Belit's Purok

Isabelita Calope is one of the newly elected councilors in the Del Carmen Norte Barangay in Balilihan. In her first election, I am told, she got the second highest vote total of any candidate in the Barangay. There are ten councilors. As a councilor she is in charge of the Ubi 3 purok. Each barangay has 6 puroks. While I was in Bablilihan, Isabelita, who everyone knows as Belit, gave me a tour of the purok.

The headquarters is a building made of nipa with places to sit and dishes for food. On one wall is a map of the twenty five households that make up the barangay, and on another part of the wall is detailed information about the make up of the purok. It reads like a detailed census report with the number of men and women and the number of people of each age. In addition, there are records of who is a smoker, who is a farmer, who is employed, and which families use family planning.

On another wall is a chart put out by the government about proper nutrition. Here I see that it is suggested that people include dairy products in their diet. This is surprising because I have practically seen no milk in the Philippines. On this trip, I did see one quart of milk that was very expensive from New Zealand, but the people drinking it were Filipino-American kids. The chart also suggests that vegetables should be part of the diet, but most places I have been there have been few vegetables. Most of the diet is rice and rice and then rice again. The word viand means what goes with the rice, and it is usually some kind of meat or fish. I must say most places, and the home at Payatas in different. Flor Encomio drinks no coke or pepsi, and this seems truly unusual to me. She also believes in lots of vegetables. Hopefully this is a new trend because I do keep hearing about diabetes being a problem here.

Belit's purok has monthly meetings on the first Sunday of each month, and there are committees on public order, sports, farming, education, and infrastructure among others. Belit is, I think, the youngest Barangay councilor, and she looks like she will do well in politics. She is clearly well known in the community, and she would get my vote just for her great sense of humor. I am sure she will do a great job in Baliliahan and hopefully someday I will be able to say that I know Mayor Calope. In Payatas where I am now there is a great deal of cynicism about government. The garbage dump is in this area, and the problem of litter, unpaved streets, and air pollution are major problems here. Balilihan seems like a universe away from Payatas, and I remember thinking when I first arrived here, "Why do people live in cities???"
The answer is jobs, but there are many places here where there are no jobs.

The organization that I am doing tutoring with here--MMP--Mission Ministries Philippines--is one that I think is addressing some of the most important problems here, and I will discuss it in my next blog.