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Philippine judiciary, midnight appointments, democratic institutions, corruption: Blessed coincidences for author of controversial book on judiciary

2010-06-02T01:08:00.000-07:00

Blessed coincidences for author of controversial book on judiciary

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: June 01, 2010

THE HEAVENS MUST BE smiling at Marites Dangilan Vitug, author of the controversial “Shadow of Doubt: Probing the Supreme Court.”

The must-read book for the next Philippine president and for every Filipino concerned about helping strengthen a crucial institution of democracy may have been rejected by its original publisher-distributor and a big bookstore chain. But even to Vitug’s surprise, the book has been selling briskly through more independent and smaller outlets.

“So there’s hope for would-be authors [whose work might be refused by established publishers and distributors because of controversial content],” says Vitug. “We can tap alternatives.”

Vitug was in Baguio City last week for a break. She also took time to promote her book before a meeting in the city of the members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).

After the original publisher-distributor backed out and a major bookstore chain refused to sell copies of the book, Newsbreak, an online media outfit in which Vitug is editor, finally published “Shadow of Doubt.”

But the refusal of established outfits to publish, distribute and sell the book all the more generated public curiosity about it.

Surprise

Vitug feared her book would be eclipsed by the election. “To my greatest surprise, the controversial midnight appointment of the new Chief Justice [despite the ban on midnight appointments] helped generate more interest about the book,” she says.

President Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointment of Renato Corona, who is perceived to be close to her, courted controversies and scathing editorials and commentaries from critics.

Midnight appointments and Corona were also among the subjects of “Shadow of Doubt,” thus making it as hot as the current headlines.

The 13 counts of libel that a Supreme Court associate justice filed against Vitug in March also helped promote the book. The libel cases filed by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. were based on an online report by Vitug about the propriety of the magistrate getting involved in partisan activities, with his son preparing to run for representative of Marinduque.

So it was not surprising that the first 3,000 copies printed when the book was launched in March were all sold out.

Newsbreak had to print another 5,000 copies, which were sold out after Vitug toured the cities of Cebu and Davao in April to promote the book.

Another 5,000 copies had been printed, which she would continue to promote through more “book tours,” says Vitug.

Lesson

One lesson, which Vitug says she learned from the experience in relation to her latest book (her fourth), was also devising and getting involved in marketing strategies such as promotional book tours.

After Baguio, Vitug says she and her publishers slated other book tours in Tuguegarao City in Cagayan and in Hong Kong, where she seeks to court the interest of overseas Filipino workers.

“Shadow of Doubt” no doubt is a book for presidents, students and citizens concerned about protecting and strengthening the judiciary, which is an important institution of democracy in modern societies.

This is why Vitug says, “I hope he (presumptive president-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III) gets to read the book.”

The book, she adds, is relevant to law students. She is grateful that the University of the Philippines Law Center has been encouraging students to read the book.
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Coopbanking: It’s not just counting the eggs laid by golden goose

2010-05-31T04:25:00.000-07:00

It’s not just counting the eggs laid by golden goose

By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon

Posted date: May 29, 2010

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Cooperative banking is not just about people organizing themselves and pooling their resources together so they have some money to borrow when the need arises.

“Cooperative banking must also be relevant and responsive to the current issues and concerns of our times, one of which is the challenge brought about by climate change,” says Gerry Lab-oyan, general manager of the Cooperative Bank of Benguet.

Established in 1990 with a paid-up share capital of P1.25 million, the first and only cooperative bank of Benguet now has P147,392,167 in net assets (both cash and property). The pioneers of the bank were first oriented by the Land Bank of the Philippines, which sponsored a seminar on how to develop and manage cooperatives.

For Lab-oyan, cooperative banking is not only about counting and accounting the eggs laid by the golden goose.

“It is also about ensuring that the goose remains healthy so it continues to lay those golden eggs,” he says.

The golden goose is Lab-oyan’s metaphor for the community where members of the Benguet co-op bank are engaged in various businesses.

An environmentalist and a management expert, Lab-oyan is aware of the impact of a deteriorating environment on the Cordillera, especially on Benguet, whose ecosystems are being degraded by extensive commercial vegetable farms and mining.

“So it was not surprising that when Typhoon ‘Pepeng’ hit us last year, Benguet was among those badly damaged,” he says. “The damage, of course, affected our people’s livelihood and businesses.”

The damage caused by the typhoon in October prompted many borrowers of the bank to seek a moratorium in paying their loans.

Aware of the interconnection between ecology and agriculture-based businesses and livelihood, the bank has embarked on promoting alternatives to commercial vegetable farming and mining.

One of these alternatives is agro-forestry or integrating fruit-bearing and forest trees with farming. This is no wonder why the bank has been supporting initiatives to revive the Arabica coffee industry in Benguet and other parts of the upland region.

Arabica plants only need 25 percent sunlight so they need taller and bigger trees around them. Those who wish to plant Arabica, says Lab-oyan, must also plant “shade and nurse trees” such as alnus, caliandra and pine, and fruit trees such as jackfruit, star apple and other trees.

The bank has thus helped and continues to help farmers, local governments and entrepreneurs in organizing Arabica coffee councils, says Lab-oyan.

It has also helped the initiatives of the Benguet Organic Coffee Enterprises Limited Inc., a homegrown coffee processing and trading outfit, in reviving centuries-old Arabica plants.

“In helping promote the Arabica industry, we are encouraging people to plant trees, which can also help cool our planet,” says Lab-oyan.

Another thrust of the bank is promoting and helping local folk rediscover their own culture, particularly indigenous food and cuisine.

“The food recipes of our forebears were all natural and diverse,” says Lab-oyan. “And what people consume ultimately affects our environment.”

“If we go natural, we are actually promoting organic and diversified farming, which is an alternative to chemical-dependent commercial monocrop farming,” he says.

The bank has been collaborating with the La Trinidad government in organizing what it calls “Ethnic Food Festival” as part of the town’s annual Strawberry Festival.

The bank is also promoting what Lab-oyan calls “diversified agri-enterprise” and “integrated farming.” It helps finance farmers who integrate farming with raising cattle and poultry, especially those who go organic.

“The key is diversity because this is what is good for our environment,” Lab-oyan says. “And the more we diversify in our business enterprises, the more we diversify our skills so the bigger chances of success in our endeavors.”

The bank may not immediately reap the returns of what it invested in its various initiatives. “But the returns on investments on the environment and other initiatives related to helping address climate change may come in the long term such as in the form of healthier communities,” he says.

Like any other businesses, cooperative banks must also compete with other financing institutions.

“But in our co-op bank, we are not concerned only with how to stay ahead in the competition but how to be relevant also to the community,” Lab-oyan says.

CORDILLERA AUTONOMY : A failure of listening and imagination?

2010-05-19T03:49:00.000-07:00

CORDILLERA AUTONOMY
CORDILLERA AUTONOMY : A failure of listening and imagination?

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: May 19, 2010

HARDLY ANY OF THE CANdidates in the Cordillera picked up regional autonomy as part of their platform for the May 10 elections.

This must be a fortunate coincidence, though. Otherwise, the political noise would have just drowned out a healthier debate about Cordillera autonomy, which, according to a University of the Philippines professor, needs a lot of listening and imagination.

For a debate on autonomy to prosper, the protagonists may have to sit down in the traditions of the dap-ay (the indigenous roundtable conference of the Bontok), the tongtongan (Benguet’s dap-ay counterpart), and the bodong of the Kalinga and Tinggian.

These indigenous institutions require the participants to listen to each other so they can agree on a consensus, which must ultimately serve the greater good of the community.

But the institutions and people who led in the autonomy debate had largely failed to lend their ears to each other. The result, says Dr. Athena Lydia Casambre, was a “disjuncture—the failure to meet point-to-point.”

This, says Casambre, a former UP Baguio faculty member, characterized the debate on Cordillera autonomy. “No wonder that the proposed Organic Act (draft law for autonomy) was soundly rejected in January 1990,” the first political exercise that could have helped institutionalize self-rule, she says.

Casambre, now a political science professor at UP Diliman, was at UP Baguio last month to attend a political science workshop and the launching of “Discourses on Cordillera Autonomy,” a book compiling her three essays on the upland region’s attempt at self-governance.

She cites almost the same failure of the various players to meet in 1998, when another proposed organic act was rejected.

Key players

Casambre analyzes how the autonomy issue and its key players evolved as a response to a long history of discrimination and neglect, which heightened during the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law reign.

She also notes how the shift from Marcos’ martial rule to President Corazon Aquino’s liberal-democratic politics “provided the impetus for progressive groups in Cordillera civil society, principally the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), to push their political agenda further.”

After Marcos’ ouster in February 1986, the CPA sustained the momentum of mobilization against a series of the regime’s dam projects along the Chico River, she says.

With the “democratic space” under Aquino, it helped lobby for the inclusion in the 1987 Constitution of the provision for autonomous regions in the Cordillera and Muslim Mindanao, Casambre says.

This same democratic space and post-Edsa euphoria led to other interesting developments. Casambre cites the Aquino administration’s peace negotiations with Fr. Conrado Balweg’s Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), which led to the sipat (peace pact) on Sept. 13, 1986, in Mount Data in Bauko, Mt. Province.

This pact eventually prompted Aquino to craft Executive Order No. 220, which established a special Cordillera Administrative Region to prepare the region for autonomy.

“The Edsa Revolt and the democratic politics immediately following upon it unquestionably hastened the coming to the fore of the issue of Cordillera autonomy,” Casambre says.

Since the constitutional provision for regional autonomy needed an enabling law, a measure was drafted and submitted to the Cordillera electorate in a plebiscite in January 1990.

Before the voting were intense debates on autonomy. Casambre identifies the main protagonists: CPA, CPLA, Bibak (Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, Apayao and Kalinga) Professionals Association or BPA, Cordillera Broad Coalition (CBC), and the regional National Economic and Development Authority.

Casambre notes, however, that the debates did not lead to a “clear, comprehensible and acceptable proposition” for supporting an autonomous region.

She finds it ironic that the CPA, which helped lobby for the inclusion of autonomy in the Constitution, made “a 180-degree turn,” campaigning to reject the proposed organic act.

Disjointed

The CPA’s move was “not least because what they (CPA leaders) had won in the form of a constitutional provision had become perverted as soon as the government entered into a sipat with the CPLA” but because the two groups “had radically different projects in mind,” Casambre says.

“The narrative of Cordillera autonomy,” she says, “became severely disjointed at this point.”

What Casambre calls the “middle” sectors, led by the professionals, “caught in a choice between two unacceptable projects, found themselves aligning with others behind the proposal for regionalization without the urgency of autonomy as espoused by the CPA and CPLA.”

The CPA argued for autonomy on the premise of a newly formed “pan-Cordillera identity” and called it “Kaigorotan.” This was not well-received because the Cordillera natives’ self-identity was and continues to be anchored in the village, Casambre says.

Its regional autonomy project was also conceived within “the larger politics of national democracy (nat-dem),” which, she says, “spooked” the majority of the voters.

Until now, she says, despite fostering empowered people’s organizations in the region, not enough voters would support an autonomous region as defined by the CPA because of the “nat-dem specter.”

“The CPA will have to engage in ‘coalition politics’ and collaborate with other groups in articulating a vision of Cordillera autonomy that will have a foreseeable future,” Casambre says.

But she says voters were also repelled by the CPLA’s version of autonomy based on a proposed “Cordillera Autonomous Socialist State” and a “romanticized Cordillera Nation,” with the bodong as the overall guiding indigenous political institution.

The participation later of bureaucrats and lawyers did not help either in clarifying issues on the autonomy debate, she says.

“Not a tenable basis for Cordillera autonomy has been achieved because of a general failure of imagination,” she says.

Casambre suggests the need for “discipline and direction” in gathering and analyzing data or putting the pieces together “so we could see the whole picture.”

Through these, the key players and stakeholders in the autonomy discourse can finally grasp the “unfamiliar from the familiar” and so “we can move outwards,” she says.

Elections as clan reunions

2010-05-19T03:37:00.000-07:00

Elections as clan reunions

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: May 19, 2010

AS IN PAST POLLS, LOINA CAYAD-AN-PANTALEON HAD TO cook extra food for lunch for an expected reason during the May 10 political exercise.

Just a stone’s throw away from the two polling precincts in Barangay Poblacion in Kibungan, Benguet, her house has become the convenient second home and venue for instant reunions for family members and relatives, who have preferred to vote in their hometown than in their places of work, such as Baguio City and Metro Manila.

“We have something special for you,” Cayad-an-Pantaleon, the Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) secretary, said as she welcomed guests. She was referring to the kini-ing (smoked meat) and other recipes that her family prepared.

The kini-ing was processed by her 89-year-old father, Celino Cayad-an, who was again excited to welcome his grandchildren, nephews and nieces.

Exhausted and hungry clan members appreciated the sumptuous lunch plus overflowing Arabica brew, which, they said, were enough to compensate for the three-to-four-hour queue they had to bear under the heat before they cast their votes on May 10.

The smoked meat was the elder Cayad-an’s endearing way of welcoming clan members, some of whom have made him proud.

One of the prominent members is Jurgenson Lagdao, a provincial prosecutor, whom the old man would always like to meet and welcome every election.

Although he and his family built their home in Baguio, Lagdao had never transferred his place of voter’s registration. Every vote he casts is his way of helping bring change in his own hometown, he says.

Political caucus

As Cayad-an reiterated the schedule of a bigger clan reunion in 2013, discussions over coffee would unavoidably shift to politics.

The instant get-together at Cayad-an-Pantaleon’s house had thus become an informal political caucus. The discussion became political also after Lagdao and Octavio Cuanso, an environment official in Benguet, took turns in suggesting ways for the country to return to a two-party system.

Other clan members agreed that a two-party system could help simplify the country’s electoral process.

“Through a strict screening process, each party can finally push for highly competent people, who can really run the country,” Lagdao said. “Maybe we can learn from other more mature democracies, including the United States.”

Cuanso also suggested mobilizing nongovernment and people’s organizations in helping facilitate discussions and forums to tackle the country’s return to a two-party system.

“If we have an efficient two-party system through which chosen leaders could really serve the country, maybe we can even do away with these party-list groups,” he said. Maurice Malanes

Benguet town holds feast to purge election evil

2010-05-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

Benguet town holds feast to purge election evil

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: May 15, 2010

KIBUNGAN, BENGUET—AFter enduring the hot, dry season sun during the long queue for the country’s first automated elections on May 10, upland folk here were treated on Tuesday to a community meal, consisting of carabeef and pork broth.

The treat came from the winners of the local election led by reelected Mayor Benito Siadto (Lakas-Kampi-CMD), Vice Mayor-elect Auriana Sacpa (Nacionalista Party) and the eight newly elected councilors of this upland town of 8,041 voters.

A carabao and two pigs were slaughtered for the feast. But the animals were brought only early in the afternoon so community folk, who had been waiting to partake of a lunch meal, had to wait until 6 p.m. for an early dinner.

After dinner, Kibungan election official Rey Oliva proclaimed the newly elected officials.

“As has been the tradition, this feast won’t just be a ‘blowout’ but a common meal to promote reconciliation and harmony again between and among the various candidates who might have verbally hurt or offended each other during the campaign,” said Fausto Songyoen, the town’s civil registrar.

A local elder, or manbunong, offered the sacrificial animals to the gods and spirits, invoking them to continue to bless the community and cleanse all the negative impact of verbal attacks and accusations candidates had exchanged during the political campaign.

Kibungan, a farming town of more than 15,000 residents, experienced almost similar glitches and discomforts, which other voters in various polling centers in the country experienced on Monday. The town is about 40 kilometers from Baguio City.

Election results could not be transmitted from the polling centers to the canvassing server at the town hall because many of the broadband-based transmission gadgets would not work and many voters had to endure heat, thirst and hunger as they waited for at least three hours for their turn to vote.

“This postelection feast would thus help us forget all our sacrifices and discomforts on Election Day so we could move on again as a community,” said Songyoen. Maurice Malanes, Inquirer Northern Luzon

‘Fastest election’ held in 1914 in Benguet town

2010-04-22T05:56:00.003-07:00

‘Fastest election’ held in 1914 in Benguet town

By Maurice Malanes Inquirer Northern Luzon First Posted 05:23:00 04/21/2010

KIBUNGAN, BENGUET— Almost a century before the advent of poll automation, this upland town had its “fastest election” on record, back when many of the native Kankanaey folk could not read and write.

Kibungan (pop: 16,000) had its first taste of electoral politics as introduced by American colonial officials in 1914.

This was after the Philippine Commission of the first Philippine civil government enacted Commission Act No. 48 on Nov. 22, 1900, which organized local civil governments into townships, each to be headed by a directly elected leader called presidente (the equivalent of a mayor).

During an election in 1914, the local elders were ushered into the precedencia or town hall to elect the presidente. The instructions were quite simple: Pick among the candidates—who were made to stand before the public at the town hall grounds—by forming a line behind them.

“The candidate with the longest line was immediately declared the winner,” according to a historic municipal document.

The first elected presidente was a certain Bolnotan who hailed from Palina, the community that served as the seat of the municipal government until 1920.
The presidente could then appoint an escrebiente (the equivalent of today’s secretary) to take down minutes of meetings and draft resolutions.

Voting system

The process got more sophisticated a few decades later. By the early 1950s, the voting system in Kibungan used colored strips of paper about six inches long and half an inch wide.

Again, standing before the people at the town hall grounds, each candidate was assigned a color. Voters would then select among colored strips representing their chosen candidate.

The candidate who got the most number of strips was immediately declared the winner.
The two election methods were considered not only the fastest but the cheapest at the time. (The candidates, after all, didn’t have to spend a fortune for their campaigns.)

The system was again upgraded in 1953, when secret balloting was introduced. The first mayor elected using this method was Alban Molitas, who served from 1953 to 1955.

Despite the introduction of electoral politics, the local nankakay (male elders) had adhered to one unwritten rule: No one should have a monopoly of political power.

The consensus was that, as much as possible, the mayoral position would be rotated among qualified leaders from each of the seven barrios. Hence, no mayor had held more than one term from 1914 to 1963.

The rotation, however, was discontinued in 1964. Mayor Bruno Siadto was able to govern from 1964 to 1986, the longest in the town’s history, largely due to the suspension of local elections for long periods during the Marcos dictatorship.

Changing political

But times have changed in Kibungan. Gone was the nankakay’s unwritten agreement of power-sharing.

After electoral democracy was restored under the Aquino administration, the political landscape in Kibungan has since become like those of other towns.

Any elected official could vie for reelection and serve for up to three consecutive terms. Losers can always make a comeback.

But until the 1970s, few citizens developed an appetite for politics because of the paltry per diems received by elected officials. Many considered politics sangaw or a waste of time.

In the late 1980s, when elected officials began receiving monthly salaries, many well-meaning folks who wish to have a say in municipal affairs saw a more attractive incentive to seek public office.

Although the women of Kibungan had been active as seers, healers and priestesses, they shied away from mainstream politics. This went on for decades until Corazon Aquino came to power as the country’s first female president.

Blazing the path was Rosalinda Ab-ab, who won as barangay chair of Poblacion in 1989 and served up to 1994. She was later elected town councilor, serving from 1996 to 1998.

In 1998, Susan Atayoc also aspired to become a town councilor and won, serving until 2007 after she was reelected in 2004. She won as vice mayor in 2007, the first woman in Kibungan to hold the position.

Another woman, Aureana Sacpa, won a seat in the council in 2001. She holds the position to this day.

Both Sacpa and Atayoc have joined the vice mayoral race this May, forging a three-cornered fight with Councilor Bobby Wayan.

Metaphors in Baguio’s Market Encounter

2010-02-22T21:23:00.000-08:00

Metaphors in Baguio’s Market Encounter
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 17:32:00 02/20/2010

Filed Under: Economy and Business and Finance, Entrepreneurship, Health and Beauty Products, Consumer Issues

BAGUIO CITY – A talented child’s search for healthier body care products for her allergy-sensitive skin eventually created a home-based industry, unexpectedly transforming her and her pastor-parents into accidental entrepreneurs.

One can discover this story among the more than 200 tent-covered business stalls at Burnham Park in what has been packaged as “Market Encounter,” a highlight of the yearly Panagbenga, a February 1 to March 7 festival celebrating the blooming season of flowers in Baguio and Benguet.

During her teens, Melody Ayupan found that her body was extra-sensitive to certain foods and to chemically-laden and scented soaps. To deal with her food allergies, she simply shifted to organic diet.

But for her skin allergies to scented soaps, Ayupan embarked on a scientific research on how to make alternative soaps and other body care products for her personal use.

She searched the Internet and books and consulted a chemist friend about how to make skin-friendly organic soaps. Her effort paid off.

She first made her own bath soap using strawberry and vegetable oil in 2000. She was then barely 14.

“She understands chemicals, enzymes and other substances very well like a pro,” says Lorna Jane Ayupan, a pastor and mother of Melody. Melody being a science buff (she was a science high school scholar) definitely helped her, says her mother.

Since then, Melody, aided by her parents, has been making her own bath soap, which proved excellent for her sensitive skin.

Consumer demand

During Christmas and other special occasions like weddings and birthday celebrations, Melody and her parents would offer their products as gifts to friends, relatives and church mates.

What proved helpful to Melody and her parents turned out to be effective for those who received the soaps as gifts. In no time, the gifts’ recipients began making orders.

Melody and her parents had no choice but to produce and deliver the goods. But this time, the goods were no longer free gifts, but for sale. The Ayupans have been thrust into business.

“We never intended to go into business,” says the elder Ayupan. “But we had to respond to the orders. The interesting thing about this venture is that it has become a business only after consumers created the demand. We see this as God working in strange, miraculous ways.”

Natural metaphors

There was no turning back for the Ayupans, who in late 2003 finally registered their products with a brand name Melody coined -- Natural Metaphors.

“I just love the word,” says Melody, referring to metaphor. “It is interesting that we can understand many things through metaphors. The blind, for example, can understand the color white through the metaphor of the soft cotton.”

She says her brand is also a metaphor for many consumers’ desire for natural alternative products, which are friendly not only to people’s bodies but to the environment as well.

With a business to establish first, Melody, now 24, has to temporarily quit her political science course as her planned stepping stone to a law degree.

“Every thing has its time,” she says. “I can always continue my pre-law course and law degree once my baby [referring to the family’s new business] can take off on its own.”

From the few bars of soap, which she used to make for her own use, Melody, aided by her parents and a chemist consultant, now makes an average of 2,000 pieces of 150-gram bath soaps each month at their home in La Trinidad, Benguet.

Retailed at P100 each, the soaps alone can gross P200,000 monthly. This income is shared by some 100 retailers, who buy the products at wholesale prices and retail them at the suggested consumer price.

“We are happy that this home-based industry is helping ordinary housewives, office workers and students who can earn extra pesos during these hard times,” says Melody’s mother.

Besides their now popular strawberry soap, the Ayupans make other soaps using rice bran and various fruits (like papaya, banana, pineapple and avocado) and vegetables (like carrots) in season.

They are also gradually diversifying their products, which now include feminine wash and facial creams and toners. “Also watch out for our shampoo bar,” Melody announces, referring to a solid, instead of liquid, shampoo product, which will be out soon.

The story of winners like Melody and her parents with their pioneering products is what helps give soul to Panagbenga’s Market Encounter. Otherwise, the business stalls in tents would just be another tiangge or flea market.

Sights and scents of flowers

Also adding life to the Market Encounter is its accompanying landscaping competition. This year’s competition involves two categories – the open and carpet categories.

Under the open category, participants integrate flowing water, old driftwoods, rocks, Igorot hut replicas, and other items with an array of plants and flowers. The carpet category involves only short plants, but the joyful mix of their flowers with all their rainbow colors prove to be this year’s new attraction.

“Our landscaping competition is now slowly becoming international,” says Market Encounter coordinator Damaso Bangaoet Jr., the acknowledged father of Panagbenga.

He cites Usanee Pascual Fungladda, a Filipino-Thai lady, whose landscaping entry reflects scenes and contexts from the Philippines and Thailand. Her father, who maintains orchid farms in Thailand, exports orchids to various countries while she and her mother have an orchid farm in San Jose, Nueva Ecija, which supplies orchids in the country.

The 21 landscaping entries under the open category and the 19 under the carpet category promise to make the Market Encounter not only a business experience. They can also help both visitors and residents to take time to relish the sights and scents of flowers as the bees and butterflies do.

In this Ibaloi cultural capital, coffee is elixir of youth

2010-02-02T22:29:00.000-08:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon
In this Ibaloi cultural capital, coffee is elixir of youth
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 21:35:00 02/02/2010

Filed Under: Culture (general), Consumer Goods, Travel & Commuting, Tourism
BENGUET, Philippines--DRIVING THROUGH THE newly built Baguio-Nueva Vizcaya road is a breeze. But detouring along the way toward the upland town of Kabayan in Benguet is another experience.

From the village of Bangao in neighboring Bokod town, the road becomes rough and bumpy, a situation which the hardy Ibaloi folk have long lived with since 1960, when the road to the Ibaloi cultural capital was first opened.

But if the road to Kabayan in eastern Benguet is rough and rude, the people are gentle, friendly and hospitable. And they are great storytellers.

In a visit to Kabayan recently, reporters heard stories about a Spanish trail, Arabica coffee, centuries-old mummies, descendants of the insurrectos (rebel soldiers) of Emilio Aguinaldo and the secrets to the vitality of Ibaloi elders.
The Coopbank of Benguet and the homegrown corporation, Benguet Organic Coffee Enterprises Ltd. Inc. (Bocael), organized the trip for important reasons.

Coopbank manager Gerry Lab-oyan and Bocael operations manager Rudy Guisdan said visitors and tourists must appreciate that Kabayan offers more than just the experience of climbing Mt. Pulag, the Ibaloi’s “hallowed ground in the clouds.”

Spanish trail

An interesting story was the Spanish trail that began in Aritao in Nueva Vizcaya and traversed the Benguet towns of Itogon, Bokod, Kabayan, Buguias, Mankayan and Bakun before exiting towards Cervantes and Tagudin towns in Ilocos Sur.

The elders said the Spanish trail was built through forced labor in the 1800s. When the Spaniards ordered Filipinos to pay tributes to the Spanish crown, they imposed tres dias (three days) of forced labor.

For the people of Kabayan and nearby communities, the forced labor meant working to help build the trail, says former Kabayan mayor and local historian, Florentino Merino.

The Spaniards distributed Arabica coffee seeds for local folk to plant along the trail. “It was just logical for the Spaniards to impose that the coffee seeds be planted along the trail so they could easily monitor the crops,” says Merino.

Arabica coffee, he says, must have been among the prized products for the Spanish galleon trade.

Locals eventually came to appreciate how to brew coffee, which became a prized beverage especially offered to welcome visitors and to keep guests and community folk awake during traditional sacred feasts called the cañao or peshit.

Barter

As early as then, Arabica coffee had become a vital barter item.

Kabayan Ibaloi folk would go down to what is now Pangasinan and barter their coffee with textiles and blankets, sugar, salt and dogs.

Why dogs? “Our ancestors needed dogs, which they could train to help hunt wild game,” says Merino.

The 80-year-old Merino, however, says Arabica coffee was just a secondary barter item. Even before the Spaniards came, the Ibaloi people’s primary barter item was gold, which they panned from the Agno River and its tributaries.

Historians, including Merino, say the Spaniards forced locals to build for them a trail after they learned about the Igorot people’s gold.

It was thus not surprising that the Spanish trail also led to gold-rich Lepanto in what is now Mankayan.

Interestingly, many of the towns along the Spanish trail, such as Itogon and Mankayan, had also become mining boom towns when American colonial soldiers turned to gold prospecting.

Coffee trees

With tidbits of history, the media people drove along a dirt road toward Barangay Pacso.

The place is considered one of the town’s historic sites because a big battle against Japanese soldiers during World War II was fought and won there. And there’s more.

Among the areas traversed by the Spanish trail, Pacso is one of the communities with centuries-old Arabica coffee trees, which continue to yield aromatic coffee beans.
Among the living stewards of these coffee trees is Tosie Maranes, who at 91 still gathers coffee beans and sips cups of brew each day.

Asked about secrets of his long life and good health, Maranes says: “I always pray to and thank God for my life and, of course, I drink brewed coffee.”

In this upland town of about 12,000 people, many, in fact, believe that brewed Arabica coffee is both an elixir of youth and an energy drink.

“I know of many farmers who claim that if they take coffee, they can work all day long without getting tired,” says Merino.

Maranes estimates that the Arabica coffee plants still growing in his backyard are 200 years old.

That the centuries-old coffee trees are still thriving and bearing fruits must be good reasons to protect them, says Guisdan of Bocael.

Taking on its role as “guardian” of Benguet’s centuries-old Arabica trees, Bocael has helped teach local folk to rejuvenate these trees through proper pruning.

"God spoke in Ilokano to us 100 years ago"

2010-01-04T03:01:00.000-08:00

God spoke in Ilokano to us 100 years ago, says Bible translator
Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
December 29, 2009

(Note: For this blog, I restored some paragraphs towards the end, which the Inquirer cut when it published it last 29 December 2009.)

IMAGINE Jesus Christ as an Ilocano preaching in the language commonly used in northern Luzon.

This was one advice Protestant Bishop Juan Marigza had to bear in mind when he and other members of an interchurch team were assigned in 1967 to translate the Bible’s New Testament into popular Ilokano (Iluko).

Jesus Christ had communicated effectively the “kingdom of God” through parables and analogies, which could be easily understood by the common folk during his time, said Marigza of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

“The challenge, therefore, for us was how to effectively translate what the Lord Jesus communicated 2,000 years ago through a more popular Ilokano language that could be better understood even by non-Ilocano who speak Ilokano as a second language,” he said.

Marigza, 79, was among the translators recognized during an Ilokano Bible centennial celebration early this month at the Teachers’ Camp in Baguio City.

The Philippine Bible Society, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches organized the activity to celebrate “100 years of Solidarity for the Word” in Ilokano.

Marigza was part of an 11-member editorial committee, which was convened by the Philippine Bible Society in 1967 to translate the New Testament. The committee launched its work on Nov. 4, 1973.

Previous translations were written in original Ilokano, many words of which were difficult to understand in areas where Ilokano is a borrowed language, said Marigza.

Extra care

But while aiming for a simpler, more popular language, the team took extra care in ensuring that nothing would be lost in the process.

With Dr. Noel Osborn, an American Presbyterian Bible scholar who once served at the Union Christian College in La Union, as consultant, the team had to first study the context, significance and truth of every biblical text.

Former Inquirer correspondent Peter La. Julian, another translator, said Osborn patiently taught Greek and Hebrew—two of three original languages of the Bible—to members of the team to help in their work.

“We strove for both accuracy and simplicity in our work, always bearing in mind what Osborn advised us: ‘If Jesus were an Ilocano, how would he have delivered his message in the local language?’” said Marigza.

Popularizing God’s Word

The first full Ilokano Bible, called “Ti Santa Biblia (The Holy Bible),” which was the work of American Protestant missionaries, was published 1909 by the American Bible Society.

But the desire to translate the Bible, which the colonizers brought along with their swords and guns, dates back more than 100 years ago.

A pioneer in translating the Gospels was an Ilocano revolutionary, Don Isabelo de los Reyes, who was among those who revolted against Spain and later against the Americans.

De los Reyes founded the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Philippine Independent Church). While he was jailed at the Montijuich in 1897, De los Reyes translated the Gospels of Luke and John and the Book of Acts using Spanish Bibles as references.

The British and Foreign Bible Society published the two translated Gospels in 1899 and the Book of Acts in 1900.

De los Reyes later joined a seven-member team, which translated the New Testament. The American Bible Society published the team’s work in 1904.

Taking off from the work of De los Reyes and his team, another translation team was organized and finally came out with “Ti Santa Biblia” in 1909. This was the second Bible to be published in any Philippine language, after the Tagalog Bible, which was published in 1905.

The 1909 Ilokano Bible has since been revised several times—in 1927, 1933, 1954, 1973, 1983 and 1996.

Evangelization, ecumenism

Immediately after American naval commander George Dewey took over the Spanish fleet in 1898, eight teams of missionaries from the United States were sent to the Philippines.

The Congregationalists chose the Visayas and Mindanao and the Baptists and the Presbyterians, Methodists, United Brethren and Disciples of Christ went to northern Luzon. The Anglicans were sent to what was then referred to as the “non-Christian tribes” of the Cordillera and Mindanao.

These Protestant groups had a common tradition inherited from Martin Luther of the Protestant Reformation era—the passionate study of the Bible as a way to strengthen one’s Christian faith.

So for the Protestant missionaries, the best way to evangelize people was to have the Bible translated in a language they could understand.

