In Bulacan, the families will
have new houses, running
water, and electricityNot far from the Capulong Bridge in Tondo is the temporary
housing community of “Happyland” (the name comes for the
Bisayan word “hapilan”, or “dump site”), an area where almost
everyone’s daily bread is earned through salvage work. From
children to the elderly, the people of this area make their living
by recycling the things that the rest of the city throws away.
Plastic, glass, sheet metal, discarded electronics and tools –
in Happyland, all objects are collected, broken down, bundled,
and sold by weight. It’s less a means of making a living than it is
a means of survival.
Christian Obregon, 11, makes most of his collections at
Pritil Public Market, just over a kilometre from his home in
Happyland’s GK Compound. The walk takes him about half an
hour. The crossing of the chaotic freeway Radial Road 10 worries
his mother, Lovely, 31, terribly. For his daily salvage efforts,
Christian manages to bring in about 30 pesos (60 US cents).
He gives half of his takings to his mother, and keeps the rest
for himself.
Flooding due to the increasingly common typhoons is also
a problem in Happyland, says Lovely. Sometimes, it doesn’t
even take a storm for the waters to rise. “When the typhoon
comes, we relocate to the barangay [community] hall. Our
houses get flooded, sometimes when there isn’t even a storm.
The garbage stops the water from flowing.”
The trash is a problem, Lovely agrees, but she doesn’t see
things changing anytime soon. “I would love it if it were cleaned
up,” she says, shrugging, “but the people here are hardheaded.
If you tell them to stop throwing the garbage out, they would
just get angry.” The build-up of trash leading to an increase in
the severity of floods during the increasingly intense typhoon
season isn’t the only climate change-related hazard the people
of Happyland have been left to deal with.
Nearby, the Rock Energy International Corporation has a
stockpile facility wherein some 10,000 metric tons of coal are
stored. In January 2016, the company was reportedly told to shutThis constant rebuilding – picking up the pieces and putting
them back together again, in the most literal sense –
may soon end. The government has announced plans to
relocate 200 families from the area surrounding the bridge to
Bulacan, a province to the north in the Central Luzon region.
At the time of writing, this move was slated to begin after
Christmas 2016. The removal comes in the wake of construction
plans to build a new pumping station near the bridge.
In Bulacan, the families will have new houses, running
water, and electricity. They will no longer be at the mercy of the
typhoon season’s constant floods. They will no longer live just
a few feet above a river teeming with waste.
Although they are happy to move to a place they have not
yet seen, in a province they have been told is beautiful, the boys
say that they will miss living on the Capulong Bridge.
“I’m sad to be leaving h e r e ,” says Nilo. “I’ll miss the river.
It’s where we take a bath and s w i m .”
on assignment