Two for the long, rough road.

BY LILA R SHAHANI AND SYLVIA L MAYUGA, RAPPLER.com
February 24, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – Had they lived in postwar Manila when slums began their long and slow proliferation in ruins and empty lots, Teodosia ‘Teody’ Barquio-Gacer, 56, and Edwin Nakpil, 49, would have been nameless squatters.

Half a century later, priests, engineers, and thesis-writing students flock to learn from them. Teody and Edwin’s unique public service in a Quezon City community organization sheds light on why development agencies have now come to replace the name “squatter” with “informal settler.”

Teody, the youngest of a farmer and midwife’s 15 children, was high school valedictorian and track-and-field athlete from Southern Leyte. She worked as a maid to finish high school, and dreamed of college while she joined her mother and sisters in a squatter’s warren in Paco after their father died. She was a big help — taking in laundry, cleaning house for a day’s wage, and selling street-corner snacks for family survival.

When their mother fell ill, she pined for work as a security guard to help pay for her treatment. After all, she had been 1st Lieutenant in Citizen’s Army Training in high school, and knew how to handle an Armalite. At 4’11, she looked a mere 12 at age 19, however. Gutsiness would have to do the rest.

Read full article @ www.rappler.com