I“There is no place like home”. “Home is where the heart is”. Two favorite and oft repeated expressions, each communicating a particular feeling directed to a location, a condition, but more particularly, a place where one is supposed to live. Logically, it means, a structure, where one is expected to return at the end of the day, to rest, to eat and enjoy life to the full. It is a center of activity for the whole family.
No matter how we treat the word, by whatever measure we apply, the term “home”, is our abode, or habitation, or residential dwelling. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to build and maintain, for truly, as John Howard Payne would put it, “Mid pleasures and palaces we may roam, be it ever so humble, there is no place like home”.
Let us learn what makes an Agta habitation, a model of adaptation and simplicity. The following observation was written by Atty. Jose “Peping” Reyes in his short treatise on the Agta, in the book “Bikol Maharlika”. Except for the time frame when this observation was made, there is not much change that has occurred. What was true then is still true today.
“A typical Agta Hut was a lean-to affair. Four sturdy posts, with rafters of secondary growth tree limbs, support the thatched roof. Part of the hut was raised above the ground by about three feet, the floor made of bamboo slats. This was the sleeping platform. During the daytime, this area doubled as the sleeping platform. Beside the combination sleeping-eating platform, was the fire place, on the ground, marked by three stone holders for the clay pot in which they cooked rice or stewed vegetables in coconut milk.
“During the cold months, this simple lay-out served a purpose. Since the Agta was sparsely clad, to keep them warm from the biting cold, the fire on the hearth was made to burn continuously. The hut’s roof was made of balakbak, the dried outer brown stalks of the abaca which were sewed together into one meter shingles with a piece of bamboo slat holding the sewed balakbak. The walls were either of the same material or the salsag bamboo which was splintered at its nodes to form a spread. However, when the Agta was deep in the forest hunting or in the midst of the abaca plantation stripping hemp, their habitation was a make shift lean-to hut covered with the leaves of the pacol, a specie of wild banana, the abaca stripping mechanism called hagotan or togod was close to their sleeping platform.
“The Agta used a wind-proof habitation when a strong typhoon approaches. When the leaves of the baban-an tree started to fold, it was sure indication of the approach of the stormy weather. Immediately, the men folk slashed twig poles and constructed a kurob, a tent like shelter that hugs the ground. It was thickly shielded by leaves of pacol, banana and abaca that strong winds and rain cannot penetrate through. An elevated bamboo slat platform was constructed inside the kurob, raised by about five inches above the ground. Here the family huddled and rode the typhoon out.
“The cooking wares of the Agta consisted of one earthen pot where gulay na gata (vegetable in coconut milk) was stewed, a coconut grater is sticking out of some saddle-like driftwood, spoon and ladle made of coconut shells tied to a bamboo handle, a stone hearth made up of three-piece river stones formed triangularly where the pots are made to sit on with the fire burning in between the stones.
“Occasionally, in the better ordered household, there were kawali (cast iron frying pan) where food could be fried in coconut oil, otherwise, the Agta would prefer to broil the dried fish or meat or kamote over the burning embers. One important household ware was the hot pepper plate, a sauce-like ware made out of a half coco-shell where salt and siling labuyo (small pepper) were mixed and grounded in coconut oil using the coco-ladle. This was the Agta’s butter to the camote or sweet potato meal.
“To the Agta, fire was a precious commodity. Its ever continued supply was the concern of the tribe especially when it was the season of rain. Fr. Lynch made an interesting note on the aspect of culture of the Agta:
‘The use of the bamboo fire saw is known, but rarely put into practice. Like all relatively primitive people, the Agta are more interested in preserving fire already kindled than in making a new fire. Jose Reyes recalled that the people living in the vicinity of his Mount Iriga kept the huge trunk of Apnik (Parashuria Malaalunan Merill) burning for approximately one month, as the ready fire supply for all. During our days in the field, the sight of near neighbors asking embers from each other was commonplace.’
“At the time of the survey, what type of culture did the Mamoco Agta have? Fr. Lynch had an equally interesting note: ‘The Mt. Iriga people, like their pure negrito cousins live relatively nomadic lives, nomadic because they changed their abodes as often as ten to fifteen times a year: relatively nomadic because they stay within the vicinity of Mt. Isarog. When asked why he changed his home so often, one man answered the Bicol equivalent of “Where food is, there is my home”. However, since most of these men are employed as strippers of abaca plants which are cultivated throughout this hemp producing region, the very nature of their occupation is an added reason for continual wandering. When a hut is in a state of disrepair, the occupants begin a new one. Sometimes only a few meters from the first, salvaging what they can form their old dwelling and adding such new materials as is necessary.’
“One other type of culture found among them is the food gathering state. A variety of local fruits are found growing freely throughout the foothills of Mt. Iriga and the hill people know how to make good use of them. While food gathering is largely the concern of the women and children, the men do the hunting whether with bow and arrow, fish harpoon gun (sumbiling), or the many trapping devices which are used to snare wild pigs and deer.
“Now that the abaca plantation has been growing by neglect or phased out for corn or vegetable fields, the Mamoco Agta are now less nomadic than in the past. Even their lean-to huts have been improved into semi-permanent bamboo-balakbak structures. In the present Agta aboriginal settlement at Mamoco, while the quality of life have improved, the tribe is further encouraged to continue this kind of upgrading within the context of their traditions and customs.”
I have seen how the changing fortunes of time, provided some of our indigenous peoples inhabiting Mt. Asog (Mt. Iriga), an opportunity to adopt and modify their lifestyle with regards to enjoying the amenities of a “better designed” residential dwelling. This came about only because there are some truly generous and kind hearted souls who were touched by the pitiful sight of a hungry and huddled mass of people whose only habitation were totally wiped out by a series of disastrous typhoons that regularly visit the Philippines, especially the Bicol Area.
Nevertheless, only a small number of families are benefited by these acts of charity. The Oyangos and the New Mamoco (Parina) tribal settlements have been very fortunate. Their proximity to the circumferential road system surrounding the Asog/Iriga Volcano, means they get to have more chances of being recipients and counted as among the first choice for whatever the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) obtain or solicit as donations. There is a local saying in Bicol which runs “Pag harani sa koron, inot na naooringan”. (Whoever is near the kitchen, get to sample the food first.).
Even so, not everyone will be able to receive such benefits. There is simply not enough, so we have a situation where an old and a new habitation stand side by side, portraying the glaring distinction and disparity between one that was built solely out of the effort and meager resources available to the Agta, while the other, dramatizes the blessing that could come from the act of love of some people with enough resources to spare. We do hope that there would be more of their kind to show what one act of kindness can achieve to help bring about some positive changes in the lives of our disadvantaged brethren.
Next: Next: The Fine Art of Hunting
Lubi-lubi leaves with string beans (balatong), an Agta delicacy cooked in coconut milk.
Cooking food in a “Talohong”, stone hearth made up of three river stones, where pots and pans are placed.
An Agta house at the new Mamoco (Parina) Tribal Settlement in Brgy. Perpetual Help, Iriga City
“Now you see it, now you don’t”. An Agta temporary dwelling (Payag) at the upper slope of Mt. Asog, inside a forest clearing. photo taken one month apart.
An Agta Kurob inside the forest, with fresh abaca stalks for roofing and long strips of tree barks for lashing together the posts of the structure.
The newly built houses at the Oyango Tribal Settlement in Sta. Teresita, Iriga City
An Agta family inside the Oyango Tribal Settlement.
