CITY of San Fernando—Saying their home is the mountains, a group of Aetas in Zambales said what they need are jobs and livelihood support, not housing projects that the government is offering.
“[Mt.] Pinatubo is our home. We don’t have to be confined in one area, like subdivisions,” said Elsa Badar Novo, a councilwoman in Barangay Poon Bato in Botolan, Zambales.
On Tuesday in Laoag City, Vice President Jejomar Binay, concurrent chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said the Aquino administration was providing for the first time a shelter project for indigenous peoples as part of the government’s nationwide housing program.
Binay said the government will start providing houses to Aeta, Lumad, Mangyan and Dumagat communities.
But Novo said Binay’s plan to provide low-cost housing to a group of Aetas in Floridablanca, Pampanga, was unfair.
“[Binay] should come to Zambales and see the hardships of Aetas here (Botolan),” Cosme said by telephone on Wednesday.
She said her tribe mates need jobs more than houses, especially if these look like a “factory of houses” similar to the upland resettlements built by the government after the 1991 eruptions of Mt. Pinatubo.
Binay said talks on providing housing to indigenous peoples cropped up during his consultations in the nationwide housing caravan, noting that this sector belongs to the country’s poorest.
He said the government’s housing program has long been focused on informal settlers and the poorest of the poor but it has neglected the needs of indigenous peoples, who are also among the poorest in the country.
“We must remember that the IPs are also Filipinos and [they are] basically poor,” he said.
But Carlito Domulot, chair of the Lubos na Alyansa ng mga Katutubong Aeta sa Sambales (Lakas), agreed with Novo.
“Houses are not the most important need. Food security and livelihood are, then education,” said Domulot.
Wyda Cosme, regarded in Aeta tribes in Central Luzon as the first to have obtained a law degree, said it appeared that the government was being selective in prioritizing housing for those in Pampanga. Those in Zambales and Tarlac also deserve to be helped, she said.