Healing priest does so ‘many miracles like in the Bible’

Philippine Daily Inquirer/FEATURE/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Filed Under: Mysteries, Diseases, Personalities, Belief (Faith), Good news

MANILA, Philippines -- He could not believe his healing power. He wanted to run away from it.

A Canadian woman declared dead eight hours earlier, her organs ready to be harvested and donated, suddenly opened her eyes after Filipino priest Fr. Fernando Suarez prayed over her.

Suarez, who was then a seminarian, was stunned. “Let me out of here,” was all he could say, ready to flee.

He was supposed to go and see the woman earlier but he was not able to make it in time. When he arrived at the Ottawa Civic Hospital in Canada, it seemed too late. But Suarez went to see her anyway and, surrounded by doctors whom he requested to be present, he prayed over the woman.

The miracle happened.

The woman is now well, Suarez says, and has resumed her normal life.

That case, which happened almost nine years ago, is probably the most stunning of all, but Suarez continues to amaze, baffle and bring hope and joy through his ministry that has seen the healing of countless sick and infirm in many parts of the world, including the Philippines.

“It is not me,” he says casually. He is convinced that he is just a channel for God’s healing power.

The soft-spoken Suarez, a 2007 TOYM (The Outstanding Young Men) awardee for religious service, projects an ordinariness that is both pleasant and endearing. His boyish looks do not easily reveal “what God has wrought” through him. He does not have an electrifying aura nor does he shriek and shout to slay evil elements like some Bible-thumping televangelists do. Suarez goes about it gently, in his own soothing way, touching, praying over people, pleading for healing. And because he wants everything centered in the Eucharist, he always begins with a Holy Mass.

Like in the Bible

Miraculous healing continues to happen. People who have been assisting him for some time have witnessed the impossible.

Businessman Greg Monteclaro of Couples for Christ-Gawad Kalinga has seen it all. “Except the raising of the dead,” he says. “But the deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk -- all that is told in the Bible -- I have seen it happen.”

In Bulacan, Monteclaro narrates, there was this young boy who was born with practically no bones. “He was soft -- like jellyfish. I was holding him in my arms when Father Suarez prayed over him. I myself felt the bones grow inside the boy’s body and suddenly there he was --walking.”

How does one explain that?

“My own problem here is that I have seen so many miracles, it has become so common to me,” Monteclaro says.

Not that he is complaining.

Journalist and documentarist Bernardo Lopez has his own share of miracle stories to tell and he continues to use his video camera to capture moments that he hopes would convince many of what God is doing through Suarez. He has avidly followed the priest and has uploaded images on YouTube which have been getting thousands of hits.

Boy from Butong

Born in 1967 (he turns 41 in February) in Barrio Butong in Taal, Batangas, Suarez grew up like most boys. (Taal’s antique basilica is touted as the biggest in the Far East. It is also known for the miraculous Virgin of Caysasay.)

His father, Cervando, drove a tricycle and his mother, the former Azucena Mortel, was a seamstress. The eldest of four children (he has a sister and two brothers), he attended public schools.

“We weren’t a particularly religious family,” he says. “Our family attended Mass maybe three times a year.”

At an early age, Suarez already knew how to earn a living. At 12 he rented out inflatables at Butong beach.

Healing at 16

Something happened when Suarez was 16. He came upon a paralyzed woman and took pity on her. “Naawa lang ako (I took pity on her).” He found himself praying over her and suddenly the woman was walking. He did not know what to make of it and did not talk about it much. It must have been discomfiting to a lad his age. Looking back, it all seemed so natural. But at that time, announcing it to the world was far from Suarez’s mind.

What was beginning to concern him was the call to the priesthood or religious life. “I didn’t respond. I didn’t know a priest.” How, where, when? He was waiting for cues and signs, but until they came, he just lived one day at a time, pursuing what needed to be done. He kept the call to himself, nurtured it “until lumago (it flourished).”

Going to the seminary was not an immediate option. Suarez went to Manila and graduated with a chemical engineering degree at Adamson University which is run by the Vincentian Fathers.

Mary appears

After college, Suarez entered the Franciscan Order (Conventuals). “After one-and-a-half years, I left. Then I joined the SVD (Society of the Divine Word) but I was asked to leave after six months.”

It was there, at the SVD Christ the King Seminary that, Suarez says, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him. “She told me that I would go to a far away place which was cold and windy, and there proclaim the word of God.”

Suarez was in his late 20s when he met a French-Canadian student and tourist named Mark Morin who invited him to Canada and even paid for his fare. They could have been partners in a business venture but Suarez wanted to pursue the priesthood. That was 1996.

He again tried the Diocese of Winnipeg to study as a diocesan priest but again, it did not work out and he was made to leave.

“I was an expensive venture, they said,” he says, chuckling. “They’d have to spend four-and-a-half years on me.” They preferred already ordained Filipino diocesan priests who were seeking a life abroad.

Companions of the Cross

And then he met priests of the Companions of the Cross (a Canadian congregation founded in the 1980s) and here he has stayed since. Because he had had previous religious formation and studies in philosophy and theology, it did not take long for Suarez to be ordained.

“I was ordained in 2002 when I was 35,” he says, “and I am the only one who was assigned to go worldwide soon after ordination.”

His superiors were aware of and recognized his gift and set him free to reach out to the world.

“I was nonchalant about all these. There was no pressure. I acted upon obedience and not on what I wanted. Remember, I had kept this gift for 20 years,” he says.

Abroad

Suarez’s gift of healing first became known abroad and only later in the Philippines. He has visited many countries, some of them poor, like Uganda where he walked among refugees, orphans, people sick with AIDS, malaria and yellow fever and afflicted with evil spirits.

Fr. Jeff Shannon, who accompanies Suarez on his trips, recalls their bout with restless orphaned girls in Uganda.

“As they approached us for prayer after the Mass, they rested in the Spirit for hours, then cried, wailed and screamed as the Holy Spirit moved in to free and to heal [them]. After three hours of struggle they were delivered and they became as peaceful as doves, full of love. As they sang and danced their way back to their residence, they witnessed their dormitory light up inside, even though it was late at night and there was no electricity. One girl was healed of blindness.”

Miracle stories are recorded in the newsletter of Mary Mother or the Poor-Healing Ministry, a foundation Suarez established to help the suffering poor.

Mary Mother of the Poor

Eight years ago, while praying, Suarez had a vision where he saw Jesus pouring on graces upon him. He also saw poor children asking for help. He couldn’t understand the vision’s meaning at that time.

During a visit to the Philippines some years ago, 10 poor children approached him to ask for support for their studies. Suarez sent them money and as time went by, more support came from friends who shared his vision. Support came from Austria, Canada, USA, Germany, Japan, Italy, England, Switzerland, Uganda and the Philippines. This gave rise to the Mary Mother of the Poor Foundation (MMP) which aims to help the poor through better shelter, counseling and other programs, by coordinating with health and social services in order to help the sick and the aging, by teaching the tenets of the Catholic faith and by providing programs to help the youth become good citizens.

As high as Statue of Liberty

Soon to become the center of Suarez’s healing ministry is Montemaria (Matuko Point) in the outskirts of Batangas City. Set on a hill on 20 hectares of land, the center of the Oratory of the Blessed Virgin at Montemaria will have chapels, prayer gardens, Stations of the Cross, retreat houses, campsites, lodging houses, a center for the poor and even a replica of Mary house in Ephesus (ancient city in Turkey). The place is meant to draw pilgrims who want to renew their faith.

The Montemaria centerpiece is the 33-story-high statue of Mary Mother of the Poor which will be about as high as the Statue of Liberty and higher than Christ the Redeemer of Brazil. It will face the sea between Batangas and Mindoro, known to be one of the world’s richest in marine biodiversity.

The scale model was unveiled last August with Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arguelles in attendance.

There are claims that the stones on Montemaria have caused healing for the sick and people have started going to the place to find out for themselves.

40-hour-vigil Jan. 11-13

Nestor Mangio, one of the architects and an avid supporter of Suarez, says the oratory is scheduled to be finished in September 2008. The project is not wanting in donors. In July, the Companions of the Cross, the congregation to which Suarez belongs, will put up a foundation in the Philippines.

A 40-hour vigil is scheduled from Jan. 11-13 and pilgrims are expected to come in droves. Suarez will be there.

And how does the healing priest relax? “I do sports, I love nature, I love talking to people. I read the spiritual classics -- St. Augustine, Francis de Sales. I also like Thomas Merton,” he says.

Has the surge of the crowds affected him? “Wala sa akin ’yun. (That’s nothing to me.)” He thinks people can easily approach him because “I am not threatening.” After Mass, he says, he prays and “this saves me.”

“I would like to think that after I’ve passed through this world, I’d have made a dent.”

For now, the words of Jesus to the suffering are enough to inspire him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28).

