Aida Carculan pressed her stained right thumb on a certificate of live birth inside the municipal gymnasium at the boundary of Barangays Balao and Poblacion in Abra de Ilog town in Occidental Mindoro.
“My son told me that I’m now 80 years old,” she said.
Carculan, a Mangyan of the subtribe Iraya, did not learn to read or write. She was one of some 500 Mangyan people who came to register on March 20 in response to the “Count Every Child” campaign of the nongovernment Plan International.
Yes, even the Iraya elderly, along with their children, were present to be counted that day and to receive documents from the civil registry office.
Carculan’s daughter Virgie, who managed to reach Grade 2, said she finally has a document to show that she was born on March 20, 1981.
According to the Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO), Abra de Ilog, whose name speaks of its “numerous rivers,” has a population of around 30,000 although records of the National Statistics Office showed 28,726 as of 2010. Around 11,500 or 38 percent of them are Iraya which also means “human being” in the tribe’s language, the MPDO said.
Formerly a small settlement founded by religious missionaries in the early part of the 17th century, Abra de Ilog is a second-class municipality (annual income: P45 million-P55 million) with a land area of 72,865 hectares. On the eastern side of the town is the popular tourist destination Puerto Galera.
Mayor Eric Constantino described the event as a “big deal” for the Mangyan people, saying that most of them—from birth to death—did not have any evidence as to their existence.
Plan Philippines, the counterpart of Plan International sponsored the activity as part of the worldwide celebration of the group’s 75th year. Plan aims to promote children’s rights and lift them out of poverty.
Constantino said it was difficult for those who came to the town proper for the mass registration. “The hike from their upland villages to the poblacion usually takes two days. They usually won’t sacrifice for that,” he said.
Mardy Halcon, communications officer of Plan Philippines, said birth registration would help protect children against various forms of abuses such as child marriage, underage military services and child labor.
Lailany Niserio, technical officer of the child protection unit of Plan Occidental Mindoro, said the Mangyan people were “among the most vulnerable” of those groups being recruited for work elsewhere.
She cited the case of a 15-year-old Mangyan girl of the subtribe Hanunuo (which means “true” or “genuine”) from Magsaysay town in the southernmost tip of the province, who did not have a birth certificate.
Nine years ago, she said, the girl was recruited by a relative to work as a maid in Manila. “The employer was harsh and left marks on her skin through countless slashes of a blade,” she said.
The girl, who did not know how to read or write, was also deprived of food and denied her salary, Niserio said. A relative, who was also working as a maid, was able to escape.
Last year, the abused Mangyan’s aunt, who works as a community worker with Plan, found a way to bring her home when she went to Manila to take the board exam for teachers.
The girl has since rejoined her family and given livelihood assistance by the NGO through a program that would prevent her from being “trafficked” again to Manila or other big cities.
Plan Philippines’ birth registration activity on March 20 attracted around 2,000 Mangyan people, including those coming from areas outside Abra de Ilog, Halcon said.
So far, 8,000 Mangyan Iraya people have had their birth registered, according to Chelchita de Rosario, municipal civil registrar, who cited records from the Office of Mangyan Affairs of the local government.
For those living in far-flung communities, the office will conduct free mobile registration every Feb. 27 when it observes Civil Registration Month.
De Rosario welcomed Plan’s assistance because it would be difficult for the municipality to do the birth registration alone because its fund is limited.
Niserio said “there is no exact data to identify the total number of unregistered Mangyans.” The indigenous people usually transfer their dwellings to other sites.
To determine their year of birth, the interview with the Mangyan registrants is crucial, De Rosario said. “Like if a Mangyan says she or he was born when the volcano erupted, referring to Pinatubo, the year is 1991, or when a Mangyan says he was born during the time of the Japanese, that is in the 1940s,” she said.
“Sometimes, you have to ask, ‘Ilang tagmais?’ (how many corn cropping seasons?) in asking for their age,” De Rosario said. According to her, corn is a major crop among the Iraya Mangyan, who because of poverty, are “not used to celebrating their birthday.”
Niserio said the rainy season from June to September are “hunger months” because it would be difficult to farm, the main source of livelihood for a Mangyan couple who usually has five to six children.
A child is fortunate to reach the age of 10 because severe malnutrition, pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria and other preventable diseases are common occurrences, she said.
Still, “the (birth) certificate is very useful, especially in the availment of the government’s poverty alleviation program, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program,” said Rodolfo Sambutan, 74, a tribal leader.