Where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here?

This is the basic question that should be resolved in a direction mandated by law and this priority shall be an agreed predication. Looking back on the history of Culion we must understand the legitimacy of residents to define who were, who are the novel people that reside in this place. The place that was actually reserved for a particular kind of people. A purpose created towards a humane act, Culion was intended. It is a home for loved and cared individuals forsaken by society. A place to isolate a human bereft of a curse they never desired. It is a seclusion of a place that nobody wanted to be.

Even though, few kind-hearted people volunteered to serve these people, they were there even the whole world had forsaken them. The place was feared, maligned and misjudged. But in the end, a tragic outlook is now looming to the same people who in the beginning were just victims of circumstances to be in this island community. The self-same individuals the law intends to emancipate through the passages of R.A. 9032; the hansenites and their children, the government employees, the religious sectors, the volunteer workers and servants who dedicated their lives for a worthy cause. The ‘liberation’ of the people of Culion who once upon a time, forcibly brought here because of their misfortune of being ‘different’, together with the servants who volunteered here that they may serve these patients, our forefathers, who labored that others may live, could be disenfranchised by what is happening now. As the rightful citizen of this civic society we must be part of the decision making in the determination of why, where, what, and how much is for whom. But then again, we’ll go back to this basic question that should be resolved in a direction mandated by law, where do we go from here?

As a former Leper Colony, Culion was a national reservation that became a municipality. People are mounting their own monument at stake for their claim. But prior to that, there was massive selling of DOH given rights to buyers without regards to the actual value of land that had created a situation of speculation, intimidation and confusion among the locals. The land they gave away is now in the possession and claimed by those who know the actual value of the land. People sold their rights because of sheer ignorance, unwariness or poverty. Others took advantage of the situation to profit from their rights as a piece of paper can now be converted into cash or millions.

The law mandates the government! The leaders must ensure equitable, just and honest land distribution and reserved the land for every bonifide residents of Culion, if not the original people of Culion. This leadership must be free from any biases and conflict of interest, nor their vested interest, that their mandated authority will be for the good of the people who gave them their trust, that their rights must always be encouraged.

As a people who shared a bittersweet past, our forefathers, made sure that this place we now live will not only for us to share, but most of all for our children, they who had given their lives, that a municipality might live! The government that will be a self-determination we all dream of. These people should be part of that visioning and setting up a goal that will be good for all, as much as goodness that our fore bearer did to us. We cannot destroy all these goodness for the sake of self-imposed progress and development, that renounce the past and losing all those true development that was handed to us for the sake of a better future of our children and their children. We almost regained that paradise we now called Culion thru this virtue of independence. By all means we cannot afford to lose these God-given gifts to us. We can never forsake the past and let all the sacrifices our servant fathers did and be put in vain.

What we need now is to inform the people of the reality that is happening nowadays but at the same time not to forget the past. Maybe some would rather forget their bitter past because of that painful reality as what the movie of the old said ‘huwag mong salingin’. But in the end, no cure can heal the wounds without the pain. We need to move now and carry on with our quest for what goodness must be for all of us.

We are now challenging if not imploring this burg to ensure that Culionaires i.e. patients and their descendants, the employees who served here and their descendants who migrated that opted to stay here prior to the creation of the municipality, to reserve the land for these people!

Now tragically, people are asking for what? For whom? Do I have my share? What about me? Am I not entitled? Do I deserve a place in Culion where I was born? Am I still a stranger just like my parents who was virtually imprisoned in this island that became a dreaded place? Do I belong now, when the whole world despises us and we were forgotten here?

Currently they are measuring and zoning the land. Can we only wait? What do I know now? Am I still praying for my fair share? Will it come? Or am I forgotten again? To whom should I listen? We are mere children of Culion. Do this regime really empathizes?

We were in lost-paradise when we grew up in culion. We were a community of men isolated by our identity as a place of seclusion. But Culion is ours. We became a distinct culture isolated by stigma and became a character of our own specie. Endemic. A unique and isolated society who created its own cultural heritage who shall remain steadfast as who we are now. We cannot change because of a confused town. The government that was created for us should not dictate the will of the people, nor changed what we beautifully created that this new culture took us time to value. If changes do happen it should not stumble on a created thing that was valued by our past. The present is a power of money and connection. Do they want to subdue a norm? A value? A culture? What happen now to what our forefathers sacrificed for? Like the religious communities that not only lovingly dedicated their lives and services but still carry on what they started? Are we beholden now of a creeping culture of power and might?

The law, the culture, the norms are now in clash. Disputing each other without proper forum to decide who and what is true, and good and right.

As the plans are nearing its conclusion, we cannot but ask ourselves as people residing on foreshore areas of Culion and some other forgotten islands as well as coastal shores;

DO WE HAVE A PART OF THE LAND AS PROMISED BY R.A. 9032? DO WE HAVE A CHANCE TO OWN A PIECE OF LAND THAT SHALL DISPELL OUR STATUS AS SQUATTER IN THE LAND OF OUR BIRTH? OR AS OUR GREATEST FEAR NOW IS THIS SIMPLE QUESTION… WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Are we now the victim of maneuverings? Then our quest arise here, to whom this land must truly belong?