When Martial Law was declared in September 1972, Rene “Tatay Ete” V. Vendiola was in third year high school at the East Visayan School of Arts and Trade. He was then living in the nearby town of Bacong in the province of Negros Oriental.
School was stopped and student activists formed pickets in Silliman University. Bored, he decided to go home to his hometown in Sta. Catalina and farm.
He did not bother to go back when school resumed in December 1972.
“I was plowing for my parents’ field when I chanced upon ceramics, pots and jars that I sold to an antique collector. I gave some of the earings to my mother but I spent P600 to buy a six-hectare property in Sta. Catalina,” recalled Tatay Ete.
Life was good for Tatay Ete. He got married at 22 and lived an abundant life in Sta. Catalina where he planted rice, corn, root crops, and fruit-bearing trees in his land. He engaged in slash-and-burn farming and hunted deer for personal consumption.
War broke out in February 1986 between the military and New People’s Army in Sta. Catalina, so he was forced to go back to Liptong, Bacong with his wife and two children.
Settling in Bacong in their old house, Tatay Ete Knew only farming as a means of living so he continued planting to make ends meet for his family.
“We were not rich but we had more than enough to eat properly. My wife worked as a food vendor. During that time, there was a program by the government on proper food handling and waste disposal. I became interested,” said Tatay Ete.
He participated in these seminars, which opened a chance for him to meet people. Some of them were environmentalists and mountain climbers.
Informed that Tatay Ete knew Negros Oriental’s mountain terrain like the back of his hand, these environmentalists and mountain climbers asked Tatay Ete to be their tour guide.
From there, his career as a tour guide blossomed. It was not work for Tatay Ete. It was like reliving scenes of his childhood, climbing trees and making trails.
As a tour guide, he met different groups, among them was the group from Habagat Outdoor in the early 1990s who educated him about the destruction brought about by kaingin or slash-and-burn farming.
“(Cebu City Vice Mayor) Joy Young, one of the climbers then, told me not to do it because it is very destructive. I listened and that was the start of my awakening as an environmentalist,” Tatay Ete said in Visayan.
He also spent time with members of Cuernos de Negros, a local mountaineering group in Negros. He served as their guide.
Tatay Ete said he became a full-fledged environmentalist in 1994 after committing to stop practicing kaingin. He attended various trainings and seminars on environment conservation and preservation, which further developed his love for nature.
A trip to Baybay City in Leyte in 2005 was instrumental in moving Tatay Ete to take a progressive step towards environmental protection.
He attended a seminar sponsored by Haron Foundation at the Visayan State College of Agriculture (now Visayas State University).
“ I was touched when I saw pictures of trees that are now extinct because human beings are so insensitive. We keep on cutting trees without knowing their importance,” he said.
He resolved to do something in his own capacity to help preserve the biodiversity of his area. Back in Liptong, Tatay Ete decided to make a mini-forest out of his yard.
“It was part of my parents’ six-hectare property, divided among us six siblings. I had one hectare and decided to make a mini-forest and call it Liptong Woodland,” he said.
More than a green thumb, Tatay Ete possesses a genuine interest in plants and animals. He reads books, according to his 26-year-old son, Levi. These books are given by friends and people his father meet in various occasions.
In his farm, he grows yakal, apitong, nangka, and other native trees. He also grows 300 lansones trees and 15 rambutan trees. Fifty of the 300 lansones trees already bear fruits reaching 300 kilos per harvest. The 15 rambutan trees also produce 300 kilos of fruits.
Liptong Woodlands is also home to the Magnificent Maiden, a critically endangered species known to be one of the most beautiful flowers in the Philippines.
Tatay Ete welcomes people who visit Liptong Woodland, which now stands as a living laboratory for learning on local and endemic flora and fauna.
A self-taught dendrologist and taxonomist, Tatay Ete is a volunteer-consultant of Mt. Talinis People;s Organization and Siit Arboretum and Botanical Garden Inc., among others.
He was a prime mover in the crafting of an ordinance that declared as illegal the hunting of wildlife within the municipality of Bacong.
Tatay Ete served as the barangay chairman of Barangay Liptong. Today he sits as one of Liptong’s barangay councilors.
Tatay Ete is highly regarded because of his humility and patience. He is well respected in the circle of environmentalists and is noted for his deep knowledge on plants and animals. His passion is also beyond compare.
“Ete is not a run-of-the-mill type of mountain folk. He is unusual. He is doing his work in a practical way and without fanfare,” said environmentalist Esher Windler, when asked to describe Tatay Ete.
Today the local government unit of Bacong under the leadership of Mayor Lenin Alviola is implementing a reforestation project in a 100-hectare watershed with the town, with the help of Tatay Ete.
His Liptong Woodland example encouraged biologist Apolinario Carino to start planting endemic trees in a parcel of land he bought near Tatay Ete’s Liptong Woodland.
“He is a self-made environmentalist and he shares all his knowledge, skills and resources for free,” said Carino.
Whoever thought that this high school dropout and slash-and-burn farmer would be known as an environmentalist?
Tatay Ete was not at all surprised by his change of heart.
“I believe that whatever happens to a person’s life is a product of his learning in the past,” said Tatay Ete.
His previous experience as the environment’s adversary gave him the much-needed lessons in taking care of Mother Earth.
While Liptong Woodland is a living proof of his contribution to environmental protection, Tatay Ete said much is yet to be done to further spread the news that the earth still needs more trees to continue surviving.
At 58, Tatay Ete said fruits from his trees serve as his pension that enriches his life.
“When I’m tired, I just hug a tree and I am already okay. I recharge from the trees. This is true because trees breathe life. We owe so much to the trees. We get fruits, medicines, and shade from them. It is only proper that we nurture and save them,” he shared.
Passion is about passing it on to the next generation of environmentalists so Tatay Ete trained 20 students in conserving trees and monitoring their growth and survival rate. These students are now teaching other students and community members what they learned from Tatay Ete, a good example of paying it forward.
Does he regret not finishing high school? Sometimes he does, Tatay Ete admitted.
And yet seeing what has become and how others were transformed because of his example are more than enough to make Tatay Ete feel that he is living a life well lived.
His plans include expanding Liptong Woodland and encouraging more people to visit his mini-forest so he can further spread the word that one does not need magic to be a tree whisperer.
To Tatay Ete, it only takes childlike curiosity to learn new things, commitment to sustain and maintain what you have started, and the willingness to share what you have learned. (Reprinted with permission of Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc.)
