I don't usually have stories to tell when I do field works because my fields usually revolved around smirking illegal operators, snobby local officials and a feisty and hot-headed version of myself. I hate narrating my escapades because some of it really pissed me off. But one field activity stand out from the rest. This was the time when I first visited an almost hard to reached barangay in Upper Calauag.
So I was conducting a site inspection on Quezon Canal if it's suitable for dredging. I don't want to give a lot of information about this one but I am really confused about the involvement of the singer who wanted a seat on the Senate and the unbecoming interest of that white mansion in Pasig River with this project. Anyway, more of that later (if I ever found out why they are so interested with the that man-made canal).
Anyway, the story I wanted to share was told when we were having lunch with the local officials in the area. They shared the stories of a certain "Katang", "Ailyn" and "Winnie". Katang was a local legend in that area because he is sort of having a "voluntary exile". Ailyn is a local who is considered to be mad and Winnie was remembered as the product of a failing system of the Social Welfare.
Katang: The Lone Man in an Island
He is not a Biog, a local term for the Indigenous People on this area, he is just like that. No one really knows if he wanted a solitary lifestyle. He and his family are now residing on an island unprotected by mangroves and is very susceptible to flooding due to the tides. They are fishmongers. He and his multitudes of male children fish during the end of the day. The father just stayed in the banca while his unclothed little children swam dangerously with the nets, doing the nasty bit for their father.
What makes this story interesting? They remembered a girl fathered by Katang. She was once a normal kid with pretty black hair who walked with her mother while they sell the fishes her siblings caught. She was last seen half-witted and very confused. Then she just disappeared.
Apparently, she was raped by her father, thrown in the ocean while being tied with a huge rock.
Ailyn: The Naked Lady
She was the fright of the little, quiet town. She walks around naked most of the time. No relative of her seems to care. When she sees man on the street, she would lash out and attack them. Apparently, she hated men.
What makes this story interesting? She is now in her second trimester. Who the father was is a mystery no one really knows. Her relatives, an ageing mother and siblings, don't really care about her. Her previous husband she had left for another moved away from the town a long time ago. She is all alone, broken and no real care in the world with a child coming on the way. What she would do to the poor thing, no one really knows.
Winnie: The Slave
She was once a normal girl from a neighboring town. No one really knows how she got from there to here or who she has back then in town. No one knows if she's married or not. Then she was seen walking around, out of her mind. Many people helped her. She even has bouts of normalcy sometimes. But she always come back to the center, broken and mad. Her sad life ended when she was hit by a vehicle on one of her bouts of madness.
What makes this story interesting? She has a husband. The guy only cared about her when he was trying to claim some money from the incident. A sister also tried to lay claim and fight for the money. She was also supposedly raped time and time again that's why the bouts of madness occurred back then.