Enriching the earth with our bodies

``You are nothing but an infinitesimal combination of earth's rocks, water and air; these are two billion years of evolutionary explorations, new trials, new combinations, new forms of life.... beauty comes in knowing what you are and where you came and why you be, earth child.'' – Walt Whitman

During the long weekend ahead when we honor our dear departed, it behooves us to ponder on our mortality and immortality.

In the film ``The Lion King’’, King Mufasa gives Simba, the future Lion King of Pride Rock, a lecture on life and death. ``When we die,'' he tells his only begotten son, ``our bodies become the grass. And the antelope eat grass. Then we become part of the great circle of life.''

Human beings are the most notorious when it comes to the disruption of ``the circle.'' By opting not to go back to the earth, humans have cut themselves off from the great circle. Burial practices have deprived our living planet of the enrichment it deserves.

Die-hard ecologists tell us that the best way to bury the dead is to dig a hole in the ground, gently lay the dead in there and cover it with soft, warm earth. There the dead breaks down into different elements and participates in the earth's life-giving process. Why consign a corpse to an airless, concrete tomb where it cannot enrich various life forms?



In the Christian religion, there will be a Final Resurrection, sure, but in the meantime people could help make little resurrections happen every day. Doesn’t the Bible say: ``Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies....'' So what better way to show reverence for the sacred body than to give it back to the earth's great embrace?

Until some decades ago, Christianity, Catholicism in particular, eschewed cremation because of the literal understanding of the resurrection of bodies on the Final Judgment and reverence for the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. But environmental awareness worldwide and the new fields of theology of creation and creation spirituality are changing the old thinking.

In the magnificent cycle of life there is no place for cemeteries where the dead are imprisoned forever in impermeable boxes. The elements in dead bodies are not able to go back to the earth from where these came from in the first place.

Sister Gloria Martires, a Franciscan nun who had a doctorate in bio-science was a strong proponent of direct burial in the ground. (She passed away some years ago and was not buried in the ground.) She said it is important to understand what happens to people's bodies when these go back to the earth from where they came. ``The minerals from the dead bodies will be incorporated in green plants and grazing animals which will again enrich new living organisms--plants, animals, people--with the help of the power of the sun. Matter is not destroyed, it is only transformed. This is the transformation of matter from the abiotic to the biotic, with the power being supplied by the sun's energy, and then again to the abiotic (minerals in the soil). Rejuvenation is then accomplished.’’

The human body is composed of some 40 elements and 75 percent water. The moment a body becomes lifeless, decomposition sets in. Decomposition is simply the breaking down or simplification of organic matter, as when proteins are digested in the stomach and the small intestine. Decomposition as accomplished by bacteria (an essential part of any ecosystem) releases the minerals or nutrients locked up in dead bodies so that recycling can be accomplished.

Martires challenged the belief (of those against cremation) that on the Last Day God will reassemble people's bodies like houses made of prefabricated materials. This is not her idea of the Final Resurrection. ``We must bear in mind that our bodies are developed for nine months in the wombs of our biological mothers and that all the elements and atoms in our bodies came from the earth that has undergone evolution for billions of years.''

So building palatial tombs to enclose bodies is out. Not only do cemeteries and memorial parks destroy what should be productive land, they also run counter to sound ecology.

So is cremation the thing? If the ashes that come out of the incinerator are kept in urns and bottles and not returned to the earth or sea where food could grow, they serve no purpose.

In India, the Parsis (the Parsi religion had its beginnings in Persia) give their dead a ``sky burial'' in Towers of Silence. (I’ve watched this from afar.) The vultures feast on the human remains that then come out as bird shit that could fertilize the earth.

Martires winced at this ``consumer-to-consumer'' thing. Humans are on top of the food chain and, for her, and being eaten by carnivorous birds didn’t seem right.

Martires wanted to be buried in a rice field. People's repugnance for ``katas ng patay'' (corpse juice) going into their food is foolish, she said. If we bury dead pets near trees so they would bear much fruit, what's wrong with doing the same with human remains? When they break down into elements, they are as good as any other. It is not the katas that nourishes the tree, it is the soil that has been enriched that nourishes the tree.

Remember, ecology is interdependence, interconnectedness, relationships. As Chief Seattle said: ``All things are connected like the blood that unites one's family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.'' And whatever is given back returns again and again and lives forever.

`Shameful episode’ in Australia

A visiting friend from Melbourne brought with her an October copy of the Australian newspaper The Age that has the Vivian Alvarez Solon case as banner story. The ombudsman’s report on the bungled immigration case has been released and the axe was expected to fall.

