Reggie Mapa’s New Year wish is to find more treasures in the
trash collected in the morning, and to sell at least one bag of charcoal from
the wood he finds at the rubbish dump.
Mapa, 32, was sifting through one of Manila’s biggest rubbish
dumps from before dawn on New Year’s Day, scavenging through the trash for
anything he could sell or make into charcoal, which he can sell at P220 a sack.
"There are no guarantees I’ll be able to sell the charcoal
because there are so many rivals now," he said at the weekend, saying he still
had several sacks left over from Christmas.
Scores of other people also scavenge in the dump at suburban
Sitio Damayan, which receives tons of city waste each day.
They live on the dump itself, in crude shacks made of
recycled wood, plastic and aluminum sheets.
For several years, Mapa said, he lived and worked in Smokey
Mountain, the infamous Manila dump which was the largest in Asia. When it was
closed down, he had to move elsewhere.
A regular job was not an option, he said.
"It is difficult to look for a job outside because they
require a lot of papers and documents," said Mapa, whose half-naked body was
covered in dirt and soot.
"It is better here, even if it’s filthy, we have the means to
buy food."
As Mapa spoke, small children ran barefoot in the rotting
garbage, some of them naked, faces and bodies covered with dirt.
Many scavengers, wearing Santa Claus hats they had found in
the dump, lined up in front of a rubbish truck, desperate to search it before it
dumped its load on the rubbish heap.
The Philippine economy has had one of its most successful
years in the past two decades in 2007. Economic growth is projected to top 7
percent, the level at which economists agree poverty begins to be significantly
reduced.
But it has one of the world’s fastest growing populations.
Already at 89 million, it is set to swell to 142 million by 2040.
Around 46 percent of Filipinos live on less than P50 a day.
About 14 percent live on P40 a day.
Shiena de la Cruz, another resident at the Sitio Damayan
dump, said she and her husband were lucky to make P1,000 in a week from selling
plastic, aluminum cans and metals to local firms.
"Sometimes you can be lucky," De la Cruz said, pointing to a
silver necklace and four silver earrings she said she had found in the dump.
"Some people find gold, some even cellular phones."
"Here, even if you did not go to school, you won’t go hungry." –
Reuters
