Oil of life

Several times I tried to fall in line to buy a cone of coconut milk ice cream sold from a Mamang Sorbetero push cart but the line was, oh, so long, I gave up. But there were other coconut products that were just as inviting and interesting—lip balm, moisturizers, bath soap, non-dairy creamer, diesel additives, vinegar, all kinds of food. And of course, virgin coconut oil (VCO) which was the centerpiece of the 2005 National coconut Week 4th National Coconut Festival held at SM Megamall last weekend.

A booth selling coconut milk extractors using the centrifugal method was giving a Powerpoint presentation with Harry Belafonte’s popular coconut song as background score. “Coconut!”

Produced in different parts of the country, VCO came in various labels and packaging--ethnic, sophisticated, dignified, classy. But the integrity of the product should be the same.

There is a lot of work to be done in order to put (or put back) Philippine coconut products on the world’s dining tables, medicine shelves, beauty bars and gas stations.

Well, as the Philippine Coconut Authority had announced, VCO exports are up 268 percent from the same period last year; up 569 percent in export earnings from the first five months of last year. That is from the good news article by Christine Gaylican of the Inquirer’s Business Section.



For themselves and for their country, coconut product entrepreneurs, discoverers, innovators, developers, promoters, users, supporters, scientists, and those nuts about coconuts gathered last weekend at the trade fair and exhibit. It was their way to show that they were pushing on and forward, never mind the political climate in this benighted nation.

I couldn’t help thinking a naughty thought—these VCO producers should send their quarrelling solons a bottle each of crystal clear VCO to clear their clogged colons.

I was at the fair for the book launching of “The Truth About Coconut Oil: The Drugstore in a Bottle” (Anvil Publishing) by Dr. Conrado S. Dayrit, eminent pharmacologist-internist, cardiologist, author, professor and unrelenting medical researcher. He has helped restore to coconut oil its stolen global glory and put it back in its rightful place in the realm of food and medicine. That was last Sunday’s Inquirer Magazine cover story on Dayrit (“Rx for Life: Use your coconut”) which I wrote. The nice coconut-y cover photo of the energetic, ruddy-cheeked 86-year-old Dayrit was by August dela Cruz.

There was not enough space in that article for Dayrit’s , painstaking, groundbreaking work and discoveries about coconut oil because I had to focus on the amazing person. So now, more on the amazing oil.

The background of all these was the fact that saturated fats, coconut oil in particular, were being blamed as the cause of increased cholesterol levels that led to heart disease. This was the gist of the so-called Lipid Diet-Heart Theory propounded by the West. Dayrit now bashes that as “brainwashing”. Attempts to prove that theory wrong were either ignored or suppressed because the American seed oil industry had everything to gain from the demise of coconut oil.

Coconut oil is now regaining its good name, thanks to Dayrit and his counterparts in scientific research that have proven that coconut oil, a saturated fat, is a medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA), not long chain like what is found in animal fats and other oils. “No oil in God’s whole creation can compare with it in its numerous actions,” Dayrit says with pride. We need no longer wonder why many Asians had been using this wonder oil for generations until the badmouthing and blacklisting began.

But despite the strong lobbying by the US seed oil industry, some researchers managed to research on MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides) which contain capric and lauric acids and succeeded in getting them accepted as nutritious food for infants and premature babies, convalescents, the elderly as well as athletes. The US Food and Drug Administration even classified them as safe.

Writes Dayrit: “S.A. Hashim, Andre Back, Vigen K. Babayan and their associates were the first to publish papers in the ‘60s and ‘70s that showed that the absorption, distribution and metabolism of (MCFA) differ radically from long chain fatty acids. The MCFAs of coconut oil are rapidly absorbed, carried by the portal vein to the liver and then oxidized, thus producing energy very rapidly.

“John Kabara, professor of microbiology at Michigan State University, discovered that the lauric acid of coconut oil, particularly its monoglyceride, was the post potent antiviral, antibacterial, and antifungal agent of all the various fatty acids from different fats and oils that he tested in his laboratory.”

