The land will feed us, but…

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:58:00 01/28/2009

The land will feed us, we could always say. It is our mother. It will suckle and nourish us, it will give us strength and vigor. Generations will look upon it and embrace it with gratitude.

At a time when thousands of Filipinos are losing their jobs almost daily because of the global economic crisis, when industries are closing down or streamlining operations using lean work forces, we could wax sentimental and turn our gaze upon the land. How sweet it is for the jobless to say, we must go home again. We imagine them beholding the waiting vastness. We imagine the landless poor romancing the land, at last, and turning it productive for themselves and for the rest of us who must eat during these hard times.

But when I think of those who do not want to part with vast acres of land and justly share them with the landless jobless, I recall again the words of the great tribal chief and martyr Macliing Dulag: “Such arrogance to speak of owning the land when we instead are owned by it. Only the race owns the land because the race lives forever.”



Recently, Centro Saka Inc. (CSI) researcher Eugene Tecson had a commentary in the opinion section and it was about the government’s abandonment of agrarian reform. Legislators, he said, have killed the social justice program at a time when the world is calling for the recognition of the rights of the landless rural poor. By forsaking agrarian reform and social justice, Congress has exposed itself as the weakest democratic institution, Tecson wrote.

Last December 2008’s deliberations on the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) went nowhere. Are extralegal means the next step?

CSI will soon publish its survey findings that show why CARP needs to be extended. I was able to get a copy of the findings.

In 2006 and 2007, CSI surveyed close to 1,500 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARB) to validate the accomplishments of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the distribution of private agricultural land (PAL) in 12 provinces.

Among the provinces were Isabela, Cagayan, Nueva Ecija, Camarines Norte, Bohol, Leyte, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bukindon, Davao del Norte, Cotabato and Zamboanga del Sur. The criteria used to validate CARP accomplishment were: actual award of land or title, physical occupation/installation of the ARB in the awarded land, and provision of support services for the awarded land.

Here are some findings:

The majority (82 percent) of the respondents received titles as proof of their being recognized as CARP beneficiaries. But 18 percent said they have not received any title. CSI says that since all the respondents were drawn from the DAR master list of beneficiaries who were reported as having been awarded titles, how do you explain that 18 percent?

CSI says that one of the strategies adopted by former Agrarian Reform Secretary Ernesto Garilao to hasten land distribution was the issuance of collective or “mother” certificate of land ownership agreements (CLOA). Instead of waiting for the costly and time-consuming land subdivision, the DAR issued mother CLOAs covering big parcels of land. The names of qualified beneficiaries, size and location of the land were written on these mother CLOAs.

Of the 829 respondents who were awarded CLOAs, 54 percent received collective or mother CLOAs and 46 percent were issued individual titles.

Of the 919 respondents who were awarded titles under CARP, 65 percent confirmed that they were still holding their titles. But 35 percent said they didn’t hold their awarded titles. And why? Reasons given: They have not yet received their titles but were aware they had a pending title. The titles were being held by the cooperatives because they were mother CLOAs. Others said they pawned or used their titles as collateral. Some sold the titles or lost them. Still others declined to say why.

The most frequently stated reason was: no titles have been issued them.

But there is a difference between awarded lands and awarded titles. There were respondents who have been awarded lands but didn’t have possession of titles. And vice versa. The good news is that 85 percent of the surveyed ARBs have actually occupied the land awarded to them. And when asked whether they were still occupying or in possession of the land, 82 percent said yes while 17 percent said no.

Reasons why some no longer occupy their land awarded to them: Some have pawned while other have sold the land. Others are still waiting to be installed or allowed to physically occupy the land. Others have leased the land. Some lands have been re-acquired by the former landowners or have been occupied by cultivators.

Only 35 percent or 421 respondents answered that they had access to support services provided by the government. The majority (65 percent or 782 respondents) said they had no access to support services despite the fact that 76 percent of them confirmed that their areas were agrarian reform areas.

