Surfing Everest

The two giant Philippine television networks and their respective Mount Everest climbers are racing to get to the peak and hoping to plant a flag of conquest and beam to the world their triumph over height, cold, snow, ice, wind, fatigue. It is not easy for those involved to admit that it is a race to the top. And it is not a question of who gets there first but whether anyone among the hopeful Filipinos there right now could get to the peak at all and come back in one piece.

One hears the usual cliché about conquest of self, that is, the Himalayas within, before triumph over the elements. That is indeed what it is. But when competing media networks—ABS-CBN and GMA-7—do a running coverage of this first-time effort of Filipinos whom the networks are betting on separately, one cannot help but worry. Climbing Everest is not an ordinary sport. It is a life-threatening endeavor, a conquest of a lifetime, if one makes it.

One cannot but be concerned about the safety of the climbers involved (a team for ABS-CBN and a lone climber for GMA-7) and also about how viewers would perceive this whole thing.

Is this about ratings again? Couldn’t the two networks just have covered everyone—the so-called Philippine team (ABS-CBN’s) and lone climber Romi Garduce (GMA-7)? After all the climbers are all carrying the Philippine flag. I don’t mean they have to take the same route. What if one network makes it and the other doesn’t? I dread to see the outcome of such a situation.



A story by Alcuin Papa in the Inquirer said that the team was scheduled to make an attempt next year in 2007 but with Garduce who is supported by GMA-7 forging on, the team supported by ABS-CBN must do it now. That’s how it looks and there’s no denying now that it’s a race. As team co-leader Butch Sebastian said, ``Let’s not deny it. It’s race. Who are we fooling?’’ His team mates Leo Oracion and Erwin ``Pastor’’ Emata are the ones to make the attempt for team ABS-CBN.

Sebastian himself said that the network wars might have increased the danger to the climbers. His warning: ``The danger is already there regardless of the network war, unless they are silly enough to take the unnecessary risks by letting themselves be affected by all the media hype. I hope they don’t do anything dangerous. Among us mountaineers, you wouldn’t wish anything bad happening to any climber.’’

That last sentence tells you about the bond that exists among mountain lovers. It is like they have heard the same music emanating from distant peaks. Why spoil that? Do we need to show the world what it is like to be Filipino and fragmented?

Last week a team of Inquirer mountain climbers (women and men) gathered at the office before starting off for Mount Pulag. I watched them lugging their gear and trying on the weights on their backs and I could see how flushed they were with excitement. I could sense the bond that has formed among them. (A number of us in the Inquirer have our respective virtual mountains to hurdle on the ground, like the weekly sweat-cercise and other bulge-busting, muscle-building work-outs.)

One can’t help noting that the Filipino climbers departed from their politically charged country only to arrive in Nepal that is heating up with its share of political strife. I had been in Nepal during more peaceful times and it is indeed a country worth exploring. One does not have to conquer Everest.

One of the books in my summer reading pile is ``Surfing the Himalayas: A Spiritual Journey’’ by Frederick Lenz. This is a first-hand account of a snowboarding American who makes a trip to the Himalayas in search of the ultimate high. (It includes post-card style photos too.) In the process, he surfs into an experience more transcendent than he had expected.

It must have been karmic destiny when the writer runs smack into a Tantric Buddhist monk named Master Fwap who takes him in as a spiritual apprentice. As the author said, ``Using snowboarding as a path to enlightenment, the charming and learned Master Fwap show how, by freeing the mind and challenging the soul, one can master any mountain—and master (one)self.’’

Here are excerpts from the exchange between the student and the master while they survey the snow-covered peaks the surround them, while on various sides of the peaks, puny individuals scale to physically to reach the summit of their desires.

``Look around you,’’ (master Fwap) continued. ``We are in a valley that is surrounded by the Himalayas on all sides. There is nothing here except snow-covered mountains and the rhododendron forest. The only people who live here are Buddhist monks who constantly meditate on the dharma—on the happiest thoughts and feelings of the universe. There is no selfishness here. All the energies of the monks are directed toward merging their minds with the ocean of pure nirvanic enlightenment.’’

``But Master Fwap, is all of the higher energy here because of the luminous energy lines, or is the high energy here emanating from the meditating monks?’’

``Originally there were no monks and there was no monastery here,’’ he responded. ``There were only the Himalayas and the rhododendron forest. The dimensional planes that correspond to this valley we are in were then, and still are, made up of pure intelligent light.’’

``The Himalayas are filled with places like this,’’ he continued. `And since there are few, if any, people around these locations, these places of power and enlightenment have remained relatively unpolluted by the aura of worldly human beings.’’