Dayrit did his own work. Dr. Bruce Fife (author of “The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil”) wrote: “Dr. Dayrit was the first to demonstrate, under controlled clinical conditions, that coconut oil could be of benefit to HIV-infected individuals. His landmark 1998 study established the fact that coconut oil alone could lower the viral load of HIV-infected patients and improve their overall health.”

Dayrit’s book is a treasure trove of scientific information (chemistry, statistics) as well as true-to-life testimonials.

“This book had to be written,” Dayrit says, “to tell medical practitioners, nutritionists, and peoples of Asia in particular, the true story of coconut oil, its numerous health benefits and why it has been maligned all these years. And to be fair, the good and the bad of other fats and oils need to be told.”

Get a copy. (Also available at the five-day book fair at World Trade Center near CCP.)You won’t be sorry. And thank God for the gift of the glorious coconut.

Vinoba Bhave

The year was 1916. A young man was visiting India’s holy city of Benares to contemplate the crossroads before him.

Should he go to the Himalayas and live as a religious hermit immersed in silence and prayer? Or should he take the road to West Bengal and join the freedom movement that was fighting the British colonizers?

Twenty-year-old Vinoba Bhave was intensely drawn to both ways…

Before I continue, let me say that the names of the Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for 2005 have been announced. The RM Awards Foundation (RMAF) will honor these exemplary Asians on Aug. 31. Included in this week’s RMAF to-do is the launching of the second volume of Great Men and Women of Asia (GMWA). This book project is RMAF’s way of popularizing the lives of past RM awardees who, through their work and example, made an impact on the lives of many Asians.

We are in search of models, aren’t we?

I wrote four of the stories in last year’s first volume. This year, because of time constraints, I agreed to do just one. I picked the much-revered Vinoba Bhave, recipient of the first RM Award for Community Leadership in 1958.



To continue… Bhave had already completed two years of college and was well-versed in the ancient philosophies and scriptures. Gifted with a sharp mind, Bhave excelled in mathematics and was interested in higher learning.

But Bhave had also a thirst all the worldly knowledge he had acquired could not quench. There was a fire in his soul that would not stop burning.

While in that state of unease in the holy city, Bhave read about the speech delivered by Mahatma Gandhi. Something in Bhave stirred. He wrote a letter to Gandhi, the holy man in home-spun loin cloth who was leading a satyagraha (non-violent) movement and would later become the leading voice and symbol of India’s struggle for independence from the British raj.

The meeting with Gandhi changed the course of Bhave’s life. He would later recall: ``Providence took me to Gandhi and I found in him not only the peace of the Himalayas but also the burning fervor of resolution, typical of Bengal. I said to myself that both of my desires had been fulfilled.’’

Bhave joined Gandhi in his ashram (a religious community which was also the hub of political and social activity for Gandhi’s followers). Bhave learned at Gandhi’s feet and internalized his vision. Praying, fasting, teaching and studying Hindu scriptures, spinning, leading protests—these were some of the non-violent activities of Gandhi’s unarmed army. Imprisonment only strengthened their resolve to continue the freedom movement.

There was little doubt that Bhave would be Gandhi’s spiritual successor. Indeed, after the bloody birth of India as a new nation in 1947 which was followed by national turmoil, and Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, Bhave emerged to bring the Gandhian revolution a step further into another realm.

Vinayak Bhave, whom Gandhi nicknamed Vinoba, was born in 1895 into a high-ranking Brahmin family in Gagode Village south of Bombay. After Gandhi’s death, Bhave vowed to carry on Gandhi’s dream of sarvodaya, or a non-violent society dedicated to ``the welfare of all.’’

Bhave was the father of the bhoodan (land gift) movement that spread in the 1950s and took the Indian countryside by storm.

Bhave lead peace treks around India to spread the sarvodaya spirit and to soothe the wounds of a divided nation. Freedom from the British had resulted in two nations--India and Pakistan. Ethnic strife especially among Hindus and Muslims further pushed the populace into more turbulence.

