Tita Cory, democratic space, and a wedding

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

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

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

(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

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

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

(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

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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

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’

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

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

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

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

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.