Unheard issues in the Community of Santa Maria, Bulacan

Issues are everywhere and some of it remains unresolved up to this day and many issues are tried to raise but no one takes action for it.

Table 1: The demographic profile of the respondents (Table) In this table, it shows the demographic profile of the respondents of Santa Maria, Bulacan. They were divided into 2 groups which resulted in 4 male and 4 female respondents. 7 out of 8 respondents are aged between 20 - 27 and the other one is in the age of 66. 2 of them are students while the others are employees and some of them are currently handling a business and a freelancer.

Table 2. Community issue(s) that respondents wants to be address

Based on a 22-year-old female respondent, the issues that she wants to address is the health and work system. While the second (2nd) respondent wants to raise the issue about the funds of our local government. The third (3rd) respondent was concerned about poverty and for the fourth (4th) female respondent would like to address the issue about early pregnancy.

The fifth (5th) respondent was concerned about child abuse, child neglect and early pregnancy. While the sixth (6th) respondent wants to raise the Small and medium enterprise, Loss of Job, quality of education, Transparency in election and Accessible unhealthy social media sites for the youth. The seventh (7th) respondent was concerned about politics including proliferation and dominance of political dynasties, abuse of the party list system, politicians changing parties before and after election to suit their personal interest, and refusal of candidates to disclose their statement of assets and liabilities (SALN).

Lastly, the eight (8th) respondent wants to raise a concern about the Proper Garbage Disposal.

There are a lot of issues that want to be addressed by different people living in the Santa Maria community. One of them was the Work and Health system. From the very start to now, work is one of the main problems in our society. In today's years, only few people can enter or pass a job only if they have a degree. Which leads to some Filipinos chooses to sacrificed themselves in other countries to get a job and high salaries. Based on my first respondent "Nagiging mindset na ng mga tao satin na mag gaganda ang buhay sa ibang bansa. Kaya mas pinipili nilang mawalay sa pamilya para sa magandang kinabukasan ng mga ito. Kung marami lamang na mga lokal na trabaho hindi na nila kailangan magsakripisyo para lamang mabigyan ng magandang buhay ang pamilya." In Health System, not everyone has a privilege. Based on the experience of respondent number 1, she said that "we experience some of this mismo sa aming lugar. Na kailangan muna may pera ka bago ka tanggapin sa ospital. Last time kailangan operahan ang papa ko dahil delikado pala ang "pigsang dapa" nila kung tawagin kung ito ay napabayaan maaari daw itong ikamatay. Hindi kami maasikaso sa pampublikong ospital sa bayan namin dahil sa dami ng tao kaya lumipat kami sa pribadong ospital malapit dito ngunit kailangan muna naming mag bayad ng kung ano ano bago tanggapin at asikasuhin ang papa ko." This is one of the proofs that not everyone has a privilege and rights to do what's best for themselves, for their family and for its community. But how about those people who are part of poverty? Everyone is struggling especially when the pandemic started. Some are experiencing mental health problems because of too much spending on social media, having no friends to talk to, having family problems, too much stress of students on virtual classes, the same as the work from home employees. And some people have no food to eat. Have no water to drink. A home to stay. Some are experiencing poverty. Not everyone has work, not everyone has a degree, not everyone will be given a chance to work in an industry if they're not graduate. And the saddest thing aside from experiencing poverty are the issues about early pregnancy. Many teenagers are experiencing these days and this wasn't a joke. It is a serious matter that everyone needs to be aware of. Early pregnancy may affect not only the teenagers but also their parents who will carry their responsibilities when they're not able enough to handle a family. This is one of the issues that was raised by one of my 25-year-old male respondent from my survey. According to him, "Early pregnancy is the reason or cause of child abuse and neglect for me, which is another problem or a community problem that needs to be solved. Most teenagers face this issue because they are not yet ready for responsibilities and cannot afford the costs associated with having a child. With that, they are unable to meet the needs of those children. A broken family or drug addiction could also be the root causes of this community problem." This issue will have a huge impact on the kid's mind, growth, and the way they live and even our community. Too much of a growing population can really affect you and every single person in this world. Based on PhilAtlas, the total population of Santa Maria, Bulacan is around 289,820 in 2020. The website also shows that the second to the highest population is the baranggay of Cay Pombo while Pulong Buhangin got the highest population of 36, 893, where 7 out of 8 of my correspondents on my survey lived. If the population grows because of early pregnancy, what will happen in the community? Conclusion:

This blog proves that there are still a lot of unheard issues and problems in the community of Santa Maria, Bulacan, from different people and different perspectives of the citizens. Poverty can have an impact on one's life from building a family, privilege to check in hospitals, child neglect, and the like. Poor Governance also can really affect how a community works. And if the leader doesn't perform his job well and doesn't take action in every issue, nothing will happen. Issues will remain issues. Some unheard issues are about proliferation and dominance of political dynasties, abuse of the party list system, politicians changing parties before and after election to suit their personal interest, and refusal of candidates to disclose their statement of assets and liabilities. And a problem about proper garbage disposal. Source: “Santa Maria, Province of Bulacan.” PhilAtlas, https://www.philatlas.com/luzon/r03/bulacan/santa-maria.html.