ALIGUAS MANGALDAN: Celebrating Life, History and Culture of Mangaldanians

Coming Together, Extending a Helping Hand

An informal group of Mangaldanians in the Greater Vancouver Region (BC, Canada) watched and boisterously cheered Manny Pacquiao last Saturday, Nov 14th. After the overflowed adrenalin settled down, they pulled out bottles of light beer to celebrate and address another concern. The group, for lack of a better description, styles itself to be referred to as: Vancouver 4 D Boyz.

The topic they choose to converse about was how to extend a helping hand to our Kabaleyans in Mangaldan. No megaprojects, just a plain target of "let's pass the hat", then look forward how that can be turned into a support fund for the town's rehabilitation projects. The spirit of camaraderie was so strong such that cash and pledges reached just below a $1000 mark within a few minutes after it was agreed to pass the hat around.

Emboldened by the result, the group is planning out simple fund raising projects capped with a Valentine's event in 2010. The proceeds will go to an ongoing rehabilitation project in Mangaldan.

The core group consists of: Pepe and Rey Tan, Ronnie Limon, Philip Fabia, Edwin Fabia, Djoma de Guzman and Redz Idia.

Coming Together to Rebuild Our Beloved Mangaldan

by Djoma de Guzman

The Celebration of Life, MIO's 2009 Mangaldanians Grand Reunion, was rated by participants as a huge success. The event organizers led principally by Silverio "Kuya Boy" Moulic of MANYJER and Marie Aquino-Junio of MAREVA, assisted by Ditas Palisoc-Sarzaba of MAONCA and Rusty Cervas-Miraflor of MAREVA and solidly backed by the tandem of Jun and Joey Tumaneng deserve all the kudos going their way now. Our hats off to you folks!

Just before the reunion, a historic calamity descended on our town Mangaldan as well as many other towns nearby. Massive rains built flood levels never seen before. No home was spared from a gut-wrenching spectacle of damages, physical and spiritual. As pictures and videos trickled in to the pages of Aliguas Mangaldan, one suddenly realizes the astute knowledge of our forebearers to build homes on stilts as protection from flood waters.

Keeping in mind the difficulty that our Kabaleyans were going through, the reunion participants came together in Las Vegas to raise some funds to be sent for the rehabiltation projects in our town. The extent of the damage has so far been quantitied in Pesos. We can only speculate on the dent on the spirit to nurture hopes, to believe that life can be better going forward. How does it feel to abandon your home and bring your family to safer grown, see the waters reach for the ceiling and, when the flood has ebbed, return to gape at what little is left to recover? How did our farmers feel to see crops collapse in the waters, fertile soil dragged away by raging floods, farm animals disappear?

Our Kabaleyans are trying to pick up their lives. For us who have chosen to live a better life in a country of choice, what are we going to do to assist them to to get their lives back on track?

Aliguas Mangaldan will try to connect with our townmates, gather stories about how they are coping and rebuilding lives. We look to publish reports from the municipal government about various rehabilitation projects. It will be left to the different groups of Mangaldanians to use these information in deciding how to come together in rebuilding our beloved town of Mangaldan.

Some of us may opt to work with groups of people in the barangays and focus on building a partnership with them. Some of us may take the easier route of brick-and-mortar projects. And some of us may even go for the longer term project of developing responsible and compassionate leaders from the ranks of today's youth. Whatever route we take, it would be toward a common vision of a vibrant, livable, well managed community of Mangaldan.