Marigza said the Ilokano Bible had helped “win souls for Christ” in northern Luzon, including remote areas where worship services and Bible studies are now done in Ilokano or in local dialects.

Until the early 1960s, Roman Catholics did not emphasize so much on the study of the Bible. But this changed after the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

Pope Pius XII, through his Papal Encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu, did not only encourage Catholics to study the Bible as aggressively as the Protestants do.

The Pope also encouraged a version of the Holy Scriptures to be jointly translated by Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars, thus giving rise to what they call the Common Bible. This edition is the most used, as it was approved liturgically not only by the Roman Catholic Church but by many of the other churches as well.

Filipino Protestants welcomed this new development. Since the late 1960s, Roman Catholic Bible scholars have begun working with Protestants in coming out with a Common Bible in Ilokano and in the other Filipino languages.

The birth of Ti Baro a Naimbag a Damag Biblia (The New Good News Bible), which the Philippine Bible Society published in 1996, was the joint labor of love of Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars.

Both Roman Catholics and Protestants now acknowledge that the challenge of translating the Bible into Ilokano and other local languages helped establish the seed of ecumenical or inter-church cooperation.

This cooperation, they say, continues to help transform the nation, despite its failings and other unaddressed challenges.

“Before, the Bible was a point of division. Not anymore. Now it’s a point of unity, which is helping transform our nation,” says Monsignor Andres Cosalan Jr., vicar-general of the Baguio diocese.

“As it is being translated in languages people understand, the Bible continues to help transform individuals, institutions and cultures,” also says Methodist Bishop Nathanael Lazaro, president of the Philippine Bible Society.

For northern Philippines, that seed of Christian unity and transformation began when “God spoke to us in Ilokano 100 years ago,” says Marigza.

Igorota trades in nurse's uniform for barista's apron

2010-01-04T02:44:00.000-08:00

Nurse trades in uniform for coffee brewer’s apron
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 16:35:00 12/26/2009

Filed Under: Economy and Business and Finance, Entrepreneurship, Beverages, Education

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Many Filipino parents encourage their children to pursue a career, which, they believe, would lead to “greener pastures.”

A path toward entrepreneurship would be the last thing on their mind even if their children had shown potential to succeed.

April Lai Balanza, for example, was urged to take up nursing after finishing high school three years ago.

Her parents, grandmother and aunt persuaded her to take up a course, which, they said, could land her a job overseas. But after a year and one summer, Balanza quit nursing school, to the disappointment of her loved ones who pushed and supported her financially to take up the course.

Unknown to them, Balanza didn’t see herself cleaning hospital bedpans and taking care of patients. She wanted to do something else.

“Nursing really was not my line and no matter how they [parents, grandmother and aunt] would push me, I could not pursue something which I could not be happy with,” said Balanza, 19, the second in a brood of four.

Barista course

After quitting nursing school, Balanza drifted for a while as she did some soul-searching.

Then a friend, who had just finished a short course on bartending at a Tesda-(Technology Education and Skills Development Authority) accredited school in Baguio, encouraged Balanza to also to enroll there.

Balanza chose to enroll in a barista training course from mid-January to mid-February this year.

Compared to her nursing school, Balanza found her barista training much more fun.
She said she enjoyed blending roasted Arabica coffee with Robusta, and preparing espresso, cappuccino, café latte and other beverages.

That Balanza took up barista training was not accidental. Coffee had caught her fancy even while she was a child growing up in Asin village in Baguio City.

She said the various ways of roasting coffee she learned at the Tesda school brought back memories when, as an 8-year-old girl, she would relish the aroma of coffee, which her parents brewed in their kitchen.

“I just loved the aroma of coffee ever since I was a kid,” she said.

Inspiring break

After finishing her training, Balanza looked for jobs that would make use of her newly acquired skill. She ended up as a waitress in a Baguio restaurant.

But since August, she learned from an aunt that Café Maleng-ag, a coffee shop in this town, was in need of a baristas.

She grabbed the opportunity and she has since been helping prepare the best coffee from Arabica beans grown in the Cordillera.

The shop’s owners, couple Richard and Christine Abellon, are advocates of a coffee industry that encourages Cordillerans to go beyond growing Arabica, the most expensive coffee in the world.

The Abellons encourage others to engage in the other aspects and processes of the industry like marketing, roasting, packaging, cupping (the art of tasting quality coffee), barista training and setting up coffee shops.

“We should not just settle for improving coffee production. It is time for locals to learn the other processes that give value to coffee,” Richard Abellon said.

Competition

The Abellons encouraged Balanza to join a regional barista competition in November, which was part of the Department of Tourism’s “Wow Philippines!” promotional activities.

Joining such a competition for the first time, Balanza was nervous. She learned that the eight other contestants were competition veterans, one of whom was from the Metro Manila-based Philippine Barista Academy.

The last to perform among nine contestants, Balanza beat the 15-minute time-slot in preparing hot cappuccino, espresso and a signature cold coffee beverage. While cappuccino and espresso are standard fare in any coffee shop, the cold coffee beverage was her concoction.

“I just applied everything I learned from my barista training,” she said. “The rest I relied on instinct and know-how accumulated through the years after learning to brew and drink coffee at an early age in our kitchen.”

A day after the decision from the four judges, two of them cupping experts from Metro Manila, was released, Balanza was surprised and inspired. She topped the contest, making her the first Igorota to win in such a competition.

“It was a big break for me,” said Balanza, a daughter of Igorot parents. “Now I could prove something to them [parents, grandma and aunt] after I disappointed them when I quit nursing.”

Balanza said with her barista skills, she can now make choices.

She said she can still apply for a job overseas, save enough money and return home to start her own coffee shop.

Music fest helps heal Baguio folk

2009-12-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon
Music fest helps heal Baguio folk
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:10:00 12/08/2009

Filed Under: Disasters (general), Music, Flood

TROPICAL depression Pepeng’s howling winds and heavy downpour had drowned the hymns and chants of the Catholic faithful at the Baguio Cathedral in October. But during starry and moon-lit nights recently, the cathedral reverberated with both sacred and secular classical music.

Classics from Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Rachmaninoff, Christmas hymns, the Hallelujah Chorus and Filipino lullabies and serenades echoed from the Cathedral’s altar during four nights since Nov. 24.

These renditions from world acclaimed performers were treats from the Second Baguio Cathedral International Music Festival, which, organizers say, sought to help heal the typhoon-battered spirits of Baguio residents.

“Music heals and inspires,” says creative director John Glenn Gaerlan. “After the devastation that the typhoons have brought to our city and other places, there is no better way to thank the Lord than through music.”

The festival opened on Nov. 24 with an evening of tenor renditions from Abdul Candao, who had performed in Austria, Canada and Metro Manila. His songs from C. Gluck, V. Bellini, R. Strauss, F. Lehar and the Philippines’ Ernani Cuenco were accompanied by internationally renowned pianist, Mary Anne Espina.

Baguio residents, during the second night, were treated with two concerts. The first was an organ music concert by composer Alejandro Consolacion II, who performed masterpieces from Johann Sebastian Bach, Cesar Franck, Eugene Gigout and Jehan Alain. He also played some of his compositions.

As an organist, Consolacion was invited to perform for Queen Sofia of Spain when she visited Manila in 2001. He regularly performs as a pianist, organist, accompanist and conductor for small and large crowds here and abroad.

Reliving the Renaissance

The second was a chorale concert led by choir master Jose Soliman Jr. The concert featured the Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir, Baguio City National High School Young Minstrels and members of the Festival Choir.

They performed the six-voice Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass), one of the most popular Masses during the Renaissance period.

When they sang Handel’s Coronation Anthems, the Baguio Cathedral audience retraced the celebratory and festive mood during the 1727 coronation in England of King George II and Queen Caroline.

Before he died in 1727, King George I commissioned George Frederic Handel, who was just naturalized as a British citizen, to write the music for the coronation later that year. Handel came out with four hymns, based on texts of the Bible’s Old Testament: Zadok the Priest, Let Thy Hand be Strengthened, The King Shall Rejoice and My Heart is Inditing.

As the resident performing group of the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary, the Maryknoll choir is known for performing “the rhythm and songs of the earth.”

Under the baton of conductor Rosalinda Jamorabon, the Young Minstrels of the Baguio City National High School has been listed in the hall of fame in the Baguio Country Club Choral Competitions and the Aweng Paskuwa Annual Christmas Competitions.

The high school choir was also awarded third place in 2005 during the National Competitions for Young Artists at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

A night of romance

The third night was a special treat of pure violin and piano. Classical music fan Cecile Afable, a local weekly editor, was waxing romantic when violinist Gina Medina and pianist Espina opened the night with Beethoven’s Romance in F Major.

The duo also performed pieces by Fritz Kreisler and Johannes Brahms. They also did Philippine Serenade by Angel Peña, “May Lihim ang Gabi (The Night Has Secrets)” by Cuenco and the folk song, “Paruparong Bukid.”

The fourth night of the music festival was held at the University of Baguio gymnasium, where the Bungkos Palay Performing Arts Foundation of the Science City of Muñoz (Nueva Ecija) presented the Filipino dance “tinikling,” among others.

In 2008, Bungkos Palay performed during Singapore’s annual Chingay Parade of Dreams, which attracted 200,000 spectators.

Big bonus

The well-attended finale of the music festival at the Baguio Cathedral on Nov. 28 was a big bonus. It opened with piano renditions by Baguio-born, and now United States-based, Augusto Cuesta from masterpieces of Rachmaninoff, known for his Romantic-era piano concerts.

Cuesta’s renditions were accompanied by the Manila Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jerome Hoberman, an accomplished and internationally acclaimed American music director.

Cuesta’s numbers were followed by treats from the Manila Symphony Orchestra, which performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op 125, Choral.

The later part of Beethoven’s ninth symphony integrated the Maryknoll Sanctuary Choir and the UB Voices, filling the cathedral with their rendition of “Ode to Joy,” whose familiar “joyful, joyful we adore Thee …” lyrics kept the audience awake at past 10 p.m. that Saturday.

Reinforcing the two choirs were three world renowned soloists—Janet Sabas Aracama, Camille Lopez Molina and Noel Azcona.

Drawn together by music

Baguio Bishop Carlito Cenzon, Fr. Benedict Castañeda of the Baguio Cathedral and Gaerlan conceptualized the festival in 2006.

Drawn together for their love of music, the three then began to talk about staging a festival for secular and sacred music. This materialized in 2008 during which they invited internationally acclaimed artists and local performers.

Through the first music festival in December 2008, the three also sought to raise funds for the repair of the cathedral’s pipe organ. The organ was first brought to Baguio in the early 1900s by Fr. Raphael Desmedt, a Belgian missionary.

The pipe organ has yet to be fully repaired so part of the proceeds from this year’s music festival will go to this project. The rest will go to funds to help survivors of the recent typhoon and landslides that hit the city.

Baguio City faces garbage challenge

2009-11-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : Baguio City faces garbage challenge
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer Inquirer Northern Luzon
Posted date: November 25, 2009

WHEN MONEYSENSE, an independent online publication, published in April last year the “best places to live in the Philippines,” Baguio City, despite its summer capital fame, was not in the top 10. It ranked 16th.

The publication listed Bacolod City as the best place to live in the country, followed by Makati, Davao, Marikina, Iloilo, Las Piñas, Pasig, San Fernando (La Union), Mandaluyong and Quezon City.

MoneySense based its ranking mainly on the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project (PCCRP) of the Asian Institute of Management. The ranking considered three components: standard of living, quality of life and cost of living.

Of the three components, quality of life covered, among other things, “environment” and this included “clean air and clean streets.”

A review of the solid waste management systems of Bacolod and other top-ranking cities is revealing. They all have their waste management systems in place.
Baguio residents, on the other hand, have to bear with tons of garbage, much of which have been left uncollected for several weeks now.

The crisis began to be felt in October 2007 when officials realized that the open dump in Barangay Irisan was already full and that the city had to look for long-term measures, such as building an engineered sanitary landfill.

Baguio residents would envy how wastes are managed in Bacolod. The department of public service (DPS) there collects garbage thrice daily—at noon, 7 p.m. and 2 a.m.
A resident with uncollected trash can still call the DPS office and it immediately responds in minutes.

The same is true in Marikina, one of the most frequented venues for educational trips of local governments wanting to learn about solid waste management.

Although still reeling from the heaps of wastes from September’s Tropical Storm “Ondoy,” Marikina’s garbage collection has not been disrupted.

In 2002, a government performance audit team gave Marikina flying colors for its solid waste collection system.

It said the city had “well-defined systems and procedures” in managing its wastes. This was strengthened by “employing enforcers to implement ordinances on the maintenance of physical cleanliness and sanitation, instilling discipline and compelling community participation.”

Not far from Baguio is San Fernando in La Union, which inaugurated in December 2008 a P168-million landfill after starting construction in 2005.

The World Bank, which funded the project, said the 10.7-hectare facility was a model for small landfills.

Institutionalization

Bacolod, Marikina and San Fernando all have ordinances to support Republic Act No. 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000). But they all have graduated from the information and education campaign (IEC) stage and have since buckled down to work to implement their ordinances and policies on waste management.

Their programs have become institutionalized as part of the communities’ way of life.
Every Monday and Thursday in Marikina, green-painted trucks collect biodegradable wastes, which households must properly label and tie with something green.

Every Wednesday, pink-colored trucks also collect nonbiodegradables, which households must tie with something pink. Improperly labeled wastes won’t be collected.

Biodegradable wastes are composted for fertilizer. The nonbiodegradables are taken to a materials recovery facility (MRF) for segregation. Plastics and bottles are taken to a “buy-back center.”

Policy implementation is such a serious business that the city government allocates the funds and resources to make policies work.

Marikina is also so concerned about its solid waste management efficiency that it has installed a mechanism by which residents can give feedback, complaints and requests.

For its part, San Fernando uses different and labeled waste segregation receptacles for different types of garbage.

It has well-established village-based MRFs, where wastes are segregated. One of these is in Lingsat village, which was given a national award for its efficient solid waste management in 2004.

Schools have also established solid waste management systems.

As continuing support to the villages, the city government regularly trains village officials on Waste Analysis and Characterization Survey (WACS) to help local officials determine the total weight and volume of waste disposed of daily. Data from the survey guide local officials in making and implementing policies.

The city government continues to train village officials on how to make ordinances and solid waste plans, and how to compute garbage fees, organize management teams, and monitor and evaluate projects and programs on wastes.

In contrast, Baguio Councilor Fred Bagbagen said the council had filed resolutions directing the city government to focus on developing an ecological landfill and MRFs. None of these, he said, took off.

Hope for Baguio

Amid public ire and warnings from the health department about possible diseases from uncollected garbage, Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. recently ordered the collection of garbage in villages.

The garbage would be disposed of at the already full Irisan dump. From there, it will be hauled to a landfill in Capas, Tarlac, after the city council allotted P25 million for this.

Bautista said he would invoke the city’s right over the whole 7.5 hectares occupied by the dump, noting that 2.5 hectares of it were being occupied by squatters.
If reclaimed, he said the dump could still accommodate the city’s garbage, estimated at 300 tons daily, while long-term measures are being sought.

But a more strategic solution may yet lie in neighboring Sablan town, also in Benguet.

At least 11 owners have offered to sell a 228,231-square-meter (22.82-hectare) lot for Baguio’s engineered sanitary landfill. The proposed landfill can be used for 50 to 60 years.

“With proper push and determination, negotiation and all the nitty-gritty for the proposed landfill can be done in a month,” said Julius Mandapat, a civil engineer who helped build engineered sanitary landfills, dikes, parks and an airport in the United States in the 1980s.

Mandapat said solid waste management must be part of short-term and strategic urban planning.

“The challenge is how to make urban planning respond to the needs of a growing city and this needs a mix of technical expertise and political will,” he said.

‘Pepeng’ draws out best in Igorot culture

2009-10-27T17:14:00.000-07:00

‘Pepeng’ draws out best in Igorot culture
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: October 27, 2009

THE SHAKEN EARTH AND floodwaters from Tropical Depression “Pepeng’s” fury may have begun to settle so survivors can now rebuild or relocate homes, replow farms, and repair roads and bridges.

Rehabilitating the damaged infrastructure and property requires billions of pesos, which, officials admit, is a big challenge for a cash-strapped government. The other concern is how to fast-track it so isolated farming communities, such as those in the Cordillera, can resume transporting their chayotes, cabbages, carrots and potatoes.

But there is yet a bigger issue: How to restore hope among orphaned survivors whose dreams were snatched when their elders were buried in landslides or drowned in floodwaters?

The good news is that in all these challenges, something in the culture of northern Luzon folk has not changed. The trait of being each other’s keeper and the tradition of volunteerism have helped the people cope with the extent of Pepeng’s devastation.
Such culture has helped fill in gaps and lapses in governance.

For example, when Pepeng slowed down on Oct. 10, officials and residents of Kibungan town in Benguet came out with shovels and picks to help clear the roads of landslides and debris.

Mayor Benito Siadto says the landslides were so enormous that residents had to augment with sheer brawn the municipal government’s lone pay loader.

Community spirit

The strong sense of cooperative self-help and community spirit is also alive in other Cordillera towns.

Leaders of the towns of Bakun and Kabayan, also in Benguet, report that they used the relief supplies they received for “food-for-work” projects.

Instead of simply doling out to survivors a few kilos of rice, canned goods and instant noodles, Bakun and Kabayan officials say they gave these items as incentives to those who helped repair the roads and bridges.

Kabayan Mayor Faustino Aquisan commends the village chair of Tinongdan in Itogon town for accommodating stranded motorists from Kabayan at the height of Pepeng in their barangay hall and feeding them.

“Please tell us when you (Tinongdan folk) will celebrate your village fiesta so we can bring you cabbages, pising (gabi or yam leaves) and red rice,” Aquisan announced recently over radio station dzWT. It was his way of expressing gratitude to them.

In Sagada, Mt. Province, members of tourist guide organizations lost no time in soliciting help from town mates so they could immediately send relief supplies to survivors of mudslides in Tadian town, the Cordillera People’s Alliance reported.

In upland areas of the Cordillera, the people have resorted to the ob-obfu or binnadang (labor exchange) to repair damaged homes, rice terraces, irrigation systems and bridges.

Rebuilding hopes

But as homes, farms and other infrastructures are being rebuilt, the hopes and dreams of survivors of the last storm must also be restored.

“When the earth and waters settle down, I know for sure that those left behind will be on their own. It’s time for us to come in,” Harry Basingat, a retired Igorot professional based in California, says in a letter to members of Bibaknet, an online network of Igorots here and abroad.

Basingat and his colleagues have been discussing online how best they could help, particularly those who were orphaned after Pepeng triggered killer landslides that left more than 300 people dead, many of them in Benguet and Mt. Province.

“We finally decided to focus on the education of children orphaned by Pepeng,” says Jerome Gawidan, a Baguio City-based Bibaknet member and businessman.

Bibaknet has been setting aside funds for immediate relief supplies, such as food and clothing.

“We also want to provide something to the orphans that will last a lifetime—education,” says Basingat, the online moderator of the Bibaknet e-group.

Immediately after this decision, members started pledging money for its Bibaknet Education Scholarship Fund (BESF). Some have committed from $100 (P4,699) to P100,000, though the network can accept even a peso or a dollar.

“Any amount will be gladly accepted so I don’t see why anyone would ignore this loud call,” says Basingat. “Nothing is too small that comes from the heart. Not getting involved is just another personal option that we can choose.”

The fund began in 2005 to support the education of the orphaned children of Andy Dumawa, a Bibaknet member, who was killed in an accident on the Halsema Highway on his way home to Mt. Province.

As the e-group’s online moderator, Basingat regularly posts all names of donors and the amount pledged, including those of anonymous benefactors.

Warmth of ‘dap-ay’

BESF board member Marilou Delson Fang-asan, who is based at the Benguet State University, is coordinating with government agencies in the affected towns to identify orphaned survivors whom the group can help send to school.

The ease and spontaneity of help from the Igorot peoples for the orphaned could be traced to what Basingat calls the “warmth of the dap-ay, which is meant to be shared for those out in the cold.”

The dap-ay is the basic sociopolitical institution in Mt. Province where elders teach children about social responsibility, among other things.

Fr. Rex Reyes, National Council of Churches in the Philippines general secretary, agrees with Basingat.

Reyes, who visited Mt. Province after Pepeng left, says the Igorot could again pick up the pieces because of their strong community support system of helping each other, in good times and in bad.

Isolated Benguet town rations rice to stave off hunger

2009-10-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

Isolated Benguet town rations rice to stave off hunger
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 03:10:00 10/22/2009
Filed Under: Weather, Landslide, Disasters (general), Government Aid, Food

BAGUIO CITY—The upland town of Kibungan in Benguet province, which has been isolated since Oct. 9 because of Tropical Storm “Pepeng” (international codename: Parma), has resorted to rationing rice to stave off possible hunger as residents and officials double their time clearing landslides before Typhoon “Ramil” (Lupit) dumps heavy rains on Friday.

For the first time since the town’s isolation, officials and residents—after a six-hour grueling trip from Baguio—transported 200 cavans of rice via the Palina-Bakun-Ampusongan Road and Halsema Highway on Oct. 17 and 18.

Ironically, until the early 1980s, Kibungan (pop: 16,000) used to be self-sufficient in upland rice, which is augmented by sweet potato and other root crops.

The shorter Kibungan-Kapangan-Tublay Road, which is a four-hour drive, remains hardly accessible because of damaged bridges and road cuts, residents said.

The town government, which bought the rice supply, will ration (25 kilos per family) and retail the staple, said Loyda Macario of the Kibungan social welfare and development office.

“We hope this rice supply can tide us over even shortly after Typhoon Ramil,” Macario said in a text message. “We also hope other supplies will arrive for our various sari-sari (variety) stores.”

Macario said residents, with equipment provided by the Department of Public Works and Highways, were rushing the clearing of landslides in the towns of Kapangan and Tublay.

Through cooperative self-help, Kibungan residents cleared landslides from Barangay Poblacion up to Barangay Sagpat in the town’s border with Kapangan and along the road to Barangay Palina.

“But we are worried Ramil’s rains may again delay road repair works,” Macario said.
She said that for the first time airlifted relief goods arrived in Kibungan on Oct. 19 after Mayor Benito Siadto appealed for outside help.

Until now, residents continue to grope in the dark as evening comes because of power outage, Macario said, adding that municipal officials could charge their mobile phones through a generator at the municipal clinic.

Residents from Kibungan and Kapangan are hoping concerned agencies help them restore the vital Salacop Bridge in Balacbac, Kapangan, which tilted to its side during the last typhoon.

Little Kibungan takes comfort in faith

2009-10-21T02:05:00.000-07:00

Little Kibungan takes comfort in faith
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:27:00 10/20/2009
Filed Under: Belief (Faith), Religions

MARSING MALANES LOST a daughter, a son-in-law and four grandchildren, who tried to run to safe ground but instead met an avalanche of raging mud that fateful night of Oct. 8 when Tropical Depression “Pepeng” dumped heavy rain on the province.

Despite the tragedy, Malanes’ faith in God stays stronger than the wrath of Pepeng, whose nonstop downpour triggered a mudslide that swept away houses along a creek in Barangay Puguis’ Little Kibungan in Benguet’s capital town of La Trinidad.

A three-story concrete house was also brought down some 200 meters into the La Trinidad Valley.

“How could my children and grandchildren survive such a powerful mudslide?” asks Malanes, 58.

Although still mourning, she takes comfort “in the Lord’s promise that my children and grandchildren are now in His bosom and are now helping keep watch over us who survived this tragedy.”

“This promise is what continues to lighten our load and burden,” says Malanes, a member of the Church of Nazarene in Puguis. “Now, my children and grandchildren are at peace with the Lord. They are actually now in a better position than we are, who have to experience pain and suffering in this world.”

Malanes lost her daughter Minda, 38, Minda’s husband, Santiago Valdez Jr., 39; and their four children—Ruthi Fe, 14; Von Timothy, 10; James Francis, 2; and Josh Mark, 1.

They were among the 76 people who were killed by the landslide in Little Kibungan.

Swallowed by mud

The Valdez home remains intact, but accounts from neighbors and from Ruthi Fe’s text message before they were swallowed by mud indicated that they met their fate while on flight.

At past 10 p.m. on Oct. 8, Ruthi Fe was able to tell her aunt, Mercedes Cadley, in a text message that her father roused them from sleep so they would evacuate to their grandmother’s house on upper ground in Little Kibungan.

Neighbors say the Valdezes might have thought that the mudslide was coming from above their house instead of the other way because the village was pitch-dark as a result of a power outage, thick clouds and heavy rains.

The family would have survived the avalanche had they not gone down a road along the creek.

Mission and purpose

Despite all, Malanes thinks that “with God, everything must have a purpose.”
Minda and her family’s death “all the more strengthened our faith in God and helped us look deeply into what is more important in life,” says Malanes.

This faith is shared by the woman’s eldest son, Fernando, 40, and his wife, Edwina, 41, who also had a close brush with death that night. “God must have a mission and purpose for us that we have yet to fulfill,” says Fernando.

On Oct. 7, Edwina said she had an “uneasy, bad feeling” so she urged her husband that they leave an extension room near their kitchen in the basement, and be with their three children on the second floor.

That premonition saved them; the mudslide wiped out their room. Amid the heavy downpour, the rescuers arrived and guided them to the house of Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan, southeast of Little Kibungan.

Moving on

Malanes, her son Fernando and family, two unmarried children and two grandchildren left to her care are now occupying a space in the house of a friend in the valley.

The widowed grandmother looks forward to meeting with local officials this week for a possible relocation site where they can rebuild their houses and lives. She seeks to find a place where her grandchildren need not fear the rains and storms.

One of her grandchildren, Clever, 14, the youngest of Fernando and Edwina, remains traumatized, she says. He wouldn’t even want to go back to Little Kibungan and retrieve his things.

“Just get my school ID and school uniform. You don’t have to get my other clothes because I have already received some clothes from relief supplies,” Clever told his grandmother and mother.

Fernando continues to earn for his family’s upkeep as a construction worker.

While looking for a job, Edwina, a preschool teacher, earns extra as a hired hand in La Trinidad’s strawberry and vegetable farms.

If they strive to move on, credit that to “our faith,” says Malanes.

“Laton, ilab-lab-ak tako (It’s OK. We shall overcome),” she says.

Determination

That same faith and determination strengthen the Kankanaey people of Kibungan town, 60 kilometers north of La Trinidad, where Malanes and family hail from.

Kibungan has been isolated since Oct. 9 because of road cuts and landslides that block major roads.

But the hardy Kankanaey, led by Mayor Benito Siadto, renewed their cooperative self-help tradition and volunteerism and have been clearing the roads with shovels and picks.

But so they won’t starve, they have appealed for immediate food aid and heavy equipment to repair eroded and washed-out roads, including a key bridge in the village of Balacbac in Kapangan town.

A mix of ecology, culture, business

2009-09-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Inquirer Headlines / Regions

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20090916-225361/A-mix-of-ecology-culture-business
INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : A mix of ecology, culture, business
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: September 16, 2009

TUBLAY, Benguet—Like a 100-year-old man, Baguio City, which just celebrated its centenary, must be sought for its wisdom in urban development.

But the traffic, land zoning, squatting woes, garbage and central business district congestion are getting harder to manage than ever. The city born out of a colonial American-initiated mining boom in neighboring Benguet towns at the turn of the century is no longer seen as a model for urban development.

So couple Wilson and Narda Capuyan made a wise move when they embarked on a business enterprise, which is away and different from the usual sights and smell of an already congested place.

Just more than a 30-minute drive from Baguio is the Capuyans’ Winaca Eco-Cultural Village, a 31-hectare forested enclave in Tublay town in Benguet, which mixes ecology, healthy dining, Cordillera culture, adventure and pure, clean fun.

They acquired a five-hectare property in 1984, which was foreclosed by a bank, until they eventually bought the adjoining lots, which remain forested until now.

Here, birds chirp, cicadas and crickets sing, a nearby spring and brook murmur, and trees and bamboos sway with the wind.

Terraced and flat areas are devoted to organic gardens, which teem with lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and herbs, such as coriander, parsley, mint and wheat grass.

Interspersed with some of the trees are fruit-bearing ones, such as lemons and oranges.

These gardens and orchards supply the ingredients of organic recipes served fresh at a restaurant within the eco-cultural village.

Products from the gardens are also sold at the couple’s other business outlets, such as Narda’s Trading Center in Baguio. The center also has a restaurant, which sources its vegetables from the eco-cultural village.

Elderly visitors may just want to relax and chat over cups of Arabica coffee or glasses of wheat grass or carrot juice after a meal at the village’s café and restaurant.

But the Capuyans made sure the young would enjoy some adventure at the hiking trail, hanging bridge and cove.

Both young and old guests can also be treated to, if not participate in, cultural shows at a natural amphitheater.

Guests can learn to sing or chant Cordillera tunes and dance to the beat and rhythm of drums and gongs.

The village has a place for those who want to stargaze before they retire at their tents, which they can install at a camping ground.

Or they can share poems, puzzles, prayers and promises with an Igorot elder around an evening bonfire at a dap-ay (a circular meeting venue where people can sit on stones) in the yard of a Sagada hut.

In December last year, Wilson transported to the village the grass-thatched hut, where he was born 62 years ago in Sagada town in Mt. Province. He and his workers reconstructed the dap-ay, where, as a boy, he listened to stories and advice from elders.

He bought other native huts from Benguet, Ifugao and Kalinga. He seeks to complete a representation of the traditional houses from each of the Cordillera provinces, including Abra and Apayao.

“Winaca” means “bound by vine” (its root word, waca or waka, is the Kankanaey term for vine). Winaca also binds the first syllables of the Capuyans’ first names and surname.

But there’s more to Winaca, which, an elder says, represents the business and development philosophy of the Capuyans.

“The Winaca philosophy of human living stresses on developing human resources, building environment-friendly communities and establishing a seat of clan culture to which the young can trace their roots,” says Ventura Bilot, an elder and cultural consultant of the Capuyans.

He describes the Capuyans as coming from humble roots and who developed a “down-to-earth discipline.”

“As true disciples of Kabunian (Igorot term for God) spirituality, Wilson and Narda are responsible trustees to the land,” says Bilot.

Wilson, an engineer, is guided by what Bilot calls the “Winaca formula” of development.

The eco-cultural village is also a real estate business so portions of the area are up for sale for those who wish to build their homes or rest houses within the forested enclave.

But there are conditions and terms for those seeking to build their homes here. One is that Winaca management takes care of the construction so it ensures that “green architecture and engineering” are followed, says Wilson.

This means avoiding cutting trees and moving earth when building a house. A lot must be at least 750 square meters and a house must be built only on a small portion. The bigger portion must be allotted to trees and other vegetation, says Wilson.

Houses cannot also be built in portions with steep slopes. These are instead reserved as part of the enclave’s forest area.

As part of his “green architecture,” Wilson incorporates indigenous materials, such as rono reeds for ceiling and as accents for walls and cabinets and other furniture.
Narda, a native of Besao town, also in Mt. Province, seeks to continue promoting Igorot weaving and other crafts by employing weavers right in the village.

This initiative continues the success story of Narda’s Handwoven Arts and Crafts, which started in 1970 in La Trinidad, Benguet. From weaving blankets from recycled acrylic yarns, Narda moved on to weaving items for home furnishing, fashion and accessories.

Before Facebook, Benguet had ‘man-ayag'

2009-09-02T04:04:00.000-07:00

Before Facebook, Benguet had ‘man-ayag’
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: September 02, 2009

KIBUNGAN, BENGUET, Philippines—Each summer until the 1970s in Benguet, a man on errand called the man-ayag would go to another village or town, if not another province, to invite relatives to attend a festive and religious ceremony called the sida.

He had to carefully watch his way, always looking for signs that could mean success or failure in his mission.

If he would see a flock of birds of various species (locally called the kekesyag and the kalimbabanga) led by a brown, dark gray bird called the lapit or the labeg flying ahead as though leading him, this was considered a good sign. It meant that he would be able to return to his village with a big group of relatives to partake of the sida.

But if the birds crossed his path as if blocking him, he must rethink his task and return to his village to discuss with elders when to resume his journey.

Elders viewed these signs as precautions or warnings for both the man-ayag and the people he would invite. For them, the signs should be auspicious to ensure a smooth and safe trip.

The sida was usually hosted by a family, which prospered in livestock raising and upland farming. As a religious rite, it was a way by which family members would thank the gods and the spirits of their ancestors, who were believed to have given them their bounty.

The sida would also be done when a family member gets sick. The family had to hold the elaborate event to appease the gods and spirits.

Animals, usually pigs and cattle, were offered during the festivity. Tapey (rice wine) flowed as people danced the tayaw and the sadong to the beat and rhythm of gongs and the solibao, an indigenous drum made up of an elongated hollow wood and cow hide cover.