May the Filipinos attempting to scale the peaks of the Himalayas discover the places of power and enlightenment.

Happy summer reading.

Elpidio de la Victoria, Earth Day martyr

Things were beginning to grind to a halt on Wednesday of Holy Week when the murderer struck. He chose the time when media coverage would be minimal, government offices would be closed and most people would be in their homes and in church or away somewhere.

In fact, news about the murder didn’t come out in the national print media until four days later on Easter Sunday. The Cebu media gave it major treatment though. The Inquirer had a brief account on page 20, part of which read:

``One of the city’s leading crusaders against illegal fishing died Thursday, a day after he was shot four times by an unidentified assailant while he was about to enter his house in Barangay Dauis, Talisay City.

``Elpidio de la Victoria, 46, program director of Cebu City’s Bantay Dagat Commission and the city’s market administrator, was shot in the back and arm and twice in the buttocks at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. He died at the Chong Chua Hospital at 8:50 a.m. the next day.’’

Four shots in all. The killer wanted to be sure his prey died right there and then. (A suspect, a policeman, has been tagged.)



De la Victoria was also an officer of the Philippine National Association of Fish Wardens and an active member of the Visayan Sea Squadron.

I didn’t know de la Victoria (Jojo to his friends) personally but I know the advocacy he was involved in which could be a reason why he was marked for elimination.

A few weeks before he was murdered I did write about the threatened Visayan Sea (3/23/06) that de la Victoria and his colleagues have been trying to defend. Once so rich with seemingly limitless abundance of marine life, the Visayan Sea was described as the Alaska of the Philippines. Alas, massive, unregulated and destructive fishing has since degraded the ecological richness and diversity of this area. Some species of fish are supposedly facing extinction.

What de la Victoria and his fellow guardians of the sea were trying to do was simply to get the government to implement the laws (and there are a good many). But because the government has not been up to it, NGOs, and local officials, mainly from Iloilo, Negros and Cebu, wrote a petition asking higher authorities to give the Visayan Sea time to rest and recuperate. These advocates pledged to participate and cooperate with one another in self-assessment for environmental compliance audit, total eradication of illegal and destructive fishing, as well as identifying main areas of interest. They also asked that a Philippine Navy gunboat be permanently assigned in the Visayan Marine Triangle (at the apex of which lies the Visayan Sea).

Well, this is one sure way of making fierce and murderous enemies. They kill the sea, why can’t they kill you?

There is another angle to this murder. De la Victoria’s death could have been related to his job as market administrator. Whatever be the motive, the killing of de la Victoria was certainly a blow to the Visayan Sea campaign.

One week before de la Victoria was killed, he wrote a piece titled ``Speak Out: Protecting small fisherfolk’’ that came out in Cebu’s Sun-Star. He must have angered the giants. Here are excerpts:

``Most, if not all, giant fishing outfits do not limit their operations to the open sea, (they) also fish near the shores and compete with marginal fishermen.

``Since commercial fishing ventures destroy near-shore fishing grounds, local government units should do something about it and take steps to protect small fishermen who could be deprived of their means of livelihood.

``The fisheries code or Republic Act 8550 aims to reduce the over-exploitation of municipal waters by providing alternative livelihood resources and beefing up environment friendly aquaculture activities that would encourage a shift from fish hunting to fish husbandry.’’

De la Victoria argued that the ``the rights of fisherfolk will also be protected because they are given `preferential use’ of the municipal waters’’ that is not enjoyed by commercial fishers.

He noted however that many fisherfolk think that RA 8550 is not working to their advantage because while the commercial fishers are given access to the richer fishing grounds (10 to 15 kms. from the shoreline), the small ones could not go farther out. Worse, the commercial fishers destroy the fishing areas not meant for them (1 to 7 kms. form the shoreline).

According to de la Victoria, the Fisheries Law of 1998 has allowed the entry of fishing vessels weighing 3.1 tons to 150 tons into municipal waters. However, he said, the local government, through the chief executive, and acting pursuant to an appropriate ordinance, may authorize or permit small and medium fishing vessels to operate within 10.1 to 15 kms. from the shoreline provided that no commercial fishing is allowed in municipal waters with a depth of less than 7 fathoms.

In this set up, de la Victoria said, small fishermen should organize themselves into cooperatives to be able to engage in deep sea or offshore fishing which is ideal and environmentally sound.

One shouldn’t get killed for saying these. De la Vega’s life and death fit right into Earth Day meditations.