So you see, agrarian reform is an unfinished business. But the CARP extension bills, House Bill 4077 and Senate Bill 2666, are in limbo, CSI laments. CSI accuses the legislators of ignoring the results of regional consultations that showed overwhelming support by the farmers for CARP extension with reforms. The House and the Senate have turned a deaf ear even to the appeal of the bishops and supporters of the extension. They have dismissed recommendations of experts that compulsory acquisition is the best way to address social inequities in the countryside.

Mangyan, Aeta fold write own storybooks

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Feature/

By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

WHY DID THEY become poor and oppressed when their ancestors used to live in an Eden-like setting that was vast, verdant, rich and peaceful?

These questions are answered in the storybooks for children written and illustrated by the Mangyan and Aeta peoples themselves.

Poverty and discrimination have long defined their lives. Considered a breed apart, they lived on the edge of society. Whoever wrote the song “Negritoes of the mountain, what kind of food do you eat?” for Filipino schoolchildren of the post-American era did not realize then that it widened, rather than narrowed, the gap between the aboriginal Filipinos and the rest in society.

And so they wanted to write their own book, tell their own story. Pepito Caquipotan, an Alangan-Mangyan, did just that. So did the Aeta elders of Quirino and the Alangan Mangyan elders of Mindoro.

Three storybooks for children, told, written and illustrated by the Mangyan and Aeta themselves, have been published by the Pamulaan Center for Indigenous People’s Education in partnership with indigenous community schools.

The stories are in three languages—the language of the storyteller, Filipino and English—all running simultaneously on the same pages. These books are the first in the Kuwentong Katutubo (indigenous peoples’ stories) Series.

Scheming settlers

Short and easy to read, the books are not just for grade schoolers. Even adults could pick up lessons from them. The illustrations, done by the Mangyan and Aeta themselves, are big, unsophisticated and colorful.

“Diya, Kanyam Buay” (The Land is Our Life) is about how the Mangyans lost to scheming settlers the land and resources that God, whom they call Kapwan Agalapet, entrusted to them. It also tells about how they are working hard to claim what is rightfully theirs.

The book was written by Alangan-Mangyan Ma. Dolores Andrinay, Ligaya Lintawagin and Resureccion Taywan. The illustrator, June Anthony Galicia, is a Mangyan.

“In Agpalkuyugan Pepito” (The Journey of Pepito) is Pepito Caquipotan’s personal story about how he strayed from the Mangyan folkways, was drawn into a school fraternity and all kinds of vices and became alienated from his community. It also tells about how he returned to the fold via the Tugdaan Center for Learning and Development.

But he also reveals his hesitations. Could he see himself wearing G-strings again? Would he be able to learn the Mangyan ways again?

Blood of God

“Istorya na Lima a Dinum” (The Legend of the Five Rivers) deals with a story told by the Aeta elders of Quirino of how Apo a Talon (the god Talon) saved them from the drought by cutting his veins and letting his blood flow to become the five rivers, Anak, Manglad, Ngilinan, Dabubu and Dibuluan.

It was written by Carlos David, an Aeta, and illustrated by Avid Sanchez, David Pantaleon (both Aeta) and Roger Pumihic. Pumihic also did the illustrations for “The Journey of Pepito.”

But this book is not the Aeta people’s first.

In 1992, the Aeta of Zambales, with the help of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, published a coffeetable book (“Eruption and Exodus”) on their experiences of the Mount Pinatubo’s eruptions.

As the story goes, Talon commanded the Aeta’s ancestors: “As long as you stay in this territory nourished by my blood, you will never go hungry. Protect it and it will be yours for generations.”

Without land or livelihood

Alas, as in the case of many ancestral domains of indigenous peoples (IP) in the Philippines and all over the world, huge profit-making ventures have encroached upon their lands, driving them to the edge, rendering them landless and without means of livelihood.

The books also provide context and background information on the indigenous peoples. The Aeta of Quirino belong to the Negrito ethno-linguistic group found in Southeast Asia, most of whom were former hunter-gatherers. There are 33 known Negrito languages, one of which is the Kagi language spoken by the Aeta people in Quezon, Aurora and Quirino.

According to Pamulaan, the Aeta are the original possessors of the Sierra Madre mountain range of Eastern Luzon which the Aeta refer to as Diolanes. They were the original and sole inhabitants for thousands of years before non-Negrito people migrated to the Philippines 5,000 years ago.