The sida also served a social function, as people discovered relatives while tracing common ancestors.

Defining wealth

The festive rite indicated social status. The more feasts people hosted, the more they were looked up to as the community’s rich.

But they gained respect not because of their accumulated wealth but how much they had given to and shared with relatives and the community.

They lived as simple as their neighbors—they did not have mansions but grass-thatched, single-room huts like those of the other families. The only difference was that their abode would be adorned by the skulls of pigs, which were offered as sacrifices to the gods and spirits, and reminders of how much of their possessions they had shared.

The sida tradition, also called the pedit, is very rarely practiced now because people just can no longer afford it. It is withering away with the introduction of Christianity and the attraction of modern education.

Replacing the sida is the clan reunion, during which members contribute to buy food and gather in a clan leader’s house, on the grounds of a rented school, or inside an auditorium to trace roots and socialize.

Instead of the man-ayag of old, clans now have designated leaders who use mobile phones and AM radio stations to invite members to attend the reunions, which are usually held during summer or Christmas holidays.

They have yet to use Facebook and other Internet social networks because not all clan members have online access.

Growing fuel for rural dev’t

2009-08-18T21:33:00.000-07:00

Growing fuel for rural dev’t
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer Inquirer Northern Luzon
Posted date: August 19, 2009

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines—When environmental scientist Michael Bengwayan and his staff succeeded where government scientists had failed in propagating an upland petroleum-rich tree, he had in mind forsaken rural communities.

“Rural communities must learn to propagate this indigenous tree, extract its fuel and use it to spur their own development,” he says.

Bengwayan, executive director of the Pine Tree, a nongovernment ecological education, training, research and information center in La Trinidad, Benguet, was referring to the “petroleum nut” or resin cheesewood (Pittosporum resinferum).

The plant, which is native to the Cordillera and other upland areas in the Philippines and a few other countries such as China, has an octane rating of 54, compared to jatropha’s 41 to 43. Fossil fuel has an octane rating of 91.

Octane rating is a measure of the ability of a liquid motor fuel, such as gasoline, to prevent pre-ignition or knocking. Fuels with higher octane rating are less likely to cause knocking.

Fuel for countryside

Bengwayan and his technicians discovered how to extract oil from the petroleum nut fruit, which, they said, could be used for cooking, lighting and running simple machines and gadgets, such as water pumps and grinders.

For cooking, petroleum nut oil is not only more efficient and cheaper than firewood or charcoal. Three to five trees can yield about 15 liters of oil per harvest, and since harvest is twice a year, these amount to 30 liters, which a family can use for cooking for three to four months, says Bengwayan.

Fifteen to 20 trees can already supply a family’s year-round cooking fuel needs.
Three parts of petroleum nut oil, however, have to be blended with one part of kerosene if used for cooking.

Once it becomes popularized as cooking fuel, petroleum nut oil can free upland people from cutting trees for firewood or charcoal. This can help save and enable critical forests and watersheds to regenerate, Bengwayan says.

For lighting, two parts of petroleum nut oil can be mixed with one part of kerosene to fuel a Petromax lamp. But petroleum nut oil need not be blended with anything if used for a simple oil lamp.

As water pump fuel, petroleum nut oil can enable upland residents to draw water from lower elevations for irrigation or household use.

The possibilities that petroleum nut oil can do to propel rural industries are endless, says Bengwayan. Upland folk can use the tree oil for blacksmithing, food processing, milling grains, threshing rice and grinding reeds, grasses and weeds for compost, among other things.

With its higher octane, petroleum nut oil can also be tapped as alternative fuel for vehicles.

But Bengwayan is keen on propagating the plant for simple industries in neglected rural communities than promoting it as alternative fuel for vehicles, which only a few rural residents can afford.

This, he says, is in consonance with his organization’s mission of fighting poverty and environmental decay through scientific research and innovations.

Community control

But rural communities must secure and take control over this highly priced tree, which, Bengwayan says, is a rare species also under threat from biopirates.

For this to happen, they must learn the basics of propagating and planting the tree through seed-banking, extracting the oil and finally documenting these, he says.

“Documenting the tree’s traditional and new uses is the communities’ means of protection against outsiders who may attempt to patent its properties and uses,” he says.

Under patent rules, applicants can only seek patents for those that are new. So outsiders cannot patent uses or properties which communities have already discovered and documented.

Bengwayan says the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) can help communities protect their endemic resources through documentation before “biopirates” come in.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and Article 8(j) of the United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity protect traditional knowledge against those who seek to steal the resources of indigenous communities and its accompanying traditional uses.

As a rare species, petroleum nut is best propagated through seeds.

The Forest Research Institute of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has succeeded in propagating petroleum nut through cutting, using tissue culture.

But Bengwayan discourages this because taking the branches of the few remaining petroleum nut trees in the forests for tissue-culture will all the more lead to their extinction.

He says the best way is to propagate the oil tree through seeds and bring back the seedlings to the forests.

Propagating the seeds, however, is challenging and it requires patience. Bengwayan and his technicians almost gave up in their experiment of propagating oil tree through seeds in 2005.

But just as when they almost lost their patience, the petroleum nut seeds they sowed began to germinate after almost three months. “We found out the seed of this tree had a long dormancy (temporary cessation of growth or metabolism),” he says.

They lost no time in propagating petroleum nut seeds starting 2006, securing these in nurseries.

They have since propagated more than 30,000 seedlings, which they have scheduled to give to some 23 farmers in the upland towns of Kibungan and Kapangan in Benguet. These will be planted during the rainy season.

Cory's speech that conquered America

2009-08-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

(Note: I am reprinting this transcript of Tita Cory's speech, which I got from the blog of another fan of the woman in yellow. I also came to appreciate the speech after I watched Jessica Soho's 2008 interview with our former president, which was shown (3 or 4 August) after our beloved Tita and mother succumbed to cancer 1 August 2009. This was a speech, which, some said, conquered America. This is a speech, which we can let our children read so they will learn to appreciate the freedom they are currently enjoying and will be ready to protect this freedom when it is subverted. s.)

(Complete Transcript of President Corazon C. Aquino’s Speech before U.S. Congress

Pres. Aquino’s interview back in 2008 with Jessica Soho revealed that one of the highs during her Presidency was when she spoke before the U.S. Congress, another was when she made the cover of Time Magazine as Woman of the Year.

A commenter requested for a copy of the Full Transcript of Pres. Aquino’s Speech but I could not find one online. I took the liberty to watch and listen as I transcribed her speech from Youtube videos.

Some of the words may have been misspelled since I couldn’t make out the words properly. Please feel free to send in corrections if necessary and I would be happy to correct it.

In honor of Pres. Corazon Aquino, I am presenting the transcript of her magnificent speech before U.S. Congress. The speech was so eloquently delivered by Pres. Cory Aquino that I wanted to capture every word. As I was reading through the written words, it reminded me why I rallied behind her, why every Filipino did as well. We will surely remember her forever. She was a woman of integrity and strength. As a tribute to my beloved President, here’s the full transcript.)

President Corazon C. Aquino’s Historic Speech before the joint session of the United States Congress,
Washington, D.C. - September 18, 1986

Mr. Speaker, Senator Thurmond, Distinguished members of Congress.

Three years ago I left America in grief, to bury my husband Ninoy Aquino. I thought I had left it also, to lay to rest his restless dream of Philippine freedom. Today, I have returned as the President of a free people.

In burying Ninoy, a whole nation honored him by that brave and selfless act of giving honor to a nation in shame recovered its own. A country that had lost faith in its future, founded in a faithless and brazen act of murder. So, in giving we receive, in losing we find, and out of defeat we snatched our victory. For the nation, Ninoy became the pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers for freedom.

For myself and our children, Ninoy was a loving husband and father. His loss, three times in our lives was always a deep and painful one. Fourteen years ago this month, was the first time we lost him. A president-turned-dictator and traitor to his oath, suspended the constitution and shutdown the Congress that was much like this one before which I’m honored to speak. He detained my husband along with thousands of others - Senators, publishers, and anyone who had spoken up for the democracy as its end drew near. But for Ninoy, a long and cruel ordeal was reserved. The dictator already knew that Ninoy was not a body merely to be imprisoned but a spirit he must break. For even as the dictatorship demolished one-by-one; the institutions of democracy, the press, the congress, the independence of a judiciary, the protection of the Bill of Rights, Ninoy kept their spirit alive in himself.

The government sought to break him by indignities and terror. They locked him up in a tiny, nearly airless cell in a military camp in the north. They stripped him naked and held a threat of a sudden midnight execution over his head. Ninoy held up manfully under all of it. I barely did as well. For forty-three days, the authorities would not tell me what had happened to him. This was the first time my children and I felt we had lost him.

When that didn’t work, they put him on trial for subversion, murder and a host of other crimes before a military commission. Ninoy challenged its authority and went on a fast. If he survived it, then he felt God intended him for another fate. We had lost him again. For nothing would hold him back from his determination to see his fast through to the end. He stopped only when it dawned on him that the government would keep his body alive after the fast had destroyed his brain. And so, with barely any life in his body, he called off the fast on the 40th day. God meant him for other things, he felt. He did not know that an early death would still be his fate, that only the timing was wrong. At any time during his long ordeal, Ninoy could have made a separate peace with a dictatorship as so many of his countrymen had done. But the spirit of democracy that inheres in our race and animates this chamber could not be allowed to die. He held out in the loneliness of his cell and the frustration of exile, the democratic alternative to the insatiable greed and mindless cruelty of the right and the purging holocaust of the left.

And then, we lost him irrevocably and more painfully than in the past. The news came to us in Boston. It had to be after the three happiest years of our lives together. But his death was my country’s resurrection and the courage and faith by which alone they could be free again. The dictator had called him a nobody. Yet, two million people threw aside their passivity and fear and escorted him to his grave.

And so began the revolution that has brought me to democracy’s most famous home, The Congress of the United States.

The task had fallen on my shoulders, to continue offering the democratic alternative to our people. Archibald Macleish had said that democracy must be defended by arms when it is attacked by arms, and with truth when it is attacked by lies. He failed to say how it shall be won. I held fast to Ninoy’s conviction that it must be by the ways of democracy. I held out for participation in the 1984 election the dictatorship called, even if I knew it would be rigged. I was warned by the lawyers of the opposition, that I ran the grave risk of legitimizing the foregone results of elections that were clearly going to be fraudulent. But I was not fighting for lawyers but for the people in whose intelligence, I had implicit faith. By the exercise of democracy even in a dictatorship, they would be prepared for democracy when it came. And then also, it was the only way I knew by which we could measure our power even in the terms dictated by the dictatorship. The people vindicated me in an election shamefully marked by government thuggery and fraud. The opposition swept the elections, garnering a clear majority of the votes even if they ended up (thanks to a corrupt Commission on Elections) with barely a third of the seats in Parliament. Now, I knew our power.

Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called for its doom in a snap election. The people obliged. With over a million signatures they drafted me to challenge the dictatorship. And I, obliged.

The rest is the history that dramatically unfolded on your television screens and across the front pages of your newspapers. You saw a nation armed with courage and integrity, stand fast by democracy against threats and corruption. You saw women poll watchers break out in tears as armed goons crashed the polling places to steal the ballots. But just the same, they tied themselves to the ballot boxes. You saw a people so committed to the ways of democracy that they were prepared to give their lives for its pale imitation. At the end of the day before another wave of fraud could distort the results, I announced the people’s victory.

Many of you here today played a part in changing the policy of your country towards ours. We, the Filipinos thank each of you for what you did. FOr balancing America’s strategic interest against human concerns illuminates the American vision of the world. The co-chairman of the United States observer team, in his report to the President said, “I was witness to an extraordinary manifestation of democracy on the part of the Filipino people. The ultimate result was the election of Mrs. Corazon Aqauino as President and Mr. Salvador Laurel as Vice-President of the Philippines.”

When a subservient parliament announced my opponent’s victory, the people then turned out in the streets and proclaimed me the President of all the people. And true to their word, when a handful of military leaders declared themselves against the dictatorship, the people rallied to their protection. Surely, the people take care of their own. It is on that faith and the obligation it entails that I assumed the Presidency.

As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. That is my contract with my people and my commitment to God. He had willed that the blood drawn with a lash shall not in my country be paid by blood drawn byh the sword but by the tearful joy of reconciliation. We have swept away absolute power by a limited revolution that respected the life and freedom of every Filipino.

Now, we are restoring full constitutional government. Again as we restore democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the constitutional structures of our new democracy under a constitution that already gives full respect to the Bill of Rights. A jealously independent constitutional commission is completing its draft which will be submitted later this year to a popular referendum. When it is approved, there will be elections for both national and local positions. So, within about a year from a peaceful but national upheaval that overturned a dictatorship, we shall have returned to full constitutional government.

Given the polarization and breakdown we inherited, this is no small achievement. My predecessor set aside democracy to save it from a communist insurgency that numbered less than five hundred. Unhampered by respect for human rights he went at it with hammer and tongs. By the time he fled, that insurgency had grown to more than sixteen thousand. I think there is a lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a thing with a means by which it grows. I don’t think anybody in or outside our country, concerned for a democratic and open Philippines doubts what must be done. Through political initiatives and local re-integration programs, we must seek to bring the insurgents down from the hills and by economic progress and justice, show them that which the best-intentioned among them fight. As president among my people, I will not betray the cause of peace by which I came to power. Yet, equally and again, no friend of Filipino democracy will challenge this. I will not stand by and allow an insurgent leadership to spurn our offer of peace and kill our young soldiers and threaten our new freedom.

Yet, I must explore the path of peace to the utmost. For at its end, whatever disappointment I meet there is the moral basis for laying down the Olive branch of peace and taking up the sword of war.

Still, should it come to that, I will not waiver from the course laid down by your great liberator.

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds. To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and for his orphans to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Like Abraham Lincoln, I understand that force may be necessary before mercy. Like Lincoln, I don’t relish it. Yet, I will do whatever it takes to defend the integrity and freedom of my country.

Finally may I turn to that other slavery, our twenty-six billion dollar foreign debt. I have said that we shall honor it. Yet, the means by which we shall be able to do so are kept from us. Many of the conditions imposed on the previous government that stole this debt, continue to be imposed on us who never benefited from it.

And no assistance or liberality commensurate with the calamity that was vested on us have been extended. Yet ours must have been the cheapest revolution ever. With little help from others, we Filipinos fulfilled the first and most difficult condition of the debt negotiation, the full restoration of democracy and responsible government. Elsewhere and in other times, a more stringent world economic conditions, marshal plans and their like were felt to be necessary companions of returning democracy.

When I met with President Reagan, we began an important dialogue about cooperation and the strengthening of friendship between our two countries. That meeting was both a confirmation and a new beginning. I am sure it will lead to positive results in all areas of common concern. Today, we face the aspiration of a people who have known so much poverty and massive unemployment for the past 14 years. And yet offer their lives for the abstraction of democracy.

Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area or impoverished village. They came to me with one cry, DEMOCRACY. Not food although they clearly needed it but DEMOCRACY. Not work, although they surely wanted it but DEMOCRACY. Not money, for they gave what little they had to my campaign. They didn’t expect me to work a miracle that would instantly put food into their mouths, clothes on their back, education in their children and give them work that will put dignity in their lives. But I feel the pressing obligation to respond quickly as the leader of the people so deserving of all these things.

We face a communist insurgency that feeds on economic deterioration even as we carry a great share of the free world defenses in the Pacific. These are only two of the many burdens my people carry even as they try to build a worthy and enduring house for their new democracy. That may serve as well as a redoubt for freedom in Asia. Yet, no sooner as one stone laid than two are taken away. Half our export earnings, two billion dollars out of four billion dollars which is all we can earn in the restrictive market of the world, must go to pay just the interest on a debt whose benefit the Filipino people never received.

Still we fought for honor and if only for honor, we shall pay. And yet, should we have to ring the payments from the sweat of our men’s faces and sink all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two-hundred fifty years of unrequitted toil. Yet, to all Americans, as the leader to a proud and free people, I address this question, “Has there been a greater test of national commitment to the ideals you hold dear than that my people have gone through? You have spent many lives and much treasure to bring freedom to many lands that were reluctant to receive it. And here, you have a people who want it by themselves and need only the help to preserve it.”

Three years ago I said, Thank you America for the haven from opression and the home you gave Ninoy, myself and our children and for the three happiest years of our lives together. Today I say, join us America as we build a new home for democracy; another haven for the opressed so it may stand as a shining testament of our two nations’ commitment to freedom.

**********

After the speech, Sen. Bob Dole said to President Aquino, “Mrs. President, You’ve hit a home run.”

“I hope the bases were loaded.”, she replied.

Later that day, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to give the Philippines an assistance package of $200 million dollars.

Tita Cory, democratic space, and a wedding

2009-08-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

Tita Cory, democratic space, and a wedding
By Maurice Malanes
3 August 2009

Let me remember President Corazon Aquino through my own life.

The call of the 1970s and early 1980s had thrust me into activism. The country was under a dictatorship, which pushed many youths not only to activism but also to extreme options like going to the hills to take up arms. I didn’t choose such extreme option.

After finishing my undergraduate course, I became part of a church-based ecumenical institution, which sought to challenge church leaders and laypersons to live out their Christian faith in service to the least of their brethren. That was mid-1982.

I was not much of an activist while in college. I was more inclined towards spiritual pursuits. Books on Oriental philosophies and religions appealed more to me than Das Capital or Philippine Society and Revolution. So the Buddha’s middle way or the path of moderation became as appealing as Lord Jesus Christ’s admonition of loving God with all of your being, loving your neighbor as you love yourself and loving even one’s enemy. As a seeker, I also tried listening to the doctrines of various groups such as the Moonies, the Mormons, the Iglesia ni Kristo, and the following of a spiritual teacher who stressed on the spiritual path of bhakti or devotional service to God. I later appreciated how the path of bhakti reinforced the path of servant-leadership Lord Christ himself lived and showed.

These spiritual pursuits in a way helped prepare me when I became part of this church-based ecumenical institute. This institute sought to challenge church leaders and laypeople to transcend their God-and-me mindset and broaden this towards a God-me-and-society kind of faith. The country was under martial law so the challenge our educators at the institute often posed was: How can you live out your faith in the face of excesses, killings and other human rights abuses, oppression, hunger and poverty amidst abundance, plunder and corruption? The institute in a way helped mold activist priests, pastors, nuns and other church workers.

At that time talking about and defending human rights would put you in danger. Small wonder, the lives of church people who did advocate about human rights and social justice were at risk. Some had been summarily killed or had disappeared without a trace. (Unfortunately, these things still happen and remain among the tragic ironies of our time more than 20 years after the ouster of the Marcoses.)

In the course of my work with this ecumenical institute, I met my would-be life-time partner and friend. That was 1985 and the protest against strongman Ferdinand Marcos rule was mounting. The protest against the dictatorship began to rise after the assassination of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on 21 August 1983 at the Manila International Airport during his return following a three-year exile in the U.S. He was assassinated while being escorted by soldiers sent by Marcos.
Under Marcos, life was difficult for activists. Still, even under difficult times, love and courtship had a way of entering our lives. But at that time the future seemed uncertain so the thought of marriage and the desire of settling down and living normal lives seemed remote. Marriage and raising a family had to wait.

But unknown to me, a significant phase of history was unfolding. The heightening protest against 20 years of authoritarian rule, 14 years of them under martial law, forced Marcos to hold a snap presidential election in 1985. Reports say the election was also pushed by the US. Sen. Aquino’s widow, Corazon, after too much prodding from oppositionists and critics of Marcos, finally accepted to challenge Marcos in the elections.

The state-controlled election commission declared Marcos the winner in that election. But tallies of the independent election watchdog, Namfrel (National Movement for Free Elections) showed otherwise.

The questionable results of that snap election angered a nation yearning for freedom and democracy. Protest rallies swelled on the streets of Manila and other cities. Meantime, soldiers led by constabulary chief Gen. Fidel Ramos and then defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile revolted against Marcos in February 1986.

Corazon Aquino and Manila Cardinal Jaime Sin called on Filipinos to mass on the streets of EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue) to support the Ramos-Enrile-led military revolt. The throngs of people did not only save the necks of the revolting soldiers, who, without "people power," could have been sitting ducks for Marcos’ soldiers. The “people power” peaceful revolution finally convinced Marcos that his time was up.

My girlfriend still takes pride in recalling that she was part of the throngs of Filipinos who trooped to EDSA to drive away a dictator. I was also in Baguio City, 250 kms north of Manila, participating in a counterpart “people power” vigil at the Baguio Cathedral. With the Marcoses ousted and exiled to Hawaii on 25 February 1986, Corazon Aquino was proclaimed president at Club Filipino in San Juan. Marcos’ so-called New Society era was over, and another era just began.

Under Tita Cory, anti-Marcos activists enjoyed a reprieve. Cory’s government provided some kind of a democratic space, which enabled a number of activists to rethink and re-plan their lives. For my part, that democratic space became an auspicious time to get married. So one fine morning on 7 June 1986, my fiancée and I were wed at the Church of the Risen Lord at the University of the Philippines-Diliman campus in Quezon City. The wedding was ecumenical. Jesuit priest Carlos Abesamis (now deceased) of Ateneo’s Loyola House and United Church of Christ in the Philippines’ bishops Juan Marigza, Ben Dominguez, and Erme Camba officiated our wedding.

After our wedding, I focused on journalism, which I failed to practice full-time under Marcos.

For Tita Cory, who left us 3:18 early morning of 1 August 2009 when all of us were sound asleep, I join the rest of the nation in saying, “Thank you very much.” Without the democratic space Tita Cory’s government provided, my wedding could have been postponed indefinitely or could have been scuttled outright. With that democratic space, I have since been practicing my journalism, writing for newspapers also borne out of people power.

My wife and I now have two sons, whom we are struggling to support until they can stand on their own toes. Through them, we continue to relay the story of our lives, which, like those of the rest of the nation, Tita Cory helped shape and influence in a positive, loving way.

Boycott bottled water to save earth, urges Filipino bishop

2009-07-28T15:35:00.001-07:00

Boycott bottled water to save earth, urges Filipino bishop
ENI-09-0597
By Maurice Malanes

Baguio City, Philippines, 28 July (ENI)--As a boy, Carlito Cenzon drank water straight from springs so he knew what it meant to feel connected with the planet.

Now, as the Roman Catholic bishop of Baguio in northern Philippines, Cenzon laments, "People have lost their interconnectedness with Mother Earth ever since bottled water became another well-advertised commercial consumer item." He was speaking at a 28 July forum in Baguio.

Cenzon recalled how, as a boy, he and his playmates would wander in the mountains without having to bring any packed lunch or water because, "we could always drink from springs and eat wild berries and other wild fruits".

The forum was to tackle ways in which citizens could get involved in protecting this city of 400 000 people from environmental decay. Asked what citizens could do to help their city, Cenzon, aged 70, said, "We can do simple, practical things like boycotting bottled water."

He cited studies saying bottling water leads to unnecessary use of plastics, as well as fuel for transport, which ultimately contribute to climate change.

A report published by the Department of Environment and Climate Change of the state of New South Wales, stated that in 2006, consumption of 250 million litres of bottled water by Australians was responsible for releasing 60 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, blamed for global warming.

Cenzon said an expert analysed the tap water at a centre from by the Catholic Church in Baguio and said it was cleaner and had more minerals than bottled water.

But in this city where leaking, poorly maintained pipes sometimes contaminate tap water, Cenzon said that citizens must be vigilant in asserting their right to clean and safe water.

"We must demand from our officials that providing us safe water must be part of good governance," said the bishop. But just to be sure, Cenzon said he invested on a portable filtration equipment to filter tap water "so I don't need to buy bottled water".

The bishop's bottled-water boycott drive supplements other similar initiatives elsewhere. In early July, Agence France-Presse reported that the Australian town of Bundanoon was set to ban bottled water over concerns about its environmental impact.

In Geneva, the Ecumenical Water Network, an international network of church-linked agencies campaigning on water, urges people to avoid bottled water wherever possible.

An environmentalist, Bishop Cenzon has also helped lead a drive to rehabilitate and reforest threatened watersheds in this city 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Manila, whose water demand increases to more than 100 000 cubic metres a day during the tourist season from December to May.

In Baguio, the war for water has just begun

2009-07-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : In Baguio, the war for water has just begun
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: July 28, 2009

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—Baguio will be 100 years old by September 1, and already, it is experiencing signs of decay, which, experts say, can be stopped by long-term planning that transcends the terms of its elected officials.

The experts cite the dilemma of handling 144 tons of garbage daily, which calls for a more lasting solution than spending P65 million in seven months to haul these to a dump in Capas, Tarlac, about 100 kilometers away.

Be it garbage disposal system or other aspects of urban development, a lesson learned after 100 years stood out during a conference on the summer capital’s centenary at the University of the Philippines Baguio early this year.

This was the need for an urban development planning that would look beyond the three-year terms of elected officials.

Beyond a lifetime

UP Baguio economics professor Arturo Boquiren zeroed in on Baguio’s “carrying capacity,” particularly how it could provide water to a growing population.

Boquiren urged officials and planners to look farther ahead of their lifetimes and anticipate the city’s water needs a century hence.

Based on a 2.15-percent growth rate (1995-2000 census), Baguio’s 252,386 people in 2000 could swell to 2,510,784 in 2109. The population doubles every 32.5 years.

The 2.5 million people would require 180.7 million cubic meters of water yearly, based on a 220-liter per capita for both domestic and industrial uses, Boquiren said.

“Given Baguio’s land area of 57.49 square kilometers and 1.430 meters of rainfall per annum, rain could provide only 82.2 million cubic meters, even if we assume all lands of Baguio are utilized for rainwater capture,” he said.

“Thus, we will be about 100 million cubic meters of water short. This implies that we need more than double of Baguio’s land area devoted for rain capture to supply water for 2.5 million people.”

Following this scenario, Boquiren asked: “Do we want the [current] trend of development in the city to continue? What are our options?”

As it is, development continues to be concentrated within city environs. Boquiren thus supports the idea of dispersing development to neighboring towns so they can also benefit from the fruits of economic development.

Baguio has something to start with. After it was devastated by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in 1990, European and local experts were mobilized to draw up plans to help rehabilitate the city. They came out with what was called the BLIST Structural Plan. (BLIST refers to Baguio and its neighboring towns—La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan and Tuba, all in Benguet.)

The kernel of the plan is to bring development throughout BLIST so that people will not flock to an already congested central business district and university belt.
Except for La Trinidad, the other BLIST members have sufficient water resources, which can sustain population growth.

Water governance

Supplementing the BLIST plan are recommendations by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (Iclei), which was established in 1990 when more than 200 local governments from 43 countries met during the first World Congress of Local Governments for a Sustainable Future in New York.

The Iclei studied Baguio’s water situation in 2004 and proposed a Sustainable Water Integrated Management (SWIM) program.

To institute the SWIM, then Mayor Braulio Yaranon signed Executive Order No. 4 in 2005, which seeks to strengthen coordination between national agencies, such as the National Water Resources Board, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and a yet-to-be-created City Resources Board.

The program includes the establishment of a Local Water Environmental Trust Fund to lock in eco-corporate responsibility over the use and pollution of water resources.

The BLIST and the SWIM remain on paper, waiting for the political will of officials to push serious long-term planning.

Threats

As more people occupy Baguio, the city faces threats and challenges, among them water-related.

Early this year, the Baguio Water District reported 800 illegally operated deep wells, which, it warned, would destroy the city’s aquifers, the ground sources of water.

People have already encroached on vital watersheds, building houses and other structures that threaten clean sources of a vital resource.

On the strength of a recent Supreme Court decision, the city government has scheduled the demolition of 34 houses in the Busol watershed reservation this week. Busol supplies 30 percent of the city’s water needs.

But the city government expects a confrontation with residents, who are decrying a supposed injustice and a selective process. Why out of hundreds of houses, only 34 were given demolition orders, they ask aloud.

They have vowed to put a fight.

Simplicity theology' for sustainable future

2009-07-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

(Reprinted from Maurice Malanes'file)

Simplicity theology' for sustainable future

By Maurice Malanes, Ecumenical News International |

MANILA (ENI, 1/8/09) — A group of Christian leaders is pushing for a "theology of simplicity and caring" to bring hope to a "prodigal world" teetering under a burden of widespread economic crisis, and climate change that could submerge small islands in the Pacific.

"It is time to challenge the growth-is-success myth, which also has contaminated the Church, and shift to a more transformative way of thinking and lifestyle in tune with God's creative order and purpose," said Daniel Kim Dong-Sung of the Saemoonan Presbyterian Church in Seoul, which is said to be the oldest Protestant congregation in South Korea.

Linda Mead, a lay leader of the United Reformed Church in Britain, said the call of the times is for Christians to help lead the way in "living more simply amidst climate change."

Dong-Sung and Mead proposed actions such as taking public transport instead of using cars, recycling, and re-using products like old clothes, plastics and paper to reduce wastage and to help prevent unnecessary exploitation of resources.

"Let's recycle everything but sermons," urged Jione Havea, originally from Tonga and currently with the Charles Sturt University and the United Theological College near Sydney in North Parramatta, Australia.

The three Christian leaders were among participants from 24 countries who met from Dec. 12 to 16 in Manila to launch a global ecumenical movement for "economic and ecological justice" called Oikotree.

Mead reported that in Britain many churches are seeking to lower carbon emissions, to make lifestyle changes and to work with local communities. She noted that churches are looking at the theology behind climate change and how it will affect Bible studies and liturgy.

Edith Rassel of the United Church of Christ in the United States said her involvement in the movement for economic and ecological justice was not limited to resisting "neo-liberalism." It also includes promoting spiritual practices and lifestyles such as vegetarian meals and biking instead of driving.

Referring to small Pacific islands under threat of disappearing due to climate change, Makoni Pulu, a Pacific Conference of Churches youth leader, urged Christians to "see things in a new way as we wrestle to cleanse injustice and greed in our hearts."

Christians may also learn from indigenous and rural communities where sharing and caring are part of life, said Josephine Muchelemba, a Zambian theologian and church leader from Lusaka. "As children, my sister and I would share a blanket and our parents and neighbors would work the farms through the exchange of labor," said Muchelemba.

In the search for alternatives, Park Seong-Won of the Young Nam Theological University in Kyeong San, South Korea urged Christians "not to grow tired and weary in doing good" and to search for better alternatives to humanity's current rut.

Baguio's Ibaloi street names

2009-06-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20090610-209669/Ibaloi-street-names-also-replaced
INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : Ibaloi street names also replaced
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Posted date: June 10, 2009

FROM SESSION ROAD and Leonard Wood Drive to Governor Pack and Harrison Roads, many of Baguio City’s streets have been named after American colonial officials who became the icons of a history still dominantly written and taught from the colonizers’ viewpoint.

But a few street names in Ibaloi reveal something else.

Before it was transformed into a hill station for colonial officials to escape the heat, humidity and dust of Manila, Baguio was home to the indigenous Ibaloi with their herds of cattle.

Many parts of what is now the business district used to ooze with springs where carabaos (water buffaloes) wallowed. Just a few meters from City Hall, a street was thus named Chanum (water).

Intersecting Chanum are Chugum (Wind) and Chuntug (Mountain) streets. These names may appear simple, but water, wind and mountain (or earth), besides fire, are considered among the essential elements of life.

So it was not surprising that Ibaloi and other Igorot peoples would build their homes near springs where they could have access to water.

Also near City Hall and behind Abanao (Wide) Street is a narrow street called Otek (Small). A street that goes uphill from Abanao is also called Kayang (High).

Other streets or roads and villages with Ibaloi names include Kisad (a condition when a priestess is possessed by a spirit during a religious rite), Bokawkan (wherever something has been removed), Lucban (orange), and Guisad (the same as Kisad and the name of a valley at the head of which the early Filipinos lived).

Some Ibaloi place names, however, have been replaced by colonial names and no longer evoke memories of the old topography and Ibaloi past, says Laurence Wilson, a former Presbyterian minister who moved to Baguio and became a mining prospector in the 1930s.

The market site used to be called Javjavan (native blacksmith shop); Cathedral Hill was called Kampaw (a social gathering place reminiscent of the Bontoc ato or Sagada’s dap-ay, a place where elders meet for dialogues and meetings); Teachers’ Camp used to be called Urengao (oily water); and below City Camp was Oliveg (whirlpool where rainwater runs out through a channel in the limestone).

