Escalante snapshot
By Gemma Cruz Araneta
Real Pinoy (magazine for OFWs)
September edition
Whenever I meet people like Mayor Santiago Barcelona, Jr. of Escalante City, I deeply regret not having a provincial home town where I can serve the people at such close range. As I was born in cosmopolitan Ermita, Manila, and grew up within the urban confines of Pasay and San Juan, Rizal I often felt I was missing out on something. To begin with, I had no province to go home to for summer and Christmas vacations, unlike many classmates in high school and college who wrote, for English composition class, such refreshing accounts of their provincial idylls. Of course my parents, my mother especially, were adventurous enough to take us children to then unbeaten tracks; yet, domestic tourism, albeit exciting, was not quite the same. After graduation, many of my schoolmates returned to their provinces of origin and far from leading obscure, banal lives they took up challenges and made a real difference in their home cities and towns.
I was musing over what might have been at Barangay Old Escalante while standing beside Mayor Barcelona on the grand staircase that was also the façade of the ex- municipal building (circa 1935) of curious design. It is now a field branch of the National Museum and Mayor Barcelona wants the Heritage Conservation Society (of which I’m president) to restore the edifice. The city council was present in full force and cameras were clicking. From where we stood, the vista was spectacular. The plaza, with a charming gazebo at the center, was an immense stretch of green framed with enormous banaba trees. At the horizon, the capiz windows of the Escalante Elementary School, a venerable Gabaldon, shimmered in the mid-morning light. Recently, the entire site was proclaimed a heritage district, by virtue of a council resolution, an action that aborted the construction of a multi-purpose sports complex monstrosity.
To many, Escalante is bitter memory that grips the heart and sends cold shivers down one’s spine. Escalante still evokes the tragic 1985 Welgang Bayan that ended in a contemptible massacre. There were three provinces in the island of Negros then, aside from Negros Occidental and Oriental which were already in existence, "Negros del Norte" was created by Parliamentary Bill N. 3644 with Cadiz City as its capital. Apparently, that extreme case of gerrymandering was engineered by political honcho Armin Gustilo and Escalante Mayor Lumayno.
Escalante was already a second-class municipality then but electric power was still erratic, water supply suffered chronic shortages and criminality was described as rampant and still rising in town council resolutions. The northern part of Negros island was solely agricultural in those days, with sugar cane plantations forming its main economic base. Often enough, that meant both plantation owners and tenured workers, in varying degrees of course, were vulnerable to price fluctuations in the world market of their ono-commodity. As if that were not enough, unscrupulous business people engaged in destructive fishing that destroyed corals and mangroves, causing environmental degradation detrimental to the lives of the coastal population. Sooner than later social unrest reached historic intensity. At Escalante, fisher folk appealed incessantly to the town council to outlaw poison and dynamite fishing and to impose limits on trawlers – all to no avail. These impoverished fisher folk formed the bulk of the 1985 Welgang Bayan that ended in the infamous Escalanate Massacre.
When the Batasang Pambansa was abolished during the revolutionary phase of the Aquino administration, Armin Gustilo’s "Negros del Norte" disappeared from the Philippine map. Enter Santiago Barcelona, Jr., a young entrepreneur, civil society member and native of Escalante; he was offered the OIC mayoralty but opted instead to serve as councilor in the new government. The "Reconciliation and Unity" period of Escalante’s revival was based on common principles shared by a redoubtable mix of committed citizens from the Right, Center and Left-of-Center. Foremost was the policy of transparency which provided public information and monthly financial reports about municipal government project expenditures. Councilor Santiago Barcelona aimed directly at the heart of Escalante’s economic life– the market. The public market had been burnt to a cinder, its reconstruction was more than urgent.
Escalante is the 102nd city of the republic. It has an 88 percent literacy rate and has won various awards. The Cebu City Chamber of Commerce commended its use of ITC; in 2003 it was the Best City Police Station of the Year and the Kabalikat from TESDA. Twice, Escalante won the Parangal sa Mararangal given by the Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng Significantly, Escalante remains JUETENG-FREE. Santiago Barcelona, Jr. is on his last term. However, far from resting on his laurels he continues to implement "developmental governance." In Escalante, this is called the "Discipleship in Development" which aims to mobilize people to a higher level of engagement and commitment. The anchor programs that carry out Mayor Barcelona’s mission and vision are as follows: "Helpers-Plus" (Health and Social Services; Education Culture and Sports Development; Livelihood and Entrepreneurship; Peace and Order; Environment; Revenue Generation and Resource Development; Shelter; "Plus" infrastructure, power and water, electrification, trade promotion and tourism development; FAITH (Food Always in the Home) and JOBS ( Jobs and Opportunities for Business Sustainability). "The cost of discipleship is based on the life principle characterized by service and sacrifice," Mayor Barcelona said, "Less of ourselves, more for others, and enough for everyone." What a difference a mayor makes! Abante Escalante, masarangan gayod nato kini!
