Manide, Agta Tabangnon tribes receive Noche Buena gifts for Christmas

Paracale, Camarines Norte—It may be simple Noche Buena packs delivered to the members of the Manide tribe in Paracale and for the Agta-Tabangnon tribesmen in Sitio Tabgon, Barangay Misibis, Tiwi Albay, but for more than 300 members of the indigenous people it will be a happiest celebration as they will have a food to feast on Christmas Day.

Lito Alvarez, 57, chieftain of Manide tribe at Barangay Bakal, Paracale town expressed a profound gratitude for the philanthropist who don’t want to be identified for incessantly providing Noche Buena packs to the members of the Manide tribe in Paracale.

“We are happy and grateful for giving us these Noche Buena packs for the second time. This is priceless because as you can see my fellow tribesmen were delighted and will have food to eat. At least we have spaghetti and bread to feast together on Christmas Day,” she said.

“Usually, we don’t celebrate Christmas like the lowlanders with the grandest presents, many foods to partake on your tables. We ate whatever we had from the fruits of our land. The kids don’t have any new toys, new clothes, new shoes or slippers. But this Christmas eve, we have food to partake in. Thank you for remembering us. You came along from the farthest area of Bicol considering the long trip and the rugged terrain,” Lito happily told stressed.

The Manide families were given Noche Buena packs while their children studying at Katutubo Elementary School at Bakal were given complete sets of school supplies.

“To the philanthropist who remembers us on Christmas for us to celebrate the festivity with food to eat, we are completely grateful. We may not know you personally, but we would like to express our gratitude and to the volunteers who take their time and effort to come despite difficulties of coming to our place,” the Manide chieftain said.

The Katutubo School, nestled in the mountainous Bakal village where the Manide community resides. The first Katutubo School is accessible only by private car or habal-habal (motorbike taxi), where the tribesmen typically travel barefoot over the rugged and muddy terrain during rainy seasons.

Manide is the oldest tribesmen in Bicol. For Manide families, having a Noche Buena on Christmas and New Year’s Day is the grandest day as they regularly munch the usual root crops and rice when lucky.

The Kabihug or Manide are nomads who move from one place to another and stay in makeshift houses. For their survival, they depend on root crops, honeybee, and vegetables that they grow.

The philanthropist who doesn’t want to be identified has been providing outreach programs to people living in the Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs) for years now specifically for indigenous people in the countryside.

He also provided school supplies for indigenous pupils of Katutubo School. The Noche Buena packs are delivered personally by volunteers from Legazpi City wherein almost 200 Manide families living in the villages of Batobalani, Pinagbirayang Munti, Pinagbirayang Malaki, Tabas and Bakal in the municipality of Paracale, including the residents in Daguit, Labo Camarines Norte.

Originally, they were called the Kabihug tribesmen. The Kabihug meaning (friend) tribe is the region’s oldest surviving group of indigenous people living in the highlands of Camarines Norte. Believed to be of pre-historic origin, they have preserved their culture because they have not married lowlanders.

These indigenous people (IPs) in Bicol Region are saddled by poverty, discrimination, lack of basic services specifically water and livelihood – while only a few tribesmen are members of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, also known as 4Ps and formerly Bangon Pamilyang Pilipino, is a conditional cash transfer program of the Philippine government under the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The Manide tribesmen are small in stature, dark-skinned and kinky-haired, they have long given up their bahag (g-string) and tapis (wrap-around skirt) in favor of contemporary clothing. They still converse in the Manide language among themselves, but are equally conversant in Tagalog when dealing with lowlanders.

As of April 2016, there were 48,743 registered IPs across the region out of the 213,311 estimated population nationwide. The Agta tribal communities in Bicol are subdivided into several sub-tribes, predominant of whom are the Agta-Tabangon, Agta-Cimaron, Agta Taboy, Dumagat and the Kabihug/Manide of Camarines Norte.

NCIP records show that of the 9,007 IP Bicol families, 24,507 are male and 24,187 female. The tribesmen in Bicol are among the 2.2 million Bicolanos belonging to the poorest of the poor out of more than 6 million population based on the 2015 census of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

These tribesmen are rarely benefiting basic services because of their isolation and are living in the farthest and mountainous areas without mode of transportation. The series of typhoons in Bicol this year even aggravated their poverty.

In Tiwi, the energy town in Albay, over 100 Agta-tabangnon tribes were also given the same Noche Buena packs and school supplies to more than 200 pupils of Tabgon Elementary School from the same philanthropist. Half of the students enrolled at Tabgon Elementary School were members of the Agta-Tabangnon tribe.

Erlinda Cerenio, IP chieftain at Sitio Antom, Barangay Misibis, Tiwi town expressed gratitude for the philanthropist for constantly providing Noche Buena packs and school supplies for the IP children. – BY RHAYDZ BARCIA