. And the thousands of pesky black flies that now abound? This is farmland county that the dumpsite built by the LGU is on.
There are so many more issues that need to be tackled by the new government administration, but I leave it to the others to speak on these. The other people in our community who, like my mother, knew of the Sagarbarrias as one family who genuinely cares, and that it’s not just about the money for them.
You can count on us to help you get you there, but you need to involve us from the get go.
Diana Banogon-Bugeya (She/Her)
