Turning the tide: Teacher Randy Halasan transforms a tribal community

When novice teacher Randy Halasan first arrived at Pegalongan Elementary School, located in one of the remotest villages in the mountainous hinterland of Davao Del Sur, the first thought that came to his mind was to seek a reassignment the first chance he could get.

With no electricity, no cellphone signal, and only primitive amenities, the village was virtually cut off from the outside world, and Halasan thought he could never survive such a place.

Seven years later, Halasan, 31, is now the head of the school he once thought of abandoning, happily living among the indigenous Matigsalug tribe as if he were one of them.

River crossing

In an interview with Sandra Aguinaldo for the GMA documentary program “I-Witness” aired in December 2013, Halasan recounted that there was a time when he almost drowned while crossing a raging river on the way to the school.

It takes Halasan seven hours each week to reach Pegalongan Elementary School from his family's home in Davao City: two hours by bus, an hour by habal-habal over 10 kilometers of extremely rough roads, and four hours of trekking Mt. Bangkilan and crossing two rivers – the thigh-deep Sinod River and the chest-deep Davao River. Halasan stays in a makeshift house in Sitio Pegalongan during weekdays.

When Halasan first arrived in Pegalongan in 2007, he was one of only two teachers in a two-room schoolhouse, teaching multi-grade classes between Grades 1 and 6. But with no teaching experience, he decided to take the job, thinking that he could asked for a reassignment after a couple of months.

But as days went by, Halasan, who was used to living in the city, was moved by his students' strong determination to learn, walking miles and crossing the rivers just to get to school, and often falling asleep in class due to fatigue and hunger. Living in Pegalongan, Halasan also witnessed how powerful outsiders would sometimes encroach on tribesmen's ancestral land.

He became engulfed with a deep sense of duty to improve the lives of Matigsalug tribe. He has turned down offers for reassignment and some weekends did not go home to the city, opting instead to stay in Pegalongan to perform other works outside his duties at the school, such as teaching the tribesmen about farming.



Impact on the community

Assuming the position of head teacher in 2010, Halasan proactively lobbied higher authorities for a bigger budget to expand the elementary school—and got it. What was once a two-room, two-teacher schoolhouse is now a permanent school with nine rooms, eight teachers, and 210 students.

Through his representation, a cultural-minority high school has been established, with Halasan as teacher-in-charge. Now, Halasan’s youthful graduates are helping their elders protect the tribe's future and legal rights to ancestral domain.



Convinced that education is key to the Matigsalug’s survival in a changing world, Halasan has convinced parents to keep their children in school, discouraged the customary practices of early and arranged marriages, and promoted values of self-help and equality in the community.

Recognizing that poverty is the community’s fundamental problem, Halasan has also envisioned a food-sufficient community by encouraging the tribesmen to practice a systematic way of farming. With seeds donated by his fellow teachers, Halasan encouraged the villagers to plant fruit-bearing trees and vegetables rather than just relying on root crops.

“If I only focus on education, nothing will happen; the children will continue to go hungry,” he said.

Working with the Pegalongan Farmers Association, Halasan accessed assistance from private organizations and government agencies. Prodded and encouraged by his leadership, Pegalongan farmers now have a collectively owned rice and corn mill, a seed bank, a cattle dispersal project, and horses for transporting their farm products.

The village is also now participating in a government forest rehabilitation program that is expected to have a hundred forested hectares this year, with the Matigsalug tribesmen of Pegalongan as stewards and beneficiaries.

According to oral tradition, the word Pegalongan means "the place from which the light shines." Because of one highly motivated civil servant such as Halasan, the village has become truly what its name suggests.

“No one got rich out of teaching; it’s your legacy that matters,” he said. — Elizabeth Marcelo/BM, GMA News

On August 31, Halasan will formally be recognized at the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards together with four other individuals from other Asian countries and a foundation based in Pakistan.

“The board of trustees recognizes his purposeful dedication in nurturing his Matigsalug students and their community to transform their lives through quality education and sustainable livelihoods, doing so in ways that respect their uniqueness and preserve their integrity as indigenous peoples in a modernizing Philippines,” the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said of Halasan in a press statement.

Established in 1957, the RMA is considered Asia’s highest honor. It is given every year to individuals or organizations in Asia who manifest selfless service and exemplary leadership.