DAGUPAN CITY – House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. played godfather to 20 Aeta couples who were married in civil and Christian wedding in remote sitio Mabato, barangay Paete in San Narciso, Zambales last Friday.
     

The place is a small Aeta settlement on the slope of Mt. Pinatubo, populated by more or less 50 families, some 20 kilometers away from the town proper of San Narciso.
    

The people, about four feet to four feet and a half in height, with kinky hair and dark skinned, subsist by hunting boar and deer in the forest and planting camote (sweet potato).  
   

The couples, some of them living as husbands and wives for many years without the benefit of wedding, were married by San Narciso Mayor William Lim and a preacher from the Evangelical Church in Zambales.
  

“That is only my second time to be the godfather in a mass wedding. The first time was among the Lumad tribe in Mindanao”, de Venecia confided.
 

Speaker de Venecia was invited to play godfather by Mrs. Marilyn Magsaysay, wife of Zambales Gov. Vicente Magsaysay, who was also among the sponsors.
 

The wedding, which took place only few days before Valentine’s Day, was arranged by Mrs. Neneng  Sibug, widow of a late congressman who once represented the cultural minorities.
  

De Venecia and party flew in to the place by chopper that took off from his home in Dagupan City at 10:00 a.m. Before reaching the place, the chopper made a brief stop at Clark, then at Subic for refueling.
  

As ‘ninong’, de Venecia brought with him several cartons of toiletries, beauty kits, red wine, rhum and others as his gifts to his godsons and god daughters.
    

Touched by the pitiful condition of the place, de Venecia vowed to build a hollow blocks factory and rattan factory to provide livelihood to the community and boost their income.
    

 “They can make use of lahar deposited at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo and rattan abundantly growing in the area,” he told newsmen the next day in Dagupan City.   
          

Funding for the hollow blocks factory and rattan factory is now being computed, de Venecia said.
        

He expressed optimism that these factories could turn the impoverished Aeta’s lives better in a few months.  
         

Noting that the one-room school building in sitio Mabato is badly dilapidated, he immediately requested Francis Chua, president of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, to a donate two-room school building in the area.
           

De Venecia said the present school building, that accommodates 46 Grade I pupils with only one teacher, has a grass roofing and no wall at all.
           

The Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce promised to deliver the materials for the school building in two weeks, he said, adding that as soon as the school building is finished, he’d return to the place to inaugurate it. This is in time for the next school year, where a Grade II class will soon be opened, he added.
           

Aside from this, de Venecia also vowed to build a plaza in the small Aeta community as his gift to the people, most especially to his godsons and goddaughters.
           

After the wedding, de Venecia and other guests were treated to lunch, consisting of fresh water tilapia, mud fish, ‘pinakbet’ and ‘camote’.

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