Adam & Eve Thrown Out From Eden
The Philippines has housed tremendous biological wealth, very rich, if not the richest on earth in flora and fauna which are endemic in a tropical country like ours. This is based on the testimony of well-known environmentalists from the United States who visited the Philippines in the 1980s to study the environmental scenario in our country. They were so amazed to see monkey-eating eagles hovering above the radiating trees and tarsiers jumping from one tree to another. Their report concluded that the number of flora and fauna found in the 5,000-hectare Mt. Kitanglad ecosystem is far greater compared to those found in the one billion-hectare continent of North America. It is indeed so amazing that we have in our country more than 5,000 species of flowering plants while the United States can only boost of not more than 500. The beauty of sacred nature looms like an Eden, a paradise on earth that has no comparison as nature is a reflection of the Unseen Creator. Such environmental report had served notice to one and all how ecologically rich the Philippines was before as there were species of flora and fauna found only in our country. The natural ecological wealth was not just confined above the ground; under the ground oozed with 72 kinds of minerals, i.e., gold, silver, copper and what have you. The ecological wealth did not stop at the shorelines as the Philippine archipelago had been described by no less than Dr. Kent Carpenter, the President of the United Nations-Food Agricultural Organization (UN-FAO) as the “ Center of the center of marine life on earth.” Wow, so amazing! But that was before. Ecologically, our country has gone down the drain in the last century. The 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest had been shamelessly erased by the powerful loggers in cohort with power-that-be, in gross violation of existing environmental laws. Out of the loggers’ greed many of whom have been voted to high positions as senators, congressmen, governors and mayors, millions if not billions species of flora and fauna which have been living for billions of years prior to the existence of the Homo sapiens have become extinct. Such is the greatest massacre of all times, the greatest sin committed against the Creator by a species described as “created in the image and likeness of God.” Again, another fallacy of religion as that species even killed some 200 million of its own kind in the last century out of two world wars and non-stop imperial powers’ designed wars to make gargantuan money through manufacturing of armaments that can kill humanity forty times over.
The massive exploitation of our high quality minerals continues without let-up through illegal mining, glaringly and horribly done in the uplands of Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and Opol, again in cohort with power-that-be. Hundreds of million peso worth of buck-hoes, bulldozers and heavy equipment are being used by these powerful miners being perpetuated by Chinese nationals carrying only tourist visa. In 2014, when we were implementing the Writ of Kalikasan, we had arrested five Chinese illegal miners in their campsite in Tumpagon, Cagayan de Oro equipped with AK-47 but were released after only a week in prison and were accompanied by one elected official back to China. It is very evident that these big time illegal miners are not only earning millions but billions of pesos annually, money that they shared with corrupt officials and law enforcers. The following week, our environmental ally Datu Fausto Orasan known as Datu Sandigan, the chieftain of the Higanonon Tribe in Cagayan de Oro who was the one monitoring the non-stop destruction of the watersheds was shot to death, apparently by those who cannot moderate their greed. For Datu Sandigan, a close friend and very passionate environmental ally, protecting God’s vanishing creation is the highest form of worship, thus, he was willing to sacrifice his life. As a tribal chieftain, he had exemplified oneness and inter-connectedness with sacred nature. Indeed, the Indigenous Peoples may be primitive but they are so advanced spiritually and culturally. The killing of Datu Sandigan was not an isolated case. In fact, since 2016, some 101 Chieftains/Lady Chieftains have been the subject of Extra Judicial Killings (EJKs) which was featured in Magandang Gabi Pilipinas, PTV4, by an amazing journalist, Mr. Ceasar Soriano in three episodes entitled, “AGAW LUPA, AGAW TUBIG, AGAW BUHAY.” Until now, no killer has been arrested.
Out of the non-stop illegal hydraulic and open-pit mining and logging, rivers have dried-up or have become “chocolate-like.” Of the 25 major rivers in the country, 15 have dried-up or polluted; of the 13 major bays, 10 are already biologically dead, to the detriment of our coastal communities who are now living in extreme poverty and hunger.
The Philippine archipelago is also now dying as it has become the dumping ground of toxic chemicals by highly industrialized countries. We were then so puzzled why the Philippines entered into an agreement with Japan that allowed Japanese trawling vessels to do “muro-ami” that had devasted our archipelago. From being the “center of the center of marine life on earth,” it has become a “garbage-pit.” We have indeed lost Eden and with it we have also lost our ecological security as the Philippines has been categorized by the UN-FAO as the 4th hardest hit country in the world by climate change. In the last five decades, hundreds of thousands poor Filipinos especially those living in the vulnerable areas have perished due to environmental catastrophe that included some three thousand Cagaya-anons and those from Iligan, killed due to Typhoon Sendong. But such is just a “tip of the iceberg.” Based on the studies of environmental experts, the ocean level will rise by at least 16 meters in the next 50 years due to non-stop melting of the iceberg in the Arctic, Antarctic and the Third Pole, the Himalayas. When that time comes, only 3,000 islands will be above water in the Philippine Archipelago of 7,100 islands.
The climate crisis must now be the concern of the Filipinos who must now be awakened from the fallacies of life. As thousands of islands will perish in our archipelago, it is the conclusion of environmental experts that the earth will become a desert in the next 80 years shown by on-going wildfires and the destruction of the earth’s water systems which are happening now in almost all continents. Despite this painful truism, humanity is so buried in apathy, so engrossed in maximizing short-term profit and on maximizing consumer goods but not on maximizing values. Let us be reminded of King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “Fame, wealth and power are meaningless, utterly meaningless,” what is important is how we have protected God’s vanishing creation and serving the least of our brethren. That is the essence of our life not to dominate the earth but to save and nurture it as God’s stewards of His creation.
What has happened in our country is happening now globally as nature has been sacrificed to the altar of greed and profit, glaringly shown by the truism that high veneration to the profit motive has already captured the mindset of all governments, all institutions, all universities and even of religious groups. As we are now facing the threat of environmental catastrophe which has put humanity in the precipice of extinction described by thousands of scientists as just “one-minute before midnight”, let us now join hands to stand as our environment force to save GAIA (Mother Earth). While people all over the world are now becoming countervailing force against climate change, even conducting and mobilizing against those who are killing Mother Earth, the Filipinos are still very apathetic, so engrossed in trivial matters, in consumerism and materialism, on political quarreling and on maximizing profit but not on feeling the pains of GAIA. We must now challenge our leaders to take initiatives to make accountable those who have wantonly exploited our natural resources, many of whom are still in power who have created a strong cabal of vested interest, at the expense of the people and the environment.
From a paradise-like country, the beauty of nature has been ransacked, killing our forests, our rivers, our seas, our bays, our agricultural lands and all those that form the ecosystems. This is especially true now as our millions of hectares of our blessed land in Mindanao, the choicest, have been transformed into massive plantations to satisfy the consumerist needs of the people in advanced countries oozing with obesity while we cannot even produce enough basic staples for our hungry people. These plantations are using massively toxic chemicals; of the eight chemicals, seven are already banned in other countries, the reason why many of these are not allowed to enter in other countries like Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. The cooperatives in these countries have once asked me why we have allowed them to transform our blessed land into massive plantations which have already contaminated our watersheds/water-table, jokingly describing the Philippines as a country of coward people. Well, I believe that Mindanao is the land of the brave and free, thus, must fight for what is right what is true and what is just. Thus, AFTER LOSING PARADISE, LET US NOT ALLOW THESE CORPORATIONS TO TRANSFORM OUR LOST EDEN INTO HELL THROUGH CORPORATE GLOBALIZATION.