(For more info visit www.fatherfernando.com or www.montemariashrine.com.)

Back-to-Christmas movement

If I were from another religion or another planet and I knew the Christmas story and how Christianity began I would be very shocked to see Christmas being celebrated with excessiveness, mindlessness, stressfulness. I would ask: how has Christmas come to this? This was not how it all began.

Simplicity has been supplanted by excess. It seems the Christ in Christmas has been x-ed. Xmas. X for excess. Xmall, Xmess. Oh, we say, but we know Christmas is alive, one just has to wade through the X-cess to find the true essence. But why must this be so?

Toxic toys, double-dead meat, smuggled goods, horrendous traffic, Christmas blues, piles of garbage, overcrowded shopping malls, desperate gift-givers, overeating, excess cholesterol and sugar, clogged airports and bus terminals, the culture of gift and cash solicitation (messengers, garbage collectors, strangers, barangay personnel leaving you envelopes into which you must put in money), and so forth and so on.

These are some of the negatives of the Christmas season that needn’t be there. How is it that Christmas is the time when the gap between the rich and the poor becomes wider than wide, with the latter feeling the pain of being on the other side of the railroad tracks? The lonely get lonelier, the hungry feel hungrier, the outcast feel like castaways indeed.



If Jesus walked the streets and malls incognito to see how his birthday is being celebrated today and to feel the overall mood of the majority, would he be happy? Your guess is as good as mine.

Would he be happy with the churches, institutions and movements that are propagating the Christian faith? Have they fulfilled their role to preach, lead by example and draw people back to where it all began? Have they succeeded in making the Christmas celebration truly meaningful, simple and memorable? Or are they, too, being drawn to the malls?

Masses are now celebrated in malls in order to spare the shoppers and employees an extra trip to their churches. The Catholic churches have conceded to the malls and are wooing back their parishioners in the malls. Worship becomes a side trip, an afterthought. So convenient, like going to a convenient store.

This is a better scenario: It used to be, and it is still the case now in some places, that it was the vendors and commercial establishments that went to the churches’ vicinity to ply their trade. Take the case of Baclaran and Quiapo. Here worship and prayer are the church-goers’ main purpose, shopping is the side trip. And so the churches there could always say, “We were here first.” (It is the local governments’ job to put order in the chaos outside the churchyard.)

I am not making a judgment on the spiritual fervor and priorities of the shopper-worshipper or the worshipper-shopper. I am just making an observation. And I am not condemning malls and their role in the economy and the role of advertising in marketing and commerce.

But one can’t help wondering if (or feel sorry that), because of the frenzy to sell and to buy for the Christmas gift-giving, the Christmas story has perhaps simply become a small side story to be told like a fairy tale accompanied by twinkling lights and artificial snow fall and elves and reindeer hurtling across the sky. The wonder and the headiness that such a scene induces are often what remain. Not “Away in a manger no crib for a bed…” and what really happened and why.

The first Christmas needn’t have been a stark scenario, what with the angels singing, a bright star shining, wise men bringing gifts and shepherds a-visiting, and heaven and nature singing. Some good and wise women must have come too. A special birth such as Jesus’ was cause for rejoicing—and also cause for worry for the powers-that-be at that time. Soon it was time to flee.

When you look at the way that birth is being celebrated now, one wonders where the Bethlehem scene is in all the fuss and frenzy.

And there isn’t a grand, concerted effort to stop the deterioration of Christmas. There isn’t a back-to-Christmas movement of some sort that I know of.

There is the Slow-Food Movement that is meant to counter the unhealthy fast-food culture and to bring back the joy of healthy home cooking. There are so many organizations and movements all over the world promoting organically-grown food minus the toxic pesticides. There is back-to-nature, back-to-natural, back-to-basics, back-to-this-and-that, etc. and the people behind these are really walking their talk, living out what they preach in a concerted way and convincing others to do the same.

Is anybody out there bringing up Christmas? I know the churches keep preaching about it. But I have yet to hear of a group or movement with an identity or a name that is going against what Christmas has become.

And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and hea-heaven and nature sing! I love that portion from the carol “Joy to the World” because it is inclusive. Jesus came to redeem not only humankind but the whole of creation. Trumpets blare when that portion is sung or played, giving you a heady feeling.

Be kind to nature especially this Christmas and pre-New Year season. Let nature sing—and not groan—by managing your holiday garbage. Segregate, segregate, segregate. If you can make compost out of your organic waste so much the better. This would lessen the putrefaction and decay on the sidewalks. Do not burn and add to the pollution. Christmas should also be nature’s best moment.

Let’s bring back the true essence of Christmas through our lives. Greetings of Joy and Peace to all!

If the land could weep and sing

Well, what can I say. Weeping has turned into rejoicing. Day is breaking all over the land. Joy comes in the morning. If there should be weeping, the weeping should let flow tears of joy.

For the farmers of Sumilao who marched 1,700 km. for two months from Bukidnon to Manila under scorching heat and driving rain are finally seeing a glimmer of hope. That the disputed 144 hectares would be theirs once again, wrenched at last from corporate hands after years of weeping and gnashing of teeth on the part of the farmer-awardees.

But there were will be some waiting to do even after President Arroyo authorized that the land that had been reclassified as agro-industrial, be reverted back to agricultural land covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

With the backing of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and civil society groups but minus the disruptive flag-waving of hard-core ideological elements, the farmers should be on their way back to their promised land.

Nine years ago, I wrote the column piece below. I fished it out from my files some days ago when I thought the Sumilao case would again turn awry, because for a while it looked that way. Anyway, here it is as a remembrance of things past and I hope I never have to rub it in again.

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If the land could weep, it would weep rivers. It would not weep for those who fawn and faint over it, or for those who fling themselves on it while frenziedly clutching straw and stones to throw at each other and the darkening sky. What a shame. If the land could grieve, it would grieve for itself.

If the land could weep, it would weep for itself. It would not weep for the whining people who call themselves rightful landowners, who call themselves heirs to the yawning vastness simply because their fathers begot them and their mothers writhed in pain to push them out of the darkness of their hemorrhaging wombs. For why should the land waste its tears on those who have not grasped the meaning of land, the essence of the earth whence they sprang?

If the land could weep, it would weep for itself. It would not weep for those who spend precious time, talent and treasure in order to claim, reclaim and proclaim ownership of that which is supposed to be eternally ownerless. For as a slain sage had said, ``How can you own that which will outlive you?''

If the land could weep, it would not weep for those who lose much sleep deciding whose side they should take on the issue of who must till the land and make it yield flower and fruit. For why must they be sleepless and go around displaying the bags under their eyes when it has been written somewhere that a certain class of people, blessed and poor they are called, are just as qualified to inherit the earth?

If the land could weep, it would weep for itself. It would not weep for those who warm benches and sit hunched on their desks, figuring out how to dispense justice based on precise legal points and technicalities. Their brand of justice, if dictated by a thousand books alone, would be as nothing, it would be only as useful as the straw is for the bonfire. It bursts into a blinding blaze and then is no more. For why waste tears on those who work hard and earn good money, who think of themselves redeemed by their worship of the law?

If the land could weep, it would weep for itself. It would not weep for those whose grand plans for the land are stalled and who panic over the possible demise of their dreams because there exist people who need a share, who have simple plans and simple dreams. It would not grieve their possible loss for nothing could possibly be lost.

If the land could weep, it would not weep for the government officials who play God and preside over the fate of the land and its tillers, who overturn just decisions to favor the rich and mock the poor. It would not weep over the festering sores on their souls and the rudeness of their actions. It would not cry out for their redemption, but neither would it weep over its damnation.

If the land could weep, it would not weep for the hungry landless who make themselves hungrier still with their protests. For why weep for them when tears are not what they need? What they need is the justice of God and the justice of Her creatures. For as someone had said: ``It is by justice that we bring together the broken, neglected, cut-off, impoverished parts of the universe to render them whole again.''

If the land could weep, it would weep for itself because people are killing each other for it, spilling blood and guts on it, defiling it with their foul spit. It would weep rivers because its rivers have become as dry as the soul of those who claim ownership of it by virtue of words written on paper.

It would weep because they stick iron rods on pregnant fields in order that they may yield more, more--not succulent fruit and fragrant flower, but more money. Because they do not get it. Because they build fences and enclosures to ward off the so-called wretched of the land who want a little share.

If the land in Sumilao could weep, it would weep for itself and the Mapalad farmers whose rejoicing quickly turned into despair when the Supreme Court nullifed the Ramos “win-win solution” that would have given the farmers a just share of a disputed land. It would weep because the decision would pave the way for the conversion of productive agricultural land to a non-agricultural estate...

****

With their imminent victory, the farmers should march home singing, “And heaven and nature sing, And heaven and nature sing…” If the land could sing, it would sing, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to all humankind.”