****

Earth lovers are invited to celebrate Earth Day (Saturday, April 22) beginning with a 6:30 a.m. Mass on Smokey Mountain which is a garbage dump no more. In its place has risen a new community. Main celebrant is Manila archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales. Mother Earth mover Odette Alcantara promises a meaningful liturgy and related activities. To go there, take Roxas Blvd., go toward del Pan Bridge, then go further on.

Psalm 69 for our times

For this Holy Thursday, here is a variation on the theme of Psalm 69 that I had written for Holy Week in 1992. With a few changes here and there, it still applies 14 years later.

Save me, O God, for their diarrhea of words has come up to my chin. I am drowning in their slimy saliva and I slip everywhere I step. Into this depths I have been pushed and I am engulfed by the torrent of true lies and half-truths. I am weary from pleading that they shut up for a while and give my ears a rest. My throat is hoarse and dry.

More than the hair in their armpits and pubis are the dirt they have spread about one another. Oh, how they hate those who attack them. How they fight over the people’s loyalty. They strut about like angels and yet people know they have stolen, they have lied, they have killed, they have fornicated.

O God, you know I am not faultless but also know that I do not covet a government position.

Do not allow me to become too cynical and do not allow me to be dazzled either. Oh Lord, help me keep my conscience and my actions pure, equip me with the power to smell the rotten a kilometer away.



Some of them now sound like strangers to me. I recognize some of them only by their looks. How they have been transformed by this political frenzy, how they have been changed by their desire ``for the truth'' when it is actually their desire for power that makes them froth in the mouth. They think their mouths drip with sweetness, but I can only smell the malodorous emission of a septic tank.

When we screamed for relief from the pollution and the traffic jam of their accusations, alibis and cover-ups, they pretended not to hear. When we accused them of neglecting their jobs, they threw back the ball and said yes they are, and that we have to do our part.

They rouse us from sleep with their antics, they wreck our schedules to make announcements and declare that danger stalks the land. Even those who call themselves holy are partaking in these exercises to take sides, to make their power felt, to convince themselves that they still matter.

During election season, oh how they try to look like the working man, how they try to eat like the peasant. They wear faded clothes and lousy T-shirts hoping to look like the poor when in fact they only want to use the poor as footstools. Liars, Lord, they are nothing but a bunch of liars. They do cartwheels to get our attention and, oh, how they love to look into the TV cameras and preen at anything that moves.

God of the weak and weakened, I pray for strength to resist their packaged lies. Give me the spontaneity to shut my eyes and ears every once in a while. Give me the quickness in deleting their lies in texted messages and junk email. Give me the daring to spit on their eyes and throw urine on their scalps even if it’s only in my mind.

Rescue me from the new faces. Rescue me from the newcomers who flaunt their facility with language. Rescue me from those who think serving means stealing a little for themselves to make up for what they have spent to get to where they are. Rescue me from those who think everybody steals, cheats and lies except them. Rescue me too from those who really stole, cheated and lied. You know who they are, you know who helped them.

Make them blind so they will not see themselves on TV, let their loins be stricken with palsy. Pour out your fury upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. Make their camp desolate and let no one dwell in their tents.

I myself am wounded and weak. Let your mercy envelop me so that I may be protected from the wolves in signature clothing.

I will praise your name, O God, with songs and poems and prose. I will glorify your goodness with my honest vote and decisions. This will please you, O Yahweh Sabbaoth, more than the hundreds of charity projects that bear their names.

For you, Lord, hear the confused and the needy and the faint of heart.

Let the heavens be glad, the earth bloom, the seas dance. All the living creatures praise you. For you will save us, you will rebuild our cities and villages. You will provide jobs and just wages to the unemployed. You will give the landless a piece of this planet and the wretched of the earth a share of the earth's bounty.

You will help your people survive all this insanity. The just and honest will triumph and those who hearken to your word and obey your laws will inherit the land.
****
Sr. Esperanza Quirino of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, known from north to south as Sr. Parang, was laid to rest last Tuesday. She was 79. She was the older sister of the famous late TV host and entertainment writer JQ, by the way, and, oh, what disparate worlds they moved in. Beloved by so many, this peripatetic ``bag lady’’ (as Bishop Chito Tagle fondly called her) indeed died with her sandals on. I had thought she might go in that manner, pupulutin na lang sa lupa ng kung sino (picked up from the ground by strangers) and I did worry about what people might find in her tattered bag.

Well, Sr. Parang did suddenly slump to the ground while walking home alone last Friday. Her beloved earth caught her and gave her a loving embrace. It was right and fitting for she was into environmental work, justice for the poor and 101 other concerns. The poor she loved and worked with in Cavite found her and carried her in their arms. They ministered to her until, several hours later, she breathed her last and rendezvoused with her Shepherd God.