The Alangan are among the seven Mangyan tribes of the island of Mindoro—Alangan, Batangan, Buhid, Iraya, Hanunuo, Ratagnon and Tadyawan. Altogether, the Mangyan people number some 63,000, but each tribe has its own language, culture and traditions.

Mangyan syllabary and way of writing has not been rendered extinct and efforts are being done to popularize it among students.

Next generation

Anthropologist Benjamin Abadiano, 45, founder of the Davao-based Pamulaan and president of Assisi Foundation, said there would be more in the series.

Pamulaan, the first of its kind in the Philippines, is a college for indigenous peoples from all over the country. Abadiano, 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Emergent Leadership, along with the Holy Spirit Sisters, helped the Alangan Mangyans establish Tugdaan in 1989.

The Assisi Foundation, through its Peacepaths program in Quirino, aims to strengthen the Aeta people’s organizational capabilities so that they, especially those affected by Typhoon “Paeng” in 2006, could have better access to education, food, water and alternative sources of livelihood.

“We hope the book series would help portray the various realities and challenges faced by the IP,” Abadiano says.

“Through these books, we hope the wisdom, knowledge and practices of the IP could be documented and promoted for the coming generation, so that they would be valued, not just be the IP, but by the rest of society as well.”

‘Obscure in their labor’

Something profound has come upon this planet. At this moment, Earth is pulsating with new energy. May this permeate and interconnect us all…Mabuhay!

I just had my glass of red wine and I jotted those words on a small scratch paper moments before Pres. Barack Obama took his oath as the 44th president of the United States of America and made his inaugural speech last Tuesday. The TV channels and all modes of media technology were beaming the momentous event to the farthest corners of the world. My TV was on, my computer was on. Suddenly I felt so connected.

Only the cynics and the jaded didn’t have tears welling up in their eyes. I cleared my head of clutter and just stared, ready to taste the man’s every word.



I couldn’t help examining the sheen on Obama’s dark skin. Sure, he’s black, but remember, I told myself, he is also half white. But in America where color is color, Obama is colored. Inebriated, I felt good to be colored, as I’ve always did, even if of a different shade of light yellowish brown.

I was breathing in and breathing out with the lilt of his voice, the cadence of his words. His speech was well constructed, I thought. I put a lot of premium on the way words are strung together to effect a poetic cadence especially if the piece is for oral delivery. Short sentences, great verbs, few adverbs, well-chosen adjectives. Avoid statistics.

As to the meat of Obama’s address, it is there for everyone to digest. Pundits, opinion makers, bloggers must be having a heyday dissecting what he uttered. But an address like that is also something that must be soaked in, tasted, contemplated on, or even just enjoyed for the sound of it. In the quiet of one’s soul. And then it sinks in, not just in the mind but in one’s whole being.

St. Paul’s reminder to the Corinthians rang early in Obama’s address. “The time has come to set aside childish things,” Obama said, paraphrasing a line from 1Cor. 13, one of the most popular chapters in the Bible’s New Testament and perhaps Paul’s own valedictory on love and love of neighbor.

Later, in one of the neighborhood inaugural balls, Obama would speak about neighborhood and neighborliness and recall his stint as a neighborhood organizer.

And then he hailed the little-knowns. “Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted—for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.”

I couldn’t help thinking of the Filipino World War II veterans who had fought alongside the American forces and who had waited so long to be recognized and recompensed, many of them waiting and aging on the cold streets of San Francisco, many of whom have died in vain.

Did Obama think of them when he said: “They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service, a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves and yet, at this moment—a moment that will define a generation—it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.”

Today’s column piece was supposed to be for the International Committee of the Red Cross workers who are being held hostage by bandits/terrorists in Sulu. Sorry if I got carried away. But yes, these could very well also be the “men and women obscure in their labor” that Obama referred to.

And so let me leave my humble inaugural day ponderings, let me segue into the realm of “the risk-takers, the doers, the makers”.

Hostaged ICRC workers Mary Jean Lacaba (Filipino), Andreas Notter (Swiss) and Eugenio Vagni (Italian) are still in the hands of their captors. They were in Sulu to look into a water sanitation project when suspected Abu Sayyaf kidnappers seized them.

