Culion - Frank Steinbach Fotografie

Culion
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Culion – Island of leprosy, island of the living
With a little luck the visitor will meet Claire Cabico. A small energetic lady, that observes the world through thick spectacles. Every day
she strolls around – with an umbrella under her arm. She was born
12. November 1931. Sometimes she speaks Tagalog, the most common language on the Philippines, sometimes she speaks English.
Very good English. Claire suffers from kidney stones and a chronic
infection of her urinary tract. She refuses medication. Claire slowly
looses her eyesight and is not afraid of dying. Her world: A sunny
island on the Philippines, a small, assessable village, Culion town,
with 5.000 inhabitants, a nursery with approximately 100 lepers.
Claire Cabico is one of them.
“Culion”: Yet the name of the island in the South China Sea, 11° 53´
North, 120° 1´ East, 150 square miles large, approximately 18.000
inhabitants, still triggers horror amongst Philippines: “Culion? There is still leprosy, you can’t go there!” is the common reaction if
one asks for travel directions. The people from the Philippines fear
Text: Stefan Blank
Photos: Frank Steinbach
that the tourist might decide on the wrong holiday location, on an
island with leprosy, an island of the living dead. But Culion could
be the paradise. Or might become it again. In former times many
thousand people suffered here – in the largest leprosy colony in the
world. Due to an order of the American occupation army and the
civil government in 1906, leprosy patients have been hunted like
animals, caught, deported and detained on Culion island. In 1987
the horrific episode was over. Thanks to modern medication, the
Multi-Drug-Therapy (MDT), leprosy is considered curable. Nowadays about 20.000 people live on Culion, former leprosy patients
and their relatives and also new migrants. Vivid history everywhere,
even in the architecture. There are dream like beaches, there are
diving sites and there is the little town of Culion. The red wall of the
big church shows the Greek huge letters for „Alpha“ and „Omega“.
The two letters tower above the harbour, clearly visible – two letters
defining the beginning and the end. It was certain: One came ashore here, would also find its end here.
Yet the island, may, shall be visited. Because it is waiting on its
touristy awakening, first investments are pending. Until then the
time-consuming journey is worth the effort to this destination far
apart the established shipping routes, 200 nautical miles south of
Manila. Simply because of the encounter with leprosy damaged
Claire Cabico an her friends: Ex-mayor and teacher Hilarion Guia,
the highly gifted musician Manuel Capao, “Mummy Rose” Rosalia
Nieves and her grandson Pastor Herme, the carpenter Marcelino
Pagaduan, the married couple Bulagao, Antonio Mariano, proud
owner of a domino game, Esther Pajas and Arturo Cunanan, the
leading physician on-site. Not to forget: The cemetery of Culion
town. No, two cemeteries.
To get out of Hilarion Guia’s way is almost impossible. He is well
in his 60s, has a crippled right hand and is an important man, maybe the most important man in the village. Because on 12 February
1992 president Corazon Aquino signed the “Republic Act No 7193”
and Culion managed to leap from a central governed colony to an
autonomous municipality. A first mayor was needed. Hilarion Guia
was prepared to take over. And he was elected on 8 May 1995. A
new teacher for the private local school “Loyola College of Culion”
was needed, Hilarion Guia was prepared. Today he is looking after
more than 50 pupils and students. Despite he has reached pension
age already. Yet Guia has a mission: As the only surviving member
of his family – from 6 brothers and sisters only he survived leprosy he is still politically active. On a daily basis he involves in the “IDEA”
society to end stigmatization of leprosy. IDEA stands for: “International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement”. Founded in 1994, IDEA is the first international aid group
of people, that have been personally effected by leprosy. Today it
has about 20.000 members in 30 countries and five continents.
For Guia, healthy children are the hope of the island. And on Culion
island there is no stigmatization any more, he says. Only when the
young people leave the island, prejudice comes back again. There is
still much to be done, but Hilarion Guia is prepared.
Always prepared for a lengthily stroll is Claire Cabico. That helps
against the loneliness. For more than 50 she suffers from leprosy. Her parents died early, Cabico was brought up by nuns. There
she was educated, there she got a school education. A man and a
family, that would have been it, but her wish remained unfulfilled.
Nowadays she strolls through the alleys, up the stairs, down the
stairs and all her routes lead her sometime to the cemetery: uphill,
downhill, always towards tranquillity. And when the tranquillity is
melodically interrupted, maybe because of an affectionate harmonica or melancholic singing, then Manuel Capao in the leprosy ward,
the „Yangco Ward“, is at work. The Yangco Ward is a part of Culion
town hospital and the ward for leper patients.
Manuel Capao likes to laugh, a toothless laugh, an intensive laugh.