Bhave saw that independence from foreign domination did not necessarily result in freedom from want and oppression. The huge majority of the rural poor did not have land to till. What would they live on?

While visiting a village in Telangana (now Andrha Pradesh) in 1951, Bhave received an appeal from landless peasants. Having nothing to give, Bhave turned to the village to ask whether there was anyone who had land to spare. A prosperous landowner stepped forward and offered a hundred acres.

That act of generosity opened up the road ahead. It inspired Bhave to continue his journey, traveling by foot from village to village, asking people if they had land to share with the poor. Thus was born the so-called bhoodan (land gift) movement.

Bhave’s efforts met with extraordinary enthusiasm. His journey of seven weeks yielded an initial 1,200 acres. His fellow workers gathered 100,000 acres. By 1954 the movement had totaled 2.5 million acres, far exceeding government land reform efforts.

Bhave was not easily impressed by his own success. All that land, all that generosity, were not going to solve all of the problems of the Indian people. ``We do not aim at doing mere acts of kindness,’’ Bhave wrote, ``but at creating a Kingdom of Kindness.’’ He taught that more important than the gift was the spirit behind the gift, that is, the spiritual revolution that was being waged. Bhave was indeed a holy teacher and he deserved being called acharya by his followers.

In no time, the land-gift movement reached a new phase. Bhave began to seek out whole villages willing to commit to the ideals of sarvodaya. And so the gramdan (village gift) movement was begun.

For 13 years Bhave walked throughout India. Barely 90 pounds and sometimes suffering from ulcers and malaria, the man in a home-spun dhoti continued to brave the sometimes turbulent countryside to reach out to both the haves and the have-nots. ``All revolutions,’’ Bhave said, ``are spiritual at the source. All my activities have the sole purpose of achieving a union of hearts.’’

There’s more…

Published by Anvil, GMWA I and II are available in bookstores and RMAF.

Save the tree of life campaign

See, not everyone is cursing the darkness or wallowing helplessly in the political quagmire we are in. Not everyone is threatening to leave for parts unknown where the sun shines brightly, there to momentarily forget the hovering darkness that envelops the country, made darker still by more dark deeds, dark schemes, dark motives.

But yes, if you think this is darkness before daybreak, think again. This is more like darkness at noon and it’s still a long way to midnight and the breaking of a new day.

But there are so many reasons to be hopeful if only we cast a glance at the other side of the septic tank and go toward it.

This week, the Atikha Overseas Filipinos and Communities Initiatives, Inc. is launching a fund drive that intends to help save the coconut tree, push other community initiatives related to it, as well as develop coconut-based enterprises that will create jobs in Laguna and nearby areas.

This is being launched in the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and New York in the USA as well as in Ontario and Toronto in Canada.

Atikha, which is spearheading this, was established in 1996 as an offshoot of a study on the social impact of women’s migration on families and communities in Laguna. Separation brought about by migration caused family difficulties. But more than that, all the years of separation bore fruit of a different kind—dependency on remittances and uncontrolled spending on the part of those left behind. Many overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), upon returning home for good, find out their sacrifices were all for naught.

Atikha is slowly being recognized not only as a service NGO but as a catalyst in the field of migration and development. Mag-atikha means to save and Atikha has done a lot to harness the human and economic potential of OFWs and their families so that they could contribute to community development.

There is the Batang Atikha Savers Club, the Koop Balikabayani International Savings and Credit Cooperative, the Overseas Filipinos and Women Center. Atikha also develops and assists community-based social enterprises, among them, organic farming and production of coconut-based items. These boost job creation in the rural areas. Atikha helped establish Sweet Greens Ecofarm, Inc. which is into organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

Atikha’s new target and focus is the coconut.

Atikha executive director Mai Anonuevo along with chair Fr. Jerry Bitoon and Koop Balikabayani general manager Celso Chosas are now abroad for the Save the Tree of Life fund drive in the US and Canada.