The light of their life

This book convinces me that no mother—if it could be helped—should ever leave her family to work abroad for a long, long stretch of time. That is not the book’s expressed objective and neither is it trying to find economic solutions to stop the endless stream of mothers leaving for jobs far away from their homes. But solutions to the collateral damage are in the offing.

“Nawala ang Ilaw ng Tahanan: Case Studies of Families Left Behind by OFW Mothers” tells us what happens when the mother is away for long. The title alludes to mothers as light and translates as “the light of the home has gone”. That description of the state of affairs in the domestic front came from the left-behind families themselves. They know what it is like, they remember the day the light went out.

The little book is a compilation of case studies by psychotherapist and prolific book author Ma. Lourdes Arellano-Carandang, and psychologists Beatrix Aileen Sison and Christopher Carandang. Ten OFW families are featured, each of them with the individual profiles of fathers and children (and mothers in some cases), their feelings, world views, hopes and problems, as well as how they cope and find solutions.
Plus more solutions, but this is getting ahead of the review.



The cases are presented in a simple, straightforward manner—meaning they are easy reading. They are not written in a literary or featurized journalism style with fancy phrases and colorful details.

The approach used is the family-systems approach with a clinical-phenomenological method which means going into the inner dynamics of the families and even into the realm of feelings. Projective techniques such as drawings also help.

These are families with real names, nicknames and faces, each one different from another, but with so many commonalities in the way they cope with the absence of a most important member of the family—the mother. Yes, first and foremost, the mother (as the title says), not simply the wife.

After reading all the case studies, I could see that it is as mother that “ilaw ng tahanan” is missed. It is the absence of his children’s mother that the husband must deal with first. And so if the case studies give much attention to husbands (including their own growing-up years) it is in order to show how they cope with the burden of parenting that is thrust upon him.

“Natay” is how some left-behind fathers refer to themselves, with some self-deprecating humor, that’s for sure. Na- from nanay or mother and -tay from tatay or father. Oh, but if I may digress, I had done a story on a left-behind husband-father who performed his dual role with aplomb, with nary a trace of self-pity.
But it is the children, yes, the individual children, who feel their mother’s absence in a very individual way. The eldest adolescent, the middle child, the one sent away to live with a grandma, the young ones who couldn’t remember the day their mother left, the baby of the family—each one feels the absence in his or her own way. Each one acts out feelings, copes differently.

This is not a case of a mother permanently gone because of death or separation. This is a case of she is there but she is not there. Ambivalent and mixed feelings are to be expected.

In the Baltazar family it is the adolescent who expresses the conflict—malungkot na masaya, sad but happy. “(The daughter) longs for her mother but appreciates the money her mother sends. She copes with the help of her best friend, TV, sports, school and chores. She wishes her father were strong, ‘matatag’. She sees through his ‘I’m perfect’ veneer.”

The Fernandez family has been able to adjust well mainly because of the father’s openness to change and his willingness to take over the domestic front. Add to that Arcadio Fernandez’s stable and loving relationship with his wife.

Daughter Jeralyn, 16, feels good that her father constantly asks him how she is doing (palaging kinokumusta). She feels the great optimism and this has helped her cope.

But there are problem husbands, as there are problem fathers. Men who can’t cope and who take to drinking, gambling and even physically hurting the children.

The Lirios are perhaps the most problematic. A son, Gio feels resentment and does not appreciate his mother’s sacrifice. “He thinks that her staying with the family instead of leaving is a bigger sacrifice. NOT to leave is a bigger sacrifice than to leave…His way of coping is through friends, school and his music.”

A whole section is devoted to analyses of situations, highlighting the coping mechanisms that work positively and why, what should be encouraged (expressive activities like art, play, etc), what should be discouraged (expensive toys, obsession with gadgets and games). What is the role of the school, the church and the community?

It must be added here that a number of mothers in the cases presented left in such short notice, leaving their children instantly sad and lost and without understanding the reason for leaving. What could be worse than this? And if there is no deep and caring relationship between the father and the children, what happens next?

One of the suggestions raised in the book is the setting up of support groups for fathers at the barangay level. It can be called AMMA Nurturing Center. AMMA stands for Ama na Magaling Mag-aruga ng Anak (fathers who are great in caring for children).

Carandang, Sison and Carandang suggest that a team of psychologists and volunteers can work with the government to start such pilot centers. These could then be duplicated in other barangays.

These should bring some light back to many homes.

Leaders for Health Program

“Stories of town mayors giving out medicines, from paracetamol to penicillin, are not unusual because these can get votes. On the other hand, municipal doctors complain about not having enough funds to buy common drugs and gasoline for the ambulance in emergencies. Community members largely stay on the sidelines, rarely participating in the arenas of local governance.”

This is the scenario that is common especially in far-flung places. This is the situation that the Leaders for Health Program (LHP) wants to address and change “by making health part of the governance process wherein there is transparency, efficiency and civic participation.”

Situations like the one that broke into the news recently, the one about the outbreak of parasite infection or capillariasis in Zamboanga del Norte. Reports said at least 70 had already died in the village of Moyo in Zamboanga del Norte leaving families orphaned. More than 300 villagers had been infected and suffered chronic diarrhea and dehydration.

The poor villagers had been eating river fish and shrimps that had the capillariasis worm because there was little else. And when struck by the disease, they could not afford the medicines. Worse, there was not enough medicine. No tests had been done so the mortality was simply attributed to chronic diarrhea. But what caused the diarrhea?



I don’t know if the doctor was quoted right, but she simply blamed the villagers because “they don’t know how to defecate…they die because they could not even follow simple instructions.”

What a malodorous statement, what a lethal situation.

The Ateneo de Manila University’s Professional Schools is offering the Leaders for Health program not only for doctors but for local officials and community workers as well. Through the “tri-leaders” strategy, the program aims to enhance governance skills in municipalities.

You just don’t send down a doctor brimming with idealism then expect him or her to do wonders in a remote area. With LHP training this doctor could become a leader and help in the transformation of communities.

The four-year LHP course does not mean the doctor will be away from the community that long. The program, in fact, entails that the doctor serve for four years in the community while at the same time study for a Masters in Community Health Care Management. The two-year academic component is spread out in modules. The doctor would have to attend the modules at the Rockwell campus. In the case of modules for mayors or community workers, professors and mentors are sometimes flown to places where the trainees are gathered for the academic and theoretical components.

The classroom component enables the health workers to reflect on the realties, learn theories and make plans of action that would improve the health delivery system in their areas.

The mayor would have to be a student again and enrol in a certificate course in Community Health Management. A series of short-term modules would not only help get funds for the town’s health programs, the modules would also help the mayor work with the doctor and improve local governance.

How many elected local executives could say they were ready for the job of governance? For many, it was a hit-and-miss thing, an on-the-job training. LHP provides focus so that time and effort are not wasted for learning and unlearning.

Community leaders are the third leg of the stool. They are the bridge between the doctors, the mayors and the people. They are enrolled in a certificate course that would help them participate in health planning.

LHP is not just a program that sends doctors to remote, forgotten towns. It has evolved into a school without walls, training doctors, politicians and community leaders “to change the way people think, behave and feel about health and their well-being.”

Ateneo is not alone in this. It has learned from the Doctors to the Barrios program, it is supported by the Department of Health’s Center for Health and Development as well as by corporations that allocate funds. The LHP also counts on individuals to give through the P60-campaign. There is the Adopt-a-Municipality Program that would provide scholarships for mayors, doctors and community leaders. (Email info@leadersforhealth.org for more information.)

Ateneo has published a booklet that has heart-warming stories on the LHP experiences which are backed up by solid data on communities served. These are on-the-ground stories about individuals and communities, the problems encountered, the solutions found, the partnerships formed.

These are stories of hope and transformation. There should be more of these.

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“Don’t’ abandon us!” The Sumilao farmers who walked 1,700 kilometers from Bukidnon to Manila, braved heat and rain, suffered hunger and fatigue are crying out to the government to heed their plea for justice.

I hope agrarian reform secretary Nasser Pangandaman, who flew to Bukidnon to see for himself the contested 144-hectare land that the Sumilao farmers are supposed to have won, would realize why the farmers have gone this far. The certificates of land ownership award (CLOA) of the farmer-beneficiaries had been cancelled and the land given back to the former landowner.

The farmers felt that the DAR had abandoned them in the past when the land conversion went unchallenged, and the Supreme Court, because of mere technicalities, had to uphold the former owners who are now converting the land into a piggery farm for San Miguel Food Inc.

I hope the farmers don’t go home forlorn and empty-handed this Christmas.

An apology to Dr. Alfredo Bengzon

A supposed-to-be feel-good Sunday feature that I wrote (p. 1, Inquirer, Nov. 25) turned out to be feel-bad thing, not just for the persons and institutions concerned but also for me, the writer, as well.

I made a mistake—not deliberate, of course—and I am sorry.

