  Sitio Pilien is an Aeta community remotely located about 10-miles from Barangay Maruglo, Capas, Tarlac. The only non-natural looking structure in the community is the deep well situated in the middle of the village which was installed a few years ago. The children here are playful although I noticed some possible protein malnourishment atypical with hair light-brown hair coloration of children who would normally have dark brown or black hair. They are inquisitive and active. There is no school here and I doubt the parents would want them to walk the 10-miles to the nearest barangay.
There are no medical facilities here so pretty much they are on their own should an emergency arise. Pilien has been around since WWII. The residents remember fighting the Japanese in the mountains before finally settling at Pilien. Previous to this there are no records since the Aetas tended to be nomadic prior to their need for permanent settlements. How they make a 'living. ' Many people (adults and children) collect lahar stones that are used in denim 'stone washing' techniques. Each bag which weighs maybe 20 kgs fetches a price of PHP 4. Illegal logging is also a source of income with many households collecting around PHP 300 per tree they chop down. There is also some farming however I think for most of the people it's for personal sustenance rather than an income source. Recently this community received PHP 27,000 for livelihood projects. This microloan will be paid back with interest (6% annually).
I'm curious to see how this ends up. In 1995, the local Aeta communities were involved in a PHP 2 million project funded by the U.N. which completley failed due to mismanagement issues: 1) Goats that were supposed to go to community members were instead given to only a few poeple. 2) Casavas that were planted and supposedly that were promised to be bought weren't. 