The drive encourages individuals and groups to each donate $50. Atikha will plant a coconut in the donor’s name and take care of it until it bears fruit. Part of the $50 contribution will be used as seed capital to purchase equipment for coconut-based enterprises. Another part will be for training in business and zero-waste management.

Coconuts abound in Laguna and Quezon but new ones have to planted to ensure continuity in the future. The coconuts will be planted in selected barangays. The community organizations will manage the plantation as well as the production of virgin coconut oil, coir, paper and other handicrafts.

The coconut is literally a tree of life for Filipinos. Each part of the tree, from its roots that go down deep into the earth, to its crown of swaying palm fronds, flowers and fruits has uses.

A shipwreck survivor swept away and marooned on a coconut island could subsist on coconuts and use everything the tree could provide until help comes. But Filipinos seem to take coconuts for granted. And one of the biggest abuses committed against coconut farmers was the devil-invented coconut levy during the martial law years. When will the funds go back to their rightful beneficiaries?

In the meantime, we cannot wait for the proverbial coconut to fall by itself. The tree of life has to be made part of life and livelihood. This is what Atikha has trying to do.

According to a paper released by Atikha, about 25 percent of the Philippines’ arable land is planted to coconut. We used to be the second largest coconut producer in the world. But a 1996 report of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community says the Philippines now ranks third in productivity after Indonesia and India.

Southern Tagalog, supposedly the second largest coconut producer in the Philippines had negative annual growth rate in coconut hectarage from 1990 to 1997 as well as low productivity. Atikha says that while Southern Mindanao is able to harvest 87 nuts per tree, Southern Luzon yields only 31 nuts per tree. This could be due to unselected and genetically poor plant materials and an increasing number of senile trees.

The decline in coconut hectarage could be due to unregulated cutting of coconut trees meant to counter the log ban in forests. Coconut land have also been converted for housing and industrial purposes. Coconut farmers who used to earn P5,000 per harvest not earn P5,000 per year.

No wonder, many Filipinos from coconut regions have left to toil abroad. Atikha serves communities in so-called coconut country, namely, Laguna and Quezon as well as Batangas.

Save the coconut, save OFW families and communities.

****

Pancake House called to air their side on the hold up incident inside their Quezon Ave. branch that I wrote about two weeks ago. Pancake rep Bernadette Lee said they have addressed security and staff preparedness to ensure customer safety. I listened. Later, the food chain sent gift certificates worth P2,000. I cannot accept these, I told Pancake House. Okay, for the very hungry and poor then.

Roco in search of Camelot

``THINK back,’’ the late Raul Roco had mused, seemingly swallowed up in a fog of memories. ``Think back on all the tales that you remember of Camelot.’’

The words from the 1960s Lerner-Loewe musical often cascaded from Roco’s lips, as he thought back on how King Arthur sang about that ``fleeting wisp of glory, called Camelot.’’

Roco, former congressman, senator, education secretary and presidential aspirant, died of cancer Aug. 5. He was 63. He will be buried today in Naga City. Roco and another 2004 presidential contender, Fernando Poe Jr., died within eight months of each other.

``We were the Camelot boys,’’ Roco recalled when I interviewed him in his Antipolo hillside retreat named An Maogmang Lugar (Bicol for ``the happy place’’) famous for its tropical blooms that became the signature design of his campaign get-up.

The dream--how far back did it go, when first did the glimmer of the presidency come into view?

It was in 1961, Roco said, when he was president of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP), that something stirred in him. ``Those were the Kennedy years. Pres. Kennedy spoke of Camelot. `Right is might.’ When he said, `Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,’ it was as if he was addressing me.



`` I was popular in campuses. People would say, continue on and run for president. That is the Filipino dream, like the American dream that every one could be president. As a student leader you start thinking of it, but you don’t really dream of it.’’