The front page story was on the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health’s (ASMPH) bold move in medical education (“Ateneo graduates in 5 years MDs and MBAs”) which is something unprecedented. The story went well until the last portion where I wrote: “Bengzon, an Atenean who finished medicine at the University of the Philippines, recalls speaking at his alma mater and saying that UP had become a staging area for doctors ‘tailor-made to be exported abroad.’”

Dr. Bengzon, ASMPH dean, denies having said that that “UP had become a staging area for doctors ‘tailor-made to be exported abroad.’”

I must state here that it caused him pain and embarrassment especially. UP is, in fact, helping ASMPH by providing the needed faculty. The Ateneo, UP and La Salle University systems have, among themselves, a memorandum of agreement on sharing of faculty.

UP itself has, in fact, created a medical curriculum that exposes their graduates to health problems in poor communities and the systemic and structural problems in society that affect people’s health.

After Dr. Bengzon and I had gone over what transpired at the three-hour-or-so conversation/interview some months ago where he talked about ASMPH, I agree that I had misquoted him and taken his statements out of context.



He had spoken about medical schools’ curricula, the mismatch of the training of doctors and the realities in society and “staging areas” for societal reforms and health outcomes. He spoke about doctors not just as clinicians but as managers and leaders who would be catalysts of change in society. And so the training of doctors should not simply remain in the curative mode but should be preventive as well—with doctors-managers-leaders helping to address the “disconnection” between sick individuals and a sick society.

Dr. Bengzon, a former secretary of health and chief negotiator representing government on the staying or removal of the US bases, is not just a medical doctor, he is also a manager. He has a master’s degree in business administration and is CEO of The Medical City, the training hospital of ASMPH.

But let me explain why that wayward quote came about. I had the jargon mixed up in my notes and thought that when Dr. Bengzon recalled speaking at the UP during the centennial celebration, the issue of UP’s medical graduates going on an exodus for foreign lands was something he brought up. What candor, I thought, that this UP alumnus would say this, no holds barred, to his alma matter. That was the reason why I thought a quote like that would not cause a stir. A quote which, in my stupidity, I thought and believed I heard.

While doctors leaving the Philippines in droves is an issue, Dr. Bengzon clarified that this issue is not exclusive to graduates of any teaching medical institution. And he was not singling out UP. And I say this: he was not out to single out UP to make Ateneo look good.

I had spoken to UP-Manila chancellor Dr. Ramon Arcadio to help clear the air and the soft-spoken chancellor told me that he tried to take the wayward quote with humor. Like, UP’s medical graduates must be that good that they “are tailor-made for export”.

The quote did not sit well with UP’s faculty and Dr. Bengzon suddenly found himself under fire. And it was not his fault. The fault was mine.

I am a graduate of the Ateneo myself and I would not want to jeopardize my alma mater’s relationship with another great institution of learning.

I hope to make something positive out of this. Like doing a story on the state of medical education in the Philippines. Many medical schools, I am told, deserve to be padlocked.

I believe we could find a way to turn a bad situation into something positive. Like when my car was stolen, I wrote a long investigative series on carnapping, carjacking, chop-chop, people and institutions in cahoots, etc.

I am sorry, I apologize. I have a good reputation as a journalist, I am not a careless journalist who would invent and put words into people’s mouths, or unnecessarily pit one person against another or cause unnecessary pain or embarrassment. But I make mistakes too. This is a humbling experience but this does not mean I will be treading on eggs from now on or freeze in my tracks.

I would have wanted to tackle in today’s column piece UP’s ladder-system School of Health Sciences in the provinces and the Ateneo Professional School’s Leaders for Health Program but these two trail-blazing efforts deserve a bigger space. So next week, this will be.

****

ICOMOS (International Council for Monuments and Sites) is holding a meeting in Banaue from Dec. 2-8, and has invited international heritage experts to the Philippines for the first time to discuss conservation and the socio-economic issues. Inquirer columnist Augusto Villalon is Philippine chairman of the ICOMOS executive committee in Paris.

On top of the agenda are the endangered Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras, a UNESCO-inscribed World Heritage Site. Endangered because of physical deterioration and because the resident population that has always maintained the site is having difficulty with the preservation job in this 21st century. International experts will present case studies showing steps taken in other world sites with similar issues.

Preserving heritage would be a lost cause unless it is made relevant to the host communities and becomes part of development and income generation.

Tempest in Tanon

“The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. -Article II, Sec. 16 of the Philippine Constitution

I imagine the Lord of the Sea wading to shore wearing raiment of corals and sea grass and--flotsam surrendered by the sea. Thundering, roaring like the wind in a lost empty city, he seeks the despoilers of his ocean home and the home of gentle sea creatures that inhabit the earth and provide food for its inhabitants.

Where are they. He roars. Who are they, they who laid waste the ocean garden.

This scenario plays like a movie in my mind, it surges in my consciousness like the thoughts and images I had long ago while beholding, somewhere, the sea in its threatening beauty. And I imagine now the threatened Tanon Strait in the Visayan Sea as it waits to be visited by turbulence in the form of exploratory drilling for gas.

The sea is a-boil. A slow, symphonic movement takes a sudden turn and climaxes with a roll of drums and a clash of cymbals. The sea quakes to a crescendo, then hurls itself against the wind. Here before you is a concerto at its most tempestuous peak. Water breaking into a million crystalline pieces. It is pure music and fury. Salt melts in your eyes. Suddenly you are no longer afraid.

A battle royale is set to unfold if Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex) starts exploring for oil on Tanon Strait without having hearkened to protesting communities, scientists and environmental advocates who are asking that exploration be put on hold while the sea itself is to be explored to find out how much of it will live and how much will die.



Former environment secretary Dr. Angel Alcala, director of Silliman University’s center for marine and environment research in Dumaguete City, and his team have come out with a paper explaining what the drilling will mean. It also proposes a technical survey of the strait as a safeguard against potential adverse effects of the exploration. (Drilling was supposed to start last week.)

What and where is Tanon Strait? The strait is part of the Visayan Sea, that body of water separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros, and Cebu-Bohol Strait; separating the provinces of Cebu and Bohol, as well as the waters of Antique, Leyte, Palawan, Mindoro Occidental, Albay and Camarines Sur. The Visayan Sea is one of the richest marine habitats of the world.

Tanon Strait is a protected area, having been declared such under Pres. Proc. 1234 during the Estrada presidency.

The drilling is supposed to be done off Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan in Cebu, surely not far from Dumaguete City, the university town in Negros Oriental. According to Alcala, several community-based marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established in both the Cebu and Negros side of the strait and the local government units have been investing funds in the management of these MPAs.

Alcala adds that oil exploration (both the seismic exploration and drilling itself) has been proven in other countries to be detrimental to marine life, the Philippines has yet to come up with findings to back this up. Does this mean we don’t wanna know?

Here is the proposition: “To gather data on marine mammals and fish catch; do oceanographic studies (total suspended solids, oil and grease, current patterns) before the actual drilling is conducted, so that there will be proof that can stand in any court of law later on should there be adverse impacts on the environment because of the drilling. An economic valuation study will also be conducted to prove that NOT drilling for oil and gas is beneficial to the communities in the area and to the country in the long run.”

And, by the way, the strait is one of the few places in the world inhabited by special species of marine mammals, among them, the elusive pygmy sperm whales. But more importantly, the strait is fishing ground for communities in Cebu and Negros.

It is worth noting that 11 congressmen and --women have filed a resolution directing the House Committee on Natural Resources to investigate the impact of offshore mining in the Visayan Sea. This resolution was triggered by gas companies (Japex of Japan and The Forum Exploration Inc of Canada) entering into a seven-year contract with the Philippine government for oil and gas exploration, and another 25 years for the extraction and controlling process.

The province of Cebu did not take this sitting down. The Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved last July a resolution exhorting Congress to proclaim the Visayan Sea as Marine Reservation and Heritage Site, the Visayan Sea “being host to the world’s richest marine biodiversity area.”

The Sulu Sea had been identified as a disposal site for drillings. Alcala howls: “But the Sulu Sea is a prime fishing area and has high biodiversity!”

He adds that the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) was not sufficient and based on old data and “cannot be used as baselines for future monitoring of drilling effects and therefore not acceptable.”

How did Japex gather the data, how are the data and their credibility to be verified? Alcala and his team have discovered holes in the IEE and concluded: “We found the IEE document wanting in the critical survey data and information needed for determining the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed drilling operation of Japex.”

After the tumult is over and the threat gone, we hope to hear in the Tanon Strait only the music of the cathedral waves eternally folding and unfolding.

Suicide has no heroes

The media frenzy, the blame game, the breast-beating, the outpouring of sympathy and the if-onlys that followed turned out to be more surreal than the suicide itself.

Everybody and everybody had something to say about 12-year-old Marianette Amper of Davao City, about her diary, her family’s poverty, her dreams and dashed hopes. And how she ended it all with a rope. So young and so despairing.