The banner article, Vivian’s huge photo, blurbs and cartoon occupy three-fourths of page one of the daily (which, in this age of shrinking broadsheets, maintains a size that is two columns wider than the Inquirer).

Inside are three more articles, Vivian’s photo as a missing person, and other related items.
The Age doesn’t have a one-liner for a headline like the Inquirer does.

The banner headline is long: ``It is a `shameful episode’ (in red) in the history of immigration in Australia. The management of Solon was `catastrophic’ (in red). The unlawful removal of one of our citizens is `almost unthinkable’ (in red).

The small kicker above it says: ``The Alvarez Solon verdict: A damning judgement against the Immigration Department.’’



A small cartoon, similar to those in the Inquirer, shows a reporter with mike in hand asking a woman, ``What qualifications do immigration officials require?’’ The interviewee, a look-alike of immigration minister Amanda Vanstone, answers, ``A degree of ignorance, a degree of stupidity and a degree of cruelty.’’

And the online question: ``Should Amanda Vanstone resign over Vivian Alvarez Solon’s deportation? Cast your vote at theage.com.au.’’

The Australian media have given this case a lot of mileage. This is not just any human interest story, this has brought to light lapses in immigration law enforcement. This could stoke issues of racism, discrimination and stereotyping.

The investigation of Vivian’s case came in the heels of another damning case--the detention of mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau.

Some months ago, the Inquirer also had Vivian on the front page when it was discovered that she had been wrongfully deported.

Vivian was found wounded and disoriented in a park in the New South Wales town of Lismore. She could have been in an accident, was assaulted or had fallen into the drain. An immigration officer wrongly assumed she was a sex slave and an illegal immigrant despite Vivian’s statement that she was an Australian.

In 2001, Vivian, an Australian citizen, was ``removed to the Philippines’’ and placed in a Catholic hospice in Olongapo City, there to heal in loneliness and anonymity. The persistent search of Vivian’s former husband Robert Young was a big factor in uncovering the wrong. The Age called him ``the lone hero’’.

Former Victorian police commissioner Neil Comrie of the office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman who prepared the investigation report described the case as a ``shameful episode’’ in the history of the immigration department.

Here are the Ombudsman’s findings as summarized by The Age:

• The unlawful removal of Vivian Alvarez Solon was a consequence of systemic failures in the Immigration Department including inadequate training programs, data base and operating system failures, poor case management and a flawed culture.

• Alvarez Solon’s serious physical and mental health problems received insufficient attention.

• The chance to find Alvarez Solon (who had been bundled up and sent to the Philippines) was by then was lost because of the limited ability to connect names using immigration Department data bases.

• Case management was catastrophic, beginning with the assumption Alvarez Solon was a sex slave.

• The fact that in 2003 and 2004 senior (immigration) officials knew an Australian citizen had been removed in 2001 but failed to act is inexcusable.

The Australian government is responding to each of these. $50.3 million for College of Immigration, Border Security and Compliance to train staff and enhance skills; $17.9 million for improved immigration detention health services, referral of alternative detention and improved mental health services; introduction of a single-entry client search facility for all Immigration Department IT systems. Plus a few more.

Vivian’s case has shaken the establishment.

One of the stories on the case, ``A victim, plenty of villains, and a lone hero’’ by The Age political editor Michelle Grattan details how Vivian’s nightmare began and worsened.

``On July 12 (2001), Immigration officials collected her from the rehabilitation unit; next day she told Immigration she was an Australian citizen and wanted to stay here. But arrangements for her removal proceeded apace, despite her being disabled enough to the need help with dressing and hygiene.’’

The Philippine embassy, according to the story, was deeply concerned Vivian wasn’t well enough to travel and refused to issue a travel document. But Immigration got someone to declare Vivian as medically fit. And so this Australian citizen put on a plane headed for Manila.

Wrote Grattan: ``A Philippines consular representative and members of the Philippine community visited (Vivian) on July 18-19 (2001) at the Brisbane motel where she was detained. She told a Filipino social worker she’d been married to a Mr. Young, but the information wasn’t passed to Immigration.’’ Why?

The Australian government seems to have done a good investigation. But there should be some lessons for the Philippine side.

Didn’t our own immigration bureau and embassy officials have a way of knowing that Vivian was an Australian citizen? Don’t we have a way of checking who are and who are not our citizens? Should we allow foreign governments to dump back former Filipino citizens (especially the mentally disabled and infirm who have no way of claiming their rights) on our shores?

