In President Noynoy Aquino’s speech after the televised mass to commemorate the first death anniversary yesterday of his mother President Corazon C. Aquino, he touched on a subject that particularly tugged at my heart as a rural-born and village-bred forester.
The bachelor president may have said it in passing (which was probably why the usually alert ABS-CBN commentators did not even seem to notice it), but in saying that he would soon move to his new home by the stinking Pasig River, he added a striking one-liner that went something like “the pollution of rivers or environmental destruction is a form of corruption.”
I don’t know about my fellow river-loving foresters. But, to me, P-Noy’s reference to rivers, even if it appeared oblique, speaks volumes.
Forget for a while corruption. Rivers are a component of natural resources that we have not really paid significant and sustained attention to as a nation. Even as rivers are the major source (apart from the rains)of irrigation for the country’s beleaguered rice-producing sector, even as they are still the source of drinking water and fish for many Philippine communities, even if we may have had such movements as “Piso para sa Pasig” and other “sagip-ilog” attempts elsewhere, our river management and protection efforts did not go beyond making rivers unfortunate receptacles of sewage, garbage, excreta, mine tailings, industrial wastes, and other filth.
The last time I looked, river management is said to be the outlook of LGUs. If at all DENR is involved, it merely revolves around the processing of environmental compliance certificates (ECCs) for potentially polluting industries. We all know, however, that most LGU officials have concerns and interests much closer to their hearts and political dreams than rivers. We also know that environmental regulations become enforced only when dead fish begin floating by the thousands or when the mass media cry foul over water that even the most stupid of pigs or carabaos are afraid to wallow in. The BFAR, the NIA and allied water agencies are not of much help either, concerned as they are with mandates that do not include keeping the rivers alive, food-rich and useful.
My contention is that whether they are with the DENR, LGUs, NIA, LUWA, NGOs or other such influential sectors, the stewardship of rivers should be within the bragging rights of foresters, especially those whose professional advocacy is watershed conservation. Of what good are water-giving watersheds if the rivers and streams that they feed with life-giving/life-supporting/life-enriching freshwater become poisoned or buried by municipal wastes and mine tailings, or rendered useless by siltation from agriculture, road-building, earth-moving, and construction activities?
Those who are into wildlife conservation may not fully agree, but river ecosystems too are vital to biodiversity. The situation may be different now, but as a boy I encountered – and tasted -- more flora and fauna along the rivers than in the deep-blue mountain forests in our barrio. It was in the forest remnants by the river that I learned to identify such trees as anteng (pagsahingin), alukon (himbabao), bitnong (tan-ag), kallautit (kalumpit), appatut (achuete), tebbeg (tibig), lupa (lipang kalabaw), bittaog (bitaog), samak (binunga), pakak (antipolo), and kaburaw (kabuyaw), to name a few.
It was in the river that my grandparents taught me edible flora – e.g. ballaiba, tabtaba, bulbulintik, taratara and other river greens; karot (nami) that is said to be poisonous if not sliced thinly then soaked in running river water before dried and cooked as rice substitute; ariwat and kitkitiwit (vines with edible fruits and young leaves). On weekends this rainy time of the year, we went to the river to comb their then still bushy banks for pako (edible fern), butbutones (wild button tomatoes), wild ampalaya leaves, rabong (bamboo shoots), kudet (tengang-daga), tigi (pongapong), and uong (mushroom).
The river was also our playground. Armed with palsiit (tirador), my cousins and I frequented the river to try our Olympian skills at running barefoot and at times naked after the papa (wild ducks) and tukling (tikling) that cavorted in the reedy portions. When there was not much kaingin or farm work to do, we went to the river with our pana (speargun) and santol-wood antiparra (goggles) to catch bunog (biyang-bato), bukto (biya), ar-aro (martiniko), gurami, tilapia and dalag.
When I could not wean my cousins from their palay-drying chores, I would go to the river alone and look for bayyek (tadpoles) or akasit (talangka) in the shallow portions or I would scour the river debris and driftwood to collect forest seeds of all shapes that I contributed for extra points to my elementary science teacher’s classroom display. In summer, we joined our aunts to gather the edible pearly eggs and nymphs of the abuos (karakara; tailor ant) and at twilight we competed with other village folks in catching abal-abal (salagubang) that we used as toys/playmates as well as to whet our entomophagous appetites.
This goes without saying that the state of Philippine rivers presents a window of opportunity for new programs and policies for both Forester Mon Paje at the DENR and Forester/House-of-Representatives-Person Flor Tesoro and company. I’m also calling on my colleagues in the academe and the R&D sector to give a try at expanding or upgrading their teaching/research/extension concerns by going outside the forestry box and include courses, policy studies, and development thrusts that revolve around river ecosystems stewardship.
Indeed, it will certainly be refreshing one of these days to step into the portals of the UPLB-CFNR and/or the field offices of the DENR and see them under a new morning sun doing justice to the name “Natural Resources” by their including in their programs something on other natural resources/ecosystems -- not only forests and mineral resources. For a start, how about sections/projects/focal persons for freshwater ecosystems such as rivers, ponds and lakes? How about CBFM, social forestry, or village forestry that includes riverine communities, enriching remnant forests, riverbank agroforestry, river ecotourism, aquaculture, vengineering, and the like river-focused activities and concerns?
As a side note, one of the first pronouncements of P-Noy as a president was to eradicate the obnoxious use of the wangwang (siren). Incidentally, this reminds me that in my native town Dupax, we Isinay-speaking half-Ilocano kids used the word wangwang to refer to river. I would be happy if in addition to eradicating the illegal use of the wangwang in Metro Manila and elsewhere and improving the condition of the Pasig River, P-Noy’s administration will also be able to eradicate the abuse/misuse of the rivers that we call wangwang in our part of the Sierra Madre/Caraballo and wawwang in some parts of the Cordillera.
As a footnote, when I was not yet a forester, I didn’t know that my town’s wangwang was officially called Benay and is one of the rivers of Nueva Vizcaya that contributes water to the Cagayan River. First, it merges with the Imugan River of Sta. Fe and the Pampang River of Kayapa, and then passes through and beautifully irrigates Forester Rudy Leal’s town of Bambang, goes on to roar alongside the Cagayan Valley Highway in front of Barangay Vista Hills of Forester Romy Acosta, merges with the Ibulao River and mountain streams coming from the majestic rice terraces of Forester Moises Butic’s Ifugao, and becomes the Magat River that goes on to become the Magat Multipurpose Dam near the hometown of Forester Guiller Mendoza in Ramon, Isabela, and then downstream to other riverside towns of Forester Nestor Baguinon’s Cagayan.
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