Today’s generation, money is one of the most important things in the world. There’s a saying that money is the blood bank of the world, but do you know where the money made? It is unknown to the majority that the main component of the money comes from hemp (abaca), a kind of tree in the whole of Asia that is only can be seen in the Philippines.
In Sitio Banli that is one of the furthest site in Malapatag Saranggani Province in the Philippines that one of the major means of livelihood of the residences is by taking abaca (hemps). It’s not a joke traveling in the most isolated site in Saranggani. It almost four hours travel going there from the City of Saranggani. We purposely went off at night so as we arrived at dawn, a small community met our eyes.

Mountains in this area have been in the NPA conflict area for several years so we still have a few soldiers from the Philippine Army.It is so steep to climb in the mountain of Sitio Banli that’s why only few people are climbed up in this hidden jungle. a short time ago a tremendously heavy part of the mountain struck us. I do not know who and why these trees are cut off, but over a period of time when I climb the mountains I know it's a bad sight. Four hours later, a lot of houses we saw in the distance. The mountains surround the small Sitio of Banli which is one of the most poor place in the whole of Saranggani, although one of the most area that the sources of the substance of money came from, the abaca. We walked two hours to reach the remote community.


A woman holding a baby greeted me at Sitio Banli, her name was Inday, her son Marico was only one year old but his weight was just four months old. By the side of her, there’s a three-year-old  named Manny, in his cheek and size it was easy to think that she was healthy, but this is not the first time I've seen this kind of body. I know this is not a common fat. It's been a year since I climbed the mountain of Datangnay in the Saraggani province, like Manny's face and the body of the children there, they were all sick of a kind of maltnutrition caused by lack of protein in the body, that’s the effect if you only eat sweet potato all the time. I did not make a mistake in my suspicion, it’s about going to twelve and Manny's dad was still tending to find lunch. Sweet potatoes are their meal every day, morning, noon, and until evening.
 Abaca farmer is the majority of Sitio Banli but because harvesting Abaca is seasonal, they only have money once a year.


The Abaca fiber is the strongest in the world. In All Asia in the Philippines only the Abaca tree is located. Only big Abaca trees can be used to get the fiber, and it should be carefully cut to get the skin. Because Abaca is one of the strongest fiber in the world, it is also used not only for straps and fabrics but also for paper and money that even if it gets wet it’s not easily tear, but it requires strong forces to recover each fiber of abaca. Forty pesos of Abaca's sales per kilogram, Abaca's three trees have to cut and process for a pound of fiber. Forty pesos per kilo is a big source of income if there are so many sources of fiber. At that time, thrice a  year they harvesting the Abaca. But all this changed through the millennium, that was the began to grow bare the mountains. The Abaca tree only grow most of the time in place near with water so it only grows near the river or in areas of shady and cold, when the mountains are blown up, when the trees are gone, the shady that Abaca trees need will be reduced. As I watched the glazed leaves of Abaca, returning to the memories the trees were consuming inexhaustible. So if before they were three times in a year that they were harvesting, now only once a year. One thousand pesos in a year which is eighty pesos per month. I thought of Manny and his brothers, what would cost or would you buy in eighty pesos just only in a month for the children of Tusan.

In the house of Mang Tusan, a bunch of Abaca is stored. It has been a year since its inception, one year when children are looking for sale in Abaca, one year they have been waiting for the opportunity to taste a dish and rice. But to sell Abaca it must be bring at the bottom of the mountain. Mang Tusan will be responsible for six hours of calvary just for all of his children.