Except when he is sad. But then notes and tones help him. Capao
lives for his music and through his music. For the harmonica, the
guitar, the drum and the singing. Music makes him happy again,
he says. Capao is severely disabled through leprosy. His hands are
mutilated, he had a below-knee-amputation and several organs are
heavily damaged. He wants more tourists on the island to become
a bigger audience for his art, for his „serenades“. He lives on Culion
since 1951. He is in his mid-seventies, a craftsman by profession.
His working capital is a small toolbox, from which he occasionally
lends tools to the craftsmen of the hospital, when they lack the needed tools. Although he has almost no fingers left, he is still able to
picks up nails that fell down. That makes him proud.
The sun is blazing down, it is hot and very humid in Culion town.
The mid day wind presses hot, damp air down on the village. Now
the old catholic church is shelter in the midday blaze. Here one is
sheltered from the humidity and the sun, even if the sky is overcast.
Here one finds shadow, here there is relief and every Sunday there
is a church service. All parishioners, celebrating their birthdays in
the following week, will be mentioned by name. They stand up and
the assembled community applauses. Another year survived. Another year to look back at.
Oh yes, looking back. Rosalia Nieves, called „Mommy Rose“ can
look back, but not always willingly. She looks back on an extremely
eventful life with a thrilling life story. At the age of 16, she was diagnosed leprosy. That happened in 1938. Rosalia was intelligent,
pretty and grew up in a rich, influential family. Her future looked
bright. That is until she had a medical check up - nothing special.
When she was singled out afterwards, she thought, she would get
an offer for a scholarship or should compete in a beauty contest.
Yet it was leprosy. Her family threw in its weight and Rosalia Nieves
was not deported to Culion immediately. Back then Culion was already infamous as the „Island of the living dead“, nobody went here
voluntarily. Nieves was one of the more fortunate leprosy patients
and could stay in the hospital, separated from other patients. But
that was not sufficient for her. In the confusion of the outbreak of
World War II, she escaped out of the hospital and cut her own way.
She married a Phillippine resistance fighter and had children with
him. The children where born healthy and stayed in health. After
the death of her husband, Nieves went voluntarily into the Tala leper ward in the province of Rizal on the main island Luzon. There
she married a carpenter, also a leper patient and gave birth to a
further daughter. But the girl was taken away from her and put into
a children’s ward. In 1962 her second husband died and she voluntarily went into another leper ward – to Culion. But no sign of resignation: Rosalia got involved into the work of the local council and
chaired the local council for three terms from 1966 onwards. Now
married for the third time, political work was not enough for her:
To improve her assigned food ration, she was lending money for a
small interest to other patients and healthy people. A formula for
success and over the years Rosalia Nieves just became „Mummy
Rose“, a caring mother. She was celebrating her 85th birthday on 8
October 2007, she could have been positive about the applause of
the assembled congregation.
An applause, Pastor Herme still needs to work for. He is the clever
grandson of Mommy Rose. And „Pastor“, as he swiftly established
his own church: The „Spring-of-the-living-water“-church. He celebrates the Sunday mass in the basement of his residential premises.
His active entourage counts about 50 families, he says. His father
Ronaldo virtually exemplified this through his own life. Ronaldo
was leading the „Door-of-Faith-Church“, which – again - was established by himself. In 1987, without hesitation, Herme renamed
the church of his father and took over the followers. His promises
of salvation are equally vague as his political ambitions, which are
rather derided by Claire Cabico and her friends.
No, not just smiling. Claire Cabico meets loud laughing people in
the middle of the village, in front of a green house. Antonio Mariano
sr. has unpacked his domino game - wearing no shirt, he gets down
to business. He was born in Culion, employed as a policeman by
the local sanatorium and caught leprosy. His wife Lydia comes from
Caloocan City in Manila. Suffering from leprosy, she came to Culion
and quickly met Antonio, since both had the same characteristic
of the disease. He became a policeman, she worked in the kitchen
of the sanatorium, they spent a lot of time together – to this day.
Their whole pride and joy are their three children Antonio Marino
jr., Rolando and Bernard Tristan. All three of them have jobs and are
married. No reason to be unhappy so. And when Antonio Mariano
sr. off and on succeeds with an entirely outstanding domino move,
then he roars with laughter. His friends, lepers as well as healthy
people, laugh together with him.
Courageous widows, revolutions and megalomaniac dictators
came and went again since the foundation of the leper colony. Culion remained. Made-up stories seem believable today, the genuine
truth seems fantastic. But the story of the leper island is believable
and true: In spring 1906, the first Jesuits came to Culion. Their task
quickly became devotion: They looked after the sick people until
the breakup of the leper colony. And the sick people came. 370 patients from Cebu where taken up 27 May 1906, in the first year of
existence number rose to 802. With the declaration of the „Republic Act No. 1711“ on 2 September 1907, the health minister and
his civil servants gained extensive authorities to get a grasp on the
raging leprosy on the Philippines. In short: Locate, isolate, remove
and lock away. Two to three times a month, the coastguard brought
boats with lepers to Culion. In 1931, just in time for the 25th anniversary of the leprosy colony, 16.138 people lived here. Culion was
the largest leprosy colony in the world then.