Bloody fields of battle, disease stricken communities, disasters and myriad scenes of human suffering all over the world form the landscape where the Red Cross thrives. Enduring stories about its volunteers’ heroic and quiet feats are as red as its universal emblem, the red symmetrical cross. (The crescent is used in some Islamic nations.)

No international humanitarian body could match the length and breadth of service of the Red Cross to nations and peoples all over the world in all times, climes and situations both big and small.

Like America’s birth that Obama so dramatically recalled in his inaugural speech, ICRC was also born in the ruins of war in Europe.

After a frenzied battle in Solferino in northern Italy in 1859, Henry Dunant, a Swiss, came upon a bloody scene where French and Italian troops on one side, and Austrians on the other, were killing one another. Imagine thousands of dead and dying without medical care, fair game for looters and predators.

From that battlefield Dunant picked up the bloody seed of what is now known as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or the mother of the Red Cross and Crescent Societies all over the world. Dunant, along with Guillaume-Henri Dufour, Gustave Moynier, Louis Appia and Theodore Maunoir founded the ICRC. Their work earned them the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

HINIVUU--humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, universality. These big words are etched in the heart of every Red Cross volunteer anywhere in the world.

We pray for the freedom of Mary Jean, Andreas and Eugenio.

GK: From housaing units to way of life

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

MANILA, Philippines—It used to be called “kubeta” (toilet) village, the lair of akyat bahay burglars, sopas boys (pickpockets) and other criminal gangs that preyed on hapless citizens.

The place was “tapunan” (dumping ground) for corpses of victims of guns-for-hire. “Sumpak” (improvised shotgun), “pana” (arrow) and all types of crude deadly weapons reigned supreme.

Crime defined the place. And also poverty, disease, malnutrition.

That was more than 10 years ago, before Couples for Christ’s Gawad Kalinga (CFC-GK) built its first ever housing project for the poor in 1999, in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City.

Bagong Silang (newborn) was not as hopeful and bright as its name sounded when it first began as a relocation area. Some 2,000 poor families were dumped there in 1982 to get them out of sight during an international beauty pageant and an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting.

The place was a vast expanse dotted by countless holes on the ground where toilet bowls should be. That was as far as the government went. It didn’t take long for the place to come into its own as some kind of a ghetto, a fearsome no-man’s land, one of Metro Manila’s blighted areas.

GK tenet

Cesar Padilla, 49, was one of the first residents. “I was a Marcos loyalist at that time,” he laughs. Later, he became “tagahakot ni Erap” (crowd recruiter for former President Joseph Estrada). He clung to whoever had power and made promises.

And then GK came into his life and completely changed his outlook. Padilla is now the barangay chair of Bagong Silang, said to be the largest village in the country with a population of more than 200,000, according to the National Statistics Office.

Padilla is not a housing beneficiary of the GK’s project because, he says, quoting a GK tenet, it should be “una sa serbisyo, huli sa benepisyo” (first to serve, last to benefit). Following the GK Kapitbahayan principle, servant-leaders are the first to work and the last to leave. They are the last to receive their own homes.

(The homes are built free of charge. Sweat equity is required. Beneficiaries pay for the land but in small amounts over a long period.)

First-born

The Gawad Kalinga community in Bagong Silang is the GK’s first-born among its more than 2,000 communities in the Philippines. In Bagong Silang alone, 15 GK sites (more than 2,000 individual homes) have been built.

One of the GK’s founders, Antonio Meloto (a Ramon Magsaysay awardee for community leadership, along with the GK, and the Inquirer’s Filipino of the Year in 2006), came to the place more than a decade ago to find out what else he could do as a CFC member.

The GK has gone global but there is no denying that its first-born will always be special for Meloto. “My world used to revolve around Bagong Silang,” he says.

Ten years later, the first-born is still a place to marvel at, with its brightly painted homes and little plant boxes, a multipurpose hall, day-care center, open grounds for outdoor activities, name it. And more units are to be added. The 5,000 GK families are comfortably settled. But they are not cocooned. Reaching out to others is part of being community.