Remembering poverty

October is the month when the world is supposed to pause, remember and confront the issue of poverty and hunger. Oct. 16 is World Food Day while Oct. 17 is the Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty--the latter by virtue of a UN Resolution and a presidential proclamation.

October is Indigenous People’s (IP) Month in the Philippines, and the IPs being among the poorest and hungriest in the country, the whole of October should belong to them.
In Southern Palawan, IPs and long-time settlers are undertaking a ``Solidarity March for Land and Life’’ that will cover the distance from Rio Tuba to Puerto Princesa City. It started yesterday, Oct. 12, and will last till Oct. 17.

The march will highlight the IPs’ call to the local, provincial and national government to look their way. The issues being raised are the slow processing of ancestral domain claim applications, government neglect and unfair local and national laws that threaten the culture and livelihood of indigenous communities. Among the marchers are members of the Palaw’an and Molbog tribes and fishermen from the towns of Bataraza and Balabac.



In 1974, when the country was under martial law, the Palaw’an and Molbog tribes were driven away from their ancestral domain in Bugsuk and Pandanan Island. It was so easy then for the dictator’s cronies to point to and claim the areas of their choice. Well, the IPs are now claiming back their land.

In 2001, the IPs filed an application for a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT). They have complied with all the requirements. The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) had promised to conduct the delineation survey if the communities would raise the funds to cover the expenses. As of last year, the communities have raised the funds but the survey has not yet been started.

Meanwhile many of them have to contend with the 5,000-hectare pearl farm of Jewelmer, one of the biggest South Sea pearl producers in the world, owned by Danding Cojuangco. The local government has declared the area a no-take-out zone, meaning no fishing is allowed there so that marine life could thrive and flourish. The fishermen now look like the destroyers of the environment. What is good for the fishermen is not good for the pearls.

According to Task Force Bugsuk, an NGO helping the fisherfolk, the story of displacement, disenfranchisement and marginalization is duplicated in many areas in South Palawan. TF Bugsuk reports that in Aborlan, those who refused to give up their land for a golf course were sued by the government itself. In Rio Tuba, communities near a nickel mining operation are suffering from diseases caused by water pollution.

An NGO that has made remembering poverty a yearly activity is the ATD Fourth World-Philippines, an international movement that started in France and is involved with the poor. Its main projects here are street libraries for children and value formation for adults. This is commendable indeed but I wish ATD would also go into sustainable livelihood projects that would directly and materially improve the lives of poor families.

ATD recently came out with a study ``How Poverty Separates Parents and Children: A Challenge to Human Rights’’. It profiles six countries—the Philippines, Guatemala, Haiti, Burkina Faso, the US and the UK.

The chapters on the different countries gave complementary views of families whose children are in the custody of social services.

The Filipino parents profiled were more likely to voluntarily entrust their children to orphanages in hopes that they would thrive better in that environment than at home. Although the institutional and legal frameworks vary in different countries, there are striking similarities among parents who are faced with a series of obstacles. Too often, the outcome is despair.

A child in the US blames her parents for not having been able to protect her from the child welfare system; a child in the Philippines runs away from an orphanage to search for her parents. ATD says these are symptoms of institutions gone awry. And yet, there are also important ways for institutions to strengthen the bond between children and their families. ATD cites the US’s Child Welfare Organizing Project that proposes an approach that would enable parents to examine issues together and contribute to the planning of the child welfare system.

The children living on city streets in Burkina Faso have often been going in circles. They suffer from the rootlessness and the risks to health and well-being that result from their fending for themselves. Institutions have helped to protect some, but they have also left many of these children disoriented, not knowing how they can grow up and participate in their community. Here, the work of the Courtyard of 100 Trades is an innovative model that demonstrates how it is possible to reintegrate these children into the lives of their families and rural communities.

If you have time for reflecting on poverty, join the gathering around the Commemorative Stone in Honor of the Victims of Poverty (near the Chess Plaza) at the Rizal Park on Monday, Oct. 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Every year, on Oct. 17, in different parts of the world where ATD is present, activities are held around the commemorative markers. (There’s one near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.)

The Luneta ceremony will be followed by message writing and recreational activities for children and adults. I’m interested to know the thoughts and feelings of the children.

Poverty is most cruel to the young.

Pamulaan, a sign of life

While our national leaders continue to engage in verbal and political acrobatics and while many of us are suffering from political diarrhea and dementia, there are special Filipinos who continue to dream dreams and do their own part as if there indeed is hope for this benighted nation.