Someone’s got to take the blame--was the undying refrain, the knee-jerk reaction of many. And why not. Manette’s lot in life was indeed something for the yagit telenovelas and bleeding-heart movies that truly resonate with many Filipinos, both poor and not so poor.

But suicide, as psychotherapists would tell us, is not as simple as cause and effect or this equals that. Not everyone who goes through what Manette had gone through, not everyone whose life is more difficult that hers would want to end his or her life.



But why--is the question most people ask of the most unlikely suicides. While in the case of Manette, the most likely remark most people would say was, but why not. Or, but of course. She was poor, though not the poorest. But it is not as simple as that.

There was this pop song that became a hit among the young more than a decade ago, and it was about suicide being painless. ``Suicide is painless,’’ it says, ``it brings on many changes.’’ When I quoted this line some years ago (after the death of a son of a senator) I was surprised to get a barrage of emails from readers who supplied the rest of the lyrics.

In the case of Manette, her passing brought on many reactions and actions that could translate into meaningful changes. I hope there are no more Manettes out there who would resort to suicide to bring on changes. A psychotherapist I know well who will be probing deeper into this case told me that “there are many factors that combine and interact and we have to know how they work together. Then we can find ways to prevent it and also prevent other children from imitating.”

The book ``Survivors of Suicide’’ by Rita Robinson, an award-winning journalist specializing in health and psychology, is a good book on the subject. Robinson’s book draws from the experiences of the survivors and the bereaved as well as those of the scientific experts, therapists and law enforcers. The first chapters describe the impact, shock, grief and guilt of the surviving next of kin.

Robinson lists 17 suicide myths, the wrong beliefs about suicide. Some of them are: that people who threaten to kill themselves don’t really mean it, that there is no forewarning, that one shouldn’t confront the person who is suicidal, that those who commit suicide are insane, that suicidal people want nothing more than to die, that it runs in families, that religious people are less likely to commit suicide.

Who commits suicide? How does clinical depression lead to suicide, how does the brain react to depression? Getting help is very important.

The blame game is tackled too. It is tough for those who are mentioned in suicide notes, especially if they are young. Although it is natural to blame someone, it is important for survivors not to place or accept blame.

The book gives historical perspectives and discusses ancient attitudes, the attempts to unlock the mystery of suicide and the role of societies in suicide. Perspectives from the great religious traditions are examined as well. And finally, how to prevent suicides, the role of guns, warning signs, etc.

But the most interesting, the stuff that hold the reader (as Robinson, the journalist, would know) are the true-to-life cases, the testimonies of those who’ve had to go through the tragedy and, in the case of suicidals, the temptation. Robinson also offers media guidelines and tackles teen suicide.

Health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control have come up with guidelines for schools. Here are some. It is important to stress that suicide is the result of a dysfunctional behavior by a troubled personality. Reduce the identification with the actions of the deceased, and reaffirm that it was the fault (decision) of the person who committed suicide and not someone else. And one very important thing—don’t’ glorify the death or prolong praises and tributes for the diseased. Teenagers could get ideas, you know.

Here are media guidelines from CDC: Reporting should be concise and factual. Excessive or sensational reporting can lead to contagion. (Think of the many suicidal Filipinos who keep using the giant billboards as their launching pad.) Reporting technical aspects of the suicide is not necessary. Suicide should not be presented as an effective coping strategy. Suicide should not be glorified. Expressions of grief such as public eulogies and public memorials should be minimized.

Robinson notes that the World Health Organization reported that in the last 45 years, the suicide rate has increased 60 percent worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death of people aged 15 to 44.

The song ``Vincent’’ is about art genius Vincent van Gogh’s choice to cut short his own stint in this world. It begins with ``Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and gray,’’ and ends with ``Vincent this world is not meant for those as beautiful as you.’’

It is a masterpiece of eulogy set to music, like Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers and starry nights. But I disagree with its fuga mundi (flight from the world) theme at the end.

Sure, there are lessons to be learned. But let’s not make Manette a hero or martyr-saint. She was a precious 12-year-old kid going through a dark night.

Suicide and the blame game

The media frenzy, the blame game, the breast-beating, the outpouring of sympathy and the if-onlys that followed turned out to be more surreal than the suicide itself.

Everybody and everybody had something to say about 12-year-old Marianette Amper of Davao City, about her diary, her family’s poverty, her dreams and dashed hopes. And how she ended it all with a rope. So young and so despairing.

Someone’s got to take the blame--was the undying refrain, the knee-jerk reaction of many. And why not. Manette’s lot in life was indeed something for the yagit telenovelas and bleeding-heart movies that truly resonate with many Filipinos, both poor and not so poor.

But suicide, as psychotherapists would tell us, is not as simple as cause and effect or this equals that. Not everyone who goes through what Manette had gone through, not everyone whose life is more difficult that hers would want to end his or her life.

But why--is the question most people ask of the most unlikely suicides. While in the case of Manette, the most likely remark most people would say was, but why not. Or, but of course. She was poor, though not the poorest. But it is not as simple as that.



There was this pop song that became a hit among the young more than a decade ago, and it was about suicide being painless. ``Suicide is painless,’’ it says, ``it brings on many changes.’’ When I quoted this line some years ago (after the death of a son of a senator) I was surprised to get a barrage of emails from readers who supplied the rest of the lyrics.

In the case of Manette, her passing brought on many reactions and actions that could translate into meaningful changes. I hope there are no more Manettes out there who would resort to suicide to bring on changes. A psychotherapist I know well who will be probing deeper into this case told me that “there are many factors that combine and interact and we have to know how they work together. Then we can find ways to prevent it and also prevent other children from imitating.”

The book ``Survivors of Suicide’’ by Rita Robinson, an award-winning journalist specializing in health and psychology, is a good book on the subject. Robinson’s book draws from the experiences of the survivors and the bereaved as well as those of the scientific experts, therapists and law enforcers. The first chapters describe the impact, shock, grief and guilt of the surviving next of kin.

Robinson lists 17 suicide myths, the wrong beliefs about suicide. Some of them are: that people who threaten to kill themselves don’t really mean it, that there is no forewarning, that one shouldn’t confront the person who is suicidal, that those who commit suicide are insane, that suicidal people want nothing more than to die, that it runs in families, that religious people are less likely to commit suicide.

Who commits suicide? How does clinical depression lead to suicide, how does the brain react to depression? Getting help is very important.

The blame game is tackled too. It is tough for those who are mentioned in suicide notes, especially if they are young. Although it is natural to blame someone, it is important for survivors not to place or accept blame.

The book gives historical perspectives and discusses ancient attitudes, the attempts to unlock the mystery of suicide and the role of societies in suicide. Perspectives from the great religious traditions are examined as well. And finally, how to prevent suicides, the role of guns, warning signs, etc.

But the most interesting, the stuff that hold the reader (as Robinson, the journalist, would know) are the true-to-life cases, the testimonies of those who’ve had to go through the tragedy and, in the case of suicidals, the temptation. Robinson also offers media guidelines and tackles teen suicide.

Health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control have come up with guidelines for schools. Here are some. It is important to stress that suicide is the result of a dysfunctional behavior by a troubled personality. Reduce the identification with the actions of the deceased, and reaffirm that it was the fault (decision) of the person who committed suicide and not someone else. And one very important thing—don’t’ glorify the death or prolong praises and tributes for the diseased. Teenagers could get ideas, you know.

Here are media guidelines from CDC: Reporting should be concise and factual. Excessive or sensational reporting can lead to contagion. (Think of the many suicidal Filipinos who keep using the giant billboards as their launching pad.) Reporting technical aspects of the suicide is not necessary. Suicide should not be presented as an effective coping strategy. Suicide should not be glorified. Expressions of grief such as public eulogies and public memorials should be minimized.

Robinson notes that the World Health Organization reported that in the last 45 years, the suicide rate has increased 60 percent worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death of people aged 15 to 44.

The song ``Vincent’’ is about art genius Vincent van Gogh’s choice to cut short his own stint in this world. It begins with ``Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and gray,’’ and ends with ``Vincent this world is not meant for those as beautiful as you.’’

It is a masterpiece of eulogy set to music, like Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers and starry nights. But I disagree with its fuga mundi (flight from the world) theme at the end.

Sure, there are lessons to be learned. But let’s not make Manette a hero or martyr-saint. She was a precious 12-year-old kid going through a dark night.

Rock and refuge: NPC then

It was our rock and refuge. It was our sanctuary during the dying days of martial rule. That was the National Press Club for us in the early 1980s. Many of us were greenhorns in journalism then, upstart freelancers from the so-called mosquito press (okay, alternative, and sometimes underground--and underwater if you were the “Ichthys” type) who made bold forays into the mainstream media and were continually at odds with the Marcos military. Hunted, surveilled, “invited”, manacled and thrown into jail.