Only a few Ibaloi street and place names have been retained. But Wilson’s study of these names, including those already replaced, shows that the Ibaloi knew and understood well every nook and cranny of their abode like the palm of their hands, something that got blurred as a result of colonization and urbanization. Maurice Malanes

What’s Baguio to Wood and Wood to Baguio

2009-06-09T16:15:00.000-07:00

INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

Inquirer Northern Luzon : What’s Baguio to Wood and Wood to Baguio
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Posted date: June 10, 2009

AUTHOR and former University of the Philippines Baguio Prof. Ricardo Torres Jr. has long been familiar with Leonard Wood Drive in Baguio City, but he discovered something that awakened his basic “researcher’s instincts.”

The road was named after the American colonial governor general who helped establish Baguio as a hill station where he and other colonial officials, sick soldiers, sojourning colonials, mine prospectors and bored wives of colonial masters in Manila would come to relax and recuperate.

But Torres, who authored books on development, had an interesting discovery about Wood, which, he said, could make the colonial official “a stuff of legends” and possibly “a perfect material for Regal Films.”

Wood captured Torres’ enthusiasm in 2007 when he visited Culion, Palawan.
Culion in Philippine history books is described as a “leper colony.” The place used to carry a stigma as the island was developed as a sanitarium to segregate and find the cure for people affected with the Hansen disease or ketong (leprosy).

On his last day in Culion, Torres was walking toward the old town and in the middle of the old plaza, he saw a big monument under the shade of old acacia trees. On the faded memorial plate of the monument reads: “Dr. Leonard Wood: Built by patients and friends of Dr. Wood.”

“I didn’t know Leonard Wood was a physician. I only knew him as a road,” Torres said in a paper he read during the Baguio Centennial Conference at UP Baguio in March.
Torres was among dozens of academics, researchers and historians who presented papers—all valuable fragments of Baguio’s history—during the conference, which was UP Baguio’s contribution to the city’s celebration of its centenary this year.

“I was intrigued why Leonard Wood deserved a road in an upland city and a monument in a far-flung, God-forsaken island town,” he said.

Awakened instincts

He typed “Leonard Wood biography” on Google and it provided 239,000 search results in 0.23 seconds. “Leonard Wood” alone had 1,160,000 results in 0.15 seconds.

Among other things, Torres discovered a Fort Leonard Wood for military personnel in Missouri and a Leonard Wood Institute that does military researches to help the US Army brace for the future.

Closer to home is a Leonard Wood Leprosy Research Center in Cebu. And it was Wood who advocated the search for cure and care of leprosy in Culion, ordering the allotment of a big chunk of the colonial budget for this.

Torres discovered that Culion was Wood’s “second Cuba.” Described as a physician with a passion, Wood helped eradicate yellow fever in Cuba.

But Torres’ search always points to Philippine history when nationalism and the clamor for independence from the United States was a raging movement.

Wood had strongly opposed this movement because the soldier and physician, Torres noted, believed that the Philippines was not ready for independence as the country and its people had a very poor and pathetic public sanitation.

Torres had another interesting note: Upon Wood’s advice, his wife got hold of the largest gold tiara that was unearthed in Butuan in southern Philippines in 1922.

Many colonial faces

History described Wood as harsh, heartless, ruthless, uncompromising and tactless. As governor general from 1921 to 1927, Wood was “impatient” with Filipinos agitating for independence. In 1923, he banned the display of photographs of Filipino heroes in public schools.

The famous remark of Commonwealth President Manuel L. Quezon, “I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos to a government run like heaven by Americans,” was said to have been made in reference to Wood.

And Wood’s dispute with Quezon included Baguio, said Torres. While Wood was advertising Baguio as the year-round national capital, El Debate, a magazine that Quezon controlled, “expressed that it is wrong to [advertise] Baguio since it is already popular and needs no propaganda” from someone like Wood.

The famous American writer Mark Twain also characterized Wood as a “colonial savage.” Twain cited how Wood in 1906 ordered and later justified the massacre of 600 Moro men, women and children in Mindanao.

Despite Wood’s ruthlessness and heartlessness, Torres noted another side of the colonial ruler, which could be worth considering at least in terms of governance and exercising political will.

Wood did not only push to develop Camp John Hay when he was commanding general of the Philippine Department from 1906 to 1908. He strove to develop Baguio as “an educational center of forum” for indoctrinating Igorot peoples.

When the basic infrastructures for the city were being built, Wood persuaded Mayor Eusebius Julius Halsema and the city council to fund a nursery for pine and eucalyptus trees to reforest barren areas, expressing alarm over the massive cutting of trees in the city.

He was said to be so concerned about the health of the population that, during one visit here, he dismissed the city physician for failing to contain 15 cases of typhoid fever.

Wood has ambitions, too

“Wood was a man with many colonial faces; a dedicated physician, a ruthless soldier and a military administrator with ambitions to be the next president of America,” Torres said.

He was a dedicated part of America’s Manifest Destiny. On a crusade and on the road to be a legend, Wood imposed a cure for countries that were, in his opinion, unable to govern themselves, Torres said.

Interestingly, Baguio helped cool Wood’s head. Torres noted how Wood and his wife would drive to Baguio “to relax from the rigors of colonial administration.”
He would take long walks and plan for its development and “you can perhaps hear him—no cutting of trees or I’ll shoot you,” Torres said.

According to him, Wood embodies one of the “idols of history” and perhaps the history of Baguio and the Philippines gives an “overemphasis on great men.”

Wood’s monument in Culion, said Torres, is an “idealized representation” of the ruthless man that was friend to the lepers but a burden to public finance.

“From another angle, Wood was made part of history by the councilors of Baguio, those who defined power,” he said. “In Culion, however, it was powerless Hansenites (lepers) that enshrined him to be part of history.”

In Baguio, Wood deserves that road named after him only if roads are for legends, Torres said.

After independence and after Wood, Baguio, he said, is now being built for lowland migrants, tourists, visitors, excursionists, traders and the ukay-ukay (used clothes) crowd.

As Baguio celebrates its centenary, Torres has posed a challenge as the city continues to idolize Wood: “Has anyone asked what happened then to the home of the Ibaloi? Is this part of history now just a mere representation?”

Thinking of the Filipino palate amid Mad Cow disease scare

2009-06-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

(Reprinted from archive)

Thinking of the Filipino palate amid Mad Cow disease scare
By Maurice Malanes

Northern Luzon Inquirer--Thursday 29 March 2001

Time was when the traditional Filipino diet depended on where one lived.

Those who lived along the coastlines would rely mainly on fish and other seafood for their protein sources. The Igorot folk of old would get their protein mainly from wide varieties of upland beans and grains, and occasionally from meat when they would hold their traditional thanksgiving feasts called ca�ao or pedit.

Until now, most Igorot folk, particularly those in the hinterlands, still rely mainly on plant proteins and freshwater fish.

So traditionally the Filipino diet has been plant-centered. But thanks to the proponents of the steak and burger religion, the Filipino's healthier vegetable-fish-oriented taste buds shifted toward something meaty as steakhouses and burger chains continued to mushroom in urban areas from Tuguegarao City in Luzon to Davao City in Mindanao.

And proof that these establishments are cashing in on the Filipino's changing taste buds is that they now belong to the country's top 1,000 corporations.

With the Mad Cow and foot-and-mouth diseases now threatening cattle and livestock in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, which export a substantial amount of their livestock products to the Philippines, Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor has advised Filipinos to patronize locally raised cattle and livestock.

Problem is how can Filipino consumers be assured that the processed meats they buy from the groceries, such as sausages, hotdogs and hams, or the burgers they eat in fastfood chains are not tainted?

Advice

One good advice comes from Dr. Micaela Defiesta, Cordillera director of the National Nutritional Council.

"If it's not possible to eat beef and pork, we can go for fish," she said.

Fish, the traditional protein source in this archipelago, "unfortunately is not given priority," she said. "More and more Filipinos now go for burgers and steaks."

With the Mad Cow and foot-and-mouth diseases, Defiesta agrees with the suggestion that it is time for Filipinos to re-educate and re-orient their palates.

"If our forebears had simple but healthier taste buds, why can't we?" she asked. "My advice is for parents to put more fish in the diet of their children."

Fish, she said, has the same quality of protein as meat and has healthier polyunsaturated fats, which the body can easily absorb.

Other Filipinos, she said, can go for grains and legumes, and legume derivatives, such as tofu or soybean curd.

Defiesta said she saw the Mad Cow and foot-and-mouth diseases as an opportunity for concerned officials to look for, if not innovate, appropriate technologies and food security programs for various regions in the country.

Concerned government agencies and local government units, she suggested, could look at the prospects of further popularizing rice-and-fish culture which can help ensure food self-sufficiency in the localities, particularly in a landlocked region such as the Cordillera.

She also suggested the protection of the Cordillera's river systems that are rich in exotic fish species.

The Cordillera has seven major river systems and several tributaries, which have helped provide the protein sources of villagers since time immemorial. The rivers teem with eels, lobsters and various fish.

Mining operations and big dams, however, have threatened some of the river systems.

Still recovering from the pollution of a copper mine in the 1970s, for example, is the Amburayan River, the source of protein for villagers from Kapangan and Atok in Benguet and those in the uplands of La Union.

The Agno River has also lost its exotic fish species because of mining operations in Itogon town and after the Binga and Ambuklao dams were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mining operations in Mankayan town also continue to threaten the Abra River.

If only to secure and ensure the health and nutrition of rural folk, Cordillera's river systems must also be secured and protected, Defiesta said.

Donors help keep school for blind afloat

2009-06-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

Donors help keep school for blind afloat
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Posted date: June 02, 2009

TWO years ago, a US Navy retiree was looking for the Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, a house for persons with physical disabilities, in Baguio City so he could offer his help, but the driver of the cab he took brought him instead to the school of the Northern Luzon Association of the Blind (NLAB).

The man did not turn his back, however. After assessing the needs of the blind children, the retiree, who preferred not to be named, volunteered to supply the school with four sacks of rice monthly and to provide dinner every Monday for the 39 children under its care.

He has been doing this since and has pledged to continue helping when the school year opens this month.

For Dona Rosario, NLAB president and executive director, the taxi driver’s mistake was serendipity. “Who knows the retiree was led by the Holy Spirit?” she says.

Quiet benefactors

An Indian couple has been doing the same thing, providing snacks or lunch once a week for the children.

This breed of quiet benefactors has kept afloat northern Luzon’s only school for the blind, especially at a time when its overseas donors had reduced their funding, says Rosario.

The school offers free elementary education to visually impaired children in northern and central Luzon and continues to encourage parents to enroll their blind children there.

Graduates cross into regular high schools and later pursue university or college education, or technical or vocational courses, such as health massage.

Economic crisis

The NLAB’s future, Rosario says, is at stake because its donors are also affected by the global economic crisis. The school is supported by the Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM), a church-based German donor; Heinz Woelke Foundation; the Diocese of Baguio-Benguet; and other local civic, educational and religious groups and individuals.

Last year, the CBM provided nearly half of the needs of the pupils. This school year, it pledged only 33 percent, saying the current economic crunch affected its supporters among the low-income European parishioners, says Rosario.

The NLAB spends P6,500 for each child monthly or P253,500 for the 39 pupils enrolled last school year. With the reduced funding, it has to initiate fund drives to sustain its mission.

Rosario is hoping that more people will follow the examples set by the Navy retiree and the Indian couple. “Many people in both government and the private sector have yet to appreciate that if these visually impaired are educated they can become productive [members of society],” she says.

She cites blind couple Rolando and Martha Bitaga, who teach academic subjects, including music, at the NLAB school. Both are graduates of the school.
Other graduates have established their own massage clinics, helping reduce the number of beggars in the city, says Rosario.

The NLAB faces another difficulty this school year. Its lease on the lot along the Marcos Highway, where its two-story school has stood since 1985, will expire this month, forcing the school to relocate to a smaller house on Bokawkan Road.

Repair work of the practically dilapidated house is not Rosario’s only concern. She also has to face complaints of neighbors who claim that the front fence mended by the NLAB workers was illegal because it was not covered by a building permit.

The irony of it, says Rosario, is that the complainants are encroaching on parts of the NLAB property.

Rosario did her homework. Citing a historical document showing the original fence, she explained to city authorities that the NLAB was just involved in restoration work.

At times, Rosario feels like giving up. A former nun who refused to get paid for her services, she says her difficulties and trials sometimes stress her out, giving her hypertension.

“I cannot just abandon these children,” she says. “They are my inspiration.”

Helping heal wounds of Mother Earth

2009-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : Widow helps heal wounds of Earth
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer Inquirer Northern Luzon
Posted date: April 21, 2009

NATURAL or organic farming has a way of helping Florence Macagne-Manegdeg recover from what she calls a “senseless murder” that left her a widow and to raise by herself two young daughters after her husband, Jose (Pepe), was murdered more than three years ago.

“Our backyard now teems with fruits – peaches, plum, persimmon, papaya; vegetables – soybeans, lettuce, tomatoes; flowers, such as jade, zinnia and vines; and herbal plants,” says Macagne-Manegdeg or Dom-an, as she is called by her family and friends.
With her teenage children, she tends her backyard in her home village in the upland town of Sagada, Mt., Province, where she was born and raised.

“In dabbling in natural farming, I am, in my little way, helping heal the Earth even as farming helps me and my daughters heal our wounds from our tragedy,” says Dom-an, 36.

Pepe, a 37-year-old lay leader of the church-based Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, was shot and killed on November 28, 2005, in San Esteban, Ilocos Sur.
He had just finished briefing farmers on human rights and was waiting for a bus to Metro Manila when he was attacked. He was to fetch his wife, who was arriving from Hong Kong, where she worked as a maid.

Beyond pity, rage

Coming home only to see her husband’s remains in a coffin was tragic enough for Dom-an and her daughters.

“I am through with mourning and grieving, and I have to be strong for my daughters,” she says. “I should no longer dwell in anger and sorrow. I should not fall into the trap of self-pity. I have to move on instead toward my journey of peace and healing.”
Dom-an is exhausting all avenues to seek justice for her husband. She has been writing to and engaging concerned officials in the military, the Commission on Human Rights and some members of Congress, as well as regional and international human rights watchdogs.

But she is also engaged in what she calls “peace and healing initiatives,” which include promoting organic farming and organizing an organic farmers’ cooperative in Sagada.

She says the key movers of the cooperative are widows, families of overseas Filipino workers and women farmers.

Through her backyard garden, Dom-an has helped show that “healthy and joyful” food could be grown the traditional and natural way, especially in Sagada where chemicals and pesticides are used in some commercial vegetable farms.

In helping promote organic farming and the cooperative, Dom-an has to collaborate with the municipal government, community elders, the non-government Montañosa Research and Development Center, and the Episcopalian Church-supported St. Theodore Hospital.

“In the process, I’m also reintegrating with my community, my roots, and this is all part of healing,” she says.

Cultural envoy

In between preparing compost, sowing seeds and planting seedlings, Dom-an also dabbles in indigenous music, particularly the nose flute, which she has been playing since 1993.

The nose flute is spiritually significant for Dom-an because one uses one’s breath to produce music from the indigenous instrument.

Playing the flute, apart from writing poetry and essays, she says, is one of her ways of “communing with our living planet.”

For her music, Dom-an was invited by the Sacred Earth Network to help perform in a “healing music concert” on Saturday at the La Mesa eco-park in Quezon City.

Dom-an always brings along at least two nose flutes and she would play them if given the opportunity, making her a cultural envoy of her hometown.

During the congressional inquiry on human rights issues at the University of the Philippines Baguio last month, she played the nose flute before reading a statement about the circumstances and the impact of the extrajudicial killing of her husband.

On March 28, when many of Baguio’s establishments switched off their lights for “Earth Hour,” Dom-an did a “Spark in the Dark” concert at Bliss Café in the city.

Peace, healing institute

Despite the violent death of her husband, Dom-an is now busy with peace and healing initiatives. Part of her long-term dream is establishing the Kasiyana Peace and Healing Institute.

Besides promoting organic farming and cooperativism, the institute seeks to complement the indigenous restorative justice system of Sagada, which stresses peaceful resolution of conflicts, reconciliation and healing, rather than falling into an endless cycle of violence through vengeful killings and retaliation.

“The institute dreams of helping heal our wounds and those of our very own planet,” says Dom-an.

Faith-based public vigilance emerges in Baguio

2009-04-01T09:22:00.001-07:00

(Filed with PDI 31 March but unpublished as of 1 April 2009)

Faith-based public vigilance emerges in Baguio
By Maurice Malanes

BAGUIO CITY, 31 March – A new form of public vigilance based not on ideology but on faith has emerged in Baguio.

This has been dramatized by a well-attended March 30 religious-led multi-sectoral “awareness rally” against the reported opening of a casino at Camp John Hay. And not only the Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelicals and Pentecostals, but also Muslims participated.

Instead of the usual red flags and banners of militant activists, the estimated 2,000 or more anti-casino rally participants held streamers, placards and banners bearing biblical passages and statements pointing how gambling could corrupt society’s sense of right and wrong, break up families, and could add to the city’s rising crimes.

Marching for almost a kilometer from the Baguio Convention Center down Session Road, the rally participants led by bishops, priests, pastors and an imam converged at the City Hall grounds where they held a 20-minute ecumenical worship service.

Selected representatives of the Baguio Multi-Sectoral Group and the Baguio-Benguet Ecumenical Group later made an audience with members of the City Council who were having their regular session.

The council accommodated the religious leaders, who also officially handed over a resolution opposing the opening of a casino in Baguio, which was signed by 15,000 signatories in just a week.

Their resolution pointed that the Bases Conversion Development Authority and the Camp John Hay Development Corporation “surreptitiously signed” a “Casino Cooperation Agreement” on July 1, 2008 for the establishment of a casino at Camp John Hay without informing the Baguio public.

Their resolution also said that the establishment of a casino at the former American resort violates the second item of 19 conditions, which the city council in 1994 required before approving the Environmental Compliance Certificate of the Camp John Hay developer, Fil-Estate.

The second condition contained in City Resolution No. 362, series of 1994, states that “the BCDA shall ensure only wholesome, family-oriented entertainment and recreational activities are conducted within the (John Hay Economic) Zone” and that “no casino operations shall definitely be allowed under any guise or form.”

Participation in governance

At the council’s session hall, the religious representatives accompanied by lawyer and church lay leader Alex Bangsoy actually engaged the city council and in a way participated in policy-making and governance as they took turns in arguing why Baguio, being an educational center and a city with a youth-dominated population, couldn’t be transformed into a gambling capital.

Vice-mayor Daniel Fariñas assured the religious leaders that the city council wouldn’t allow casino or gambling in any guise or form. To this, Roman Catholic Bishop Carlito Cenzon of the Diocese of Baguio said he had so much confidence in the city council that it wouldn’t fail its constituents.

But Cenzon asked whether the 19 conditions, which the city council required in 1994 for the development of John Hay, were weakened as was reported.

Earlier, Bangsoy cited a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, which quoted Mayor Reinaldo Bautista as saying a 2003 Supreme Court ruling on Camp John Hay had weakened the 19 conditions set by the Baguio government as prerequisites for its development, including a prohibition against a casino inside the tourism complex.

This statement plus the council’s “changing positions” on casino and other gaming forms are, according to Bangsoy, “very disturbing.” He again cited the same Inquirer report (March 8), which quoted BCDA president Narciso Abaya as saying “the city’s position on the casino kept changing.”
Besides the 19 conditions for the operation of the Camp John Hay Special Economic Zone, the city council has banned all forms of gambling in Baguio, including a casino, since 1989.

The council has affirmed this ban in a resolution approved in 2002, and another measure passed on Feb. 2 this year.

But Abaya noted the city council also passed a resolution in 2003 that approved the request of the Camp John Hay-Poro Point Development Corp. (JPDC), the office that previously managed the CJHSEZ, to operate a gambling and entertainment complex there. The JPDC has been replaced by the John Hay Management Corp., a subsidiary of BCDA.

The only condition the council imposed in that resolution was that only tourists and Camp John Hay club members can enter and participate in gambling activities. The council again overturned this 2003 resolution with another resolution in 2008.

In the council’s recent dialogue with the religious leaders, councilor Pinky Rondez was already pushing for the outright repeal of the 2003 City Council Resolution 248, which practically approved a casino at Camp John Hay.

Bautista had said no casino would rise inside Camp John Hay “while I am the mayor.”

Still, leaders of the Baguio multi-sectoral group – the same group that catapulted a cash-strapped Braulio Yaranon to the mayoralty seat in 2004 on an anti-gambling and anti-corruption platform -- made a strong message to City Hall last March 30 – that they are closely watching their elected officials every step of the way.

Landscapers meet, compete

2009-02-18T20:58:00.000-08:00

Landscapers meet, compete
By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:50:00 02/15/2009

Filed Under: Construction & Property, Economy and Business and Finance

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—At 45, Simplicio “Simple” Sawey, has remained single partly because he already is married to his passion—landscaping.

“Landscaping and propagating and buying and selling plants are my bread and butter,” says Sawey, a native of Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, who quit an education course when he had only a year left to finish it.

For Sawey, dropping out of college didn’t mean that he would forever be tied to a blue-collar job. Instead, he let his creativity run loose and wound up with a livelihood to which he is totally devoted.

Stress relief

Edna Dollaga, a government employee and a mother, also shares Sawey’s passion for landscaping. But she considers it more of a hobby that relieves her of stress from work.

“I can say that I have less wrinkles than many women my age because of the stress-relieving effect of the orchids and other plants I water each morning,” she says.

But landscaping, as Dollaga has found out, can also be profitable.

Another landscaping hobbyist is Rose Cuilan, an entrepreneur who shares her passion with her husband. Her husband propagates white anthuriums and other plants, including balete, which form part of Cuilan’s landscaping work.

Like Dollaga, Cuilan gets delighted, while the stress of work flows out of her, “as I get to encounter plants with blooming flowers.”

Sawey, Dollaga and Cuilan are among artists competing in a landscaping event under “Market Encounter,” one of the features of the Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival).

Extra income

Market Encounter at Burnham Park also offers landscape artists the chance to generate income by allowing them to put up stalls at the park where they can sell plants.

Through Market Encounter, potential clients may get to meet talented hobbyists and landscape artists to help them spruce up their gardens.

The landscaping entries Sawey had submitted in past competitions, for instance, did not only catch the eye of local clients but also resort owners from as far away as Marinduque and other provinces.

The landscaping tilt has two categories: The open and Cordillera.

Under the open category, the landscape artist can unleash her creativity, making use not only local but foreign designs as well.

The second category involves designs patterned after the Cordillera landscape. Apart from the mix of perennial and non-perennial plants, a common thread ties the 11 entries under the Cordillera category—the integration of stone walls that reflect the age-old engineering skills applied on the rice terraces in the region.

Rocks and stones

But the 14 entries under the open category also has something in common with those vying under the Cordillera category: The use of rocks and stones.

“Rocks and stones really play a big part in landscaping,” says Sawey, who has submitted entries in both categories.

Almost all the entries in the two categories also incorporate water—a waterfall or a spring in the Cordillera category, and gushing fountains or wishing wells in the open category.

Salvaged driftwood and old pieces of lumber have also found comfort among the plants in the various landscape entries.

Organized as the Panagbenga Society Landscapers Association, the landscapers and plant enthusiasts understand a common language—plant taxonomy. And in knowing each plant species or variety, they have come to know how to make the right mix of plants in a landscape.

Landscaping and trading plants at an orchidarium in Burnham Park occupy a great part of Sawey’s life and art.

He says he feels fulfillment in pursuing his passion, which also allows him to earn enough to send poor but talented relatives to school.

For Dollaga, landscaping, even as a hobby, has helped her augment her income as a government worker in these hard times.

Since she also incorporates white anthuriums in her landscape entries, Cuilan is promoting the rare plant, which she and her husband propagate in a greenhouse. The Cuilan couple supplies white anthuriums to regular customers in Metro Manila.

The three landscapers, and other participating artists, tend to shy from discussing the income they generate in creating art.

But lawyer Damaso Bangaoet, a Market Encounter coordinator and one of the founders of Panagbenga, pointed to a brand new vehicle parked at Burnham Park, and tells the Inquirer: “Katas ng landscaping yan (That vehicle came from a landscaper’s earnings).”

Overheard at Burnham Park

2009-02-09T03:44:00.000-08:00

Overheard at Burnham Park

A middle-aged Caucasian guy was walking along Baguio City's Burnham Lake in northern Philippines when a man supervising boat rides asked him, “Are you looking for a Valentine date? I have here my sister (pointing to a middle-aged woman) who is very much available and still a virgin.”

The Caucasian couldn't hold his laugh and, patting the head of the boatman, said, “I don't have to look for a Valentine date. I have my wife.”

Free Meals

2009-02-04T23:14:00.000-08:00

Free Meals

A sign at a northern Philippine highway restaurant reads, “Free meals for Christians.” So one time during a stopover, a bus passenger, claiming he was a Christian, ordered a sumptuous meal there. After finishing his meal, he rushed out so he wouldn't miss his bus. But one of the waiters stopped him.

“You must have forgotten to pay your meal,” said the waiter.

“But your sign says meals are free for Christians, and I am one,” the passenger replied.

“A Christian prays before he takes his meal. But you didn't,” the waiter reminded the “Christian.”

(Acknowledgment: This was taken from a Sunday sermon by Rev. Dr. Simplicio Dang-awan Jr., United Church of Christ in the Philippines-Baguio)

Hunger survivor heads feeding program

2009-01-20T20:17:00.000-08:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon : Hunger survivor heads feeding program
By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau
Posted date: January 21, 2009

BAGUIO CITY – He was just 9 days old 56 years ago when he and a twin brother, who were born to poor farming parents in the interior village of Sapid in Mankayan, Benguet, were rescued from starvation. His seven other younger siblings were not as lucky – they all died of hunger.

Coming to the rescue of Donald Soriano and his twin Ronald in 1952 was Elva Vanderbout-Soriano, an American missionary who founded the Bethesda orphanage (now the Bethesda Ministries International) based in Barangay Tuding in Itogon, Benguet.
Raised by and educated through the orphanage, Soriano (who assumed the married surname of the orphanage’s founder), seeks to return the favor from what he calls a lease on his life.

Since 2007, the Bethesda Ministries International, which Soriano now heads, has embarked on an integrated nutrition program for underweight or malnourished children in elementary schools in Luzon.

Bethesda collaborates with the nongovernment Assisi Development Foundation, which has a similar initiative called the Hapag-Asa (Hope for the Table) program.
“The underlying philosophy of the program comes from Christ’s admonition for us to help feed the hungry,” says Soriano, now a bishop.

He visited remote villages and found that many children drop out of school because of lack of food.

He cites Bot-oan in Buguias, Benguet, where children have to walk one to two hours to reach school. With the uphill climb to school, the children get hungry along the way and they end up eating their baon or packed lunch so they have nothing for lunch.
Seven elementary schools in Buguias are among the recipients of Bethesda’s feeding program, which also covers some schools in parts of the Cordillera, Ilocos Sur, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Isabela, Bulacan, Quezon and Metro Manila.

Mass feeding

In collaboration with health and nutrition personnel of the Department of Education, Bethesda volunteers first measure the height and weight of schoolchildren before the feeding program begins.

After 90 to 120 days of feeding, the children’s height and weight are again monitored to determine any impact.

Although not all children are underweight, Bethesda resorts to mass feeding in recipient schools. “It won’t be good to see some children salivating while other children are enjoying their meals so we resort to mass feeding,” says Soriano.

The main component of the program is what is called Vitameal, a rice-lentil meal which Soriano says is fortified with 25 vitamins and minerals and can be cooked into a cereal mix.

A 79.5-gram dry Vitameal, if cooked, can feed 30 1-to-4-year old children, and a 159-gram Vitameal, 15 adults. Besides carbohydrates and proteins, Vitameal contains Vitamins A, C, D, E, B1 (thiamin) and B2 (riboflavin) and others.

Besides potassium, iron, zinc, phosphorous and other minerals, Vitameal contains iodine that, health experts say, is vital in developing the brain of growing children and is thus crucial in their intellectual growth.

Many Cordillera folk lack iodine in their diet. This explains the prevalence of goiter in the upland region. Goiter is the enlargement of the thyroid gland as a result of lack of iodine.

Cooking Vitameal is easy but instructions on ratio and proportion of water and the cereal mix must be followed, Soriano says.

“So we have to orient concerned DepEd health and nutrition personnel and participating school heads on how to cook the cereal mix,” he says.

As part of the orientation, Bethesda releases sample packs to concerned personnel so they can also develop menus and mixtures using locally available food.

In Sadanga, Mt. Province, for example, parents volunteer to provide locally available vegetables, such as tubers and leaves of gabi or yam, which are mixed with Vitameal.

As members and officers of the Parents-Teachers Community Association, parents in Sadanga also help school health and nutrition personnel prepare the cereal mix for the children.

In some towns, such as Bokod in Benguet, local officials provide counterpart funds for the feeding program. These funds are used to buy spices (garlic, ginger and onions) or slices of meat to mix with the cereal mix.

“We encourage these local contributions and counterparts to avoid developing a doleout mentality on the part of recipient communities,” says Soriano.

The Pinoy soul and indie filmmaking

2009-01-15T00:24:00.000-08:00

INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : The Pinoy soul and indie filmmaking
By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau
Posted date: January 14, 2009

BAGUIO CITY – When he first heard Ifugao elder and environmentalist Lopez Nauyac mispronounce “indigenous” as “indigenius,” filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik became inspired.
To Tahimik, it was a blessed “cosmic slip” as it could help him articulate the framework behind his filmmaking.

That framework is based on what he calls his “sariling duwende” perspective and approach in making independent films, which seek to help unfold the Filipino’s “Indio-genius” strengths.

The Filipino soul is often described as having been confined at the convent for more than three centuries under the Spaniards and trapped by Hollywood’s influence for decades. As a result, the Filipino’s indigenous way of looking at things and viewing the world has been suppressed or has become blurred.
Hollywood clone

Holywood clone

It is thus not surprising that the local movie industry, which also reflects the way Filipinos view the world, is more often largely a clone of Hollywood.

Hollywood’s commercial formula is generally a mix of fast-paced violence and sex. The output of this formula is what Tahimik describes as “McDo films,” in which the movie’s content is as predictable as the hamburger from that global fast food chain giant.

“When you use your sariling duwende, you are less likely to fall into the (Hollywood) commercial formula trap,” says Tahimik, who has received international awards for his independent films.

His first film, “Mababangong Bangungot (Perfumed Nightmares),” won three prestigious awards at the Berlin Film Festival in 1977. He was also honored for his 1981 film, “Turumba.”

His other films, such as “Bakit Yellow ang Gitna ng Rainbow? (Why is Yellow the Center of the Rainbow?),” and more than a dozen others are scheduled to be screened every 5:30 p.m. onwards at the University of the Philippines Film Center’s Ishmael Bernal Gallery in Diliman, Quezon City, on Jan. 12-15. The event has been dubbed the Kidlat Tahimik Film Retrospective.

Indie film fans can also view “Bakit Yellow ang Gitna ng Rainbow?” on the wide screen of the UP Film Center’s Big Cinema or Cine Adarna at 5 p.m. on Jan. 17.

Unique world-view

In between screenings are open forums during which the audience could discuss with Tahimik about his sariling duwende perspective.

“This (sariling duwende) is your unique world view, which develops and unfolds from your own context, indigenous culture and values,” Kidlat explains. “So where you come from – be it a coastal or upland community – plus the cultural traits, practices and values your community holds dear all contribute to this unique world view.”

To Tahimik, this unique world-view of the sariling duwende becomes one’s framework in telling his or her story through film, or even through a book or a feature story.
It can also be manifested in what is “Pinoy na Pinoy (truly Filipino)” in us, including the sense of humor of comedian Dolphy, which, Tahimik says, is by and large truly Filipino.

To some cultural workers, letting this view blossom can help build the nationhood of this country, which is still struggling for its true identity after centuries of colonization.

The growth of films, such as Tahimik’s indies, is “pivotal in realizing nationhood, not only for filmmakers and film enthusiasts but also for the common people,” film enthusiasts and event coordinators Pete Malaya Camporedondo and Marella Castro said in a letter to Avie Felix, theater faculty coordinator of the UP College of Mass Communication, when they were arranging for the venue of the retrospective.

Camporedondo and Castro feel that it is thus time to make Tahimik’s films accessible to a wider audience, especially students, educators, filmmakers and enthusiasts.

They also regard Tahimik as a “Filipino culture bearer” who does not only make films but also dedicates his time teaching filmmaking to the Ifugao people through a user-friendly video camera. Through this, Tahimik seeks to help record, promote and enhance the Ifugao’s oral indigenous storytelling.

To Camporedondo and Castro, Kidlat’s perspective is also vital in helping enrich the sociocultural studies of educational institutions.
Bamboo Camera Award

Bamboo Camera Award

To help encourage budding Filipino independent filmmakers, Tahimik helped start in 2005 what is called the Bamboo Camera Award.

