Protecting God’s Vanishing Creation: The Highest Form of Worship
For many years, I stood alongside farmers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, women, environmental defenders, and ordinary citizens in one of the most difficult struggles of our time, the struggle to protect life itself. From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, I became part of an environmental movement that served as one of the last lines of defense against the destruction of our forests, rivers, seas, and communities. During those years, I had the honor of serving as Chairman of a broad environmental network composed of nearly 300 people’s organizations and non-government organizations united by one common purpose: to stop the accelerating destruction of nature before it became irreversible.
I worked closely with the more than 5,000 members of Task Force Macajalar farmers, fisherfolk, Lumads, women, youth, and environmental activists whose courage and sacrifices became symbols of resistance against ecological destruction. We patrolled the seas at night to stop illegal fishing, commercial intrusion into municipal waters, and industrial pollution that robbed poor coastal communities of their livelihood. We spent days and even months in the mountains, farms, coastal villages, and city streets defending what remained of our forests and watersheds. During those years, massive logging operations devastated Mindanao’s forests. Every night, while the city slept, 30 to 50 ten-wheeler trucks loaded with illegally cut logs passed through the streets of Cagayan de Oro. These logs came from protected watersheds surrounding Lake Lanao and the forests that sustained the city’s rivers and ecosystems. Armed escorts protected these operations. Fake permits and corruption allowed environmental destruction to continue openly and shamelessly.
In front of Manresa Farms, we staged human barricades. We lay our bodies on the streets and dared the logging trucks to run us over before they could pass. We stood there night after night, under rain or heat, refusing to surrender to fear. We understood that the destruction of forests was not merely about trees; it was about the destruction of life itself. Those forests were home to countless species of plants and animals. They protected rivers, prevented floods, sustained farms, cooled the climate, and nourished entire communities. Yet greed blinded many people to this truth. Profit became more important than life. Because of those struggles, our movement eventually received recognition, including the Public Service Award from Xavier University in 1993, an international recognition from the Friends of the United Nations in Ottawa, Canada, in 1995, and the Local Hero Award from PhilHealth in 2014. Yet the true reward was never the awards. The true reward was knowing that we fought for future generations and defended God’s creation when many others remained silent.
Among the many environmental defenders I met, two individuals remain deeply engraved in my heart: Ka Ares and Nong Tonyo. Ka Ares, or Mr. Adolfo Ares, was already 75 years old when he joined our environmental struggles. A fisherman turned farmer, he possessed extraordinary courage and wisdom. During one of our first barricades in 1991, then DENR Secretary Angel Alcala visited us on the fifth day of the protest. It was Ka Ares who spoke with tears in his eyes about the destruction of the forests and the suffering of coastal communities caused by erosion and siltation. His words were so sincere and powerful that Secretary Alcala immediately ordered the suspension of logging operations in the area. Ka Ares never stopped defending nature. Even at his advanced age, he stood under the scorching sun and heavy rains guarding barricades. At one point, a grenade was hurled toward our group. Miraculously, it did not explode. Perhaps his unwavering faith protected him, a faith rooted not in empty rituals, but in the sacredness and interconnectedness of all life.
Later in life, Ka Ares devoted himself to sustainable agriculture, promoting farming methods that respected nature instead of exploiting it. He believed that true spirituality meant living in harmony with creation. Before his passing, he remained steadfast in his conviction that all life forms are sacred manifestations of the Divine. Another unforgettable comrade was Nong Tonyo Salcedo, Chairman of the Federation of Small Fishermen of Cagayan de Oro City. He was already dying of cancer when he insisted on joining our environmental campaigns. Despite unbearable pain, he told his doctor that protecting God’s vanishing creation was the highest form of worship. He wished to meet his Creator, knowing he had done something meaningful for the Earth. Three days later, Nong Tonyo passed away. Yet his spirit lives on in every farmer defending the land, every fisherfolk protecting the seas, every youth planting trees, and every person refusing to surrender to greed and destruction. These individuals understood a truth that many religious institutions and modern societies have forgotten: all life is interconnected. Human beings are not separate from nature. We are part of it.
The rivers flowing through the mountains, the forests breathing oxygen, the oceans sustaining marine life, the birds, insects, trees, and animals are all interconnected expressions of one living reality. When forests are destroyed, humanity suffers. When rivers die, civilizations collapse. When species disappear, the balance of life is disrupted. Yet despite this obvious truth, humanity continues to worship greed, consumerism, and materialism. Many people pray daily inside churches, temples, and religious institutions while remaining blind to the destruction of God’s creation happening outside their doors. They bow before images and symbols yet ignore the living reflection of the Creator found in nature itself.
Nature is the true revelation of the Divine. The forests, oceans, mountains, stars, and all life forms reveal the magnificence of creation far more deeply than paintings or statues made by human imagination. The Earth itself is sacred. And yet humanity is now driving the planet toward what scientists call the Sixth Mass Extinction, a man-made extinction caused by human greed, exploitation, endless consumption, wars, environmental destruction, and corporate domination.
Never before in Earth’s history has one species caused such destruction upon itself and upon the planet. Humanity has killed hundreds of millions through wars, colonization, greed, and violence. Today, the same mindset continues through destructive economic systems that prioritize profit over life. Forests are sacrificed for mining. Oceans are poisoned for industrial gain. Communities are displaced for corporate expansion. Nations wage wars for power and resources while millions suffer. This is not progress. This is collective madness. The ideology of endless economic growth and corporate globalization has concentrated wealth and power into the hands of a tiny global elite while billions struggle in poverty, conflict, ecological collapse, and spiritual emptiness. Climate change, ecological destruction, social inequality, and moral collapse are all interconnected symptoms of the same spiritual disease: separation from the sacredness of life. Modern society has conditioned people to consume endlessly while ignoring the deeper purpose of human existence. We have mistaken material success for fulfillment. We have mistaken technological advancement for wisdom. We have mistaken religious rituals for spirituality. True spirituality is not found merely in prayers, doctrines, or ceremonies. True spirituality is awakening to the sacred interconnectedness of all existence.
To awaken consciousness means realizing that harming nature is harming ourselves. Exploiting others is exploiting ourselves. Destroying the Earth is destroying the future of humanity itself. What humanity needs today is not merely technological solutions, but a transformation of consciousness. We need human beings who live with compassion instead of greed. We need societies rooted in justice instead of exploitation. We need leaders guided by wisdom instead of profit. We need a new humanity of enlightened human beings whose lives are grounded in peace, ecological responsibility, simplicity, and reverence for life.
The survival of humanity depends not only on science or politics but on moral awakening.
If humanity continues worshipping greed, consumerism, militarism, and blind materialism, ecological collapse will intensify. Climate disasters, food insecurity, water shortages, wars, displacement, mental illness, and social chaos will worsen. The Earth is already sending warnings through floods, droughts, rising temperatures, disappearing species, and collapsing ecosystems. Yet many people remain asleep. The time has come to awaken. Wake up, victims of the fallacies of life and religion. Wake up from the illusion that endless consumption will bring happiness. Wake up from the illusion that humanity is separate from nature. Wake up from the illusion that spirituality exists apart from protecting life. The true purpose of human existence is not domination, accumulation, or endless economic growth. The true purpose of life is to become conscious participants in the protection, nurturing, and evolution of life itself. Like Ka Ares and Nong Tonyo, may we rediscover the sacredness of all creation. May we recognize that we are all part of one living Earth, one human family, and one universal life. And before it is too late, may humanity finally awaken. All for God’s greater glory.