Somewhere in bullet-riddled Mindanao, a special tertiary school or college is rising. The school is named Pamulaan Center for Indigenous Peoples Education. Ground breaking will be held next week, Oct. 13. Program partners will sign an agreement after which the construction of buildings will begin. These should be finished in time for school opening in June next year.

By the way, October is Indigenous Peoples (IP) Month. For many years now, the Catholic Church here in the Philippines has been celebrating the second Sunday as Indigenous Peoples Day, focusing attention on the concerns of the IPs, especially the marginalized groups in remote areas.

Pamulaan means seedbed. It is a college education program for the IPs in the Philippines and is a response to the IPs’ dream of an educational program that is rooted in their life, culture and aspirations as a people.

One of the main driving forces behind the endeavor is 42-year-old Benjamin Abadiano, 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Emergent Leadership and, at present, executive coordinator of Assisi Development Foundation. A dreamer and doer, Abadiano pulled all stops to make the Ips’ dream come true. He was not disappointed. Help came quietly like spring water flowing to seeds waiting to burst into life.

Pamulaan is the fruit of the partnership of various government and non-government agencies. The partners are the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples, Assisi Development Foundation, Cartwheel Foundation, the Office of Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., and Ilawan Center for Volunteer and Leadership which Abadiano founded.

Pamulaan aims ``to create a culturally appropriate and relevant pathways of professional training and formation for indigenous youth and leaders.’’

As a program, Pamulaan is under the President of the president of the University of South Eastern Philippines. USEP president Dr. Julieta Ortiz and Abadiano are Pamulaan’s co-directors. The site is in USEP’s Mintal campus in Davao City.

Pamulaan is the first of its kind in the country, said Abadiano who also dreamed and founded the successful Tugdaan Training Center for Mangyans in Occ. Mindoro, now ably run by the Mangyans themselves with the help of the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters (SSpS).

Unlike Tugdaan (which also means seed bed) which is for high school and livelihood training, Pamulaan offers degree programs such as BA Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development, BS Indigenous Peoples Education, BA Peace Building and Multi-Cultural Studies, BS Indigenous Agriculture. Pamulaan also offers ladderized and modular courses leading to an associate degree as well as short-term courses for community leaders and development workers.

Assisi Foundation under Ambassador Howard Dee and Cartwheel Foundation have pledged scholarship funds. Scholarship means full tuition, miscellaneous fees, dorm stay and full board and lodging and travel expenses to project and practicum sites.

Important features of Pamulaan are the heritage house and library that will showcase the richness of indigenous culture. The dorm within the campus will give IP students the chance to live together, exchange experiences and go through value formation programs.

Pamulaan is not just for the IPs of Mindanao. It is open to IPs from Luzon and Visayas and to non-IPs working for IPs.

Pamulaan is indeed a great dream whose time has come.

But why is Pamulaan attached to USEP, government institution? Abadiano said USEP is one of the top 10 government institutions in the country. Making government one of the stakeholders, he said, would give Pamulaan a better chance for sustainability. Pamulaan ``is not a fund-driven’’ project, Abadiano stressed. There was no funding in the beginning but the moment the project was made known, funds just poured in. Of course, part of Abadiano’s RM Award prize money (more than a million pesos) was earmarked for this project.

Abadiano is one of a kind, a rare find indeed. A couple of years ago I wrote a front-page feature on him and his life journey, and last year, on his winning the RM award. Deeply spiritual, this Jesuit-educated development worker is ever on the go. In a few days, he will fly to Laos and then New Zealand for some IP-related activity. The IPs are the love of his life. It is among them that he experienced epiphany and enlightenment. Someday, I hope, he will find time to write a book.

There is an estimated 12 million IPs in the Philippines. They could be classified into 120 ethnic groups. Abadiano said they have little or no access to ``a culturally sensitive, appropriate and relevant education.’’ It is their right, both God-given and by law, to receive basic services, including higher education.

The IPs’ rights are enshrined in the 1987 Constitution. In 1997 Congress passed the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) which strengthened their right to be duly recognized and protected.

But some things are easier said than done. Many IPs continue to find difficulty in relating personally, culturally and academically with mainstream realities. It is hoped that education, such as is offered by Pamulaan, would put the IPs in step with the mainstream while being affirmed as proudly IP or PIP (!).

Pamulaan hopes to see the IPs proudly ``owning’’ the education program that drew from the life-giving wilderness and communities whence they arose.