Given to selected filmmakers during the Cinemalaya festival of independent films, the award seeks to recognize those “whose unique soul or sariling duwende is exposed and manifested in their work,” says Tahimik.

He says films chosen are “playful and vibrant but anchored on our distinct cultural traits and values as Filipinos.”

Tahimik will announce the 2008 award winners during a Bamboo Camera Night on Jan. 17 after the screening of “Bakit Yellow ang Gitna ng Rainbow?”

To Tahimik, who believes in the power of symbols to convey messages, his choice of bamboo as symbol for the award signifies an effort to help both filmmakers and audience not to grow weary in continuing to discover and rediscover their distinct spirits or unique souls in making and appreciating films.

IN MEMORIAM: Torchbearer of ‘Igorot nationalism’

2009-01-02T20:09:00.000-08:00

IN MEMORIAM
Torchbearer of ‘Igorot nationalism’
By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 02:28:00 12/23/2008

Filed Under: Police, Crime, Regional authorities

BAGUIO CITY – Igorots of the Cordillera are not only mourning the death of the first television personality among them who was too young to die at the peak of his career. They are also grieving over the loss of the region’s envoy and torchbearer of what may be called “Igorot nationalism.”

Many Igorot and other supporters were shocked upon learning that Mark Angelo Cadaweng Cielo – Marky Cielo to his fans – died in his sleep at the family’s house in Antipolo City on Dec. 7. He was 20.

“My heart aches for a life so short … We Igorots know how long we had waited for a Marky Cielo – a young, handsome, humble, talented, good-hearted guy who never denied his Igorot roots,” laments a fan who signed her name only as Miss Buguias in an online feedback at GMA 7’s website on Dec. 11.

The television network GMA 7 sponsored the 2005-2006 reality talent show StarStruck where Cielo won as the “sole survivor.”

Cielo indeed was proud of his Igorot roots. Introducing himself in his website, markycielo.net, he said he grew up in Butuan in Mindanao then moved to Mt. Province in 2001.

“Of course, both places are in the Philippines,” he said as if to stress that any Filipino wherever he comes from could join show biz.

“My classmates convinced me to join StarStruck in 2006 and I won the Ultimate Male Survivor title. I won the first Sole Survivor title of the reality TV show and the first Igorot ever to join that contest,” he said.

During the later phase of the StarStruck contest, the finalists were asked who among them could be the sole survivor and one reportedly said Cielo could not qualify because he was an Igorot.

Many Igorot supporters said the statement smacked of bigotry and discrimination. They launched a counter-offensive through SMS (short messaging service or text message) and blog (web log) messages, which gathered support for Cielo’s bid to top the contest.

Apart from the overwhelming support, Cielo also showed his special talent, among them dancing, which charmed actress Lorna Tolentino, one of the judges.

Regional pride

The overwhelming protest against the ethnic slur on Cielo displayed the upland folk’s strong sense of regional pride or a kind of Igorot nationalism borne out of their history of resistance against Spanish conquest and other invaders.

In having resisted Hispanization, Igorots take pride not in having centuries-old churches in their midst, but in building historic monuments of their indigenous engineering skills such as the rice terraces not only in Ifugao but also in Mt. Province and other Cordillera provinces.

Being Igorot is therefore not a badge of shame, but of honor. The Igorots are a hardy people who resisted invaders and tamed tough terrain to help secure food for generations.

Another source of pride for many Igorots is their contribution in the last war.
Igorot soldiers who fought during World War II under the 66th Infantry of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East-North Luzon would relish telling stories about how they climbed Japanese tanks to drop grenades and would jump to safety before the tanks exploded.

After seeing the gallantry of the Igorot, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was remembered to have said, “Give me one dozen Igorot and we can win this war,” or something to that effect.

All these stories, most of them handed down orally, have become a source of regional pride for many Igorots, including those abroad.

Such pride, which Cielo carried to show business, makes his death a great loss to his people, who lost an “ambassador” in the glitzy world of television and the movies.

Shortly after Cielo won StarStruck in 2006, the independent research outfit ResearchMate Inc. based in La Trinidad, Benguet, surveyed 150 respondents in Mt. Province, asking them about their reasons for supporting him.

While 72 respondents supported Cielo because “he is from Mt. Province,” 85 respondents voted for the actor because “he is proud of his roots as an Igorot.”

Root factor

The root factor is thus largely significant: Igorot support for Cielo would have not been as overwhelming had he renounced his roots.

By being proud of his roots, Cielo also would have helped eventually shatter the colonial tendency in show biz to choose as stars mainly those who are Spanish or Caucasian mestizos or mestizas.

Mildred Cadaweng Cielo, the actor’s mother, said her son becoming the Igorot icon has become an accidental “mission.” With a report from Frank Cimatu

Conserving watersheds also justice issue

2008-12-05T01:09:00.000-08:00

Conserving watersheds also justice issue

December 02, 2008 23:53:00
Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

BAGUIO CITY – When Ifugao Gov. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. argued in a recent watershed summit that upland communities must be justly compensated for maintaining the headwaters and watersheds for the lowlands, he articulated the ecological principle that all ecosystems are interconnected.

Unfortunately, government policies on watersheds and ecosystems remain disjointed. Thus communities or provinces that host watersheds, which supply the dams that produce electricity and irrigate lowland farms, are not part of the “host communities” or “host LGUs (local government units)” as defined by the Department of Energy, said Baguilat.

As a result, provinces with watersheds have long been deprived of a just share from national wealth taxes, lamented Baguilat, who spoke during an inter-agency watershed summit in Baguio City in October.

To the Ifugao governor, it is time to give justice to Cordillera’s watershed communities, whose abundant natural resources have been conserved and managed through indigenous systems “passed on to us by our ancestors.”

He said the one centavo per kilowatt-hour set aside for host communities for the DOE’s development programs is limited only to communities where the dam reservoir is located. This, he said, is stipulated in the implementing rules and regulations of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001.

Trickles

“Only trickles from the programs for the corporate social responsibility of the operating company reach the communities where water is sourced out, one of which is sponsoring cultural events,” Baguilat said.

He cited the Magat Dam, one of Asia’s biggest dams in Ramon, Isabela, which produces 360 megawatts (MW) of electricity and irrigates 85,000 hectares of farmland in Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya.

To Baguilat, Magat is Ifugao. Isabela claims otherwise.

Ifugao and Isabela officials are locked in a court battle over the jurisdiction of Magat Dam.

But while the case has yet to be resolved, the two provinces negotiated in March for an equal sharing scheme on the transfer tax accrued from the facility’s sale from the National Power Corp. to SN Aboitiz, said Baguilat.

For many years since the Magat Dam began operating, Isabela has been getting the bigger share of the 70-30 percent sharing from the dam’s franchise tax. In 2001, Ifugao officials had to haggle with then Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy Jr. for a 50-50 percent sharing of the franchise tax.

Struggle

Ifugao since then has been getting its share from the tax. “But we had to struggle for it,” said Baguilat. “Still, the share from the tax is unjustified as the true beneficiaries – the watershed keepers – are not yet justly indemnified.”

“The share we have received is only the fees from the dam operators for doing business, but communities which have kept the watersheds have yet to be compensated,” he said. “Without the watersheds, there would be no dams and no business.”

Baguilat attributes the remaining forests of Ifugao to ancestors, who have taught the way of the “muyong,” a clan or community-managed woodlot, which can still be found above clusters of rice terraces in the province.

Under the “muyong” tradition, only clan members are allowed to harvest wood from the woodlot and that whatever wood is harvested must be for the family’s needs only (such as for housing) and not for commercial purposes.

The irony, however, is that while Ifugao has a rich resource, which is primarily water, the province remains the 10th poorest in the country and its people remain “cash-poor,” said Baguilat.

Many Ifugao residents were forced by poverty to migrate elsewhere while some have followed the example of Benguet vegetable growers who would clear forests to grow commercial vegetables such as cabbages and potatoes. This is particularly happening in the forested town of Tinoc bordering Benguet.

Baguilat is leading Ifugao officials in helping push for what he calls a “pro-watershed cradle program,” which is being coordinated with civil society groups.

One of the program’s concerns is educating residents to rethink their commercial vegetable farming approach and shift to organic farming and agro-forestry such as integrating coffee, fruit trees with hardwood and other tree species.

Under the program, the Ifugao government also helps cooperatives, community associations and family enterprises how to process, package and market their products.

Baguio's oldest credit co-op soldiers on

2008-11-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

Baguio's oldest credit co-op soldiers on
Unaffected by slowdown
By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau
Posted date: November 23, 2008

BAGUIO CITY--While some business sectors are feeling the pinch of the global economic meltdown or slowdown, this city's oldest credit cooperative servicing almost 20,000 members remains robust and kicking.

"Thank God, we are hardly affected by the global economic meltdown so we continue to help uplift the lives of ordinary folk," says lawyer Jesus Cendaña, board chair of the Baguio-Benguet Community Credit Cooperative or BBCCC.

Cendaña attributes the cooperative's strength and stability to what he calls the "power of the ‘we'" or the cooperative principle of "relying on our collective initiative and collective self-reliance."

"Ever since our cooperative was founded, we never borrowed money from outside sources, but we completely relied on the capital shares of members," he says.
Cendaña also credits the cooperative's success to its "service above profit philosophy anchored on self-responsibility, self-discipline, teamwork, solidarity, respect, industry, democracy and good governance."

Founded in 1958 by 15 members, most of them teachers of Saint Louis College (now Saint Louis University), what was then known as the Baguio Teachers Credit Union started with only a P250 capital.

In 1976, the credit union amended its by-laws, transformed itself into what is now the BBCCC, and opened its membership to all residents of Baguio and Benguet.
The cooperative now has more than 19,000 members and has P940 million in total assets, including a seven-story building, which houses the cooperative's offices, a grocery store, a 200-seat conference hall, and three workshop rooms.

The BBCCC celebrated its 50th founding anniversary in October and "we're still counting and growing," says Cendaña.

It has come a long way so much so that it is now "extending our blessings to the community" through the BBCCC Foundation, says Amparo Rimas, the foundation's chief executive officer.

The foundation has adopted a barangay (village) in nearby La Trinidad town, helping build a water system and providing facilities such as a sound system for the village's daycare center.

It has also adopted one of Baguio's parks for it to maintain and improve and has offered scholarships to needy but deserving students.

The cooperative counts among its members lowly folk such as car-wash boys and vegetable vendors and prominent people such as the late Justice Romeo Brawner.
For ordinary folk, the cooperative, which offers various loans, has become a takbuhan (fallback) during emergencies such as when members had to pay tuition or when one had to pay a placement fee for an overseas job.

"One time I had to buy milk formula and I had no money so I had to run to the co-op grocery store," businesswoman Golden Guevarra, a co-op member, says. "I would also loan from the co-op to repaint or repair our passenger jeepney."

Besides tuition for her children, government office worker Glea Lagon says loans from the cooperative helped build their house and helped them procure a vehicle.

"Without a scholarship from the BBCCC, I wouldn't have been a registered nurse by now," says Rachelle Ann Coquia, a co-op associate member who passed the nursing board in 2007.

It is these various services which continue to attract members to the cooperative, Cendaña says and BBCCC continues to campaign for more people to join.

He says some 50 to 80 new members are added each month. "We are targeting to draw 100 members each month through our advocacy drive," he says, noting that the cooperative's current membership is still a small fraction of Baguio's population of 350,000 and Benguet's more than 330,000.

The ‘spirits’ of the Cordilleras

2008-11-09T01:04:00.000-08:00

The ‘spirits’ of the Cordilleras
Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

November 01, 2008

BAGUIO CITY – Many Cordillera upland folk are practically spirit-filled each day of their lives and not only shortly before or during Halloween.

So it’s not surprising to see an elder whispering a prayer and pouring a drop of native wine or liquor before he and others partake of their drink in someone’s house or at the neighborhood variety store.

In Kibungan town in Benguet, this practice, called petik, is for spirits, which include those of soldiers who fought and died in World War II and other members of the community who had gone ahead.

It is believed that the petik helps assure that nothing untoward will happen to those partaking of the wine and liquor.

With the petik, the discussion and the exchange of ideas and stories of men in the community will run smoothly as the spirits are not only watching over but guiding and inspiring them.

On the other hand, failure to perform the petik or missing out some important names of dead ancestors while performing the rite will be suspected as the cause of some troubles such as violence that may mar the drinking session and discussions.

There are also spirits in the mountains, forests, rivers and caves.

The Kankanaey believe that the kakading and pinad-ing live in the mountains and forests. A favorite abode of these spirits is a water-bearing tree much like the balete.

A tree believed occupied by these spirits, therefore, cannot be cut. Otherwise, something untoward such as sickness or even death can befall a person who dares to cut the tree.

If a tree has to be cut because a road has to be built, for example, the spirits have to be appeased through a ritual, which involves sacrificing and butchering an animal such as a pig or chicken.

The rivers also have spirit guardians called pinten.

A person has to first seek the consent of these spirits before he goes swimming or fishing. To get consent, one should first throw a pebble in a river pool and utter a short prayer offered to the pinten.

A no-no for the pinten is dirtying the river. It is believed that a person who dirties the river can get sick, a belief common among upland folk who take their indigenous spirituality seriously.

Expanding political arenas for indigenous peoples

2008-10-14T23:28:00.000-07:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon : Expanding political arenas for tribes

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: October 15, 2008

BAGUIO CITY – Times have changed a lot since the 1970s when celebrating what was then called “Tribal Filipino Month” was mainly another form of protest against a dictatorship that killed and made martyrs of the likes of Kalinga chieftain Macli-ing Dulag.

Under the late President Ferdinand Marcos’ iron-fist rule, the Church and other religious organizations had instituted “Tribal Filipino Sunday” every second Sunday of October. Special Masses or ecumenical worship services were held to honor tribal Filipinos. Celebrants paid tribute to them and credited them for their wisdom in protecting and managing their lands and resources.

Tribal Filipinos, for instance, had been hailed for hunting, gathering and mining (or panning) from the forests only what they needed. Such appreciation of wise thinking was made in contrast to what their leaders and activists considered the corporate greed behind large-scale logging, mining and other extractive industries.

In the Cordillera, the celebrants lamented and spoke strongly against the “militarization” of tribal communities, which had protested against these industries, along with the Marcos regime’s “development projects” such as the proposed series of World Bank-funded dams along the Chico River in Mt. Province and Kalinga.

Marcos’ soldiers killed Dulag on April 24, 1980, but not the philosophy on land stewardship he articulated and the protests against the dams he helped lead. Among other things, he had said nobody could appropriate for himself the land because “only the race owns the land.”

“How can you own what outlives you?” Dulag once said.

Indigenous culture

In every tribal Filipino celebration, participants would not only pay homage to martyrs like Dulag but would also celebrate whatever aspects of indigenous culture had survived colonization. These included a strong sense of community, cooperation, restorative (as opposed to punitive) justice and holistic spirituality (as opposed to the dualistic religious world-view that colonizers introduced).

The celebration was, in a way, driving across an important message: Even before almost 400 years of convent culture under the Spaniards and more than 50 years of American influence, a flourishing culture existed in this archipelago.

In Marcos’ time, the event was limited to tribal leaders, activists, church leaders and other advocates. As a form of protest against the regime, it was usually held in churches, school gymnasiums or auditoriums or in public parks after a street march – which revealed the constricted space or arena for indigenous voices.

Changing political arena

The political arenas have changed, particularly after a new Constitution was put in place in 1987. After the lobby efforts of tribal Filipino leaders and representatives themselves, the Constitution has finally recognized the rights of “indigenous cultural communities,” including the rights to their ancestral lands and domains and to govern themselves according to their customary laws and practices.

These constitutional rights ushered in an enabling law – the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (Ipra) of 1997. At the United Nations, the Philippines is often cited as a model of some sort because of the Ipra.

The act created a separate bureaucracy, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, which has employed mostly indigenous professionals.

During the Marcos regime, the political arenas for indigenous peoples were the streets, and, in some extreme cases, the hills.

Despite what some indigenous peoples’ leaders consider its flaws, the Ipra has helped provide a venue for indigenous peoples to engage the government. For example, indigenous communities can use Ipra’s free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process in evaluating and assessing and finally accepting or rejecting a development project, such as a mine or a dam.

Critics, however, cite some instances in which the FPIC process had been subverted. Their common issue was that only a few elders or local government leaders were involved. Some indigenous leaders had alleged that cases of bribery and corruption had tainted it.

Still, the FPIC process, if combined with indigenous peoples’ own vigilance, offers an arena where they can get a better bargain or register their sentiments.

Global arenas

Many of the issues of indigenous peoples, such as those related to land and resources, still persist. But the political arenas through which they could ventilate these issues have expanded even to the global front.

At the UN, indigenous peoples lobbied and strengthened their own ranks and networks and pushed for the creation of an arena through which they could be heard.

One of these arenas is the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, which has been chaired since 2006 by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a Kankanaey from Besao, Mt. Province. An activist since the First Quarter Storm, Tauli-Corpuz had immersed herself in the local indigenous peoples’ movement before working with the UN.

Other arenas, which needed more indigenous voices, include the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

One of the good news for indigenous peoples is the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which the UN General Assembly approved on Sept. 13, 2007.

Along with the Ipra, the declaration, says Tauli-Corpuz, can also be invoked by indigenous peoples in asserting their rights to their traditional knowledge, culture, land and resources, and their right to determine how best to govern themselves.

But unless it is put to good use, the declaration is just another document. The challenge, says indigenous peoples’ advocate and lawyer Elpidio Peria, is how to apply this by continually invoking it so it becomes a living document.

Love in action in the midst of war

2008-10-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon
Love in action in the midst of war

By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 04:27:00 10/01/2008

BAGUIO CITY – An Army officer calls it “Project I.S.L.A.M.” or I Sincerely Love All Muslims. Having seen killings and sufferings, he conceived the project amid an all-out war that then President Joseph Estrada waged against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2000.

Like the recent armed clashes ignited by controversies over a proposed government-MILF agreement on an expanded Bangsamoro homeland, the war of March-July 2000 exacted heavy collateral damage. Scores of innocent civilians, including women and children, were killed and thousands of others were left homeless, hungry and in despair.

Survivors – both Christians and Muslims – couldn’t help feeling bitter at a conflict that left widows and orphans. Their situation worried Lt. Col. Johnny Macanas, who was then assigned to help rehabilitate 100,000 Christian and Muslim evacuees in Marawi City. First-hand, he noted the “prejudice against our Muslim brethren.”

Now camp commander of the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, Macanas cites an incident when he and his troops went to give out medicines to the Muslim evacuees, but they refused.

“I asked why, and a Muslim elder told me, ‘What can we do with these medicines when we haven’t eaten for three days,’” he recalls. “This broke my heart because I learned that the government personnel in charge of relief operation gave food items only to Christian evacuees.”

Macanas, a Roman Catholic, says he prayed, “asking the Lord what I can do to serve our Muslim brothers and sisters and help bring peace.”

Reach out with love

Suddenly, he remembered Pastor Florentino de Jesus of the Christian Missionary Alliance who, before he died in September 1999, had advocated that Christians should reach out to Muslims with love.

The late pastor from Zamboanga City inspired Macanas to help establish Project Islam. At that time, many Muslim evacuees decided to return to and die in their home villages rather than remain at the cramped evacuation centers.

Among the Muslims that Project Islam first served were 30 families – the first batch of over 300 families – who sought to return to their village of Delabayan in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte.

Macanas mobilized Christian leaders to explore how they could help rebuild the lives of the Delabayan villagers.

A church leader, Pastor Alex Eduave of a Pentecostal group, first approached Macanas to help in the project. The pastor and his congregation in no time collected rice and other food items, and gave these to the residents.

As they handed out two kilograms of rice for each Muslim family, Eduave and his members were apologetic for not being able to bring more. But Macanas says Delabayan leader Kamlun Moner told Eduave and his members: “It’s not the quantity of rice you gave that matters most but your big hearts.”

Macanas planted camote (sweet potato) in his family’s idle lot in Cagayan de Oro City and was able to harvest and donate several kilograms to Delabayan.

The next concern of Macanas and his supporters was how to help rebuild the houses of the returning villagers (the first batch had to stay first at a bullet-riddled school building).

The houses were razed after a military shelling and air bombardment in 2000. This was the fourth time since the 1970s, Macanas says, when Delabayan became a battlefield between the military and the Moro National Liberation Front.

From funds raised through special offerings of church members and contributions from donors, some coming from as far as Hong Kong, Macanas built 12 seven-meter by nine-meter houses, which were inaugurated in April 2001. An imam (Muslim cleric) and Eduave prayed and blessed the first batch of houses.

Having seen the success of Project Islam’s housing project, the National Housing Authority coursed P6 million through its leaders to build more. With this amount, houses for more than 300 families were put up.

Their secret: All the labor was done by volunteers and the villagers themselves so they spent only P50,000 for each house.

Macanas and his volunteers also built a water system for the community.

Despite the efforts of Macanas and his church supporters, the Delabayan villagers still had one fear – that they will be converted to Christianity.

To dispel their apprehension, Macanas proposed to his supporters that they help rebuild the community’s mosque. This would prove that they were just out to reach out with love and with no conditions.

Citing doctrinal reasons, half of the 100 pastors who helped build the houses declined to help. But Macanas and the other pastors pursued the plan, sought donations again from donors, and built a mosque bigger than the damaged one.

This finally earned the full trust of the community, prompting Moner to declare that they have become “born-again Muslims, who have renounced rebellion,” says Macanas.

Delabayan is now known as Islam Village, where more people from other places have also settled.

Waging peace via information technology

2008-09-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

Waging peace via information technology

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:18:00 09/10/2008

BAGUIO CITY – Through two movie house-size screens installed at the Baguio Convention Center, over 1,000 high school students played a scissor-paper-rock game, held workshops, exchanged testimonies and ideas, and prayed and sang with their fellow students in Cotabato City.

The theme of the three-hour Internet-based video conference on Aug. 29 revolved around building peace and mutual understanding through dialogue between and among Christian, Muslim and even non-Christian and non-Muslim youth.

The virtual conference’s theme struck a relevant chord with the conflict and violence in a few areas in Mindanao, which were ignited by a scuttled proposed agreement based on an expanded Bangsamoro territory.

Organized by PeaceTech, the video conference enabled students of Baguio and Cotabato, who were grouped into 10 to 12, to reflect during a 25-minute workshop on how ignorance breeds prejudice, which eventually leads to conflict.

PeaceTech is a nongovernment organization holding peace-building-geared video dialogue series among Muslim and non-Muslim youths in various countries. Among its supporters is Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan.

In the same workshop, the students pondered upon how they could benefit if Filipinos were united and how they would envision the future of their country.

In another workshop, the students were asked about what they loved in their faith, what three steps they could take to promote better Muslim-Christian understanding, and what they could do to help promote peace.

Battling ignorance

Volunteer facilitators synthesized the reflections of each of the workshop groups and two representatives from Baguio and one from Cotabato were chosen to report a summary of what transpired in both workshops.

The representatives recognized ignorance as the root of prejudice, which, in turn, leads to stereotyping and generalization that create distrust and hatred and ultimately conflict. Both underscored the need for more education and enlightenment to fight and overcome ignorance.

“For our part as youth, we can no longer afford to be apathetic. We should get involved and seek to deepen and broaden our knowledge and understanding about our Muslim brothers and sisters if we are to overcome our ignorance and prejudice,” said the Baguio representative.

The Cotabato representative noted that both Christianity and Islam are religions of love and peace so conflict, he said, could be resolved only through dialogue.

“We love our own faith and we are committed to understand each other’s faith even as we have to remind one another to appreciate and work with what is good in each of us,” he said.

Rahana Ganda, an Office of Muslim Affairs staffer who moderated the video conference in Cotabato City, said the youth of Baguio and Cotabato were united in their vision to achieve peace as they stressed the need for open minds and tolerance.

The activity also enabled two women to share their experiences of prejudice and violence under the hands of some Filipinos from both Christian and Islamic faiths.

A girl introduced only as Jeryl said she, her family and relatives were abducted in July while traveling in Mindanao. An armed gang flagged down a van, in which Jeryl and her relatives were riding, and demanded all Christians to alight.

“We, girls and women, were sent home, but the gang members mercilessly killed my two uncles,” Jeryl said.

She said she had difficulty overcoming a feeling of hatred against Muslims after what happened.

“But as a born-again Christian, I had to open my heart and mind to forgiveness,” she said, noting the incident was not the fault of all Muslims.

Theater actor Bart Guingona, the PeaceTech video conference moderator in Baguio, and Ganda in Cotabato appreciated Jeryl’s boldness and strength in moving toward healing through forgiveness despite her experience.

In Cotabato, a Muslim girl, Yas, also shared her experience during an evacuation of civilians in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte, who were fleeing an all-out war against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in 2000.

“Would you believe, only Christians were being rescued [and allowed to board the boats]?” said Yas. “So I was crying, pitying myself for the misfortune of being a Muslim.”

Like Jeryl, it took Yas some time before she overcame the bitterness she felt after that experience. And like Jeryl, Yas leaned on one important teaching from her faith – making room in her heart for forgiveness.

Asked about how she perceives Christians now after the experience, Yas said: “I realized it would be unfair to regard all Christians to be the same [as those who refused us to board the boat]. I also realized that we can have inner peace only if we are able to forgive.”

Common humanity

Speakers for the video conference stressed that all religions, if unmasked of all their external trappings, essentially talk about how all human beings are interconnected. They also said Christianity, Islam and other religions all advocate peace and harmony.

Fr. Rene Oliveros, a Jesuit priest who also specializes in Islamic studies, said Christianity’s ideal core teaching on peace could be summarized by the Beatitudes, a passage from the Sermon on the Mount declaring what makes a man blessed.

He said the Beatitudes, among other things, talks about how “blessed are the peacemakers for they are children of God.”

Oliveros lamented, however, that Christianity today has become “far removed from the teachings of Christ.” He traced this to “institutionalized Christianity, which became a tool for colonization.”

“The kind of Christianity brought by our colonizers already had a prejudice against Muslims. We need to liberate ourselves from this,” he said.

Prof. Moner Bajunaid, Marawi State University chancellor, said Islam is a religion of peace and peacemaking and its followers have to continuously work and struggle for peace.

Former Bukidnon Rep. Nereus Acosta, who attended the Baguio event, reiterated Albert Einstein’s edict on peace and asked the students from Baguio and Cotabato to remember this passage: “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved through understanding.”

As war continues to be waged in some villages in Mindanao, PeaceTech has embarked on waging peace via information technology, primarily banking on the youth who are going to inherit the country.

And why wage peace?

“It is in the minds of men that war begins, so it is also in the minds of people where peace must be waged,” said Imam Bedejim Abdullah, one of the event’s organizers.

Einstein gives vital clue for Filipino inventor

2008-09-16T03:17:00.000-07:00

Einstein provides vital clue for inventor

By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 21:40:00 09/14/2008

BAGUIO CITY -- THE CURRENT fuel crisis does not worry Victor G. Ayco at all.

A scientist and inventor, Ayco sees the crisis as an opportunity for the country to tap the inexhaustible potentials that science can offer in finding alternatives to fossil fuel.

“Many seem to anticipate a bleak future because of the prospect that one day the world’s fossil fuel deposits will finally run dry,” says Ayco, 70. “But fossil fuel is not the only source of energy that can run engines of cars and other machines. There are other inexhaustible alternatives [to fossil fuel].”

He based his radical optimism on what he regards as a vital clue from one of the geniuses of the 20th century -- Albert Einstein. That clue is the theory of relativity, or E=mc², where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the velocity of light.

The Mandaluyong-based chemical engineer says Einstein’s theory helped him perfect his gas-saving product, which he demonstrated recently before Baguio City motorists.

Essentially, Einstein’s relativity theory, says Ayco, states that “from matter we can produce energy.”

His invention called “aero-nitro power injector” took 15 years of research and experiment. Patented on Dec. 11, 1985, the device has been marketed only recently through Energy Philippines Inc., a private firm, which Ayco co-owns with other partners.

The inventor says his device “converts ordinary nitrogen (a noncombustible substance) in the atmosphere into combustible nitro-gas, and serves as gasoline and diesel additive in gaseous form for efficient engine combustion.”

With efficient engine combustion, a vehicle can run more kilometers with less fuel and emits almost zero toxic pollutants.

Like a science teacher

In introducing his product, Ayco explains like a science teacher how an internal combustion engine performs two processes. One is the chemical process, which involves combustion or burning. The other is mechanical, which involves motion.

The combustion process for gasoline or diesel involves burning hydrogen and carbon. Incompletely burned fuel leads to the formation of three chemicals -- hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and oxides of nitrogen, all of which have been proven hazardous to health and the environment.

Incompletely burned or unburned fuel can also cause other harm. This is because carbon gets stuck inside the engine and can lead to “spark knock” or detonation, which can destroy an internal combustion engine.

Detonation occurs when, after spark fires, it creates a small fireball that spreads across the cylinder.

Unburned carbon sticks to the engine chamber walls and are emitted from the exhaust pipes as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

With unburned carbon, a car engine runs roughly, fuel easily runs out, power gets lost during acceleration, toxic black smoke gets emitted, and carbon deposits are formed within the combustion area and intake valve.

Saving fuel

Noxious wastes, Ayco says, deprive a vehicle of fuel economy and performance, leading to costly repairs.

Ayco’s “aero-nitro power injector” is encased in a stainless steel cylinder, measuring five inches long and two inches in diameter, which can be attached to the intake manifold of any diesel or gas engine.

He says the gadget enhances engine performance, eliminates smoke-belching, provides stronger engine power, and saves on fuel.

Activated chemically during fuel and air intake, the invention harnesses the air’s potential elements by producing up to 99.5 percent burning efficiency of fuel in the combustion chamber of an engine.

Ayco says he is processing how to get credits through what is called carbon trading because his invention prevents by 30 to 40 percent the formation of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides -- substances that are ruining the ozone layer.

Using a chemical catalyst, which Ayco has refused to identify calling it a trade secret, the gadget converts unwanted carbons and other volatile elements present in the atmosphere into combustible gaseous form.

Since the invention helps a car attain perfect fuel burn with near-zero nitrous oxide emission, which gives more power to a vehicle, using the gadget is like converting low octane fuel into high octane gasoline, he says.

The gadget also increases engine power by a maximum of 25 horsepower and increases torque by a maximum of 1,000 RPM (revolutions per minute).

Torque, also called moment of a force in physics, is the tendency of a force to rotate the body to which it is applied.

Ayco says his invention is “like a catalytic cracking reactor using a catalyst material that assists in a chemical reaction but does not take part in it, thus giving greater gasoline yield.”

Increasing mileage

Based on tests by government agencies, including the departments of energy, science and technology and environment and natural resources, Ayco’s invention can increase engine power by 35 to 60 percent, mileage by two to four kilometers to a liter, and engine life span by six to 10 years.

The tests also show that the gadget can cut down maintenance costs by up to 50 percent, can prolong life span of spark plugs and glow plugs, can decrease frequency of tune-ups and oil changes, and can reduce carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions by 99.5 percent.

Ayco also says his gadget is not bulky and easy to install without having to alter engine as it can just be attached to the engine air intake manifold.

Suitable to most types of stationary and mobile combustion engines, the gadget can also last six to eight years and can be recharged after maximum use.

Ayco says that two important substances used in his gas-saving gadget are carbon and hydrogen derived from limestone.

Synthetic fuel

If taken a step farther, these limestone-derived substances combined with water plus a catalyst, which again he will not disclose, can produce synthetic fuel, which is much cleaner and more efficient than fossil fuels.

“My car actually runs on this synthetic fuel,” he says.

He invented his synthetic fuel in the 1980s and had sought government help to protect and mass produce it. But government agencies were lukewarm to his invention.

“This is understandable because Ayco has invented something which can change the course of civilization,” says Bob Roldan, one of the marketing executives of Ayco. “You can just imagine the implication over those who control the oil industry.”

In the meantime, Ayco and his business partners are busy marketing the aero-nitro power injector not only locally but also in Canada, Belgium and other countries.

At P9,000 per unit and with a 10-year warranty, where payments may be returned if one is not satisfied with the performance, Ayco’s invention is making brisk sales in urban communities seeking to reduce air pollution.

