So near yet so far away.

The island barangay of Busing is only two nautical miles or 3.7 kilometers away from the town of San Pascual in Burias island of Masbate province.

Out of the 22 barangays of San Pascual, it is described to be one of the impoverished.

The sea surrounding Busing is a gift and a curse.

While most of its 450 households rely on fishing, the sea connecting the town and Busing becomes an impediment. Rough waters during the monsoon season and typhoon postpone the travel of the passengers heading to town.

It is only during a good weather that the residents of Busing can continue their trip to buy food supplies, sell goods, attend school and transact with offices.

According to Alona Morales, a local official of San Pascual, lack of access is the reason why the residents are deprived of opportunities.

The people are barely accustomed with this kind of life. They are only left with risky boat rides that will circumnavigate the Busing Island for about 45 minutes to get them to San Pascual’s trading center.

However, going to sitio Kibrada was a shorter route that leads them to the nearest part of Busing to town.

Mercy Aguilar, a native of Busing, said that she seldom take this way because of the muddy path in rainy season though it cuts off her total travel time.

The boat trip from Kibrada only takes five minutes where she does not worry of the turbulent sea.

Aguilar, 40, she cannot even attend school back when she was in high school since they need to go to San Pascual proper to attend high school.

The first breed of habal-habal drivers in Busing Island
With the construction of 1.24 kilometers concrete pathway in 2014 from Busing’s poblacion, Danao, to Kibrada, habal-habal is a hit livelihood in Busing.

Habal-habal or even known as “skylab” in other regions, is a hired motorcycle to transport public commuters. In other places, it can even transport up to 10 passengers but in Busing, there is a maximum of two.

Most people would agree to Aguilar and would opt to take this route, now, given the ease of developed means of transportation adopting the same practice as what they have seen in town.

Juvy Mahinay, one of the pioneer habal-habal drivers in Busing, said that he used to catch and sell fish for a living but he admitted it was not a regular source of income.

He was grateful to the first-ever concrete pathway in their village.

With a little background in driving a motorcycle, he started to carry most people from Danao to Kibrada that easily connects his passengers to the five-minute boat journey to the town.

He discovered that this was better than catching fish.

He and his colleagues would collect a fee of P20.00 per passenger while P5.00 for the students. Mahinay said that transportation is fast and easy most specially to the Busing students going to San Pascual National High School.

On a daily basis, he earns from P100.00 to P300.00 that can support his seven-month old baby and wife.

According to Mahinay, his regular earning can now sustain their daily expenses at home.

“May pangbagas na kami kasabay pa ang pang-gasolina (We can buy rice and also fuel),”he added.

To date, there are more than 20 habal-habal drivers in Busing. According to Mahinay’s mother, Nimfa, this created an alternative source of income for some who doesn’t know about fishing.

“Su nagtitios dati na dae tatao magdagat, su mayo talaga aram na trabaho, naga habal-habal, ngunyan nakakdelhensiya sinda (the poor who do not know fishing and whose unemployed are now earning from habal-habal),”she added.

The community grant of P600, 000.00 from Payapa at Masaganag Pamayanan (PAMANA), a modality of Kalahi-CIDSS, and the Php250,000.00 as the counterpart from the local government unit (LGU) of San Pascual.

Stories of change
Nimfa would spend P300.00 to get a rented boat for a roundtrip ride from sitio Danao to San Pascual town, but now, she can get to the same destination for P20.00 in sitio Kibrada as her jump off point with daily boat trips. Similarly, students heading to San Pascual only pay P10.00 each.

The new set of Busing’s barangay officials elected in 2013 became more participative and supportive to programs and projects coming to them. The construction of their concrete pathway was one of the community projects in which they are grateful most.

Nimfa, also a barangay official, encouraged other officials and the residents to continuously support the development in their community through their direct participation.

“Dae kita pwedeng magtamad ta yaon jan nakasalalay ang improvement kang barangay ta (We cannot be lazy because progress depends on us),”she added.

Aguilar, on the other hand, said that it takes 30 minutes to travel on foot from Danao to Kibrada but with the habal-habal, it is only five minutes.

She is also a volunteer of the concreting of their pathway who was involved in the implementation.
As a housewife and high school graduate, she appreciated the new learnings from the trainings she attended in relation to the implementation of their community project.

“Nakaaram po (I learned),”she said.