The Good News

QUEZON, NUEVA VIZCAYA – Ilocanos are known to be tight wads but they would not scrimp if the money was for an investment to improve their lives.

Residents of Sitio Dumaliguia, an agricultural village, have started contributing P5 monthly to the community’s treasury to pool funds for the repair of their hanging bridges under the project “Rangtay Pagbiagan” (Bridge of Life).

More than P2,000 have been raised since 114 families in Dumaliguia, most of them Ilocano migrants, launched the project in September last year to repair at least two hanging bridges.

Residents, personnel of the FMC Mining Corp. and the local government pooled materials and provided labor to build these bridges. The mining firm is conducting exploration activities in Barangay Runruno.

“These bridges are important to us because they are our links (to markets and schools) for our products and for the education of our children,” said Brenda Garcia, 36, a member of the Dumaliguia Women’s Organization (DWO) and the Rangtay Pagbiagan Organization (RPO), which is enforcing the monthly contribution.

The hanging bridges run 100 meters and are made of cables and planks.

Garcia said the villagers proposed the system of contribution after the village was struck by strong typhoons in recent years. Whenever typhoons hit the area, their rivers would swell, destroy their hanging bridges and isolate them from the town center.

During those times, their products and crops – orange, banana and rice – failed to reach the market and were left to rot.

Their children also failed to attend classes for weeks, forcing them to drop out of school.

“That is why the rate of school dropout here is high because of the unrepaired hanging bridges. It was very difficult for us to reach out and call for help. Help only came after waiting for so long,” Garcia said.

She said the bridge is also used in bringing residents to health centers.