Unsung hero helps tell Benguet history

2008-08-21T00:56:00.000-07:00

	INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON Unsung hero helps tell Benguet history
	By Maurice Malanes Philippine Daily Inquirer
	Posted date: August 19, 2008
	MANKAYAN, Benguet – Then First Lady Esperanza Osmeña, wife of President Sergio Osmeña Sr., had baptized an Igorot soldier “Robin Hood,” not because of what the hero stood for but because of his height (almost six feet) and agility as he helped evacuate the First Family during World War II. “It was not clear to me now why the First Lady would call me Robin Hood,” says Amando Bolislis, now 88. “But I remember the First Lady suggesting that in case of promotion, ‘Robin Hood’ should be included.” Bolislis was one of those nameless, if not faceless, soldiers who helped rescue the Osmeñas in September 1943. From the Presidential Mansion in Baguio City, Bolislis and other soldiers took the First Family, as well as eight maids and two nurses, to safety in what was known as Camp Shangrila in the village of Sarat in Kapangan, Benguet. “From time to time, we had to carry on our backs or on stretchers the First Lady and other members of the family if we had to cross rivers or pass through muddy trails,” says Bolislis, who was then only 23. Now with gray hair and some teeth missing, Bolislis and his wife, Esther, would travel from their house in Cervantes, Ilocos Sur, to visit some of their children in Mankayan, Benguet, where he retired in 1980 as a security chief at Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. A native of Kibungan town, Bolislis was among the young Igorot people who enlisted to fight the invading Japanese Imperial Army in the last war. In the jungles between Kapangan in Benguet and Bagulin in La Union, he was inducted on Oct. 9, 1942, as a rifleman of B Company, 43rd Infantry of the Philippine Scouts under Capt. Parker Calvert. Dangerous mission After training for six months on military tactics under Guilabo Caday-as of Kibungan and Sgt. Emilio Velasco of Mt. Province, Bolislis engaged in intelligence gathering and ambuscades against the Japanese along what used to be called Mountain Trail (now Halsema Highway) and in Baguio and La Trinidad. Bolislis did his first most dangerous mission in March 1943: To deliver an important letter to an Igorot sergeant in Bontoc, Mt. Province. The sergeant, in turn, would relay the message to Col. Donald Blackburn, an American officer of the 11th Infantry Regiment who escaped from Bataan and went to Kiangan, Ifugao, to lead a guerrilla force there. From Kapangan, Bolislis would have to deliver the message by foot. Donning only a g-string in which the carefully rolled letter was concealed and a blanket wrapped around his body, the barefoot soldier took an early breakfast, uttered a silent prayer, and embarked on his mission. His first obstacle was a Japanese checkpoint at Kilometer 90 in Buguias, Benguet. A Japanese sentry stopped and studied the tall, lanky Igorot in g-string. The Japanese got a shovel and barked, “Come, follow me!” Bolislis was frightened. He thought he would be digging his own grave. But the Japanese ushered him to a hill where he was asked to dig and gather roots of cogon grass. After gathering about half a kilo of cogon roots, Bolislis was asked to wash these so the Japanese could brew it in a big pot of boiling water. The roots, Bolislis discovered, were for tea. The Japanese allowed Bolislis to leave. “He kicked me in the butt before letting me go,” he says. He continued his journey until another Japanese sentry stopped him in Mount Data. After studying Bolislis from head to foot, the Japanese let him go. Crazy “With my getup, he must have thought I was crazy,” he says. “But again he kicked me from behind before letting me leave.” It was almost dark when Bolislis reached Dantay, a village at a junction leading to the towns of Sagada and Bontoc. He went to a house where an elderly couple, surnamed Bawingan, welcomed and hosted him for the night. The man, he found out, used to be a soldier at Camp Holmes (now Camp Dangwa) in La Trinidad. The next day, Bolislis proceeded to Bontoc. Not far from the town, he noticed a wooden drum being filled with water from a dripping spring. A Japanese sentry appeared and stopped Bolislis, ordering him to carry the drum before he was asked to leave. It was mid-morning when Bolislis reached Bontoc. He was instructed to look for a red house and to ask for “Wasay,” actually an alias for one Sergeant Anongos. When he got hold of the letter, Anongos told Bolislis: “This letter could have cost your life.” To this, Bolislis replied, “Kabunian (God) was on my side.” The letter, it turned out, contains an operation plan for guerrilla warfare. With his first mission accomplished, Bolislis was promoted from private first class to corporal when he reported to his superiors at Camp Shangrila. Another mission Bolislis was given another risky mission in December 1944: To get a sketch of the Lepanto mine in Mankayan, particularly pointing where the powerhouse stood. The Japanese had taken over the Lepanto copper and gold mines and the US Armed Forces in the Far East-Northern Luzon had intended to bomb the area. From Sinipsip village in the Bakun-Buguias border, Bolislis, also wearing a g-string and a blanket, was able to integrate with vegetable vendors. Disguising himself as a porter, he and the vendors trooped to Lepanto. He was able to enter the tightly guarded mining compound. But a Filipino Japanese collaborator became suspicious of Bolislis and brought him to a junkyard where he was tortured. He failed in his mission, but the sketch of the Lepanto powerhouse was so important that his superiors ordered him to return to Lepanto. He took another route, passing through Ampusongan village in Bakun town. From a mountain vantage point, he got a good view of the Lepanto mine with its powerhouse. He got the sketch. With the mission accomplished, he was promoted to second lieutenant. More battles Bolislis and other local soldiers joined the fierce battles in Lepanto and Mankayan, and along the Mountain Trail, which was still controlled by the Japanese in 1945. After seeing action in many battles in 1945, Bolislis fell ill and was taken to Mt. Pulag to rest and recuperate. While recovering, Bolislis got a mission order from Capt. Dennis Molintas: To evacuate to safety some 5,000 residents, including women and children, in Bokod, Benguet. He led all residents to safe grounds after crossing the Agno River and climbing Mt. Buhaw in Bokod. “The only casualty was a carabao (water buffalo),” he recalls. Bolislis left the service on May 7, 1946, and went home to Kibungan where he was welcomed with a traditional thanksgiving feast. Having finished only Grade 3, Bolislis, who speaks good English, would tell of his war exploits during family and clan reunions or parties. His story forms part of the still untold or unwritten stories of local soldiers, who helped liberate Benguet from the Japanese on Aug. 15, 1945, a historic day for the province.

Breaking free from ‘circle of poison’

2008-07-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view_article.php?article_id=151512

	INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON Breaking free from ‘circle of poison’
	By Maurice Malanes Northern Luzon Bureau
	Posted date: July 30, 2008
	LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Farmer-entrepreneur Ardan Copas grew up in Buguias, Benguet, the country’s tropical vegetable capital, where chemicals have long been used as quick fixes for crop growth and diseases. Now, he seeks to break free from chemical dependence in farming. “I would say my eyes were finally opened and I’m now enlightened on the wisdom of organic farming,” Copas says. Only in his 20s, Copas was one of 17 farmers, entrepreneurs, academics and government employees who on June 30 graduated with a certificate in practical organic agriculture, a three-month course at the Benguet State University (BSU) in La Trinidad town. Copas and the other graduates belonged to the first batch to finish a nine-module course, which covers introduction to organic farming and farm entrepreneurship, composting and soil management techniques, organic farm design and technologies, crop production strategies, pest management, post-harvest handling, advanced farm entrepreneurship, and organic certification systems. Trainers included organic farming advocate-practitioners from the BSU and organic farmers’ groups, such as the La Trinidad Organic Producers, Benguet Net and the Cordillera Organic Agriculture Development Council. After completing the course, Copas embarked on a 2,000-square-meter farm in Natubleng, Buguias, where he plans to produce organically grown lettuce and other vegetables. Copas’ family spent P2 million to build two 1,000-square meter greenhouses. If he succeeds, Copas hopes his farm would help wean other farmers in Buguias from chemical farming. The use of excessive chemicals and monocropping, or the practice of growing only one crop all year round, has reportedly caused new diseases such as club root (a fungal disease in the roots of cabbage), bacterial wilt (another disease in cabbage and other leafy vegetables), and pest resistance to even the most potent pesticide. Quick fixes Ever since it became a multimillion-peso venture, the vegetable industry in Benguet and nearby Mt. Province has been caught in a “circle of poison,” where farmers spray pesticides or fungicides for every plant pest or disease. But by resorting to poison, the farmers lost friendly animals and insects that prey on pests. A study by the University of the Philippines at Los Baños in the 1980s found that frogs, which prey on insects, no longer existed in the rivers and springs of Buguias as these have become contaminated with pesticides. In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Charles Cheng of the Baguio Filipino-Chinese General Hospital, and researcher Katherine Bersamira studied the health and environment hazards of pesticides in the vegetable district in Benguet. Their conclusion: The volume of pesticides and fungicides poured into Benguet’s vegetable pot in a year, if used in a biological warfare, is enough to kill the total population of the country. In their 152-page study, Cheng and Bersamira said that in 1992, Benguet vegetable farmers used 124,933 liters of pesticides, 158,384 kilograms of fungicides, and 216,000 bags of chemical fertilizers, with a total value of P165,118,789. Health problems They also noted pesticide-related health problems of farmers, such as itchy skin, dry lips, watery and itchy red eyes that last for days, abdominal and chest pains, muscle cramps, appetite loss, dizziness, nose bleeding and irregular and discolored nails. Local and agriculture officials then sought to downplay the researchers’ findings, fearing that these would damage the vegetable industry. Fearing an adverse implication on their profits, agrochemical firms launched information campaigns, telling farmers about the judicious use of pesticides and saying that the reported health hazards of pesticide were due to improper handling. Despite the reported education drives in recent years on the proper use of pesticides and on what agriculture technicians call “integrated pest management,” the volume of pesticides and other chemicals flowing into Benguet’s vegetable district has remained high. Citing a study, Prof. Jose Balaoing, who heads the BSU’s soil science department, says 120,000 liters of pesticides and 154,000 kg of fungicides were used in Benguet’s vegetable farms in 2007. He says 500 to 600 kg of chemical fertilizers have been used in every hectare of farm. This volume, he says, is an overdose because 240 kg are enough for a hectare. Voice in the wilderness Aware of the health and environmental hazards of chemical farming, Balaoing in 1990 asked BSU officials to support him in launching an organic farming program. “But at that time I was told there was no future in organic farming,” he says, recalling that his advocacy was practically a voice in the wilderness. Despite the unpopularity of organic farming even within BSU in the 1990s, he persisted. But though his advocacy was not readily embraced in his own university then, Balaoing has been invited to train farmers in other provinces such as Camarines Sur and Cotabato, which saw promise in organic farming. He was thus glad that the BSU finally launched its new certificate course in practical organic farming 18 years after he proposed it. “This course is actually overdue,” he says.

Only good citizenship can save Baguio from decay

2008-06-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon
Only good citizenship can save Baguio from decay

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:01:00 06/18/2008

BAGUIO CITY – Practically the whole of Baguio City used to be his playground. He and other teenage children would climb the thickly forested Mount Sto. Tomas, roam the pine and mossy forests of what is now Quezon Hill, and trek to the hot springs of Asin in nearby Tuba town.

They wouldn’t even bother to bring packed lunch with them because they could dig for singkamas ti bakes (wild turnips), pick berries and other wild fruits, and drink from springs or pitcher plants.

“Ten or so singkamas ti bakes (literally, monkey’s turnips) for each of us were enough for our lunch to keep us full for the rest of the day in the great outdoors,” recalls 69-year-old Carlito Cenzon.

Now the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Baguio, Cenzon is among true-blue “Baguio boys,” who are not only nostalgic about the place that made their childhood summers whole and happy in the 1950s.

He is among a few pioneers who, after having noted how Baguio has been deteriorating over the years, now seek to rescue it from further decay. How?

Getting involved

“By being citizens,” Cenzon says. “This means participating, getting involved, not being indifferent, chipping in your talents for the good of the community, paying taxes, following rules and regulations. And if you’re in the government, making your office a public trust.”

He laments the lack of good citizenship, which, he says, can be seen in a pervasive “extractive mentality” in which many come to extract whatever they get out of Baguio, even if this means illegally building a house in a vital watershed, for example.

Cenzon agrees such mentality of extraction may have originated from an extractive industry from which Baguio was born – mining.

Baguio as an urban center emerged as a result of the boom in mining in the neighboring gold-rich towns of Benguet, an industry that American colonial soldiers-turned-gold-prospectors began on a massive scale in the early 1900s.

With its mountain climate and the promise of economic opportunities, more and more migrants have poured into Baguio in recent years. Many came and squatted on public lands, taking advantage of a city government with no updated and strict land use and zoning policies.

Cenzon cites, among other things, what is now known as Quirino Hill. During his childhood, the place used to be covered with a pine forest and called Carabao Mountain. With a slope of above 18 degrees, the hill is now one of the densely populated areas.

The bishop and the environment advocacy group, Baguio Regreening Movement, in which he is one of the officers, have since been on a mission to save the watersheds.

They have not only led concerned citizens and students in planting trees but also recommended the demolition of squatters’ houses in Busol, a vital watershed.

Despite the maze of legal bureaucratic procedures required before demolishing shanties, “our battle to save whatever is left of our watersheds continues,” he says. “The battle is ongoing even if squatters have remained despite hundreds of court orders issued against them.

According to Cenzon, many people – big and small – have been “raping Baguio for a long time,” with each one trying to extract what he can get from the city at all costs.

One of the outfits to which concerned citizens have vented their ire on is a subsidiary of a shopping mall chain. For months, officials and residents were kept in the dark regarding company plans to build another structure in a hectare of pine woodlot near the Baguio Convention Center.

Recently, an official of the firm told the city council about its plan to build condominium buildings on that lot. Because of public pressure from concerned citizens like Cenzon, most members of the council have opposed it.

Campaign

“I would lead a campaign to boycott this mall if this structure is built despite concerned citizens’ protest,” says Cenzon.

He says an official of the shopping mall had told him the company would look for an alternative site.

But apart from big-time threats, even ordinary residents are helping ruin Baguio, says the bishop. He cites those who use sidewalks for auto repair and vulcanizing shops, sari-sari (variety) stores and other business stalls, and ambulant vendors.

As one of those who conceptualized the recent “Walk Baguio Walk” drive, in which government employees and residents are encouraged to walk rather than drive to work, Cenzon admits that walking would be quite difficult with the lack of sidewalks.

When told that Marikina City was able to clear its sidewalks and succeeded in reclaiming these for the public, Cenzon says replicating that experience requires strong political will.

Good governance, strong political will and people exercising their role as citizens could rescue Baguio from further decay, he says. “But what all these require is love,” he says. “You must love Baguio first so you can have the passion and the heart to serve the interest of the community rather than your interest.”

Responsible citizenship, he says, emanates from love of one’s community or country.

How Cordillera children are deprived of education

2008-06-11T20:28:00.000-07:00

	How Cordillera children are deprived of education
	By Maurice Malanes Philippine Daily Inquirer
	Posted date: June 11, 2008
	KIBUNGAN, Benguet – At the second crow of the rooster at daybreak, children of the sub-village of Liwen in Benguet’s upland town of Kibungan have to wake up, eat an early breakfast, and brace for an hour-long uphill climb to the nearest school at the poblacion (town center). After classes are dismissed in the afternoon, they have to rush home before it gets dark. Their ordeal – come rain, typhoon or cold season – is a fact of life not only in this Kankanaey town but elsewhere in the Cordillera. This is why Jimmy Jose, 27, a native of Sinacbat village in neighboring Bakun town, and many of his former elementary classmates had to reach at least 8 years old so they can enter Grade 1. “We had to grow older and be strong enough to be able to walk or (literally) climb our way to school,” recalls Jose, a forestry graduate, who worked his way through high school and college. “This remains the reality in our community.” “Worse, those who were too weak and those not so determined to go to school eventually would drop out and forget school altogether,” he says. Kibungan is a fifth-class municipality (annual income: P7 million-P13 million). The Department of Education aims to encourage more children, particularly 6-year-olds, to enroll in Grade 1. It has campaigned to inform parents to enroll their children after noting a low turnout of 6-year-old enrollees for Grade 1 last school year. Only more than a third or a million of the three million 6-year-old children nationwide enrolled in Grade 1 last year, says Benito Tumamao, DepEd Cordillera director. This national trend was more or less the same in the Cordillera, he says. “The difficult access of children to the nearest school where they have to walk six to seven kilometers remains a main factor [for the low turnout of Grade 1 enrollees] in our region,” says Tumamao. Ninety-five percent of the Cordillera terrain is mountainous. The only flat lands are in Tabuk City, Kalinga; Bangued, Abra; and the valley town of La Trinidad, Benguet’s capital. “So I understand how these 6-year-olds with frail bodies can hardly withstand the rigors of hiking kilometers just to reach the nearest school,” says Tumamao. The DepEd has projected over 6,000 6-year-olds in Grade 1 in the region this year or almost 3 percent of the 216,865 projected total enrollees for the elementary level. Education for all It seeks to help achieve in the country the United Nations goal to provide education for all by 2015. But Tumamao admits this goal will continue to elude the country unless policy reforms are made. An area that needs reforms is in building schools in remote communities. Since the government wants to “economize” on what it allots for teaching positions, the DepEd cannot put up schools in communities with fewer than 30 students. But the reality is that many remote communities in the Cordillera have fewer than 30 6-year-olds at a given school year. These children are thus forced to enroll in schools at the town or village centers, if they are fit enough. Tumamao is proposing a policy to establish schools even in communities with low enrollment. A teacher can be assigned to a community where even 15 children can use a barangay (village) hall as classroom, he says. Children in remote communities can also go to school at the right age if they are provided boarding schools, he says. Boarding schools would allow them to go home only on weekends to get supplies for the week. Tumamao says Cordillera lawmakers may consider these policy reforms to help them craft education-related laws. “We, educators, would be happy if our legislators would support these suggested policy reforms,” he says. For secondary education, the Cordillera recorded almost 13-percent dropout rate last school year, one of the highest in the country. Tumamao cites economic difficulties, health problems and the distance of schools among the major reasons. If the trend continues, almost 12,000 of the projected 89,640 high school enrollees this year would drop out. Fast Facts The Cordillera still lacks teachers in both public elementary and high schools. This school year, it needs 95 elementary school teachers and 37 high school teachers, according to the Department of Education. In Ifugao, 25 elementary school teachers are needed; Kalinga, 22; Benguet, 18; Mt. Province, 11; Apayao, 11; Baguio City, six; and Abra, two. Benguet needs 14 secondary school teachers while Apayao needs 11; Kalinga, five; and Mt. Province, four. Abra and Baguio City have no projected need for new teachers until 2011. Many schools still lack classrooms and armchairs or desks. For grade school, Kalinga needs 99 classrooms; Benguet, 64; Abra, 36; Baguio, 23; Mt. Province, 19; Ifugao, 18; and Apayao, 14. For high school, Kalinga needs 73 classrooms; Mt. Province, 50; Baguio, 48; Benguet, 40; Apayao, 36; and Abra, 27. Elementary schools in Benguet need 5,836 armchairs or desks. Kalinga needs 4,468 desks; Apayao, 1,990; Baguio, 1,396; Mt. Province, 1,360; Ifugao, 729; and Abra, 622.

A century of Cordillera vegetable salad

2008-05-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

A century of Cordillera vegetable salad

Source: Inquirer Author: Maurice Malanes Date: 2001-01-10

BENGUET – The cold winds bite, like frozen needles pricking the bones. But why did the mountain folk come to Atok, Benguet, and called it their home?

Any day of this balmy season, from noon to late evening, thick fog hugs the environs of Atok’s Barangay Paoay (pop: 3,552), some 50 kilometers north of Baguio City.

Trekking along the winding road from Sitio Sayangan along the Halsema Highway to Paoay’s plateau (7,500 foot above sea level) is like going up a stairway to a cloud-blanketed heaven.

The hardy Kankanaey and Ibaloi folk came to Atok not just because the place was near heaven. Suited to growing tropical vegetables, the once thickly forested area promised abundance.

Ever since a former soldier of the American colonial government at the turn of the 20th century set foot in Atok, Barangay Paoay through the years has been transformed into what it is today--a salad bowl.

Some migrant Chinese, who were among those the Americans recruited to help build Kennon Road from 1902 to 1911, followed suit and introduced intensive vegetable farming.

Once mere hired hands of vegetable plantation owners, the Kankanaey and Ibaloi folk learned to grow vegetables and turned Paoay and the other six neighboring barangays of Atok (pop: 16,000) into a vegetable district.

The vegetable industry soon spread to the neighboring towns of Buguias and Kibungan (particularly Barangay Madaymen), both in Benguet, and some towns of Mt. Province. Now considered a ``vegetable belt,’’ these areas supply 80 percent of the country’s tropical vegetables.

Century-old

The Cordillera’s multimillion-peso vegetable industry is almost a century old. And in a country, which loves and honors anything American, the upland folk must be historically sentimental toward Paoay as they are toward Camp John Hay and Kennon.

In the early 1900s, a certain Guy Haight came and fell in love with what he saw atop a plateau-–grassland surrounded by mossy and pine forests.

A member of the US Army’s engineering corps, Haight was among the American soldiers and officials who colonized the Philippines after the Filipinos defeated the Spaniards in 1898.

Contracting lung disease (probably an early stage of tuberculosis) after helping supervise the building of Kennon, Manila’s main link to Baguio, Haight was advised by a doctor to look for a place as cold as his Philadelphia hometown.

Unlike other former American soldiers who explored the Cordillera for its fabled gold mines, Haight settled in what is now Paoay and became a farmer. He married an Igorot lass from Suyoc in Mankayan town, also in Benguet, and built a grass-thatched house and log cabins on the grassland, the best part of the dominantly mountain village.

Some photographs of the houses and of Haight’s family now hang at the living room of the house of former Atok Mayor John Haight, now 71, a grandson of Haight.

The elder Haight ordered vegetable seeds from his parents in Philadelphia, and, with the help of Igorot laborers, he grew cabbage, turnip, rhubarb, lettuce, sugar beet, carrot, celery, parsley and potato. He also grew oats and rye, whose stalks and leaves were fed to cows, horses, pigs, carabaos and other livestock.

Haight’s almost 30-hectare farm and house were an ideal organic farm. The soil was virgin and fertile then.

Thus, there was no need for chemical fertilizers. But later, Haight used compost in his farm that consisted of decayed weeds and livestock manure.

Haight’s produce was marketed to Baguio. His clients were fellow Americans, many of them colonial officials on vacation at Camp John Hay, and Filipinos who learned to eat cabbages and other newly introduced tropical vegetables.

With no road link to Atok, Haight had to hire porters and had to mobilize his horses to transport on foot the vegetables to Baguio. Each porter had to carry an average of 30 kilos, says Celo Haight-Tan, now 82, whose late father Selo, a.k.a. Toki Lawangen, was recruited by Haight as ``tent boy.’’

Celo, a native of Kapangan, Benguet, was barely 12 years old when he was hired. The boy was rendering labor during the construction of Kennon as payment for community tax. Celo soon assumed the family name of his American master.

Celo and his family also spoke American English. ``We came to learn our language only when we went to school in Kabayan (a neighboring town),’’ recalls Haight-Tan, the fourth of the late Celo’s 10 children.

The old Haight died in 1926. But planting tropical vegetables, which he introduced, continued.

Enter the Chinese

After the construction of Kennon in 1911 and of the American military barracks and buildings in Baguio, which Chinese migrant workers helped build, the remaining Chinese laborers saw new opportunities.

They surveyed La Trinidad Valley and other areas in Benguet, which included Paoay and other villages in Atok, and found these areas promising for agriculture.

In Paoay, the Chinese introduced intensive farming and new varieties of cabbage, such as pechay and wombok, aside from head cabbage, celery, carrot, broccoli, lettuce and potato.

With intensive farming, the Chinese had to use chicken dung mixed with ashes, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, recalls Paoay barangay chair Dewey Tomas, a former child laborer in a Chinese farm in the 1950s.

But the Chinese were also basically organic farmers, according to Baguio-based Dr. Charles Cheng and Katherine Bersamira in their 1997 book ``The Ethnic Chinese in the Cordillera: The Untold Story of Pioneers.’’

The Chinese also introduced composting, recycling of organic matter, crop rotation, using insect predators to control pests, and some irrigation techniques, say Dr. Cheng and Bersamira.

Clan reunions replace'cañao' tradition in Benguet

2008-05-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

Reprint

Clan reunions replace

'cañao' tradition in Benguet

by Maurice Malanes, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9 May 2000

TIME was when the mountains of Kibungan town in Benguet

would echo the beats and rhythm of gongs and solibaos (native

drums) and the cries of pigs and carabaos being slaughtered

and offered to the gods and spirits during traditional feasts

called cañao or pedit.

Abundant farm harvest and good swine and cattle production

would be enough reasons to hold the cañao.

In these feasts, members of the community would gather in the

home of the host family to dine and wine, to dance the sadong

(usually performed by girls and women) and the tayaw (usually

done by men), and to sing the day-eng (an extemporaneous

chanted poetry).

For the host family, the cañao was a way of sharing with the

rest of the community blessings the gods and spirits bestowed

or what may be considered the family's surplus. The cañao or

pedit is thus a thanksgiving feast.

In thanking the heavens, a traditional priest would pray: ''O

gods and spirits of the heavens, bless members of this family

(referring to the cañao's host family). Let their cattle and

livestock become more productive. Let their rice, peas, grains,

camote (sweet potato) and other crops bear good harvest. Spare

this family from ailments and bless the family members with

long, healthy lives. O gods and spirits, we are asking all these

so that tomorrow or one of these days, we can again celebrate

your blessings for this family and have the chance again to

honor you and pay our respects.''

As a community affair, the cañao or pedit had also served a

social purpose. Through this affair, each member of the

community, in the spirit of bin-nadang or cooperation, would

help out in all activities.

The whole community would gather firewood, pound rice, fetch

water, slaughter animals and cook, and would participate in

religious rituals, such as dancing the sadong and the tayaw,

playing the gongs and drums, and joining in the religious

chants. In the early days, the cañao had thus helped strengthen

community spirit and unity.

Also through the cañao, families and clans were able to trace

their blood lineage and family tree.

Vanishing tradition

But in Benguet towns, such as in Kibungan, which used to hold

traditional feasts at least twice or thrice a month until three to

four decades ago, the cañao is now slowly vanishing.

The reasons are both economic and cultural. In Kibungan now,

there just are not enough animals to butcher, unlike in the early

days when, as Lakay (old man) Paguli recalls, there were more

animals than people.

The mountain town, which is 67 kilometers northeast of Baguio

City, also used to be self-sufficient in staples such as rice and

camote.

These days, however, Kibungan folk have to buy their rice from

Baguio because of a growing population and the lack of

government support services, such as small irrigation systems,

to improve farm production.

Populated by about 16,000 Kankana-ey folk, Kibungan has also

been saturated by various Christian sects, some of which

preach that the cañao tradition is ''unchristian,'' if not ''the work

of the devil.''

But as more and more Kibungan folk are turning their backs on

the cañao tradition, more and more are also looking for ways to

restrengthen community spirit and family and clan ties. Clan

reunions have thus emerged in recent years.

Tracing ancestry

Like the cañao, clan reunions enable members to get to know

one another better by tracing common ancestors.

Unlike the cañao, however, each family head of the clan

contributes to the cost of holding a reunion.

In the recent grand reunion of the Gelwan-Dangsuyan clan, one

of the biggest in Kibungan, for example, each family head

chipped in P150 mainly to cover the cost of lunch and dinner.

Each one of the over 500 clan members gathered was excited

and happy about the grand reunion held in the home of Ganaya

Bay-an Bolislis, the only surviving elder of the Tamang

sub-clan.

But the grand affair apparently lacks the festive mood of the

cañao of yore. The affair was rather formal, complete with a

program of activities, during which all sub-clans were presented

on a stage installed with a sound system.

There was a spice, however, to all the formalities: each sub-clan

presented ice breakers, such as country and folk songs and

children's dances, which integrated traditional dance steps.

Folk singing

And the singers, mostly young men and women, were good at

aping the late John Denver, Kenny Rogers, Joan Baez and other

American country and folk singers.

Some elders did not want to be outdone. Gaerlan Wance and

Celino Cayad-an, both World War II veterans, sang songs they

learned from their American senior officers in the last war.

That American country and folk songs are tops in Kibungan

and other Benguet towns is an interesting subject for

sociocultural research. But that's another story.

What is clear is that cultural practices accompanying the cañao

tradition are now on the way out.

The mambunong (a traditional priest), who leads the religious

rituals in a cañao, no longer has a place in a clan reunion. In the

recent Gelwan-Dangsuyan grand reunion, for example, a young

Pentecostal pastor, who married a woman of the clan, led

members in a praise and worship rite.

Guitars and sound systems have replaced the beats of gongs

and drums. Hawaiian dances performed to the tune of ''Pearly

Shells'' and ''Tiny Bubbles'' and other dances, such as one

played to some weird beat called ''Dayang-Dayang'' have

replaced the traditional sadong and tayaw.

Hardly heard now is the day-eng, an extemporaneous poetry

that is sung by elders as they pass around a common cup of

tapuy or rice wine.

This poetry is also a form of discourse because one leads and

opens up a topic, and another responds by agreeing or

disagreeing through metaphors and lots of folk wisdom-laden

philosophical thoughts.

Cultural artifacts, such as traditional dresses and heirlooms, can

be preserved in museums. Not so with a cultural heritage such

as the day-eng, which has to be continually practiced for it to

continue to breathe life.

Brave new world in museum work unfolds in Baguio

2008-05-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

Inquirer Northern Luzon
Brave new world in museum work unfolds in Baguio

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:40:00 05/07/2008

BAGUIO CITY – This museum, perhaps the first of its kind in the country, will tell a community’s story from the perspective of its people.

The Baguio Historical and Mining Museum will rise on one of the city’s historic sites – Dominican Hill, where the ruins of a monastery lie. It will be led by its foundation, chaired by Philippine Ambassador to Germany Delia Albert, in time for the city’s centennial celebration in 2009.

“There’s a brave new world in museum work – one that employs modern technology, such as biotechnology, but…offers an atmosphere of warmth, which encourages collaboration with and participation from the community,” says Marian Pastor Roces, who has been appointed curator of the proposed museum.

Roces describes the project as “community-centered,” meaning residents can participate and collaborate with the museum staff to interpret data rather than have these interpreted by outsiders.

“This is a museum that learns from the community and tells the community’s diverse stories of interaction,” she told reporters during the project’s launching on May 2. The stories include not only those from the past but also those that are “continuing, unfolding,” she said.

How Baguio evolved as a chartered city because of the mining industry that boomed in the early 1900s in the neighboring gold-rich communities of Benguet is one such account.

Albert, a native of Baguio, says the mining industry’s growth is intertwined with the city’s development. She points at the four yellow dots against a green backdrop in the official seal, representing the four original neighboring mining communities in Benguet.

A lot of stories related to the mining industry still need to be told, Albert said. She cites the Kankanaey and Ibaloi traditional mining experts who claim they can find gold in rocks by using their tongue and saliva.

Even before American colonial soldiers-turned-gold prospectors came and founded the forerunners of today’s big mining corporations, the Spanish colonial government had also heard of gold guarded by “fierce natives” in the Cordillera’s pine-clad mountains.

Collaboration

Written accounts showed that Spaniards had organized gold expedition teams that reached Benguet through horse trails built by the Igorot natives through forced labor.

The historical and mining museum will incorporate all these stories, according to foundation officials. In fact, there is still a wealth of unstudied pre-20th century materials about Baguio in museums around the world, which can be reproduced and stored here, says Roces.

She cites 19th-century maps of Baguio and archives of tourist photos that can help tell how Baguio evolved into a metropolis.

Among the key sources of museum materials are the Philippine National Archive, University of Chicago, Michigan State University, US Army Archives in Maryland, Leiden University, Smithsonian Institution, Museum fur Volkenkunde in Vienna, the British Museum, and Musee du Quay Branly in Paris.

In this “brave new world of museology (museum studies),” collaboration is the key word, Roces says. And how will this collaboration with the community work?

Roces and her staff will facilitate the creation of a body of local experts – from academics and elders or pioneers to a wide range of professionals – to gather historical data and artifacts and later collectively interpret and represent these in various documentation forms (video, photographs or manuscripts).

“Data gathering won’t only be done by academics; even neighborhood groups can gather old photos from other neighbors, for example,” she says. “It’s going to be an entire series of action and process that involves community participatory mechanisms from beginning to end.”

Leonora San Agustin, curator of the Baguio-Mountain Provinces Museum, agrees on the need for experts. She cites an innocent-looking rock given to her by former Baguio Mayor Francisco Paraan. “I didn’t know what the rock was for until a traditional miner told me it was where traditional miners would grind gold ore,” she says.

“We need all the experts we can mobilize, especially now that our local miners are disappearing with demise of the mining industry here,” says San Agustin.

Heritage conservation

A product of more than four years of planning and consultation, the Baguio Historical and Mining Museum is “a positive step for heritage conservation,” Maria Isabel Ongpin, the foundation president, says. It is “an idea of Baguio residents, past and present,” she says.

Albert says the project would give people who have ties with Baguio a reason “to be proud once more of this fantastic city that reared us.”

