Monsoon affects livelihood of Rizal residents

MANILA, Philippines – Residents of San Mateo, Rizal call for help as their livelihood suffers because of incessant rain. Paterno Esmaquel files this video blog.

(Watch the video blog below.)

(The script of the video blog follows.)

PATERNO ESMAQUEL, REPORTING: Disaster affects the livelihood of the poorest Filipinos. We’re here in Barangay Banaba, San Mateo, Rizal where the livelihood of people is raising pigs, which they sell for up to 7,000 pesos.

They say every disaster threatens them, because it makes it more difficult to feed these pigs and it also exposes these to thieves.

ASISCLO CALIPAYAN, SAN MATEO RESIDENT: Ang kabuhayan po namin ay nababalewala ‘pag sa baha. Kasi ‘yung pagpapakain ng alaga ko, mahirap. Nasa tabi kasi kami ng ilog eh. Tapos binabantayan po namin nang maigi, para ma-safety ‘yung sa nakawan, kasi dati nu’ng Ondoy, nagkawalaan dito ng mga alagang baboy. (Our livelihood suffers losses whenever there’s flood. It’s more difficult to feed my pig, because we live by the river. Then we also guard it tightly, to keep it safe from thieves, because during the onslaught of Ondoy, many of us lost our pigs.)

CONCEPCION ESPINA, SAN MATEO RESIDENT: Kung nilalamig, namamatay, sobrang lamig na. Kagaya kahapon, bagyo na. Nalamigan, namatay sila. Pinatapon ko nga eh, kahapon. (When it’s too cold, they die, it’s already too cold. Just like yesterday, when the typhoon was here. Some of them suffered the cold weather and died. In fact I had them thrown away yesterday.)

They say they’re sad because they are not receiving as much attention as other localities. And they would like the government and other NGOs to provide them with crucial aid to help them rebuild their lives after disaster.

Paterno Esmaquel, Rappler.  

– Rappler.com