The GK in Bagong Silang is no longer only about physical structures. It is a way of life. Health, education, livelihood, good governance, good citizenship and community empowerment are integrated into this life. And the kids have grown up and, oh, they are all right.

A different ‘siga’

The original “pasaway” and “taga-gulo” (headaches) have become “tagapamayapa” (peacemakers). The old “siga” (toughies) are still SIGA (serving in God’s army) but in a different way. These young ones were snatched from the clutches of vices in the nick of time.

Jeena (not her real name), 30, is now a computer systems and office manager. She finished a course at the Asian College of Science and Technology.

“I used to be into drugs and alcohol. It was all ‘barkada’ (gang),” she said. Her parents joined the Christian Life program and soon Jeena joined the Youth for Christ Youth Camp.

Tonton, 26, was into many vices but came around when his father shed tears to convince him to change his ways. He is now a college graduate and a GK volunteer. He was one of the actors in the “Bagong Silang: The Musical.”

Santi, 27, has obtained his master in arts degree in nursing and is now teaching. “Having a barkada used to be protection for me,” he recalls. He, too, had used drugs.

Randy, 25, has finished a two-year course in hotel and restaurant management. He is now a volunteer at the GK national office’s culture and tourism desk. He was with 13 young people from Bagong Silang who went to Indonesia for volunteer work.

Planting the seeds

The GK has a program for those aged three to six. This year, more than 200 are enrolled in Sibol (which means sprout) in Bagong Silang. The CFC-GK’s couple Dale and Tess Lugue started Sibol years ago. Although living comfortable lives, they crossed over to the GK’s programs to work full-time and never looked back.

When the Philippine Daily Inquirer 0visited Bagong Silang recently, Dr. Eric Cayabyag, a GK volunteer doctor, was there to attend to patients. He first heard of the GK when he was a medical student. He did his rural service and segued into GK work.

But no two GK communities are alike.

The GK communities in Bagong Silang, which are in a crowded urban setting, are not like the ones in the Cordillera, where vegetables thrive, or in Mindanao’s “highways of peace.” The GK Selecta in Cainta, Rizal, is into urban farming.

‘Designer’ village

If Bagong Silang is the GK’s eldest, GK in Barangay Pinagsama in West Bicutan in Taguig City (near C-5) is among the youngest. Some call it a “designer” village.

The units are Mediterranean in style for their color and architecture. Each of the two-story homes has a 36-square-meter floor area. Known designers helped plan the interiors to maximize space.

Because of its proximity to the major cities in Metro Manila, the GK in Taguig has become a showcase, attracting foreign visitors, diplomats and young would-be volunteers who need lodging.

When the Inquirer visited Taguig, five volunteers—a Filipino, a French man and three young Australians—were busy doing their share in the community. They will also be doing work in other communities.

As its first-born turns 10, GK777—the GK catchword—comes closer to its goal of building 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in seven years, or by 2010. More than 200,000 homes have been built in the Philippines and several Southeast Asian countries. The number grows by the day.

The GK has long gone global with its “global army against poverty.”

Revolutionary SC ruling on Manila Bay (2)

Yes, Manila Bay will live again.

Revolutionary. This was how environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa described the recent unanimous Supreme Court ruling on the 10-year-old case he handled that concerned the clean-up of Manila Bay.

Penned by SC Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., the ruling is more than just poetic justice, it is compelling and executory and those who defy better pack up for parts unknown. Be warned. Here now are excerpts:



(1) Pursuant to Sec. 4 of EO 192, assigning the DENR as the primary agency responsible for the conservation, management, development, and proper use of the country’s environment and natural resources, and Sec. 19 of RA 9275, designating the DENR as the primary government agency responsible for its enforcement and implementation, the DENR is directed to fully implement its Operational Plan for the Manila Bay Coastal Strategy for the rehabilitation, restoration, and conservation of the Manila Bay at the earliest possible time….

