PANAW-LANTAW: TRIP TO MALUSO, BASILAN, Oct. 27-29, 2007

I took the photos in this collection among two Bajau villages in Maluso in the island of
Basilan, Mindanao, Southern Philippines. The first village is called Tehemen which belongs
to Barangay Shipyard Tabuk, only ten minutes away from the center of the poblacion.
Maluso is roughtly 30 kms. from Isabela City, Basilan's capital and has roughly a population
of 44,000. Of these 78% are Muslims, namely, the Tausogs and Yakans. The rest are
Ilonggo and Cebuano migrant-settlers. There is an estimate of about 10,000 Bajaus in
the whole of Basilan. Roughly 400 families are in Maluso. The Samal Program of the
Claretians respond to their needs. Presently, Fr. Dennis Tamayo is the Coordinator of this
program and there are 12 staff members of the program, a few of whom are Bajaus.

As we entered the village of Tehemen, Fr. Dennis chats with some of the Bajaus seated
on the wooden sidewalk built on stilts that serve as pathway from the town to the village.
At the very entrance of the village is a staff house owned by the Program which is being
used by the family of one of the Bajau staff member. Her two daughters do the Marimar
dance.

Fr. Dennis walks on the wooden sidewalk
towards the center of the village. Mangroves
still grow abundantly in Tehemen.

The sidewalk turns out to be a long bridge connecting the Bajau village of Tehemen
to the mainland of Maluso. It is a perfect place to spend a lazy afternoon as one can
look towards the town as well as the mangroves that grow in the waters. The day
is cloudy by the faint glow of sunset is reflected on the waters.
A mother and her daughter walk down the plank towards
the town.

Fr. Dennis talks with a woman who just lost her grandaughter.
Her daughter is only 15 years old.

While most Bajaus still have
unmotorized bancas, there are
a few who have been able to
secure motorized pumpboats.

The Bajau houses are clustered together with bamboo bridges connecting them.
Main mood of transport that get them from their village to neighboring villages
is the banca.

Children play with a cat on the sidewalk-bridge. Most
of these kids go to the kinder school of the Samal Program
while those who are in elementary grades, attend school
at the nearby Central School.

Boys will be boys and their favorite activity in the village is to ride their banca painted
in different colors.

There is an entrance station at the footbridge with a signboard giving the
visitor an idea as to what he/she could find in the village. Water is a major
problem in the village; they pay P2 for each gallon in a water station that
is connected to the town's water system.

There are also solitary houses on stilts in the village,
as there are those who would rather not be in the
clusters.

There are five Bajau villages included in the Claretian Samal Program including Tehemen,
Lutah, Subah, and two others where they are mixed with Muslims and Christians - those
in Shipyard Main and Calle Basa.

We also visited Subah and here Fr. Dennis walks the footbridge to the village of Subah,
which is like a miniature Venice.

Fr. Dennis talks with one of the women staff who handles
the health program. She was visiting women in their
homes that afternoon.

Various scenes in the village: someone repairing the roof of their house, women selling fresh fish recently caught in the sea, people walking from house to house and the
like. The afternoon turned quite cloudy and it rained shortly after these photos were taken.

A typical kitchen of a Bajau
family that is better-off than the others.
Women learn to sew; this sewing machine was supplied by the program to this group of women in Subah.

Where I am standing is the house that has been converted
into a school for the children as well as the adults. One can
see that some of the families have managed to build better houses
and have even painted these. Inside there are appliances like a TV set.
These are the families who manage to earn more than the others
through their fishing, mat weaving and other income-generating
activities.

This is the house that also serves as the school in this village.

Nong Claro, Fr. Dennis,
James and I join a
few Bajaus to swim
in the nearby island of
Lahat-lahat. Other
islands that one can gaze at
while in Subah are
the Taikila, tamok, Kalang
and Taypuno.

Another project is
the lapu-lapu raising
project. The technology of this project was learned from TESDA in Dipolog City. At the middle of this bay,
there is an improvised
station where lapu-
lapu fingerlings are
taken care of until
they can be harvested.