Anabella Apostol
On the 29th of June, I (Analyn) together with my colleague Phadelyn, set out on the bus to Santa Catalina, a coastal town in the province of Negros Oriental. Even with the scorching heat of the sun, the journey was so refreshing. It was a joy seeing grasses, trees and fields now green, as several months before all had looked withered and dead due to the drought. Our first destination was barangay Alangilan, to meet our four banana traders to give them their recently approved loans. We stayed for 45 minutes with the traders before proceeding to the roadside to catch another bus to Barangay Obat, our final destination of the day. We got off the bus in the purok of Pinangimnan and took a habal-habal (motorcycle taxi) to the home of Madonna, our local field worker, who was waiting outside her native home. Also there, were the 10 loan applicants whom I would be interviewing and they greeted us warmly. I decided to split them up into two groups and do two interviews of 5 applicants to speed things up.
One of new the applicants was fifty-five year old Anabella Apostol. She and her husband Benedicto (58) have five children aged 15 to 25 years old. Anabella is a barangay councillor earning a salary of 10,000 pesos (€160) a month. Benedicto, on the other hand, is a sugarcane farm labourer earning a monthly average income of 4,000 pesos (€63). Once a year, the couple derives an income from their one-hectare sugarcane field. In their most recent harvest in February, they made a net income of 60,000 pesos (€950). However, most of the income went to paying debts incurred when the family was beset by tragedies last year. In April 2023, Benedicto woke up one day with blurred vision in his left eye. He had a checkup and a blood clot was discovered behind the cornea. Benedicto recalls that months before he had hit his eye with a stick resulting in redness but he did not think of having it checked. Tragically, he lost the sight in his left eye. An even greater tragedy took place in October 2023 when the couple’s second son Christon, 17 years old at the time, died from electrocution. Christon was attending a friend’s birthday party and accidentally held a live wire when he tried to connect it to a sound system; he was pronounced dead on arrival when rushed to the hospital.
Anabella has used up all her savings which is why she is applying for a loan from the PSHF. The loan will be used to buy 10 sacks of fertiliser and to pay the two labourers who will help with weeding and the application of the fertiliser. Happily, Benedicto can still help on the farm as his right eye is functioning. The income of the farm is most significant for the family as Christine Joy, their eldest child (23) has just graduated from her BS Criminology course and plans to enrol for a review class to prepare for the licensure examination in March 2025. Also, Cristopher (18) will be in college next year and he also wants to study Criminology. The youngest, Cris John, is in grade 10 in high school. It has been a pleasure interviewing and getting to know Anabella and the other loan applicants today. I wish them all every success with their sugarcane farming.
Anabella and Benedicto with their son Christopher