(2) Pursuant to Title XII (Local Government) of the Administrative Code of 1987 and Sec. 25 of the Local Government Code of 1991, the DILG, in exercising the President’s power of general supervision and its duty to promulgate guidelines in establishing waste management programs under Sec. 43 of the Philippine Environment Code (PD 1152), shall direct all LGUs in Metro Manila, Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Bataan to inspect all factories, commercial establishments, and private homes along the banks of the major river systems in their respective areas of jurisdiction…

(3) As mandated by Sec. 8 of RA 9275, the MWSS is directed to provide, install, operate, and maintain the necessary adequate waste water treatment facilities in Metro Manila, Rizal, and Cavite where needed at the earliest possible time.

(4) Pursuant to RA 9275, the LWUA, through the local water districts and in coordination with the DENR, is ordered to provide, install, operate, and maintain sewerage and sanitation facilities and the efficient and safe collection, treatment, and disposal of sewage in the provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Bataan where needed at the earliest possible time.

(5) Pursuant to Sec. 65 of RA 8550, the DA, through the BFAR, is ordered to improve and restore the marine life of the Manila Bay. It is also directed to assist the LGUs in Metro Manila, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Bataan in developing, using recognized methods, the fisheries and aquatic resources in the Manila Bay.

(6) The PCG, pursuant to Secs. 4 and 6 of PD 979, and the PNP Maritime Group, in accordance with Sec. 124 of RA 8550, in coordination with each other, shall apprehend violators of PD 979, RA 8550, and other existing laws and regulations designed to prevent marine pollution in the Manila Bay.

(7) Pursuant to Secs. 2 and 6-c of EO 513 and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, the PPA is ordered to immediately adopt such measures to prevent the discharge and dumping of solid and liquid wastes and other ship-generated wastes into the Manila Bay waters from vessels docked at ports and apprehend the violators.

(8) The MMDA, as the lead agency and implementor of programs and projects for flood control projects and drainage services in Metro Manila, in coordination with the DPWH, DILG, affected LGUs, PNP Maritime Group, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), and other agencies, shall dismantle and remove all structures, constructions, and other encroachments established or built in violation of RA 7279, and other applicable laws along the Pasig-Marikina-San Juan Rivers, the NCR (Parañaque-Zapote, Las Piñas) Rivers, the Navotas-Malabon-Tullahan-Tenejeros Rivers, and connecting waterways and esteros in Metro Manila. The DPWH, as the principal implementor of programs and projects for flood control services in the rest of the country…shall remove and demolish all structures, constructions, and other encroachments built in breach of RA 7279 and other applicable laws along the Meycauayan-Marilao-Obando (Bulacan) Rivers, the Talisay (Bataan) River, the Imus (Cavite) River, the Laguna De Bay, and other rivers, connecting waterways, and esteros that discharge wastewater into the Manila Bay. In addition, the MMDA is ordered to establish, operate, and maintain a sanitary landfill, as prescribed by RA 9003, within a period of one (1) year from finality of this Decision…

(9) The DOH shall, as directed by Art. 76 of PD 1067 and Sec. 8 of RA 9275, within one (1) year from finality of this Decision, determine if all licensed septic and sludge companies have the proper facilities for the treatment and disposal of fecal sludge and sewage coming from septic tanks….

(10) Pursuant to Sec. 53 of PD 1152, Sec. 118 of RA 8550, and Sec. 56 of RA 9003, the DepEd shall integrate lessons on pollution prevention, waste management, environmental protection…

(11) The DBM shall consider incorporating an adequate budget in the General Appropriations Act of 2010 and succeeding years to cover the expenses relating to the cleanup, restoration, and preservation of the water quality of the Manila Bay…

(12) The heads of… MMDA, DENR, DepEd, DOH, DA, DPWH, DBM, PCG, PNP Maritime Group, DILG, and also of MWSS, LWUA, and PPA, in line with the principle of “continuing mandamus,” shall, from finality of this Decision, each submit to the Court a quarterly progressive report of the activities undertaken in accordance with this Decision.

Citizens, lovers of Manila Bay, unite!

Revolutionary SC ruling on Manila Bay (1)

The Supreme Court has spoken.

And so it will hopefully come to pass that the famed but severely polluted Manila Bay will once again come to life, be restored to its former pristine glory and become a shimmering beauty to behold. People will once again taste it pure saltiness and bathe in its azure waters without fear, with only the sense of wonder and awe and the certainty that something, at last, is right.

