The Good People of Agno
In Sitio Sawit, with Agno Bay in the
background, this woman accompanied by a little boy sets her table under a tree to sell halo-halo to the visitors and
passersby going to the geological formation of rocks called the Bangol Crags.
Friendly Sabangan Sur villagers, who are likewise engaged in fishing as a livelihood,
willingly pose for this photo documentation of the people of Agno and the social and economic realities in which they are
situated. This lay photographer is grateful to them and the others in this picture series for their cooperation.
Three little boys in Sitio Sawit on the way to the Nagtuon Rocks beat the heat of the sun
on Good Friday of 2006 by wisely staying in the shade of a small tree. Note the pile of wood around the tree for burning
into charcoal to be sold to Agno consumers for their use in cooking and ironing.
A Sitio Sawit father and his three children under a big tree. He is fixing his fishing net.
Rice cannot be coaxed to grow in the paddy fields seen behind him during the dry months from November to May each year. In
the far background is a thicket. There is no irrigation available in this upland hamlet of Agno. Note the goat feeding on
the barren ground.
Sitio Sawit village fishermen doing "tagnawa" or cooperative labor exchange in mending a
net for fishing in the South China Sea seen beyond the line of trees. "Tagnawa" is an admirable traditional Ilocano and
Pangasinan custom fostering community spirit existing mainly in what anthropologists refer to as "tightly-structured"
villages in Southeast Asia where the impersonal cash economy has not fully set in. The popularity of basketball as a sport
among Filipinos is evidenced by the presence of a wooden board attached to a single post used for shooting the ball into
the goal ring.
The lay photographer explored the rugged upland village of Tupa in the early afternoon of
Good Friday accompanied by the Japanese visitor and the local guide from Aloleng. Negotiating narrow, winding, and rocky
roads, we were looking for the way to Sabangan Tupa but instead reached as far away as Sitio Barani, and then we ended up
in the deep intermontane basin of Sitio Barsak. Here a young Sitio Barsak mother, who is caring for her child while seated
in a bamboo "papag" under a fallen mango tree, smilingly tells the photographer and his companions that they are at a dead
end! A Sitio Barsak man stands on the other side of the fallen mango tree.
Other Sitio Barsak villagers quickly came to help the lost explorers of Agno's
beauty, explaining to the visitors that they overshot the path to Sabangan Tupa, and that from Sitio Barsak, one has to
hike through rice fields, cross a stream and go through a thicket to get to the Tupa village coastline. The photographer
is grateful to these Sitio Barsak villagers for their kind assistance. For lack of time, the visitors decided to go to
Sabangan Tupa during another occasion sometime in the future.
30. This
picture shows the lack of running faucet water in Sitio Barsak valley. The deep well is the source of water for washing,
cooking and drinking among the inhabitants of this hamlet. Water from the well is boiled before being drank to prevent
contamination with microorganisms causing cholera, dysentery and diarrheal ailments. Note the parched paddy fields during
the dry months from November to May annually. The photographer is gratefully heartened by the inherent goodness and
hospitality of the Agno people. end of slide show
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