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[av_heading heading=’Aetas of Panay’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
By Gabrielle Marie Perez, Intern
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January 29, 2018
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DARK skin, short and slender figures, curly hair – these were the physical traits of the first people who inhabited Panay. They were the first ones who welcomed Christianity in the island when they were converted from animism to Christianity. They are the aetas and it is their culture that is being displayed in the world renowned festival, Dinagyang.
Along with the thundering sound of the drums, the warriors of the competing tribes dance enthusiastically in colourful costumes and with their skin painted black to imitate the aetas. The dance is said to replicate a tribe war that the aetas had many years ago. But amidst the festivity, where are the real aetas?
Aetas are wandering the streets of Iloilo begging for money, or so that’s what most of us think. I’ve asked several people where I can find aetas in Iloilo and the most common answers were “sa downtown,” or “sa mga overpass,” I believed this to be true too. But in doubt, I Googled where I can find aetas in Iloilo city and it did not fail me, for it led me to an aeta community in Brgy. Lanit, Jaro, Iloilo.
Just a few kilometres away from Iloilo City Proper, a community of the ati, named “balay kawayan” was founded by Pastor Rogelio Elosendo, himself also an aeta. He personally raised funds so he could buy land and gather aetas out from the streets.
“The aetas sleep on the streets and that is one of the reasons why I really looked for land where they could live in. Many children and the elderly have died because of diseases they can get from not having a proper home,” Elosendo said.
With that advocacy, he gathered the aetas from different places. “Some of the aetas here came from the city begging for money, some came from Pototan, and some of our relatives from Leon and even some from Antique,”
All of them lived together in a tribal hall before the city government stepped in to ask for help from a foundation in Switzerland. The foundation gave them the budget to build 24 houses for the 24 aeta families that resides there.
The aetas now have a roof above their heads, food on their tables and they are sending their children to school.
“We see to it that the children get proper education, that’s our only way to make sure that they won’t need to beg on the streets again. As a matter of fact, we now have a 3rd year college student studying BS Education in West Visayas State University,” Pastor Elosendo expressed.
The aetas carry a vital and colorful piece in Panay’s history. But as time went by, they have been neglected and pushed to live on the streets of the same land they once owned. Thankfully, in the city of love, the aetas of Panay, have once again found a place they could call their own./PN
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