In Nov. 1963, Kennedy was assassinated. ``All of a sudden Camelot vanished,’’ Roco recalled. ``But dreams never die, never die.’’ And being a student leader then, he saw the value of politics, that ``power can serve.’’

The tragedies that stalked those he idolized were not lost on Roco. He remembered the day Pres. Ramon Magsaysay died in a plane crash in 1957, the people weeping, lining up to buy newspapers. Here was someone he had not even met but for whom he, like so many people, shed tears.

Roco was chosen one of the 10 Outstanding Students of the Philippines of 1964. He would later marry the most outstanding student of that batch, Sonia Malasarte, with whom he has six children

Roco finished law, magna cum laude, at the Benedictine-run San Beda College. He finished his masters degree in comparative law at the University of Pennsylvania.

After he passed the bar in 1965, Roco lobbied for the holding of the Constitutional Convention. With the ConCon law passed in 1967, Roco campaigned for a seat to represent his district in Camarines Sur. He won.

He later joined the staff of Sen. Benigno ``Ninoy’’ Aquino Jr. He drafted the study-now-pay-later bill which was part of Aquino’s campaign promise. Then Pres. Marcos declared martial law.

Roco moved on to corporate law and joined the ACCRA law office that produced several national politicians. As a legislator and self-styled ``honorary woman’’, Roco authored pro-women laws. He was also known for authoring laws reforming the Central Bank.

Aksyon Demokratico, Roco’s fledgling party, pushed his 1998 and 2004 presidential bids. In 2004, Aksyon linked up with Promdi and Reporma, the party machines of two 1998 also-rans Lito Osmena and Renato de Villa, to form the Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope). Roco had an incomplete senatorial slate composed of political virgins. He ran on the ``agenda of hope’’ that stood for major reforms in the government.

Roco rated high in pre-election surveys and was considered a strong presidential contender in 2004. But halfway through the campaign, illness forced him out of the campaign trail. He was back soon enough to rally the Roco die-hards but by then his chances had greatly diminished.

Roco was arguably the most intellectually prepared among the presidential aspirants. One could easily imagine him taking his place among world leaders, or steering the ship of state through rough waters.

Roco was a great public speaker, using just the right decibel, inflection and cadence in his words. He often quoted from poetry and put human faces on his data. He spoke not only to inform but to inspire. His spiels were punctuated with Pinoy witticisms and truisms. He could even sing.

He described himself as a follower of Peter Drucker, management guru and author. Management is like conducting a symphony orchestra, Roco said. His management style gave the people in the education department, which he headed briefly, a culture shock.

Roco proudly said that the department was stricken off the corrupt list after seven months. Over a year later, Roco resigned in a huff. He resigned on a point of honor, he said.

To An Maogmang Lugar, Roco often hied off to smell the flowers. Great world leaders, Roco often reminded, needed solitary moments to find the strength within themselves.

His idea of God? Roco laughed while recalling a story. ``The ant was asked what its idea of God was and it answered, `I have one sting, God has two.’ God is an eternal presence. One could believe in a supreme deity, or in creation or in extreme patriotism to serve. As a Christian I believe that Christ is God. The Christian tenets were what kept us fairly civilized.’’

Faith and politics, Roco believed, could mix, if both could translate into good works.

Roco dreamed of a Philippine image before the world--that of a nation striving to be honest and honorable. ``Filipinos are honorable,’’ he told the Inquirer. ``It’s our leaders who are not. There is no nation that has grown without a sense of honor.’’

Raul Roco was ever in search of Camelot. He passed on during this very tumultuous time in Philippine politics.#

A small scary story

While big national issues rage, while the big guys slug it out in the national arena and play to the bloodthirsty gallery, many Filipinos continue to live their lives in the shadows and in quiet desperation. If these skirmishes were projected on the big video wall, we, the spectators and passersby could only cower as the big, dark shadows and images overwhelm us. The cheering and the cajoling come from the bettors lusting for the spoils.