The city government, however, has yet to amend a resolution turning over the Dominican Hill property to the museum foundation. The resolution does not include the turnover of the monastery ruins.

“We need the building first,” says Albert. The 33-room Dominican monastery was the city’s most expansive stone structure before 1920, according to the book, “City of Pines.”

The people behind the museum project have already ironed out plans to beat a very tight deadline, as the city counts down to its centennial on Sept. 1 next year.

Roces says the new museum would employ state-of-the-art technology in helping the local community gather and interpret data. “It’s going to be high-tech, but congenial,” she says, noting how technology sometimes alienates, if not intimidates, some people. “So we have to create a special encounter for people to dialogue and communicate with one another.”

The secret is building it with a “delightful yet elegant” ambience, she says.

Some old-timers are enthusiastic about the project and its site, which overlooks the city. “I live there and it’s a perfect, beautiful place for us to chat, dialogue and meditate as we watch the sunset,” Paraan says.

The museum intends to become a repository for the memorabilia of residents and tourists, a science center that is at the same time a crucible for art, a high-tech learning facility, a tourist destination and national and international crowd draw, and a space for encounter, dialogue, meditation, and festivity.

It will be divided into five spaces: a study center on urbanization, oral history and family memorabilia trust, a Philippine center for geology, an international center for jewelry design, and a study center for Cordillera-lowland cultures encounter.

Museum is biggest currency collector

2008-05-06T02:23:00.000-07:00

Reprint

Museum is biggest currency collector

Source: Inquirer Author: Maurice Malanes Date: 2000-02-15

BENGUET'S provincial museum is the

most unique in the country, not only

because it houses, among other

things, a human mummy returned by a

thief but also because it is probably the country's biggest

collector of currencies worldwide.

The museum at a building beside the provincial capitol in La

Trinidad town has collected currencies from at least 100

countries, says Amando Furunda, the museum's assistant

officer in charge.

The collection includes old and new coins and paper bills from

the Philippines and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region,

South America, North America, Europe and Africa.

How the collection began was no accident. It was started by

residents who have a strong historical and anthropological

sense, Furunda said.

One of the first items in the collection is a legal tender printed in

the jungles of Apayao during World War II.

Then provincial administrator Francisco Tiotioen donated the

bill and two Mt. Province emergency notes, which were as good

as cash during the war, said Loly Moises, provincial librarian.

The notes were among the first items to be displayed when the

museum was inaugurated in June 1979.

Moises, who initially supervised the museum, said she did not

expect that the notes would encourage other people to expand

the currency collection.

The book, ''Japanese Occupation of the Philippines,'' by

historian A.V. H. Hartendorp reveals how the emergency notes

evolved.

Hartendorp wrote that the notes, totalling P1,000, were printed

by US Army Maj. Ralph Frager in his Apayao jungle retreat

during the war.

Frager, a West Pointer with the 26th Cavalry, was authorized by

the American government to print the notes to be used in areas

unoccupied by the Japanese.

The major was assigned to do reconnaissance and intelligence

work in far north Luzon. There, American soldiers installed a

clandestine radio communication network directly linked to San

Francisco in the US mainland.

The Apayao notes (from five centavos to P10) were produced

by a makeshift printery from plates cut from battery boxes made

of hard rubber. All notes bore serial numbers. The plates were

destroyed immediately after printing.

The Mt. Province emergency notes, on the other hand, were

printed after the government ordered the payment of salaries of

local officials and employees from December 1941 to 1946 when

the war ended.

After Tiotioen's donated notes were exhibited, local and foreign

tourists started contributing coins and paper bills. Thus, most

of the additions are not relics but modern currencies.

But some residents continue to give old coins and paper bills.

Among the latest addition to the collection is a 1.69-gram

irregularly shaped silver coin believed to be used during the

Spanish galleon trade in the 1700s. The coin has a cross on one

side and the Spanish royal seal on the other.

The coin is similar to the macuquinas or cobs

(Spanish-American dollars) used in Irish and British colonies in

the earlier centuries.

The only incentive of coin or paper bill donors is that their

names are duly acknowledged and displayed with their

donations. But some would prefer to be anonymous.

Cultural repository

Another interesting attraction of the Benguet museum is a

human mummy returned by a thief after he reportedly suffered

from mysterious ailments.

The thief probably got sick because he stole the mummy, said

Furunda. Rats have also eaten parts of the preserved corpse so

the thief's negligence might have angered the mummy's spirit, he

added.

Unlike the most celebrated Apo Anno, a mummy which was

returned in May 1999 to Buguias town, the mummy at the

museum is still unknown. Once identified and once the place

where it was stolen is traced, the mummy will be finally returned.

This will entail elaborate rituals to appease the mummy's spirit.

Other items on display are cultural artifacts, such as old

porcelain Chinese jars, wooden plates and bowls, rain gear made

of grass, gold panning equipment made of stones, gongs and

drums, bark cloth, tapis or wrap-around skirt and g-strings and

old furniture.

The old Chinese jars reveal that Benguet and other parts of the

country had a flourishing trade with China and other Asian

neighbors even before the Spanish colonizers came.

From the bark cloth--a wide bark from a certain tree made soft

through pounding and beating--to the tapis and g-string, the

museum can give the visitor an idea about how the Igorots of

old protected their bodies from the elements.

Like history, which continues to be written, the museum can

continue to be enriched by adding more previously hidden

artifacts.

Igorot dances in pure form

2008-05-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

(Note: I am reprinting this on this blog as part of my online compilation of articles written before. I'll be reprinting later other articles, which were written ages ago.)

Igorot dances in pure form

Source: Inquirer Author: Maurice Malanes Date: 2000-10-03

WHAT differentiates Igorot dances, or any other indigenous

folk dances, from waltz, tango and other ballroom dances? A lot

of things.

One can learn ballroom dances from an instructor but learning

Igorot dances is not simply knowing the steps and

synchronizing these with the rhythm of gongs and drums.

To really learn Igorot dances, with all their cultural trimmings

and meanings, one must go to the village where these are

performed for religious or spiritual purposes.

Ike Picpican, Saint Louis University museum curator, is anxious

about how theater performers are uprooting indigenous Igorot

dances from their ''cultural base'' because ''the dance tradition is

deeply rooted in the upland folk's day-to-day life.''

He stresses the need to ''preserve the indigenous spirit and

context'' of Igorot dances when these are performed by artists.

He notes how stage or theater performers have ''stylized'' and

introduced innovations, which, he fears, will ruin the essence

and spirit of the traditional dances.

Igorot professionals themselves must show how the dances

''should'' be performed, he suggests.

Picpican cites Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, an Igorot

of the Bago tribe, who can really perform Igorot dances, beat

gongs and drums, and sing and chant Igorot songs and poems.

Picpican also cites how Domogan chastised young Igorot

performers for wearing ba-ag or g-string over their underwear

while performing traditional Cordillera dances.

For Picpican, Domogan--who often dons nothing but a g-string,

Igorot necklace, a traditional head gear and a sangi or native

rattan backpack during special occasions such as meetings of

local officials--is a model ambassador of Igorot culture.

Picpican also lauds the Ifugao provincial board for passing a

resolution which requires the ''appropriate and corresponding

attire, music and cultural background'' of Ifugao rites, dances

and songs or chants when these are performed on stage.

Even if performed with the ''appropriate and proper'' attire and

cultural backdrop, Igorot dances or any other rituals done on

stage or at Baguio's Burnham Park are still not in their pure form

as sought by cultural purists or preservationists like Picpican.

Once presented on stage, Igorot dances become adulterated.

Cultural reality

But these cultural shows, like other performing arts, must at

least mirror cultural reality to meet the standards of cultural

guardians like Picpican.

To the Igorots, their dances and other cultural rites are as

sacred as Christian church rites. Guardians of Cordillera culture

consider it ''sacrilegious'' when cultural rites are done for other

purposes, such as to attract tourists.

For example, the attempt of the tourism ministry in the early

1980s under the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos to lure

tourists by showcasing Igorot culture through what was called

the Grand Cañao had invited protests from Igorot professionals

and student activists.

The Grand Cañao, they cried, did not only mock Igorot culture

but also commercialized it.

Over the years, some Igorot dances have taken a new twist. To

the dismay of their fellow Igorots, some mountain folk during

the Christmas season would go from house to house in cities as

far as Manila, bang their gongs and perform Bontok dances as

their way of soliciting gifts.

Also in recent years, some Igorot dances have been

transformed as a medium of protest. Igorot folk protesting the

entry into their communities of big mining companies, for

example, would intersperse their pickets with Igorot dances and

gong beats at the gates of the Department of Environment and

Natural Resources.

No matter what the purists say, Igorot dances through time will

assume various forms, simply because unlike cultural artifacts,

traditional dances cannot be preserved in museums.

And as the original reasons for performing Igorot dances, such

as the elaborate cañao feasts, continue to disappear, the

Cordillera needs culturally sensitive stage or theater artists

(who, according to Picpican, know the cultural base and context

of dances) to continue to breathe life into the Igorot dances.

The dances can die unless continually performed.

91-yr-old vet recalls Bataan nightmare

2008-04-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

91-yr-old vet recalls Bataan nightmare

91-yr-old vet recalls Bataan nightmare

By Maurice Malanes

Northern Luzon Bureau First Posted 06:23:00 04/09/2008

BAGUIO CITY—Before rising to become a police chief, a Benguet Corp. vice president and mayor of this city in the mid-1980s, Francisco Paraan lived through starvation, disease and the daily threat of being stabbed with a Japanese bayonet.

Paraan would now refer to the ordeal as his "nightmare," his "Valley of Death." In history books, though, Filipinos have come to know it as the Death March.
At 91, Paraan needs a hearing aid and takes 11 pills a day for his heart and urinary problems, and for other ailments traceable to the horrors he endured serving with the Allied forces during World War II.

Yet the battle-scarred veteran could still vividly remember the indignities and suffering which he and his comrades experienced during the infamous Death March of April 1942, the forcible transfer of some 90,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war from the Bataan peninsula to prison camps in Central Luzon.

The Allied surrender leading to the march is being commemorated by the nation on Wednesday as "Araw ng Kagitingan" (Day of Valor), also known as The Fall of Bataan.
"Physically exhausted, psychologically devastated and without food and water, we only had 10 percent left of our strength and will to fight," Paraan said, describing the Allied troops' condition on the eve of their capitulation.

"During the surrender, a great wave of jumbled, confused and emaciated (Filipino and American soldiers) was pushed towards the south in Corregidor and Mariveles, Bataan," he said. "Units of the USAFFE (United States Armed Forces in the Far East) just melted away."

Paraan was a tactical officer of the University of the Philippines ROTC (Reserved Officers Training Corps) when the war broke out. He enlisted as a third lieutenant in the USAFFE and led 30 men, all ROTC cadets, to Bataan. (Six of his men were later sent home after it was discovered that they were under 18.)

Final stand

When American supreme commander Gen. Douglas MacArthur ordered all Filipino and American troops to move to Bataan and make what would become their final stand, Paraan helped establish a main line of resistance on Mt. Natib.

The main Japanese offensive on Bataan actually began on Jan. 9 (a week after the fall of Manila and three months before the surrender). By mid-February, the USAFFE lines have been pushed to the Pilar-Bagac area, past Balanga.

There was a lull in the battle from Feb. 15 to April 2, Paraan recalled in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. "Both sides suffered great losses, and many of us were sick and exhausted." "But the morale of Filipino-American troops was very high because we were able to frustrate the target of the Japanese, (which was) to capture Bataan immediately. The morale of the Japanese, we learned, was low," he said.

Word also spread that the Japanese forces led by Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma had their share of massive losses and that many of the remaining soldiers were down with malaria and dysentery, the veteran added.

But when reinforcements fresh from Japan arrived, the offensive resumed on April 3, "unleashing their full military might, using air bombs, artillery shells and superior firepower," he said.

Paraan noted that many of the Filipino and American troops were so poorly armed that some were even carrying rifles of "World War I vintage."

On the eve of the surrender, the cornered troops even felt a strong "earthquake" hitting Bataan that day. "After sleeping a few hours on the night of April 8, we ... destroyed all our firearms. And from our jungle hideouts we, as ordered, went down to the highway to surrender the next morning."

Death March starts

Paraan and his contingent were first herded into a rice field in Barangay Cabcaben in Mariveles, where they stayed for a day without sleep and food. From Mariveles, the Death March commenced, covering an initial 80 kilometer to San Fernando, Pampanga.

"We formed a long line of hungry, sick and wounded Filipino and American soldiers," he said. "Those who were too weak or too sick to walk, those straying from line were beaten up, clubbed and bayoneted to death. We were denied food and water."

At one point, Paraan said, he got very thirsty and gambled with his life: He dashed to a nearby rice paddy and filled his canteen with water, completely eluding the attention of Japanese sentries. He slaked his thirst upon rejoining the line.

The next day, Paraan was ill with dysentery.

"It was literally a walk through the Valley of Death," he said. "All along the way, we saw corpses strewn about, some of them decapitated."

When the POWs reached Hermosa and Dinalupihan in Bataan, and later Lubao in Pampanga on April 10, residents came out to see them.

"Many of them wept as they took pity on us," Paraan said. Some of the locals tossed them food as the prisoners walked by.

"(They) gave us panocha (sugarcane molasses), fried chicken and steamed rice wrapped in banana leaves. (We ate them so quickly) it was as though we were just gulping down water."

Paraan said he later learned that many civilians who had given food to the soldiers were tortured and killed by the Japanese.

Reaching San Fernando, his group was met by truckloads of Japanese soldiers, "who taunted us and spat on our faces."

After spending the night at a warehouse at the San Fernando rail terminal, the POWs were then moved by train to Capas, Tarlac, the veteran said.

Packed in box cars

"We were packed like sardines in the box cars. Several (prisoners) died of suffocation," he said, recalling that at least three soldiers died in the car he was in.

From Capas, they marched for another 13 km to finally get to a concentration camp. After surviving Death March, however, Paraan was still down with dysentery. Prison food – a handful of steamed rice sprinkled with salt, served at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily – hardly helped in nursing himself back to health.

But Paraan surmised that, still, "God was good" because the Japanese failed to uncover his precious secret: He kept bills amounting to P300 (a substantial amount at the time) hidden in his underwear. With the money, he managed to smuggle food and medicine into the camp, not only for him but also for his younger brother and fellow POW, Ricardo, who was stricken with malaria.

Released on parole

"Without that money, my brother and I would have died at the camp," says Paraan. After six months at the camp, Paraan was released "on parole" and even had some money left for a train ride from Capas to Damortis, La Union, and then a bus ride to Baguio.

He was then contacted by officers of the 66th Infantry, USAF-Northern Luzon. After being treated for his dysentery by Dr. Ernesto Abellera, Paraan engaged in espionage, monitoring enemy movements and suppliers.

He eventually went back into combat, taking part in an assault on Bad-ayan Hill, a Japanese base in Buguias, Benguet, on Aug. 14, 1945.

Six decades later, Paraan said the Death March may have been a nightmare, but surviving it helped steel his will and character.

Leadership positions

"The experience gave me a lot of self-confidence, which prepared me for various leadership positions later," he said.

Paraan became Baguio City's chief of police in 1959 and earned an award as the country's most outstanding police chief during his term.

Paraan later moved to the private sector as security chief and later vice president of Benguet Corp. He served as Baguio City mayor during the Aquino administration.

Paraan, father of eight successful professionals and lolo of 22 grandchildren, is currently editing an autobiography that he finished writing last year. The book, he said, will contain his eyewitness account of the war.

Igorot discovers instant way to enjoy brewed coffee

2008-04-08T21:22:00.000-07:00

http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20080405-128628/Igorot-discovers-instant-way-to-enjoy-brewed-coffee

Igorot discovers instant way to enjoy brewed coffee

By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau

Posted date: April 05, 2008

BAGUIO CITY—A budding Igorot entrepreneur has found out that a revolutionary business idea comes in unexpected places.

The challenge was translating the idea—a novel way for consumers to enjoy instant brewed coffee—into a profitable venture.

During a break while exhibiting antique crafts at the World Trade Center in Manila in 2005, Peter Yangki (not his real name), a former antique craft trader, and a British client, took time out to sip coffee at the center’s cafe.

Yangki saw that the coffee the waiter served them came from a reheated brew. He complained and told the waiter that ground coffee should not be reused and reheated.

After an argument with the waiter, Yangki chose not to order coffee. The client settled for instant tea.

As the Briton squeezed with a spoon his tea in filter bag in a cup with hot water, Yangki toyed with an idea and told him: If we can put tea leaves in a bag and we can have instant tea, why can’t we do the same with coffee?

“That’s a revolutionary multimillion-peso business idea,” the Briton replied. “If you have coffee in your place, you can venture into that.”

Buoyed by the Briton’s affirmation, Yangki thought hard about it and in no time embarked on what he said was quite an expensive trial-and-error experiment.

The experiment paid off, and he went on to become the first Filipino to ever produce pure organic Arabica coffee in a tea bag.

For the experiment, he availed of a P300,000 loan from the Department of Agriculture Young Farmers’ Program.

He also rented coffee processing machines and packaging equipment of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) for his experiment until he perfected packaging pure Arabica coffee in bags for an instant brew.

Arabica, which grows well in high elevations such as the Cordillera, is the world’s most sought after coffee variety because of its distinct aroma and antioxidant qualities.

As he was experimenting on and perfecting his product, Yangki, in 2005, established Cordillera Blend, his company based in Tuba, Benguet. He perfected his product in 2006 and registered it with the DOST and with the Intellectual Property Office in 2007. He also registered his product with the Bureau of Food and Drugs and is awaiting the bureau’s approval.

He has begun marketing the product with the brand name Hagiyo! Brew.

Yangki, who asked the Inquirer not to publish his real name, preferred that his product’s name be known rather than his identity. The brand name was derived from an Ifugao greeting, which means, Have a happy, long life!

So what’s new with Hagiyo! Brew? It’s instant, but not the kind one dissolves in hot water. It’s instant but it is brewed coffee.

Instant soluble coffee has undergone many processes and has a lot of what are called emulsifiers and artificial flavors. But Hagiyo! Brew instant coffee in filter bags comes from specially ground and minimally processed Arabica coffee without artificial flavors and preservatives, says Yangki.

Yangki also takes pride in having sourced his raw coffee beans from naturally or organically grown Arabica coffee plants from Benguet, Mt. Province, Ifugao and Kalinga.

The budding entrepreneur knows that freshly ground coffee must be packed and sealed at once to retain its delicate flavor and antioxidant qualities. Two coffee bags, each measuring five grams, are packed in an easy-to-reseal cellophane packet, before these are packed into a sealed foil sachet.

Why two coffee bags in a sachet? There are moderate and heavy coffee drinkers,” says Yangki. A coffee bag is enough for moderate drinkers, but heavy coffee drinkers can use two in one cup.

Local coffee connoisseurs, who sampled his product, swear the brewed coffee in bags could compare with that brewed in a percolator.

Goodbye percolator

And those who love brewed coffee need not invest in a percolator or a coffeemaker.

They can simply pour hot water in a mug with a five-gram or 10-gram ground coffee in a filter bag, sweeten it with muscovado (unrefined sugar) or honey, and, as an added option, mix it with nondairy creamer.

Hagiyo! Brew’s instant brewed coffee comes in two packages—one comes with a separately packed sachet of five-gram muscovado (unrefined sugar) and another separately packed nondairy cream.

The other package has five grams of honey in a sachet instead of muscovado. The muscovado is sourced from Abra and the honey comes from an aviary of the Saint Louis University.

The product is packaged with a strong pride of place, not only of Yangki’s home region of the Cordillera, but of his country.

Inscribed in the box containing a dozen of sachets of the product is the text, “proudly Philippine-made organic brewed coffee for the world to taste.” Above it is an image of the Philippine flag.

The product is also labeled as a super premium native brewed coffee brand of the Philippines.

Brewing do’s and don’t’s

Also included in the packaging are the three do’s and don’ts of coffee brewing.

One, coffee should not be boiled, as boiled coffee tastes bitter. There is no need to boil roasted coffee beans as it is enough to extract an excellent brew from a cup with hot water.

Two, coffee should not be reused.

Three, coffee should not be reheated or continuously heated. Reusing, reheating and continuously heating brewed coffee would destroy the coffee’s volatile antioxidant properties.

Continuously heating or boiling also gives a sour and flavorless brew.

That insight during that morning coffee break when Yangki was disappointed not being served freshly brewed coffee became a turning point in his life as an entrepreneur.

At that time he was doing quite good in trading antique craft and distinct furniture made of roots and vines.

Business shift

But this type of business relies heavily on the availability of forest products, which are already being depleted, he says.

As early as 2005, he predicted that the antique craft and furniture would become a sunset industry.

He also had a traumatic experience when he was trading antique craft and furniture. He was held up while transporting some items in Aurora.

But the budding entrepreneur, a commerce graduate in his 30s, vows to follow in the footsteps of Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs who prefer to remain low-key while continuously making innovations for a better competitive edge in an industry still dominated by big players.

It’s time we Igorots learn to become employers, not just employees knocking at the doors of already established companies, he said.

How to starve indigenous communities

2008-04-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

How to starve indigenous communities

By Maurice Malanes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: April 08, 2008

BAGUIO CITY – The Igorot people now acknowledge their ancestors’ long-term foresight in ensuring the food security of succeeding generations by carving rice terraces, even in tough, challenging terrain, in the Cordillera mountains.

Even during World War II and a rice crisis in the 1970s, the rice paddies have helped sustain the local folk. During the lean months, they supplemented rice with camote (sweet potato) from the nem-a or uma (upland swidden).

In recent years, however, this relative self-sufficiency has been threatened by “modern agriculture,” which the government has pushed purportedly to increase crop production through high-yielding varieties (HYVs) and, lately, genetically engineered seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

A study by the private Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC) tells of a farmer from the village of Dandanac in Besao, Mt. Province, who brought home a hybrid variety of corn given by a municipal agricultural technician. Concerned villagers warned that the seeds might be a strain or associated with Bt corn, but the farmer insisted on planting them because of an assurance of high yield.

“True enough, the new corn grew and flowered, but it did not bear ears,” said the study.

The MRDC documented how other farmers had slowly replaced their traditional rice with HYVs. In 1996, only two of 18 rice varieties that the Dandanac farmers were using were HYVs. In 2004, 11 of the 27 rice varieties inventoried were HYVs, nine were introduced by other farmers and seven were traditional types.

Eventually, more people planted larger areas with HYVs, dominating the traditional varieties and those introduced by neighboring communities, the center said. The HYVs were maturing early and could be planted twice during the rainy season in rain-fed areas.

In such a short time, the farmers had more yields than before. But there was a problem.

The HYVs narrowed the germplasm (genetic material that carries the inherited characteristics of an organism) base, the study noted. Several traditional varieties are no longer planted and are now considered lost. As a result, the farmers lost control over their seeds. They have to buy the HYVs from agro-chemical stores or dealers each cropping season.

The new varieties weakened the community’s synchronized cropping schedule. As a result, pests increased, accounting for a 20-percent crop loss.

Moreover, the community’s cooperative self-help group, through which knowledge and exemplary practices were shared among farmers, has disintegrated.

The HYVs brought along a new technology alien to the community – the use of oil-based inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, which, in the long term, degrade and contaminate the soil. Pesticide use leads to a cycle of poison, as farmers tend to use more when pests eventually develop resistance to even the most potent poison.

Thus, farmers have been forced to buy everything from seeds to fertilizers and pesticides, which often leave them heavily indebted, the MRDC study said. Before, they could select and set aside seeds from their own harvests, simply use weeds and animal dung as fertilizers, and synchronize cropping schedules to keep pests at bay.

Debt trap

The findings were presented during the Third National Conference on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Security in Quezon City on March 29, which the MRDC and other development nongovernment organizations serving indigenous peoples attended.

Sponsored by the EED Philippine Partners’ Task Force on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, the conference was held at a time when official pronouncements blamed previous typhoons and, later, rising world food prices and rice hoarders for a crisis over rice, the Filipinos’ main staple. The EED stands for Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst e.V., a church-supported donor agency in Germany.

A similar research by the Southern Christian College (SCC) in Midsayap, North Cotabato, reinforced the MRDC study. The SCC discovered that Bt corn and F1 hybrid rice had proved to be counterproductive among indigenous farmers in Sarangani.

The high cost of producing Bt corn, which requires chemical fertilizers and pesticides, has buried many farmers in debt, forcing some to sell or mortgage their land, Prof. Elma Neyra of the SCC said.

Maria Pilar Castro, senior agriculturist of the Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (Sibat), another development organization, reported about Bt corn contamination in B’laan communities in Mindanao, raising concerns on food safety.

Hunger, blood

Indigenous peoples also felt cursed because their ancestral domains have been targeted for big-scale mining and logging. These only brought “hunger and blood” to many indigenous communities in Mindanao, according to Manobo youth leader Yatz Ambangan of Carmen, North Cotabato.

Ambangan cited how the government often responded with more military operations when indigenous folk would protest against mining and logging operations.

As a result, indigenous folk have to evacuate, abandoning their upland farms, and many accused of being rebel sympathizers have been killed, he said.

The conversion of lands into plantations of banana, palm and lately biofuel plants will lead to “food insecurity,” he said. He noted how the plantations had displaced hundreds of indigenous folk, some of whom were forced to become farm laborers with meager wages that were not enough to provide them all their needs, including food.

Policy issues

The EED Task Force on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, which is a consortium of development organizations serving indigenous communities, saw the food problem, including the current rice crisis, as an issue of policy. “Indigenous peoples’ rights to their land and resources must be secured,” it said. “This is the fundamental basis of their food security.”

Government and international policies, it said, must respect and recognize the rights of indigenous peoples to determine their own development – be it in agriculture and other industries, including mining, and other land and resource uses.

It stressed the right of indigenous peoples to free and prior informed consent (FPIC), which is guaranteed by the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Uprightness, Honesty as Way of Life

2008-03-17T00:12:00.000-07:00

Uprightness, Honesty as Way of Life

Inquirer Headlines / Regions [Photo] http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20080227-121617/Uprightness-honesty-way-of-life-in-Ibaloi-village Uprightness, honesty way of life in Ibaloi village
By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau Posted date: February 27, 2008

BAGUIO CITY – There’s something that simple probinsiyano (rural folk) can strongly take pride in – a culture of uprightness and honesty.

So the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines is not actually starting from scratch in its call for “communal action” against a “web of corruption” and dishonesty or an “ecosystem of dysfunction” said to be pervading government. It can take off from what may be called an “ecosystem of goodness,” which remains rooted in many rural and indigenous peoples’ communities.

For example, in the Ibaloi upland village of Dalupirip in Itogon, Benguet, one can leave the house door and windows open without fear of thieves. Or a carabao (water buffalo) in the fields because no rustlers will take it in the dead of night.

A paradise

“Our village is a paradise indeed,” said the late elder Tomas Pocding of Dalupirip. “You can see how we don’t have to fence off our homes because each one trusts everybody.”

Pocding was describing his village to reporters one time in the 1990s, stressing how he could not give up the place for a resettlement site being offered by the government in order to give way to a dam project. He and his village mates had feared that the dam would submerge their community.

Until he died in 2000, Pocding, a survivor and veteran of World War II, had fought hard to defend his village by the Agno River. As the “seat of Ibaloi culture” in Itogon, Dalupirip, with its age-old rice terraces and precious culture of uprightness, could not simply go down the drain, Pocding said.

Cultural heritage
Dalupirip and its rich cultural heritage must be inherited by future Ibaloi generations, he said.Offers of money and other compensation failed to blind Pocding from defending the village.

He insisted that not all that was precious in life could be translated into money terms.There are other Dalupirips elsewhere. The other rural upland towns either have zero or very low crime rate.

In fact, some jails are empty and are being used as a bodega (warehouse).In these towns, stealing is a no-no; the community castigates those who do.

Elders always hammer into the heads of the young that it is better to be rich in character, honesty and integrity than in material wealth from questionable sources.Such cultural psyche, to a high degree, has permeated even local politics.

In Kibungan (pop.: 17,000), an elected official who would be reported to have engaged in anomalous transactions will surely not win another term. But another who is transparent and honest in all his dealings will.

Still, even a well-loved political leader cannot go beyond three terms. The Kankanaey folk believe that even political power must be shared so other equally qualified community members can serve as mayor, councilor or barangay chair.

The only long-staying mayor ruled during the martial law regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s, when no elections were held.

Recent political events were not so perfect as complaints of vote buying were reported. But the mayoral candidate who allegedly tried to buy his way to victory lost.

Morality, values
Even without religion, which the colonialists introduced, the Kankanaey society has been highly moralist since time immemorial. This could be seen in a value system and an unwritten moral law, which are part of the upland folk’s collective character and way of life.

The Kankanaey morality or sense of right and wrong generally revolves around four major elements:

*Paniyew (fear of the unseen or the creator of humankind). A breach may spell eternal suffering for the offender. But it also connotes holiness.One cannot just pick a ripe pineapple from a neighbor’s swidden farm or catch a neighbor’s chicken and cook it because while no one may have seen the offender, a perceived someone knows everything that happens.

*Inayan (fear of a perceived someone). Its attacks focus more on one’s conscience. The perceived someone may not impose the sanction, but the offender’s conscience hurts the person most, and this may mean sleepless nights for the person.

*Bain (shame). The Kankanaey society is a reproachful community. To live in such a community after one has been known to commit a grave wrongdoing is intolerable. Shame can become too heavy for a person to take that it becomes enough punishment in itself.

*Ta-an (respect). It can also mean being considerate. Due respect is given to which or to whom it is due.

Despite the inroads of Christianity, these values, which have their counterparts in communities elsewhere, remain in the minds of the upland folk. It is thus common to hear elders remark, “Oray no pagano kami ngem ammo mi di inayan (Others may regard us as pagans, but we know about inayan),” referring to a strong sense of right and wrong.

Heavenly bodies, ‘camote’ and Igorot weddings

2008-02-04T03:08:00.000-08:00

Heavenly bodies, ‘camote’ and Igorot weddings

By Maurice Malanes, Inquirer Northern Luzon

Page A14

BAGUIO CITY -- A STORY was told about the late Lakay (elder) Talin-eng of Kibungan, Benguet who got stuck in the middle of a pulley-operated tramline, which Kankana-ey folk used to employ to cross the Amburayan River in neighboring Kapangan town.

As he sought help, the elder was said to have prayed, “Ilam ay Agew, laton met ay bakenak mangakew (O Lord Sun, You know I’m not a thief).”

It was a prayer of a man, who felt he was being punished for some wrongs he did not commit. So for him, the sun, which was either regarded as an all-knowing god or a representation of some supreme being, could attest to his clean record.

Talin-eng failed to pull some rope so the tramline got stuck midway across above the river.

In their prayer rituals, traditional Igorot priests would invoke the sun, the moon and the stars to guide them and bless their harvests and other livelihoods.

Besides being revered as some kind of divine objects, heavenly bodies have guided the daily lives of Igorot folk, particularly in farming.

Until now, some upland folk in Kibungan plant certain crops during a certain phase of the moon. They believe, for example, that it will be more auspicious to plant camote (sweet potato) cuttings and bean seeds on days between beska (equivalent of first quarter lunar phase) and teke or full moon.

According to them, crops planted or seeds sowed when the moon is beginning to reappear after lened (new moon) will grow as the moon’s phases turn into a full moon. They, therefore, avoid planting after full moon when it fades out into a new moon.

To the Kankana-ey folk of Kibungan, the period between the first quarter and the full moon signifies birth, growth and hope.

Even rituals for activities such as wedding, thanksgiving and burial are set on days between the first quarter and the full moon.

The phase after the full moon is called bakas, which literally means destruction or fading out. Kibungan folk believe that crops planted during this period are not as productive as those sown before the full moon.

Any day before the full moon is also believed to be the appropriate time for a new couple to wed because this period signifies growth and progress or an unfolding into something full or abundant.

While Igorot cosmology is generally considered part of the group’s folk tales, organic farmers claim that this traditional cosmology has some scientific basis.

Greg Kitma of Baguio City, who considers himself a biodynamic organic farmer, says the level of gravitational pull of the moon varies during its different phases.

The earth’s gravitational pull also reacts in certain ways during the different phases of the moon or during certain planetary or star alignments.

These gravitational processes affect how plants grow in the same way that there is high or low tide during certain lunar phases, says Kitma.

He follows a cropping calendar based not only on the phases of the moon but also on other movements in the solar system.

He says it would be good to plant root crops such as potatoes and yam during certain phases of the moon when its gravitational pull is weaker than that of the Earth.

But crops such as beans, tomatoes and eggplant are best planted during a full moon, when the gravitational pull of the moon is stronger, he says.