Standing tall by the banks of the Pasig River was the NPC which was founded and built by the generation of journalists before ours, a good number of whom bore the brunt of military fury when the reign of terror began in 1972. The founders did not build the NPC in the 1950s for the purpose that served us in the 1980s. It was supposed to be a club, a watering hole for the old boys who wanted to unwind after a day’s work at the editorial office or on the beat. Not long after, the culturati and the literati also made it their haunt.

Vicente Manasala’s mural on lawanit in the dining hall gave it ambience. The mural (gone and sold I don’t know where) withstood the smoke, grime and slime from overbearing journalists who thought the masterpiece was their birthright.



But when darkness descended on the media in 1972 and caught many of them off guard, the NPC began to get transformed from a happy-hour place into a fortress. It was no longer just a watering hole but also a gathering hall for those who valued press freedom.

In the 1980s, it was our upstart generation’s turn to flock to the place and turn it into our refuge and sanctuary. The Plaridel Hall (named after hero Marcelo H. del Pilar) on the third floor was a favorite venue, not just of journalists, but also of those from other sectors (labor, church, students, urban poor, civil society) who wanted to say something loud and subversive.

I have kept two embroidered NPC patches with the words “Don’t shoot journalists.” That was when journalists were considered endangered species. (We are again endangered now). We wore them on our sleeves, lapels and breast pockets. I wanted to wear them again recently but the year on them would make me look dated indeed.

But what other activities, aside from forums and discussions, did journalists plot and hatch at the NPC during those martial law days?

We did books! And I have copies of those books. We did “Press Freedom Under Siege” Volume 1 (1984) and Volume 2 (1985). It was the Women Writers in Media Now (Women) that poured a lot into these books. I remember staying late up to NPC’s closing time with Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon and Noree A. Briscoe so we could finish the book on time. We called ourselves the NPC’s Committee to Protect Writers’ Rights (writers’ warts, we told ourselves). Bogie Tence-Ruiz did the art work on the covers—a typewriter with barbed wire for keys for the first volume and a mock-up of a censored manuscript of a human rights story for the second volume.

We thought we had it all done well but when the finished product came out, we saw that the spelling of the word siege on the book spine was “siege”. That was a most important word and it was misspelled! It became a collector’s item.

We thought one volume would be enough but when the repression continued we had to come out with another volume. NPC president Antonio Ma. Nieva and We Forum (later Malaya) publisher and editor Jose Burgos had just emerged from the military stockade.

The articles (essays, investigative stories, column pieces) in the two volumes were those that got journalists into trouble with the powers-that-be plus pieces from great thinkers and doers who understood the role of the press. Military interrogation transcripts (as recalled) were also included.

There was another book that emerged from the NPC. It contained the proceedings of one of the no-holds-barred discussion on press censorship. I have it in my bookshelf but I couldn’t find it fast enough for now. A slew of books, theses and doctoral dissertations (I know one by an American journalist) on press freedom and how Filipino journalists fared and fought came out of this dreadful area. It was indeed a time of grit of grace.

Now a great furor continues to swirl around the National Press Club because of its officers’ decision to edit and censor its newly commissioned mural on press freedom without the knowledge and permission of the Neo-Angono artists that did it. It was an Inquirer banner story that shocked us all.

I don’t know when exactly and how NPC’s transmogrification into what it is now took place. I just know that the last time I was there, to borrow Conrad de Quiros’ recollection, was in the past century. That would be more than seven, 10 years ago. It must have been around that time that that my membership, and the membership of my women colleagues in media, ended.

It is not that we had outgrown the NPC. The NPC was just no longer what it used to be. We had moved on and there were other newer, more fearless media groups that suited our tempers and temperament.
The fire had not died. We had not changed. The NPC that our fearless, upstart generation knew had changed.

****

If you need vegetable seeds, go to the Bureau of Plants in San Andres, Manila (near the fruit market). Plenty and cheap. You could get a free illustrated book on vegetable gardening in Filipino by agriculture experts if you could prove you’re serious about food production and food security for the poor.

‘Dies irae, dies illa’

I remember our Benedictine school days when Nov. 1 and 2 were marked as special liturgical days. As college boarders (synonymous with brats), we would listen to the nuns singing the Latin “Dies irae, dies illa” at Mass on All Souls’ Day even when English was already the liturgical language of the day.

It was very neo-monastic and I would picture the square-ish Gregorian notes swimming in space while I tried to keep my thoughts from wandering. The organ roared and the voices soared, shaking the rafters of the neo-Romanesque, Germanic chapel which, I must say, is the only one of its kind in this country.

Yes, Gregorian was part of our music appreciation class (part of our expansive Liberal Arts education!) and we were taught how to read those funny notes on four lines and sing them right with the mouth correctly shaped. There was no beat or time, just rhyme and round-ish strokes in the air from the conductor. One was supposed to go with the swelling and the receding of the waves, the ebb and the flow of the sound of the spirit.

It takes time and hindsight for one to get to appreciate all these. Today I can still sing some of the lines from the “Dies irae,” particularly the soaring “Lacrimosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla…” toward the end. (It translates as, um, “Full of tears and full of dread, is the day that wakes the dead.”) It is as lachrymose as Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” and “Rex Tremendae” are grand and tremendous.

Today, I can appreciate Gregorian going pop, with “pop-monks” in red velvet robes gregorianizing even the most current songs. Try listening to “Heaven Can Wait.” I must concede that Gregorian sounds best with male voices. I have yet to be convinced that female voices could sound as good.

As we celebrate All Saints and All Souls, our thoughts turn to our dear departed even as our view of the afterlife has changed somewhat over the years. Thank God, the Catholic Church has erased limbo from the landscape of the afterlife. But there is still heaven and hell and purgatory. You either believe or you don’t.

Recently I had lunch with a known literary figure and his wife and as we discussed the disgusting political circus, the corruption, the lies and the betrayals, he said something like, “I don’t know what the afterlife would be like, but one thing is certain, each of us will be judged.”

“Dies irae,” with its arresting tone and somewhat terrifying but hopeful message, will certainly remain a liturgical musical classic. (I think it was sung at Princess Diana’s funeral.) There are many translations of the 18-stanza Latin original.

“Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in familla, Teste David cum Sibylla….” [“That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth will pass away, Both David and Sybil say…”] The theme was derived from the prophet Zephaniah’s words which should strike fear in the hearts of the corrupt leaders of this land. Why, even last Monday’s “barangay” [village] election, which is supposed to be closest to home and our everyday lives, was not entirely cheating-free.

Zephaniah’s biblical wrath is for those who remain incorrigible: “Jerusalem is doomed, that corrupt, rebellious city that oppresses its own people. It has not listened to the Lord or accepted his discipline. It has not put its trust in the Lord or asked for his help. Its officials are like roaring lions, its judges are like hungry wolves, too greedy to leave a bone until morning. The prophets are irresponsible and treacherous, the priests defile what is sacred, and twist the law of God to their own advantage. But the Lord is still in the city…”

Oh, but he ends with a song of joy. And I can’t help but think literally of the millions of Filipino workers toiling abroad. “I will bring your scattered people home, I will make you famous throughout the world and make you prosperous once again.”

That should bring tears to our eyes. But as to striking fear in our hearts, this much-admired translation of “Dies irae” by Dr. W.J. Jones should do the job. Nature is very much a part of the scenario, so defilers of the environment, hearken and heed.

“Day of wrath and doom impending,/ David’s word and Sibyl’s blending!/ Heaven and earth in ashes ending!

“Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendeth,/ When from heaven the judge descendeth,/ On whose sentence all dependeth!...

“Death is struck, and nature quaking,/ All creation is awaking,/ To its judge an answer making.

“Lo! The book exactly worded,/ Wherein all hath been recorded,/ Thence shall judgment be awarded.

“When the Judge His seat attaineth,/ And each hidden dead arraingneth,/ Nothing unavenged remaineth…

“Righteous judge! For sin’s pollution,/ Grant Thy gift of absolution,/ Ere that day of retribution….”

On the lighter side, All Saints and All Souls will remain among the Filipinos’ favorite feasts. Only Filipinos can celebrate these feasts with so much fun and laughter. Until the West introduced the grossly macabre into our feasting, these feasts were religious and ethnic in nature, solemn but family-oriented and fun too.

As we celebrate these days, let us remember not just the special human beings in our lives who have gone ahead of us. Let us also remember the non-humans, the other creatures that have enriched our lives and this planet. We are all part of a web, of a cycle of life.

A glorious All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

Sumilao redux

On a clear day in Sumilao, Bukidnon, one could see Mount Kitanglad standing tall in the distance. Nestled between Mount Sayawan and Mount Palaopao, Sumilao is a valley and home to the Higaonon, an indigenous cultural community that lived there before the 1930s when settlers from distant places began to look upon Mindanao and the new frontier.