The SC ruling is a dream come true, a heard-earned one that meant waiting and the never-give-up spirit of true patriotic Filipinos. Like environmental lawyer Antonio Oposa who did his quixotic part to use the law as a weapon to save that historic watery gateway to the heart of the Philippines.

Shortly before Christmas last month, the Supreme Court issued a ruling (penned by Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr.) that upheld the previous rulings of the lower courts on the 1999 petition of a group of citizens to compel government agencies and local governments to clean up Manila Bay and restore it to its healthy state. Among the petitioners were Oposa’s students in the UP College of Law and his youngest son who was then a little boy. Include the talaba (oysters), tahong (mussels) and all suffocating marine life of the bay. Oposa acted as counsel, spent time, money and energy to pursue the case even after the petitioners had graduated.



And now, with the Supreme Court justices speaking unanimously and with finality from their high perch, Manila Bay can now claim the care it deserves and those who defy be damned.

Ecstatic, the Harvard-trained Oposa could not contain himself and waxed poetic. “I try to reach for the stars,” he told me. “Often I hit my head on the lamp post. But sometimes I am able to soar into the skies, and maybe, for a moment, touch the face of God.” Arguing before the SC on this case was, to Oposa, his “finest moment” as an environmental lawyer.

The victory is more than symbolic for the ruling is final and executory. You cannot defy the Supreme Court, Oposa said. As of yesterday, a commission was being formed to monitor implementation of the ruling and to relay regular reports to the SC. Oposa has invited members of the Philippine Bar Association and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and other “green” individuals to be part of the monitoring. He credits the Rotary Club of Manila for its support.

Tasked by the SC to implement are the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as lead agency, the local governments of Metro Manila, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bataan, Bulacan and Pampanga that have shores on the bay or have tributaries that flow into the bay.

Also the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage System (MWSS), the Metro Manila Development Authority, the Departments of Education, Health, Agriculture, Public Works and Highways, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine National Police Maritime Group, the Philippine Ports Authority, the Local Water Utilities Authority. Name it.

The SC court said that all of them, “in line with the principle of continuing mandamus, shall, from finality of this Decision, each submit to the Court a quarterly progressive report of the activities undertaken in accordance with this Decision.”

1990s DENR data already showed that Manila Bay had a fecal coliform content of about 1 million UPN. The safe figure should be 200 UPN, Oposa pointed out. “What kind of people are we? In other countries they make a showcase of their bodies of water while here we turn ours into toilet bowls.”

The SC invoked Republic Act 9003 and called it “a sweeping piece of legislation enacted to radically transform and improve waste management. It implements Sec. 16, Art. II of the 1987 Constitution, which explicitly provides that 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.

“So it was that in Oposa v. Factoran, Jr. the Court stated that the right to a balanced and healthful ecology need not even be written in the Constitution for it is assumed, like other civil and political rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, to exist from the inception of mankind and it is an issue of transcendental importance with intergenerational implications. Even assuming the absence of a categorical legal provision specifically prodding petitioners to clean up the bay, they and the men and women representing them cannot escape their obligation to future generations of Filipinos to keep the waters of the Manila Bay clean and clear as humanly as possible. Anything less would be a betrayal of the trust reposed in them.”

A maverick lawyer, Oposa filed a case in the 1980s “on behalf of the children and the future generations” against environment secretary Fulgencio Factoran to cancel all logging concession. He won that landmark case.

Oposa had long given up corporate lawyering and concentrated on the environment and teaching. He has written two big books, “Legal Arsenal for the Philippine Environment” and “The Law of Nature and Other Stories.” He is busy protecting the Visayan Seas, one of the richest marine areas in the world, and holds environment camps in Bantayan Island in Cebu where he built the School of the Seas. (I wrote a cover story on the life journey and vision of this man for the Sunday Inquirer Magazine a couple of years ago.)

As early as 1977, Oposa said, there was P.D. 1152 issued by Pres. Marcos that provided that polluted bodies of water must be cleaned up by the government. Alas, Oposa lamented with a sarcastic laugh, only Marcos, and, later, he seemed to have known about it. Otherwise Manila Bay would not have come to this.

More on Manila Bay next week.