From aviation to nursing

The previous column piece ``Mayday! Mayday! for the aviation industry’’ tried to bring to the fore the brain drain problem in the aviation industry which is becoming more acute because of foreign recruiters’ poaching expedition in the country. It is so easy for the foreign poachers to entice our highly trained aviation experts with high pay because the foreign aviation industry did not have to invest in long and expensive training.

That is what the locals are complaining about. It takes 10 years and more than P10 million in training investment to produce an airline captain. Aviation engineers aren’t simply plucked out of an aviation school, their skills are honed over the years. Now they are being snapped up faster than the local industry could produce their replacement.

I had spoken with very worried industry players who wanted to see some kind of moratorium on recruitment. But who can legislate against a person’s right to seek higher pay? Doctors-turned-nurses as well as educators might soon become a vanishing breed as they go away in droves. And now aviation experts who are sorely needed locally are flying away to seek bluer skies. Some are even shifting to nursing.

Here are some letters from those who know first-hand what’s ailing the aviation industry. They give us another view of what’s on the ground and in the sky.


From Luchi Lopez: ``PAL pilots, including cabin crew are not happy with their jobs that is why they are leaving. It is as simple as that. Since Lucio Tan took over, the pilots have been demoralized, degraded, most especially after losing their union, and treated like jeepney drivers. Mind you, that is exactly what Mr. Tan said some time ago, `Bakit laki sueldo driver lang naman’ (Why big pay when they’re just drivers).

(Jeez, he said that?)

``Domestic cabin crew are transferring not only because of the big pay difference but also because PAL now retires even the newly hired who turn 35 years old (just when you are starting your life). As of now, around 120 cabin crew in PAL’s international and domestic flights are taking up nursing on their free time just so they can have a better future…

``It’s getting harder to recruit cabin crew (for the country’s airlines) because other airlines can pay as much as $3,000 a month as compared to PAL’s basic salary of P10,000 in domestic flights.’’

From Victor Edgar M Carrillo III, president and CEO of Asian Aeronautics Services, an aircraft maintenance and repair facility and service provider based in Manila and Clark in Pampanga: ``We are not spared from this brain drain…We spent so much time, money and effort to train our mechanics and technicians only to suffer their loss to overseas work. Should this exodus continue unabated, I can only paint a bleak picture of our aviation industry in the next few years. The industry is virtually going into a nosedive and may soon crash if not given support by our government.

``While your article focused more on our local airlines and service providers, we who compose the general aviation sector of the aviation industry share the same sentiments…General Aviation (GenAv) is largely concentrated at the Manila Domestic Airport and international airports in the country. GenAv includes corporate aircraft owners and operators, air taxi and charter companies, aircraft dealers and distributors, maintenance and repair facilities, aeronautical and flying schools, avionics shops, freight forwarding companies who own and operate cargo aircraft and small air cargo operators who daily fly farm-to-market produce.

``All of the above players in GenAv are in so many ways vital contributors to the economic growth of our country. We are a nation of 7,100 islands and our mission is to provide fast and safe transportation of people, tourists and cargo…And we who are directly involved in aircraft maintenance and repair have to ensure and keep our planes flying safely at all times.

``Just imagine the time when none of our highly skilled airmen are nowhere available. The economy would further suffer and decline drastically. We were numero uno in Asia and the Pacific way back in the 70s and 80…Many foreign airlines sent their pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers to train in the Philippines…’’

But the letter from Eunice Lacson paints a different picture of the ``flight’’ of aviation personnel to distance skies. ``I am a graduate of PATTS College of Aeronautics and have been working for nearly four years. My fiance, who also graduated from PATTS, finished BS in Avionics Technology. Thank goodness he was off recently to Singapore to work as aircraft technician/technical planner for Singapore Airlines Engineering Co. Sad to say, a lot from my batch have no work yet until this time. I could feel their frustration and agony. The airlines here won’t hire them because they lack experience, they’re new graduates, etc.

``Every year, hundreds—from airline mechanics engineers to airline personnel—graduate from PATTS. They are very eager to get a job in our domestic airlines but they are rejected again and again. I know that because my fiance and I had once been through that. I know someone who finished an engineering course in my school and who had a hard time landing a job so he just took up another course. And you can guess—it’s nursing. He told me that he might get lucky this time.

(Flying nurses, anyone?)

``So airline executives here really can’t blame these individuals if their talents are leaving…There’s a new trend now. International airlines are very willing to train people because this would be a good investment for them. I am writing so that the airline executives may know…’’
Again, Mayday!Mayday!