The Higaonon believed that Magbabaya the Almighty, gave this balaang yuta (sacred land) to their forefathers and foremothers. Because of the cool weather and the abundance of pine trees, the people described the place as “pine-tree-hon”.

The Higaonon’s ancestral land measured 243.8 hectares and served as their seat of government. Here, the Higaonon’s tribal council led by Apo Manuagay and Apo Mangganiahon ruled and led through the traditional paghusay and pamuhat.

In the 1930s, the Higaonons were forcibly evicted from the land which went from one landed non-Higaonon family to another. In the 1970s the ancestral land was divided between two landowners, the Carloses (99.8 ha.) and the Quisumbings (144 ha.). (If I remember right the dying Carlos patriarch had let go of his share in favor of the farmers.) The Quisumbings eventually leased the land to Del Monte Philippines for 10 years. The Higaonons became farm workers in the land they once owned.



And then the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988 came to be, covering the 144 ha. which was for distribution to 137 Mapadayonong Panaghiusa sa mga Lumad Alang sa Damlag (Mapalad) farmers who were of Higaonon ancestry. A certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) was issued, making the Mapalad farmers owners of the 144 hectares. But this was not to be.

To avoid land reform, the Quisumbings that had possession of the land planned to convert it into an agro-industrial estate and educational complex, park and tourism enclave. The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) put its foot down but Ruben Torres, then executive secretary of then Pres. Ramos, overturned the decision and approved the land’s conversion.

Things came to a head at this juncture. Much had been written, blood had been shed, a lot of intervention had been made. The farmers’ long and life-threatening hunger strike in front of the DAR office sparked a lot of interest and sympathy for them. Pres. Ramos issued a “win-win solution” which would allot 100 has. for the farmers and 44 has. for the Quisumbings.

Sadly, in 1999 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Quisumbings. Ramos’ win-win solution was thrown out because of technicalities and the farmers were reduced to mere “recommendee farmer beneficiaries”, meaning they have no real interest over the land. No real interest over the land?

Well, after many years, the 144-ha. land has not been converted into what its supposed owners had planned, it has been sold to the Cojuangco-owned San Miguel Foods Inc.

This is how things looked recently: The Mapalad-Sumilao farmers and the San Vicente landless Farmers Association have filed a Petition for the Cancellation of the Conversion Order against the Quisumbings and/or SMFI before the DAR. The farmers argued that more than five years had passed since the conversion order but no development work had been done on the land. They further argued that converting the place into a hog farm would violate the conditions in the conversion order.

Last September the Higaonon began a campaign to reclaim the land with a pananghid ritual. They sought the help of church leaders even while military and police forces descended on their area and raided their multi-purpose center. It’s back to square one.

Last October 2, the Office of the President dismissed the farmers’ appeal.

This chronicle of events is definitely from the claimants’ point of view. I had written about this case a number of times over the years and I am not afraid to say that I am biased in the farmers’ favor.

This is not the end of the farmers’ struggle. A “Walk for Sumilao, Walk for Justice” is underway. It’s a long road ahead.

****

A reader writes to express her disgust by the news coverage of last week’s Glorietta mall explosion that killed 11 and injured more than 100. I agree with her views. I have myself been outraged at the way on-the-spot broadcast news coverage and emergency room journalism are conducted by insensitive journalists.

“Writing you is my way to vent my disappointment over some broadcast journalists on the way they gather ‘news’ Please bear with me.

“In the aftermath of the Glorietta explosion, one radio report came from the field and all the guy had to say was: ‘Halos hindi makapagsalita ang ina ni Maureen sa sinapit ng kanyang anak. Binibigyan na siya ng tubig...’ Then, he popped the question to a relative (I suppose): ‘Ano ho ang nararamdaman ninyo....’

“I mean, can't this guy be a little less idiotic?! I am outraged by the lack of respect people like him in media show to victims and survivors of tragedy. They who rave and rant about censorship, press freedom etc. are so insensitive as to make a spectacle out of people's inexplicable grief! What about the freedom to privacy? For some members of the media, everything and everyone is fair game, so long as they could fill the airwaves, and scream their headlines.

“Pardon my ranting. I should stop here before I begin to sound like them.”

World Poverty Day is our day

We who are not on the extreme side of the economic divide, we who are fortunate to have a little more than the have-nots, but who have so much less than those who talk six to eight zeros in board rooms and golf courses, have no reason to feel that there is nothing important or impactful for us to do.

We are many, in fact, we are the majority, and we have the power. And I do not mean only on election day. If only we could bring forth that power. If only we knew how.

Yesterday was the United Nation’s official World Poverty Day. It was not a day to be celebrated, but rather, to be observed. It was a day to remind the world that a third of the human citizens of this planet—the “have-nots”—could be dying because of hunger, disease and disasters at this very moment because of the neglect, greed and ignorance of the few “haves” who have too much in their hands and those who have the power, might and numbers to change the order of things but don’t.

For the two billion people who live on less than $2 (or about P90) a day, every day is poverty day. Half of them live on less than $1 a day. The UN’s official day—they’ve never heard of it, for them it doesn’t matter when it is.

Seven years ago, in 2000, 189 nations committed themselves to cut that grim figure in half. Four years later in 2004, the figures still looked grim, swinging from hope to despair to hope.



More than 100 million children were still out of school. Each year, about 10 million children die before their fifth birthday. Some 40 million people are living with HIV and AIDS of which five million die each year.

UN figures remain grim. Every day, about 25,000 people die of hunger or hunger-related causes. This means one human being every three and a half seconds, with children being the most likely to perish.

Is there not enough food to go around? Oh, but there is enough food to feed the teeming millions. The problem is that there are millions who are trapped or held hostage by poverty and can’t get to where the food is because they have no money, they have no work, they can’t go anywhere. And when they are further weakened, they become even poorer, sicker and less likely to find work and get to where the food is. They can’t even grow the food the must eat.

Without intervention from outside, they are trapped in a spiral that goes further down. This spiral has to be broken. Doing this is not easy, it is not going to be broken by simply pumping aid money or building infrastructure. Development aid without regard for the human factor will eventually fizzle out.

There are many ways of dealing with the poverty spiral or breaking it softly, so to speak. Development workers would often speak about “food for work” programs that would enable jobless adults to get up slowly and build for themselves the infrastructure that would help them get out of the mire. And for children, there is the “food for education” where children are fed while they are in school.

Of what use is a school and a good curriculum (and broadband networks) if the students have addled brains because they are malnourished? They wouldn’t be able to get to the school house because they suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiency, their lips and gums are sore, their bodies are ravaged by infection. Etc., etc.

One small step at a time. A global problem could find some local solutions that means the difference from here to there. And the poor themselves, if they are not yet so crippled by disease and hunger, could do a lot for themselves, with a little help, of course.

The theme for the 20th International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (that’s the official name) is “People Living in Poverty as Agents of Change.” This suggests a recognition of the poor people’s role in their own emancipation.

There are as many stories on this as there as many poor families. I have seen stories unfold happen around me. I have seen failures and successes. I have seen crossovers from despair to hope.

It is difficult for a journalist to remain on the fringes. I have always needed to savor what it is like, to be there, to sometimes put in something where my mouth is. But one must forget that something will ever come back. Oh, but something does, but not in the way we might expect.

And then, one must remember that local efforts are not everything. On the occasion of World Poverty Day, Jubilee South (a global network of social movements including those from the Philippines) has issued a reminder that one of the biggest challenges for the global debt movement today is to correct the perception that the debt problem has largely been solved by the debt relief programs offered by lenders in recent years.
“The majority of the peoples of the South continue to suffer from the injustice and staggering burden of debt. It is a burden not only because of the huge amounts of debt payments in the face of poverty and deprivation. It is unjust not only because our people did not benefit from much of the debts they are forced to pay. The debt is also used as instrument to ensure that our economies generate profits for global corporations and meet the requirements of global markets instead of providing for our needs.

“We continue to struggle for freedom from debt. We struggle not only to wipe out the outstanding debt claim

from our countries but to transform the structures, the institutions, and the relations of power that has led to the accumulation of unjust and illegitimate debt.”

Poverty has a human face, a name, a voice that we know very well. We need not journey far. We who are un-poor and un-wealthy can do a lot.

****

Log on to freerice.com, use your word knowledge and win grains of rice for the poor. I have won 1,000 grains in one sitting. Someone please check and tell me if this is for real.

‘Go repair my house’

“Moreover they should respect all creatures, animate and inanimate, which bear the imprint of the Most High, and they should strive to move from the temptation of exploiting creation, to the Franciscan concept of universal kinship.” – from the Rule of Saint Francis

This column piece should have come out last week, when the feast of St. Francis, patron of the environment, was celebrated. But he could be everybody’s every-day saint and his teachings remain as relevant as when he walked this earth some 12 centuries ago.

