8/6/2019 CWTS - Navotas

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Cruz, Abigail Sue S.CWTS 2

Navotas Site Visit Reaction Paper

We almost did it - ang maligo sa dagat ng basura. It was pretty much like whatthe popular campaign jingle is singing about. About a month ago, we went near thePort Area in Navotas and tried to interview some of the community leaders, gatherinformation about the condition they are in and formulate some solutions out of it.

My partner, Jena Futol and I were tasked to interview one of the community leaders, Manong Oliver (not sure of the name though ). We asked him about the place,a brief history, what is the status of the site with regards to economic, socialawareness, and financial of the place and what they do in response to it. While Jenawas interviewing Mang Oliver, I was busy taking pictures of the place, particularly thehouse the interview was being held, when the matriarch of the house approached meand told me some stories about the place.

The main livelihood of the people living there is fishing, and the area was oncepart of the sea. The husband of the old lady was the first residents of the area. She

said that the area wasnt really land, but after some time, the soft sea side landhardened because of garbage and soil. Later on, the area was reinforced with largeramount of tambak soil because the population of the place boomed. The land thattheir house stands on was awarded to them just a decade or so ago.

As I was taking pictures, I saw lots of fishing nets being hanged to dry. The oldlady said that her husband used to be a fisherman, but now, none in her family iscatching fish for a living. From the looks of her house, compared to their neighbors,they belong to the middle class bracket of their society they are in. Her house iscomplete with the basics, electric supply, water supply, toilet, internet connection, andappliances like personal computer, TV, sound system, refrigerator, even an airconditioner on the second floor and from the contents of their store cabinet, they really are well off compared to their neighbors. When I asked her about this, she said thatboth of her children are able to finish school and now working in Saudi Arabia andshe is taking care of her grandchildren. The first thing that came to my mind uponknowing that is why she still want to stay in that place when obviously her childrencan afford a house in a much better place. All she said was that she wanted to spendthe rest of her days where her husband had.

As for Jenas interview, we learned that they have residents associationsformed. There were many associations for such a small place, there were organizations

that are income-based, work-based, location-based and religion-based. This was sobecause they have lots of groups that initiate movements and other worthwhilecauses, mostly organizations that aim for financial assistance to its members. He saidthat the main problems of the community are electric supply and clean and propertoilet. There are rampant illegal connections of electricity; causing occasional shortcircuit among the neighborhood and forcing the legal customers pay much higherelectric bill. As for the clean and proper toilet, they dont have proper sewage disposal

8/6/2019 CWTS - Navotas

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