Honoring the 'bangus'.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Rina Jimenez David

I PAID a brief visit to Dagupan last Thursday, accepting an invitation to be a judge at the "Gilon Gilon 2004," a street dancing competition in which Dagupan's 31 barangays compete with each other in staging the best interpretation of the bangus harvest, which is what "gilon gilon" means. The street dancing competition is spearheaded by the Dagupan "Bangus" Jaycees and is part of the annual Bangus Festival.

Before proceeding to the Astrodome, I met with the members of the Dagupan/Pangasinan chapter of Abanse! Pinay, headed by Lina Tan, executive director of the Liwawa ed Asinan Foundation (Leaf), an NGO and licensed welfare agency of the DSWD.

"Liwawa ed Asinan" means "light in the salt beds," salt being one of Pangasinan's best-known products (aside from bangus) from which the province's name is derived. And indeed Leaf brings light to the poor of Pangasinan, addressing the most basic needs of communities, especially of young girls.

One of Leaf's main projects is called "Itaw" (the Pangasinan word for "little girl"), which identifies girls from poor families who show promise but whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. Without timely intervention, these girls could be doomed to early motherhood, perpetuating a cycle of illiteracy and poverty for their own daughters.

Worse, the girls could very well end up in prostitution and falling prey to pimps and traffickers, contributing to the local sex industry that, says Tan, has already been identified as one of the more alarming social problems arising from Dagupan's rapid development.