St. Francis is often associated with sweet images of flowers, birds, trees and animals. Last week, pets in their furriest and scaliest glory were again paraded on the streets by their Filipino humans to proclaim the saint’s love for God’s creatures.

Many sang paeans to Brother Sun and Sister Moon, to peace and kinship, to earth’s beauty and everything that dwells therein. As if all these come naturally these days.

No, they no longer do. There is now a price to pay to enjoy a smog-free landscape, the good smell of moist earth, the clean wind on one’s face, safe water to drink, natural unadulterated food, the virgin wilderness, hillsides that don’t threaten to cascade on one’s home.



If St. Francis were walking on Philippine soil today, what would he find? Would he be disappointed? Would he feel hopeful?

He would probably get mired in a mudslide, have a coughing fit upon beholding the smog hovering over Metro Manila, admonish someone who nonchalantly throws a fastfood styrofoam pack into the gutter, be shocked at the state of destitution in cities and hamlets, not find the dignity in Lady Poverty whom he had embraced in his time. He could even take a bullet. Like anti-mining activist Armin Marin of Sibuyan Island.

But he would gladly attend the launch of a Greenpeace report that exposes the close ties of multinational producers of genetically modified organism (GMO) products and government regulatory agencies, making the credibility of the Philippine GMO regulatory system questionable.

Philippine civilization would get a dismal grade in the saint’s book. For St. Francis is not the cartoon saint that he is often portrayed to be, he was a serious peace advocate and lover of creation.

Long before so-called creation spirituality became in vogue among theologians, Saint Francis, like his female Benedictine counterpart from another age, saint and mystic Hildegard of Bingen, was already into it.

Today’s scholars of Franciscanism have had to get past the Hollywood fluff and comic-book portrayal of the saint to get at the meat of his life’s message.

Franciscan of the Third Order Charles G. Spencer says: “If we were to visit St. Francis’ Basilica and deface a fresco, the world would quickly know, and we’d be chastised. However, for the corporate culture to purge endangered species, develop biological polluting genetic mutants, bio-load toxic metals, acid, dioxin and other persistent chlorinated compounds and hormone disrupters into our environment, spread toxic waste sewage sludge and pesticides over pure and fertile ground, incinerate waste without regard for the chemical complexities of the waste stream or resultant emissions, cause untold animal suffering, etc., etc., we are told is the price for progress.”

That St. Francis would move small worms to the side of the path to get them out of harm’s way has been historically recorded. That neighbourly act was not remarkable during his time, but now, it is, considering how alienated people are from their earth-y neighbors.

St. Francis need not point out that the state of Philippine environment is far from pretty. The air and water have increasingly become polluted, marine and forest biodiversity are under threat, the forest cover is decreasing at an alarming rate, there is subsidence in cities. And with global warming upon Planet Earth, the Philippine environment will soon be among the gravely endangered. Unless.

St. Francis was a lover of children and he would not like to see so many kids left starving and roaming the streets. He would balk at the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, with the latter often blamed for so many societal and environmental ills—crime, garbage, ugliness. What about the owners of the millions of vehicles that release toxic emissions into the air?

No less than an environment secretary himself said that about 70 percent of air pollution comes from emissions by 5 million vehicles around the country, contributing to the country’s “dubious distinction” of having the second most polluted air in terms of suspended particulates among Asean countries.

Solid waste remains a problem that contributes to land, air and water pollution. Metro Manila alone produces 6,169 tons of garbage daily.

The 19 million hectares of forest cover in 1920 has been reduced to less than half. Logging and populations that invade upland areas are the main culprits. The Philippines is said to have the lowest forest cover among Asean countries. Mangroves are disappearing in coastal areas. Philippine wildlife’s habitat loss is cause for concern. St. Francis would be dismayed that the winged and crawling creatures are losing their homes.
But St. Francis would be happy to see that local governments and communities, the indigenous communities especially, are taking part in the restoration of the environment.

Some 730 years ago in San Damiano in Italy, St. Francis heard the crucified Jesus speak to: “Go, repair my house, which you can see is falling completely to ruin.” St. Francis’ own dying words ring true anew in this age: “Let us begin, for up until now we have done nothing.”

Apo Reef now a ‘no-take zone’

Today is the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment and there is great news for Apo Reef, the world’s second largest and known as the jewel and pride of Mindoro. The reef is second in size to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Oct. 2 marked the total ban on fishing in Apo Reef. This is to ensure that the reef and the residents who live in the area could recover from the effects of overfishing and exploitation for nearly 30 years. No less than the World Wildlife Fund made this announcement.

This decision was not reached overnight. Negotiations went on for years. And now Apo Reef will be open only for tourism. Well, the question now is, where will the fishermen who depend on Apo Reef for their livelihood go next?

According to WWF, one in 10 fishermen is opposed to the park’s closure but the local government is installing alternative ways. WWF says that giant fish aggregation devices, locally called payaw, have been installed a few kilometres from the coast. Eight have been installed and 10 more will be in place later.

The payaw is a crude but effective device. It is composed of a buoy, a counterweight and 10 to 15 coconut fronts. The algae growth on the decomposing fronds attracts herbivores such as surgeon and rabbitfish that can draw in larger predators. A single payaw can yield at least 15 kilos of good fish per boat. Tambakol, tulingan, galunggong and even yellowfin tuna can be part of the catch.



“There’s resistance now because people fear change,” Sablayan mayor Godofreido Mintu told WWF. “But in the long run, they will benefit from this. Tourists will come back. Sablayan will once again be known worldwide. Mark my words, these protesters will thank us in a year’s time.” Yes, we will be watching.

My knee jerk reaction is to take the side of the disadvantaged locals but if this move promises something better for them and the next generation, it is worth a try. All extractive activities such as fishing, collection and harvesting of any life form will be completely banned from within the park. Ordinance No. 01 was the first law passed by Apo Reef’s Protected Area Managemant Board (PAMB) for 2007 and declares the whole of Apo Reef a ‘no-take zone’—to allow the reef and its residents ample time to recover from years of fishing.

Dwarfed only by Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Apo Reef Natural Park (ARNP) is situated 15 nautical miles west of the Philippine municipality of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro. It is a major component of the earth’s coral triangle, spanning a total of 27,469ha – 15,792ha for the actual reef and 11,677ha as a protective buffer zone.

Just over 30 years ago, the park was one of the world’s premier diving destinations. In the 1980s, when destruction was at its worst, basketloads of fish could still turn up in minutes.

Apo Reef’s biodiversity is impressive. At least 385 species of fish such as the diminutive Bicolor Blenny (Ecsenius bicolor), the couch-sized Napoleon Wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus), 190 coral, 26 algae and seven seagrass species. Larger residents and transients include the Manta Ray (Manta birostris), Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and various types of sea turtle. Sea birds too, are well represented, with at least 46 migratory and resident species, including the famed Nicobar Pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica), roosting regularly on Apo’s three main islands.

The 1970s ushered in dynamite, cyanide, muro-ami and strobe-fishing to Apo Reef. Former DENR Protected Area assistant superintendent Robert Duquil recalled: “You would hear 25 to 30 dynamite blasts daily.” Fishermen from far places trooped to the area. In the 1980s the international diving community lost interest and destructive activities went on unabated.

It was in 1994 that the Department of Environment and natural Resources (DENR) assessed the remaining coral cover of 33 percent. Presidential Proclamation No. 868 decreed the reef a natural park in 1996. But enforcement was difficult. Zoning was enforced and allowed limited access to the eastern part. But the western area was not spared. Then Mother Nature herself struck back in 1998 with El Niño that raised ocean temperatures, a massive bleaching episode and the death of corals.

WWF Information Officer Gregg Yan says: “Most reefs in the Indo-Pacific host a small population of the coral-eating Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci). Unfortunately, Apo is plagued by millions—probably due to a lack of natural predators like the Giant Triton, Napoleon Wrasse and Harlequin Shrimp. Last week we collected over a thousand. But if their predators aren’t protected, the Crown-of-Thorns will be here to stay.”

WWF had a lead role in the passage of the decree through a radio campaign spearheaded by WWF Sablayan Project Manager John Manul. WWF has been advocating sustainable coastal practices for the Apo Reef Natural Park and Sablayan town since 2003. The nearby Tubbataha Reefs have benefited from such practices. Marine life doubled from 2004 to 2005.

In 2003, another assessment was made on Apo. Yan says coral cover was back at 43%. In 2006 it rose to 52%. Bigger fish are returning. Yan is thrilled. “A few months back, divers saw a school of over a hundred Scalloped Hammerhead sharks. Groups of Manta and Eagle Rays have been sighted in bigger concentrations. Giants like the Whaleshark and Sperm Whale are seen regularly. This is proof that biodiversity levels are better. Biodiversity is a prime indicator of a reef’s resiliency and its ability to deal with future threats.”

Nature can’t recover fast on its own. Human intervention is key.