Many Filipinos continue on with their day-to-day chores wondering when and how it will all end. In the meantime, the stereophonic, cacophonic, dumbing din becomes even more assaulting to the senses. We are the proverbial lonely crowd waiting for an intermission and the exit door to swing open so that we could take in a chestful of fresh air.

While the fighting goes on in the big arena, thanks to its life-size projection in the media, our so-called peace and order guardians are busy looking after the top. The rest of us down below have to look after our own survival and safety. Evil is abroad in the land and stalks its prey with freedom and impunity.

During the President’s State of the Nation address, when it seemed all the police and security forces were concentrated in one battle area, the petty and big criminals must have had a field day.

Here is an account from Cierlene Rivera, a mother who saw evil up close. The incident happened two months ago when the ``Now Showing’’ political drama was just unfolding.

``Last June 3, at about 9:30 p.m., my seven-year-old daughter, her yaya and I had dinner at Pancakes on Quezon Ave. When we were almost done, a man came inside the restaurant, headed straight to our table and pulled out a gun. He pointed the 9mm at me and demanded for my cell phone. I was stunned and tried to convince myself that it was a dream. After all, I was inside a respectable restaurant.

Again, the man asked for my phone and then my bag. Out of fear for our safety, I handed them over. He then pointed the gun at the yaya and my daughter who was trembling with fear. The man wanted my daughter’s backpack and the yaya gave it to him. Then he went out of the restaurant.

``I immediately held my daughter who was trying to hold back her tears. She had turned white and couldn’t speak well and just kept on mumbling. I looked at the waiters and the lady who looked like the manager. They were all standing by the counter, looking at us as if watching a movie. When I asked if nobody saw what happened they answered that they saw a man come in, go to our table and point a gun at us. They said they saw him take all our belongings. `Akala ho namin kasama ninyo,’ (We thought he was your companion) they said. The manager even insisted that she thought the man was my husband!

``I couldn’t, for the life of me, understand how someone who was supposedly my companion (or my husband) would do such a thing and divest us of everything at gun point. Even if that were so, would they allow a crime to be committed right inside their restaurant? They just stood there and worse, after the incident, nobody even bothered to call the police. The only call I heard was that of the manager calling someone from her cell phone to say that a customer will not be able to pay because she was just held up!

``I had to take my daughter to the area near the kitchen which was farthest from the entrance because she was so scared the hold up man would come back. Everyone was just staring at us. I even had to instruct the manager to lock the door so that my daughter would have some feeling of assurance.

``I was so furious and disgusted at the manager and staff of Pancakes for not being able to do anything. I asked where the security guard was. There was none.

``I then thought of the cell phones, the credit and ATM cards that were taken. I asked the staff if I could use their phone so I could have the cell phones blocked. Their phone had no dial tone. This was Pancakes at Quezon Ave. The manager lent me her cell phone but I was trembling and had a mental block and I could not remember any number. I sought their help for the hotline of Smart and Globe and the credit card companies and the banks but nobody knew anything. I just dialed home.

``On June 15 I reported the incident to the Baler police station which had jurisdiction over the area. Everyone in the station was surprised to learn about the incident. They wondered why no one from Pancakes reported the incident right after it happened so they do an investigation. On my part, I could not report right away because I wanted the phones and the cards blocked that very night. I did not want my daughter with me at the police station as that might add to her trauma. We also had a death in the family and school was about to start.

``Friends who learned about the incident wondered why I was the only one held up and why it happened when it was almost closing time, why the hold up man did not go to the cashier to get the day’s cash and instead chose to get my bag, why only my phones were taken and not those of the staff, why none of the waiters went to seek help from the guard of Red Ribbon next door.

``Now my daughter is suffering from her trauma. She is fearful of men who enter restaurants. She asks whether I am holding to my bag tight enough, where my cell phone and car key are. She is scared someone might take her and that she would never see me again. Her school guidance counselor has been very sympathetic and has counseling sessions with her.’’

Cierlene says she is still waiting for the police report which Pancakes claimed they had.