Esther Pajas was one who was chased through the whole country
and shipped to Culion. She was eight years old when the lorry took
her away from home. Yet she never lost her courage to face life. To
keep that unchanged, she knows that Dr. Arturo Cunanan is on her
side. He is the leading physician on site and an accredited expert
for leprosy treatment known all over the world. As a child, Cunanan was examined every six months himself. The whole population of the Philippines was examined. That’s how big was the fear
of leprosy was then. Most notably the American occupying forces,
exercising power since the capitulation of Manila in 1898, feared
the illness. An estimated 4.000 people on the Philippines suffered
from leprosy then, with an upward trend. But Arturo Cunanan did
not fear the examinations. He was rather curios and developed the
will to help. He became a doctor, made the fight against leprosy its
life-task and was significantly participating in the investigation and
distribution of the MDT, when it came on the market in the 1980th.
Leprosy was suddenly curable. The people of Culion and above all
the residents of the leper ward are grateful day-to-day. They show it
as they carry on with life and do not loose their courage to face life.
So does Esther Pajas – even in misery and hardship.
Particular during the Japanese occupation during World War II, misery and hardship was ruling on Culion. The Japanese did not care
for the leprosy patients and wanted to starve out the island. They
did not succeed, but the years where lost years. At the same time,
medicine improved, slowly but steadily: The dispense of „Sulfone“,
an antibiotic active drug against leprosy, took terrific effect quickly,
from 1964 onwards the rules and regulations for the leprosy colony
were eased. Former leprosy patients were released and were allowed to settle on the island. They started families and were arranging themselves for a self-determined life after leprosy.
To live self-determined and independent is important for Claire Cabico. Even though she is alone, she is making the best out of her
life in the community daily. And as a part of her daily routine she
visits Marcelino Pagaduan. There is always something going on in
his workshop. Pagaduan is a self-employed carpenter. Besides his
work, he and his wife Eida devotedly look after their children and
grandchildren. They are glad about every visit of Claire Cabico. The
sons of Pagaduan partly contribute in the workshop. Marcelino Pagaduan is an important member of the Culion community, as he is
economically independent, quite successful and sells his bricolage
in many parts of the Philippines and overseas.
Economical success and independence are a big topic on Culion.
No matter of leprosy. And people will work hard for it. For example
Cidro and Merely Bulagao: They met each other in another leprosy
colony and fell in love. A love with a history: When Merely was dia-
gnosed leprosy, her former husband took both children away from
her and prevented any contact between Merely and her children
since then – until today. No reason to give up. When Cidro and Merely Bulagao heard, that lepers could live an independent and selfcontained life on Culion, they did not have second thoughts. With
the whole kit and caboodle they relocated and bought a piece of
land. Today they manage two houses. One house has an attached
kiosk, which is run by Merely. Although Cidro would be entitled to
live in the ward, due to his severe physical damages through leprosy, he decided against it. Rightly, as both of them point out. Cidro
is technically extremely skilled and has built both houses almost
completely by himself.
When time permits, he goes fishing. His equipment - a set of carved, wooden diving goggles, made of window glass and without
rubber sealing – Cidro also made by himself. The goggles work well
and he is widely known as a very skilled „hunter“. Even without having their own children, it is always busy at the Bulagaos house: The
children form the neighbours cavort all the time on their premises
in a welcoming, family atmosphere. Even a monkey, a dog and cats
are amongst the permanent guests.
Claire Cabicos stroll slowly comes to an end. By now it really goes
towards tranquillity, up the final steps. A place, at which all guests
become permanent residents, leaps into view: The cemetery. There
are two cemeteries on Culion: The „Cemetery of Jardin“ is exclusively reserved for non-lepers. This graveyard is tidy, clean, structured. But Cabicos destination is the „Cemetery of Culion Property“.
It is used by lepers. But even non-lepers are buried here these days.
Because the cemetery growth uncontrolled, it is fringed by palm
trees and enjoys unrestricted views to the turquoise blue coloured
sea. From here Cabico looks down towards Culion town, on the story of Culion, on her town and her own story.
Sometime at the beginning of 1980th the break through came: The
„World Health Organisation“ discovered the „Multi Drug Therapy“ (MDT) and introduced it in 1987 on the Philippines, on Culion.
Thanks to MDT a dream came true for Culion: Leprosy was conquered. Only two leprosy patients lived in the „Culion Sanatorium“,
new cases have not been detected. The fight against leprosy has
taken from 1906 to 1999: Scientific research, new treatment and
the boldness of the people finally helped that Culion is until today
considered a success story fighting leprosy worldwide. It started
with the „Alpha“, „Omega“ is not yet reached.