As I write this, the Banica River has swollen, and the floods begin. I know when a flood is coming because I can smell the mud a good 15 to 20 minutes before it actually passes by my house. That is the kind of early warning we get.
Our house is 20 meters away from the Banica River in upper Bagacay at the boundary of Northern Junob. Our property has access to the river. Thank God for the steep wall of concrete we built after storm Sendong, and thank God for the terrain which is made of alluvial rock locally called talaptap.
The Banica is usually narrow, almost like a creek most of the time. But the other night at around 10 pm, I looked over the river with my flashlight, and I just knew a serious flood was about to happen because the Banica was raging. Some trees upstream had fallen and were being carried away by the current.
I was praying hard because I was apprehensive having experienced Sendong before which devastated our Province. I turned on the radio. There was only music playing.
So I ask, what is happening to our beautiful land? This question was posed to us recently on Oct. 18 during a two day workshop sponsored by the Fellowship for the Care of Creation Association Inc. The topic of the workshop was on Environmental Climate Justice and Pope Francis’ Encyclical Laudato Si. I heard of the FCCAI for the first time that time, and then I learned they were actually founded in 1988 by three Franciscan priests who were moved by spirit and example of St. Francis of Assisi.
The recent challenging statement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines was: What have we done to our beautiful Land?
This trainer’s training workshop was held at COSCA, and attended by teachers from Catholic schools, some youth ministers, members of Basic Ecclesial Community, religious sisters and NGOs. Teams from FCCAI go around the country conducting these workshops. They organise organic farming on idle lands owned by religious organizations. “Give us this land to use for 10 years and we will make it productive for organic farming”. They also partner with schools in Metro Manila to take students to the countryside for exposure — touching the earth, tilling it. These millennials may be bred in big cities, may love to eat fruits, but may not know how orchards look like. Do guavas really hang from trees? Do pineapples grow on trees?
We are reminded how lucky we are in Negros Island as we live near the sea or near the mountains. That we are able to touch the earth, and eat fruits from our trees is a privilege.
The FCCAI workshop showed how aware we already are in naming the problems that are hounding our existence like mining, the burning of sugarcane stalks (Why does it continue to be allowed?) A bigger worry is our waste management especially of plastics that end up in our land and in our seas.
We were challenged to write and commit to an action as a concrete step to answer the dire situation.
Many chose to commit to waste segregation, and echo what we learned to their schools and organizations.
I know what I need to do. With some concerned friends, I would meet up with the lead person of the commercial sector, and invite him as an ally to work together to reduce plastic use, and to implement fully Ordinance 231 that got stalled soon after it was passed in 2011.
We also have a meeting set next week with the Negros Oriental Hotel, Resort, & Restaurant Association. We need to ask how we can work together to solve our common problems especially the management of waste. This should involve business, civil society, and government. At this time, civil society is longing and willing to be a partner.
Will business and government respond? Some eating places like the Silliman Cafeteria no longer serve plastic straws on their drinks. It’s a good start to help create awareness that goes a long way to educating the consuming public.
What is happening to our beautiful land? We do not want to lose the beauty, and go the way of unchecked growth that breeds crime and chaos. When we say “take the garbage out” there really is no out; it remains around us always.
The FCCAI concluded that looking back to the original intent of the pioneers of the Association — which is to restore integrity and wholeness of creation — one can honestly say that much efforts have been spent and done, but the stark reality we see before and behind us does not show a match with our expectation. Our Cosmos continues to be devastated, desecrated in an enormous degree, and the destruction almost irreversible.
The strong and urgent message for us is a response to the call of reinventing our lifestyle, and our manner of relating with our environment, yes with our Home Planet Earth.
We thank the FCCAI for coming to Dumaguete, and for their commitment to spread the good news.
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