The Team e-Kwento comprised Prof. Douglas C. Ferrer, Dr. Mellany G. Masangkay, Dr. Chona A. Conte, Mr. Deyo Carlos L. Dela Cruz, Mr. Mark P. Castillo, Ms. Melody P. Sapad, Mr. Lander Victor G. Tejada, Ms. Alecs Kaye C. Talavera, and Mr. Lyndon Q. Macanas devised four interrelated activities to collect baseline data from the Indigenous Peoples of the sitio to serve as basis for the forthcoming extension activities under the said project.
Participant Observation, Focus Group Discussions, Storytelling with the children in the community, and Interviews were preliminarily implemented to shed light on the living conditions faced by the residents of Yangka.
Prior to these activities, a Social Preparation Activity was conducted ensuring that the team and the Aeta Community interact mutually in respect to each other’s cultural norms and practices.
Accessibility to Yangka
Apart from the team’s experience on the difficult climb and the maze-like mountain trail, the first thing that the Faculty Members probed immediately upon observation is the scarcity of livelihood programs in the Community of Yangka.
Initially, during the bonfire-opening program, residents of the said Aeta Community emphasized that the lack of transportation and accessibility to vehicles were primarily the main reasons as to how the cost of transporting their products to the plains of Tarlac would outweigh their revenue.
Accessibility proves to be a common ground for the community’s challenges. This is reflected as well in accessibility to clean water as Yangka’s water source would be an hour away and the vessels used to store water would only hold a gallon. The water source is a small spring from higher parts of the mountain to which a simple bamboo waterway was constructed by the community to make water potentially accessible.
On one hand, Yangka had a reliable water source before which was provided by charitable groups. However, it crossed privately owned land, and during one clearing operation, the water connection was damaged and there were no repairs initiated ever since.
The aforementioned concerns and challenges were not yet of the seal of the bottle. The Aeta Community of Yangka also encounters accessibility issues in Formal Education.
Despite their lack of formal education, Aetas in Yangka value education and send their children to climb down the mountain and stay at Maruglu Elementary School for the entire school week before climbing back up.
Seemingly, the accessibility to school is a factor as to why Aeta Students of Maruglu Elementary School encounter absenteeism primarily on rainy days. Conscious efforts were being implemented on the other hand by their Community Leader “Tatay Carling” who, despite being over a century old, has constructed the walls of the makeshift classrooms in Yangka.
Lastly, the four conducted activities have highlighted how Yangka residents have been reliant on nature and have been successful in utilizing their resources. They have hectares of land which they can cultivate. However, they do not possess land titles, only markers indicating borders. If an alternate route can be paved to reach these lands, the transport of harvests can be considerably cheaper and more profitable for them.
Accessibility to the Future
The team, after staying in Yangka for three days, realized that some of the goals of other projects targeting Yangka may not be achievable without addressing the Aetas' primary problems—access to water and the cost-increasing topography.
Regarding the digitization of their stories for cultural preservation, the team was able to identify several themes, including the expansion of their community through intergroup marriage, the strain on family ties due to Yangka's topography, and their determination in the face of continuous typhoon-related challenges.
The Aeta Community of Sitio Yangka regards the preservation of their culture and traditions as one of their primary concerns to which the Team e-Kwento nods to. However, upon this survey and immersion, new ideas and concepts were formed which would be then reflected in future extension endeavors.
The Sito-Yangka E-kwento Project is part of the three-year Community Development Extension Program and Project (CDEPP) of the College of Education and from being able to access the stories of the Aeta Community, new doors and opportunities to assist Yangka are to be opened.