“Our ancestors were actually more scientific than we thought,” said Kitma, an Ibaloi.

Benguet folk develop new art of marketing coffee

2008-01-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

(This is a reprint)

By Maurice Malanes
Northern Luzon Bureau

Posted date: July 08, 2007

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet--This province's Arabica trees are now heavy with green coffee beans.

Growers say these beans will begin to turn red by September and ready to be harvested between October and February. These will later be marketed through a novel method, which has transformed Benguet Arabica trees into "live banks," if not a gold mine.

During harvest, more than 200 Benguet coffee growers--all members of a new homegrown corporation--sort out coffee beans according to the age of the coffee trees.

"This is because we market our Benguet coffee according to principles," says Rudy Guisdan, marketing officer of the Benguet Organic Coffee Arabica Enterprises Limited Inc. (Bocaeli).

The corporation, formed in June 2005, is a cooperative of more than 200 backyard coffee growers who, with the help of local marketing experts, regularly meet to develop ways to market their products.

"We have 'coffee of pride' (coffee beans from trees up to 49 years old), 'coffee of privilege' (beans from 50- to 75-year-old trees), and 'coffee of prestige' (75- to 99-year-old trees)," says Guisdan.

"The most expensive is our 'coffee of honor,' which comes from 100-year-old or older trees," he adds.

The prices vary according to age.

A kilogram of ground coffee of pride sells at P300; coffee of privilege, P350; coffee of prestige, P400; and coffee of honor, P450.

What's the philosophy or rationale behind the classification of Benguet Arabica coffee according to age?

"It's definitely an honor to be sipping coffee from centennial coffee plants, which are the same organically grown plants that have been producing the beverage of our ancestors, and more and more clients are getting to appreciate this," says Guisdan.

If coffee trees are 50 to 100 years old and even older but still bearing fruit, this means they have good genetic qualities.

"They resist pests and the organic contents of the soil where they are planted have been maintained well," says Valentin Macanes, a Benguet State University (BSU) agroforestry professor helping coffee growers improve their production.

Gerry Lab-oyan, president of the New Benguet Chamber of Commerce, a group that also helps promote local Arabica coffee, considers the century-old coffee trees of Benguet "prized heirlooms."

These centennial plants, he says, can be the local folk's "live banks" because the plants, which belong to the Typica Arabica variety, are actually rare.

Originally from Ethiopia, the Typica Arabica variety was brought to Benguet by Spanish colonizers who forced local folk to plant the coffee species along a trail.

Typica Arabica was introduced in Sagada, Mt. Province by noted Cordillera photographer Eduardo Masferre, whose family in Spain maintained orchards.

In the 1970s, the Bureau of Plant Industry and a private agricultural firm introduced to the Cordillera other Arabica varieties such as Bourbon Arabica, Moka and Granika, among others.

There are 30 different Arabica species but Macanes says the most aromatic is the Typica Arabica, and it also has the lowest caffeine content.

The advantage of Benguet and neighboring Mt. Province and Ifugao is their altitude considering that Arabica coffee thrives at 700 to 2,000 meters above sea level.

To support Benguet coffee growers, Macanes, with the help of the BSU, has pledged to help establish a germplasm bank for Typica Arabica, especially from century-old mother plants, to ensure the continuous propagation and to help improve the production of this species.

Maintaining and sustaining Benguet's decades-old and centennial coffee plants are the main reasons local growers are being encouraged to maintain the backyard coffee industry.

A multinational food firm once attempted to contract local farmers for large-scale production. This did not work, however, because big-scale production required wide swaths of land for coffee plantation.

"Although introduced, Arabica or what is now popularly called Benguet coffee has become part of local culture and has since been grown along with other backyard crops such as banana and other fruits. It is still best to maintain Benguet coffee this way," says Richard Abellon of the Office of Presidential Affairs in the Cordillera, which is helping local coffee growers in terms of research and promotion.

"We do not encourage plantations because people have to deforest a mountain for these and mono-culture farming is not environmentally sound," he says.

"We seek to help sustain the biodiversity and cultural integrity of Benguet and other coffee-producing towns in the Cordillera," he adds.

Macanes says Costa Rica and Colombia, which are among the world's top coffee producers, rely on backyard producers.

"Their only secret is that these small backyard producers are federated into cooperatives or local corporations," he says.

To help improve the production of Arabica coffee in Benguet, Abellon's office is seeking to mobilize the expertise of the BSU and the Department of Agriculture to help coffee growers integrate appropriate technology with their "indigenous sociocultural practices" in producing Arabica.

The market potential for coffee remains high, says Abellon, noting that coffee beans are still being imported because the country cannot meet local demand.

"The production in Benguet and other Cordillera provinces is not even enough to meet the needs of Baguio City where coffee shops are multiplying," he says.

The more than 200 members of Bocaeli produce a combined 10,000 kg of ready-to-roast coffee beans each year and their produce is always sold out, Guisdan says.

Coffee growers who have maintained and preserved their decades and century-old trees are now appreciating what kind of gold mine they have, he says.

Warm bodies and cold nights in the Cordillera

2008-01-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

(Note: I'm reprinting this because it chronicles long-time practices by which we in the boondocks cope with the freezing Siberian wind.)

Reprint

Warm bodies and cold nights in the Cordillera

Source: Inquirer Author: Maurice Malanes

Date: 2000-02-08

CORDILLERA'S nights are no longer as chilly as in the past weeks. But lowlanders are wondering how Igorot upland folk, particularly those at the peaks of Cordillera's mountain ranges, are keeping their bodies warm during the cold nights.

Eskimos can sleep the icy nights away by sleeping naked side by side with the rest of the family under a leather-with-fur blanket inside their igloo.

Igorot folk also share blankets during cold nights, a practice that Benguet's Kankanaey folk call bindayang.

Unlike the Eskimos, however, the Kankanaeys do not undress but would rather put on more clothes before lying under the blankets.

Under the bindayang, two family members of the same gender (brother-brother or sister-sister), would double up or combine their blankets and embrace each other, sharing body warmth as the chilly Siberian winds creep into their grass-thatched home.

This practice of sharing body warmth, called sak-kob, is usually done by children or unmarried siblings.

Of course, a man and his wife also practice sak-kob. They are joined in by the youngest un-weaned child. What a couple does beyond sak-kob is another story.

Kankanaey children also keep their bodies warm by wrapping themselves with jute or nylon sacks, aside from a blanket or two that they share through the bindayang. A sack can be big enough to accommodate two small children.

One-room affair

The typical Benguet Kankanaey home with grass roof and wood or reed walls is a one-room hut where family members dine, share stories and riddles, and sleep. The floor, which is either made of wood or reeds, is raised three to four feet above the ground.

At bedtime, the floor is swept of dirt and a big mat is spread. During cold nights, the mat is reinforced with old blankets or carton boxes. Up to this day, many upland folk are too poor to buy foams or mattresses.

Helping give heat to the homes of many Igorot folk is their kitchen stove called dapeng or dapengan, which is also set up inside the single-room house.

To build the foot-high dapeng, soil is placed in one corner of the house where three hard stones called dakilan are placed.

Each side of the rectangular or square dapeng is protected with thick lumber or round wood to keep the soil and ashes from spilling into the floor.

Like a double-burner gas range, two sets of dakilan can be put up to allow the family to build two fires and to accommodate two pots.

Today, some homes would rather have only two stones, on top of which two parallel iron or steel bars are placed. This new dakilan has space for three or four pots.

At early dawn, usually at the second crow of the rooster, the mother or father builds a fire from dry firewood and start cooking ange or pigs' food, which consists usually of sweet potato, yam, banana stalks and camote vines.

The fire helps heat the house when it gets chilly at dawn. Some children are up by then and gather around the fire to fix the firewood and keep their cold-numbed fingers and toes warm.

Kitchen fire

Keeping warm around the kitchen fire is called anido by Benguet Kankanaey folk.

Usually, an early morning guest during the cold season is invited for anido and for a cup of hot coffee or mountain tea.

To help heat the house the whole night, some families keep pieces of hard wood burning through a technique called lub-on.

A portion of the unburnt wood is buried in ashes to slow down the burning. For safety, the wood must be short enough not to exceed the dapeng's edge.

The dapeng stove has other uses. Three to four feet above it is a suspended shelf or rack made of reeds or bamboo called su-u-an, where rice and other grains are dried.

In fact, the whole ceiling of the house is a su-u-an, where unhusked rice and other grains are stored. Because of the smoke from the kitchen fire, the stored grains are free of beetles or bokbok.

The su-u-an just above the kitchen stove is used to heat palay (unhusked rice) or pagey, which must be immediately dried so that it can be pounded for the next meal.

The traditional Benguet and other Igorot houses may be small and simple, but they serve many purposes, such as for dining, cooking, sleeping and stocking food for the lean months.

But while it may be foggy and chilly outside, no baby would cry and die from the cold inside an Igorot village home.

Noong Simple Pa ang Buhay

2008-01-06T02:08:00.000-08:00

(Note: I got this in the mail. I can relate with most of the experiences in the story. Maari kong dagdagan dahil lumaki ako sa rural setting kung saan mayaman din sa mga karanasan. Nguni't kailangan ko pang sulatin. Sana'y masulat ko na rin sa susunod. -Mau)

Original Message-----
From: Edna Pax <ednapax@yahoo.com>
Sent: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 9:45 pm
Subject: Simple ang Buhay NOON!

November 15, 2007 Dearest Margerry and Daniel, Good morning. Kindly print this email and give it to Lola Susie. She laughed very much when I read it on the phone. She asked for a copy. ******************************

******************** Si Nanay ay nasa bahay pag-uwi namin galing sa paaralan; Walang mga bakod at gate ang magkakapit-bahay, kung meron, gumamela lang; 10 sentimos o diyes lang ang baon: singko sa umaga, singko sa hapon; Merong free ang mga patpat ng ice drop: buko man o munggo. Mataas ang paggalang sa mga guro at ang tawag sa kanila ay Maestro/a: Di binibili ang tubig, pwedeng maki-inom sa di mo kakilala.

Malaking bagay na ang pumunta sa ilog para mag-picnic, o kaya sa tumana; Grabe na ang kaso pag napatawag ka sa principal's office o kaya malaking kahihiyan kapag bagsak ka sa exams; Simple lang ang pangarap: makatapos, makapag-asawa, mapagtapos ang mga anak... Pwedeng iwan ang sasakyan at ibilin sa hindi mo kakilala; wala namang lock ang mga jeep na Willy's noon. Mayroon kaming mga laruan na gawa namin at hindi binili: trak-trakan (gawa sa rosebowl ang katawan at darigold na maliit ang mga gulong, "sketeng" (scooter) na bearing na maingay ang mga gulong at de-sinkong pako para sa preno; patining na pinitpit na tansan lang na may 2 butas sa gitna para suotan ng sinulid (pwede pang makipag-lagutan) ; sumpak, pilatok, boca-boca, borador, atbp. Di nakikialam ang mga matanda sa mga laro ng mga bata: kasi laro nga iyon.

Maraming usong laro at maraming kasali: laste, gagamba, turumpo, tatsing ng lata, pera namin ay kaha ng Philip Morris, Malboro, Champion (kahon-kahon yon!) May dagta ang dulo ng tinting na hawak mo para makahuli tutubi, nandadakma ka ng palakang tetot, pero ingat ka sa palakang saging dahil sa kulugo; Butas na ang sakong ng Spartan mong tsinelas - suot mo pa rin; Namumugalgal ang pundiya ng kansolsilyo mo kasi nakasalampak ka sa lupa. Sa modernong buhay at sa lahat ng kasaganaan sa high technology.. . di ba minsan nangarap ka na rin... mas masaya noong araw! Sana pwedeng maibalik... Takot tayo ngayon sa buhay. Kasi maraming napapatay, nakikidnap, maraming addict at masasamang loob... Noon takot lang tayo sa ating mga magulang at mga lolo at lola. Pero ngayon, alam na natin na mahal pala nila tayo kayat ayaw tayong mapahamak o mapariwara.. . Na una silang nasasaktan pag pinapalo nila tayo...

Balik tayo sa nakaraan kahit saglit... Bago magkaroon ng internet, computer, at cellphone. Noong wala pang mga drugs at malls. Bago pa nauso ang counter strike at mga game boys. Tayo noon... Doon ... Tinutukoy ko ang harang taga o tumbang preso kapag maliwanag ang buwan; Ang pagtatakip mo ng mata pero nakasilip sa pagitan ng mga daliri pag nanonood ka ng nakakatakot sa "Mga Aninong Gumagalaw" Unahan tayong sumagot sa Multiplication Table na kabisado natin, kasi wala namang calculator. Pag-akyat natin sa mga puno; pagkakabit ng kulambo, lundagan sa kama ; Pagtikwas o pagtitimba sa poso; pingga ang pang-igib ng lalake at may dikin naman ang ulo ng babae; Inaasbaran ng mga suberbiyo; Nginig na tayo pag lumabas na ang yantok-mindoro o buntot-page. Nai-sako ka rin ba? O kaya naglagay ka ba ng karton sa pwet para hindi masakit ang tsinelas o sinturon?

Pamimili ng bato sa bigas; tinda-tindahan na puro dahon naman; bahay-bahayan na puro kahon; naglako ka ba ng ice-candy o pandesal noong araw? Karera sa takbuhan hanggang maubos ang hininga; pagtawa hanggang sumakit ang tiyan; Meron pa bang himbabao, kulitis at pongapong? O kaya ang lukaok, susuwi at espada? Susmaryosep ang nadidinig mo pag nagpapaligo ng bata... Estigo santo kapag nagmamano. Mapagod sa kakalaro, minsan mapalo; matakot sa "berdugo" at sa "kapre"; Tuwang-tuwa kami pag tinalo ang tinale ni itay kasi may tinola! Yung crush mo? Pag recess: mamimili ka sa garapon ng tinapay -alembong, taeng-kabayo o biscocho? Pwede ring ang sukli ay kending Vicks (meron pang libreng singsing) o kaya nougat o karamel; Kung gusto mo naman - pakumbo o kaya kariba, mas masaya kung inuyat; Puriko ang mantika, at mauling na ang mukha at ubos na ang hininga mo sa ihip kasi mahirap magpa-rikit ng apoy. Madami pa...

Masarap ang kamatis na piniga sa kamay at lumabas sa pagitan ng daliri para sa sawsawan; ang palutong pag isawsaw sa sukang may siling labuyo; ang duhat kapag inalog sa asin; ang isa-sang isubo ang daliri kasi puno na ng kanin... Halo-halo: yelo, asukal at gatas lang ang sahog; Sakang ang lakad mo at naka-saya ka kasi bagong tuli ka; o naghahanap ka ng chalk kasi tinagusan ang palda mo sa eskwelahan. Lipstick mo ay papel de hapon; Labaha ang gamit para sa white-side-wall na gupit; Naglululon ka ng banig pagkagising; matigas na amirol ang mga punda at kumot; madumi ang manggas ng damit mo kasi doon ka nagpapahid ng sipon, di ba? Pwede rin sa laylayan... May mga program kapag Lunes sa paaralan; May pakiling kang dala kung Biyernes kasi magi-isis ka ng desk. Di ba masaya? Naalala mo pa ba? Wala nang sasaya at gaganda pa sa panahon na yon... Masaya noon at masaya pa rin tayo ngayon habang ina-alaala iyon...

Di ba noon...Ang mga desisyon ay ginagawa sa awit na "sino ba sa dalawang ito? Ito ba o ito?" Pag ayaw ang resulta di ulitin: "sino ba sa dalawang ito? Ito ba o ito?"... Awit muna: Penpen de Serapen, de kutsilyo, de almasen. How how the carabao batuten... Presidente ng klase ay ang pinakamagaling, hindi ang pinaka-mayaman; Masaya na tayo basta sama-sama kahit hati-hati sa kokonti; Nauubos ang oras natin sa pagku-kwentuhan, may oras tayo sa isat-isa; Naaasar ka kapag marami kang sunog sa sungka; kapag buro ka sa pitik-bulag o matagal ka ng taya sa holen. Yung matatandang kapatid ang pinaka-ayaw natin pero sila ang tinatawag natin pag napapa-trouble tayo.

Di natutulog si Inay, nagbabantay pag may trangkaso tayo; meron tayong skyflakes at Royal sa tabi at pahihigupin ng mainit na Royco. Kung naaalaala mo ito... nabuhay ka na sa KAPAYAPAAN! Pustahan tayo nakangiti ka pa rin! Kung naka-relate ka sa lahat ng nabanggit sa itaas, ibig sabihin lang niyan ay.......... ... MATANDA ka na! he he he... pero kung hindi ka maka-relate, padala mo na lang sa akala mo ay kapanahunan nya ito para maalala din niya at mangiti rin siya.

Only in the Philippines

2007-09-28T02:26:00.000-07:00

Note: This is a reprint from an email from Jojo Lamaria. I'm not sure if Jojo penned it, but I'm reprinting it anyway here because the piece defines the country of our hopes and sorrows.

PHILIPPINES - The only place on earth where......
Every street has a basketball court.
Even doctors, lawyers and engineers are unemployed.
Doctors study to become nurses for employment abroad.
Students pay more money than they will earn afterwards.
School is considered the second home and the mall considered the
third.
Call-center employees earn more money than teachers and nurses.
Everyone has his personal ghost story and superstition.
Mountains like Makiling and Banahaw are considered holy places.
Everything can be forged.
All kinds of animals are edible.
Starbucks coffee is more expensive than gas.
Driving 4 kms. can take as much as four hours.
Flyovers bring you from the freeway to the side streets.
Crossing the street involves running for your dear life.
The personal computer is mainly used for games and Friendster.
Where colonial mentality is dishonestly denied!
Where 4 a.m. is not even considered bedtime yet.
People can pay to defy the law.
Everything and everyone is spoofed.
Where even the poverty-stricken get to wear Ralph Lauren and
Tommy Hilfiger ("peke" or fake)!
The honking of car horns is a way of life.
Being called a bum is never offensive.
Floodwaters take up more than 90 percent of the streets during
the rainy season.
Where everyone has a relative abroad who keeps them alive.
Where wearing your national colors make you baduy (poor dresser).
Where even the poverty-stricken have the latest cell phones.
(GSM-galing sa magnanakaw or great stealing maneuvers)
Where insurance does not work.
Where water can only be classified as tap and dirty - clean water is
for sale (35 pesos per gallon).
Where the government makes the people pray for miracles.
(Amen to that!)
Where University of the Philippines is where all the weird people go.
Ateneo is where all the nerds go. La Salle is where all the Chinese
go.
College of St. Benilde is where all the non-intelligent Chinese go, and
University
of Asia and the Pacific is where all the irrelevantly rich people
go.
Fast food is a diet meal.
Traffic signs are merely suggestions, not regulations.
Where being mugged is normal. It happens to everyone.
Rodents are normal house pets.
The definition of traffic is the 'non-movement' of vehicles.
Where the ! fighter planes of the 1940s are used for military
engagements,
and the new fighter planes are displayed in museums.
Where cigarettes and alcohol are a necessity, and where the lottery
is a commodity.
Where soap operas tell the realities of life and where the news
provides the drama.
Where actors make the rules and where politicians provide the
entertainment.
People can get away with stealing trillions of pesos, but not a
thousand.
Where being an hour late is still considered punctual.

("Grabe talaga 'to!" The following is plain ludicrous:) Where the squatters have more to complain (even
if they do not pay their taxes) ---- than those employed and
have their taxes automatically deducted from their salaries....

and where everyone wants to leave the country!

FILIPINO SIGNS OF WIT:
The sign in a flower shop in Diliman called Petal Attraction;
a 24-hour restaurant called Doris Day & Night;
Barber shop called: Felix The Cut;
a bakery named Bread Pitt and another, Anita Bakery;
food place selling 'maruya' (banana fritters) called Maruya
Carey.
Then, there are Christopher Plumbing;
a boutique called The Way We Wear;
a video rental shop called Leon King Video Rental;
a restaurant in the Cainta called Caintacky Fried Chicken;
a l! ocal burger restaurant called Mang Donald's;
a doughnut shop called MacDonuts;
a shop selling 'lumpia' (egg roll) in Makati called Wrap
and Roll;
and two butcher shops called Meating Place and Meatropolis.
Smart travelers can decipher what may look like baffling signs to
unaccustomed foreigners by simply sounding out the 'Taglish' (the
Philippine version of English words spelled and pronounced with a
heavy Filipino such as, at a restaurant menu in Cebu : 'We hab
sopdrink
in can an in batol' [translation: We have soft drinks in can and
in bottle].
Then, there is a sewing accessories shop called: Bids And Pises
[translation: Beads and Pieces --or-- Bits and Pieces].
There are also many signs with either badly chosen or! misspelled
words, but they are usually so entertaining that it would be a
mistake to 'correct'
them like.......

In a restaurant in Baguio City , the 'summer capital' of the
Philippines :
'Wanted: Boy Waitress';
on a highway in Pampanga:
'We Make Modern Antique Furniture;'
on the window of a photography shop in Cabanatuan :
'We Shoot You While You Wait';
and on the glass front of a cafe in Panay Avenue in Manila :
' Wanted: Waiter, Cashier, Washier.'
Some of the notices can even give a wrong impression, such as,
a shoe store in Pangasinan which has a sign saying:
'We Sell Imported Robber Shoes' (these could be the
'sneakiest' Sneakers, eh)!;
and a rental property sign in Jaro, reads:
'House For Rent, Fully Furnaced' (it must really be hot
inside)!
Occasionally, one could come across signs that are truly unique--if
not
altogether odd.
City in southern Philippines , which said:
'Adults: 1 peso; Child: 50 centavos;
Cadavers: fare subject to negotiation.'
European tourists may also be intrigued to discover two competing
shops selling hopia (a Chinese pastry) called Holland Hopia and
Poland Hopia, which are owned and operated by two local Chinese
entrepreneurs,
Mr. Ho and Mr. Po respectively--(believe it or not)!
Some folks also 'creatively' redesign English to be more efficient.
'The creative confusion between language and culture leads to more
than
just simple unintentional errors in syntax, but in the adoption of
new
words,' says reader Robert Goodfellow, who came across a sign .....
'House Fersallarend' (house for sale or rent). Why use five words
when two will do? !
According to Manila businessman, Tonyboy Ongsiako, there is so much
wit in the Philippines because '. . . we are a country where a good
sense of
humor is needed to survive. We have a 24-hour comedy show here called
the government and a huge reserve of comedians made up mostly of
politicians and bad actors.
Now I ask you where else in the world would one want to live?

Self-rule Goal Not Yet Lost on Cordillera Folk

2007-09-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
Inquirer Northern Luzon : Elusive Cordillera autonomy

Self-rule goal not yet lost on the people

By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer

Posted date: September 19, 2007

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – They did not beat gongs and dance the tadek on Sept. 13 when they commemorated the 21st anniversary of the first peace agreement in the country signed between an armed group and the government under then President Corazon Aquino.

Instead, surviving leaders and members of the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA) and the Cordillera Bodong Administration (CBA) sat down with government officials in a “peace and development forum” and reflected on the ultimate aim of what is now known as the Mt. Data Peace Accord of 1986.

That aim was regional autonomy. Although it remains a dream, it has become the cause of those who pushed for the accord.

They still consider autonomy or self-rule, especially in terms of managing and using the region’s land and resources, as the path to peace and development that can check a long history of neglect.

That dream was the desire of the late CPLA chief, Fr. Conrado Balweg, and of his followers when they forged the pact with Aquino.

At that time, the Aquino administration, which promised “democratic space” after strongman Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in a civilian-backed military revolt in February 1986, provided an auspicious opportunity for peace making.

Talking peace

During the signing of the accord in Mt. Data in Bauko, Mt. Province, “we, in a way, taught the national government how to talk peace,” Gabino Ganggangan, CBA secretary general, told the well-attended forum in La Trinidad, Benguet.

“Former President Fidel Ramos himself acknowledged that the government learned a lot from the Cordillera’s peace initiative,” said Ganggangan.

Unlike other armed groups, the CPLA immediately made peace with the government after it was formed in 1986, when its pioneers led by Balweg broke up with comrades in the New People’s Army due to political and ideological differences.

“To set the record straight, those of us who joined the NPA [during Marcos’ martial law regime] did not fight for communism. We fought mainly for our ancestral lands and resources,” Ganggangan said.

He cited how under Marcos, wide swaths of forest and rice lands in Abra, Mt. Province, Kalinga and Apayao were threatened by Cellophil Resources Corp., a paper mill owned by a Marcos crony, and by the planned series of World Bank-funded dams in the Chico River.

Through Marcos’ regionalization law in 1972, the provinces of what is now the Cordillera were politically divided. Benguet, Mt. Province and Abra became part of Region 1 (Ilocos) and Ifugao, Kalinga and Apayao belonged to Region 2 (Cagayan Valley).

This setup, according to Ganggangan, was aimed at “dismembering” the Cordillera, which was regarded as a vital resource base for the national government.

After the separation of the provinces, Marcos’ controversial development programs followed and pushed the likes of Balweg to join the NPA.

The division of the Cordillera and Marcos’ “development” programs led to the “one region, one people” battle cry of Balweg and other Igorot activists.

“This battle cry was the seed of what is now called Kaigorotan consciousness and the dream for regional autonomy,” said Ganggangan.

The desire soon found its way into the peace agreement that Balweg signed with Aquino. To fulfill her pledge to give flesh to the accord, Aquino signed Executive Order No. 220 on July 15, 1987, which gave birth to the Cordillera Administrative Region.

The CAR was established in preparation for its autonomous status. Unfortunately, the Cordillera electorate rejected two proposed autonomy laws in two plebiscites—on Jan. 30, 1990 and on March 7, 1998.

But advocates, including Balweg’s followers and those in government, maintain that the rejection of the proposed laws did not mean the death of autonomy itself.

Juan Ngalob, National Economic and Development Authority regional director, cited lack of information—if not misinformation—for the losses.

Kabayan (Benguet) Mayor Ernesto Matuday, who joined the peace and development forum in La Trinidad, Benguet, agreed.

During the past campaigns before the plebiscites, “I heard that some people came over to my town and butchered a pig but they never informed us about the benefits of regional autonomy,” said Matuday.

“Another reason [for the rejection] was public distrust of some politicians who were already positioning themselves if the autonomous region was created,” said Ngalob, chair of the Regional Development Council (RDC) which is now preparing the ground for another campaign.

Actually just a few steps away, autonomy can still be achieved through a “more scientific approach,” Ngalob said.

He cited a tedious poll survey which the RDC would undertake to determine the reasons the electorates had voted against autonomy. Campaign materials will be prepared based on the survey results, he said.

“Let us take our steps slowly but surely,” said Ngalob. “If the people of Quebec (in Canada) are still not giving up hope in their cause for independence (which began shortly after World War II), why should we easily give up our dream for autonomy after 21 years?”

Igorot documentary captures ‘battle among the clouds’

2007-08-22T03:38:00.000-07:00

Igorot documentary captures ‘battle among the clouds’
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer
Last updated 02:56am (Mla time) 08/22/2007

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – They often tell of their trials and triumphs during World War II over cups of native coffee or tapuy (rice wine) at social gatherings. But old Igorot soldiers of World War II are not just fading away; they are also dying and their heirs worry that nobody is left to tell their stories.

Fortunately for the veterans, some of their grandchildren, anxious that such part of Benguet’s historic gem will be forgotten altogether, have thought of documenting in film their grandfathers’ stories of valor, courage and sacrifice.

The premier showing of the first documentary about Igorot war veterans was the highlight of a series of activities honoring Benguet’s World War II heroes on Aug. 15, the day the province was liberated from the Japanese Imperial Army 62 years ago.

Thanks to the initiatives of ResearchMate, a local research group, and the Outstanding Students of the Cordillera Administrative Region (Oscar) Alumni Community Inc., which produced the documentary, Aug. 15 from now on may yet be institutionalized as an important Benguet historic holiday.

Many members and associates of ResearchMate and Oscar are either children or grandchildren of World War II veterans. Their common interest in local history finally led them to embark on a film project about their forebears’ heroism even with a shoestring budget.

The 45-minute “Our Igorot Fathers, the Heroes: The Untold Story of the 66th Infantry Regiment, USAFIP-NL” chronicles how, six months after the fall of Bataan in April 1942, Igorot soldiers returned to Benguet to help build the resistance movement until the Japanese finally surrendered in 1945.

The film seeks to tell more comprehensively what used to be vignettes of the whole story of the Igorot resistance against the Japanese Imperial Army in the last war.

Turning north towards Benguet and other parts of the Cordillera was the wisest decision for the resistance movement after the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942. For one, the rugged and forested terrain of the mountain region was ideal for guerrilla warfare.

The other reason, which the film also noted, is that Benguet and the other mountain provinces had self-sufficient sweet potato and upland rice-producing communities to support the guerrillas in hiding.

Battle trails

In making the documentary “we had to follow and visit the trails of actual battles, which still have traces of foxholes, as we interviewed surviving veterans and reenacted encounters (between the Japanese and Igorot guerrillas),” says Betty Lestino of ResearchMate.

The filmmakers visited actual battle sites in the towns of Sablan, Tuba, La Trinidad, Bokod, Kabayan, Buguias, Mankayan and Kapangan.

“In the process, we were able to collect bomb and ammunition shells and other war gear, which we plan to put in a museum,” says Lestino.

To reenact the battles, the filmmakers had to employ 35 volunteer talents from Benguet and Mt. Province, who underwent a weeklong military training under the La Trinidad police and a consultant from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The 66th Infantry

Given the filmmakers’ meager budget, which they solicited from the Benguet provincial government and other donors, the documentary may not have the perfect simulation of war battles shown in well-funded movies.

But the documentary sufficiently shows how the 66th Infantry Regiment of the USAFIP-NL (United States Armed Forces in the Philippines-Northern Luzon) liberated Baguio City and Benguet.

Composed mostly of soldiers from Benguet and Mt. Province, the 66th Infantry had to face a well-entrenched and battle-tested enemy.

When the USAFIP-NL set its D-Day on Jan. 4, 1945, the Japanese had already established strategic defense lines in Benguet, which they had practically controlled since after the war broke in 1941.

The Japanese had controlled Naguilian and Kennon roads, the Mountain Trail (now Halsema Highway), and the gold and copper-rich Lepanto area.

But there was no stopping the 66th Infantry, which was attached to the US Sixth Army Division. The Igorot soldiers launched their assault along the Japanese’s Rosario-Damortis line of defense so they could approach Baguio City through Naguilian and Kennon roads.

Simultaneous assaults

The infantry’s simultaneous assaults against the Japanese in these two main roads finally liberated Sablan on April 10 and Tuba on April 26. All these led to more assaults that finally liberated Baguio City on April 27 and La Trinidad on May 3.

In June 1945, the USAFIP-NL mother unit ushered in the 66th Infantry to reinforce the 121st and 15th Infantry in a battle with the Japanese at Bessang Pass, Ilocos Sur.

The 66th Infantry was again assigned for combat operations in the Tagudin to Cervantes Highway at the right flank of Bessang Pass.

On June 14, after more than five months of armed clashes at and around Bessang Pass, where almost all soldiers of the 121st Infantry were killed, this “bloody and decisive battle among the clouds” (as a war chronicle described it) was finally won, “swinging open Yamashita’s western door.”

After the battles at Bessang Pass, all units of the USAFIP-NL continued their assault into the Mt. Province (at that time Mt. Province comprised what is now the provinces of the Cordillera).

For its part, the 66th Infantry tested its mettle in the villages of Comillas and Lepanto in Mankayan up to Abatan and Loo Valley in Buguias town. Here the 66th Infantry, after launching its assault on June 17, 1945, faced the regular and battle-tested 19th Division, also called the Tora Division, of the Japanese army numbering about 2,000 troops.

After 27 days of fierce fighting, Lepanto in Mankayan was finally liberated on July 20, eliminating what the film noted was “one of the best fortified enemy positions in Northern Luzon, nay, the whole Southwest Pacific area.”

From Lepanto and Mankayan, the 66th Infantry pursued the enemy to Abatan in Buguias, securing the area on July 27.

While the 66th Infantry was pursuing the remaining Japanese at Loo Valley on Aug. 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan went on radio for the first time to order all Japanese to lay down their arms.

With this, USAFIP-NL commanding officer, Col. Russell W. Volckmann, issued a ceasefire order. Japan surrendered, and after five years of conflict Benguet was finally liberated on Aug. 15, 1945.

The documentary has helped remind Benguet’s officials to celebrate for the first time the province’s liberation anniversary.

“Benguet’s celebration of its Liberation Day serves as a reminder of the gallantry and sacrifices of our own local heroes,” says a flyer of ResearchMate and Oscar. “The trails (the 66th Infantry) left reflect the Igorots’ inherent bravery, love for family, and love for freedom.”