Eco-spirituality in the Philippines

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Eco-spirituality in the Philippines
From Earthquake to Mind Quake
By Teresa Dagdag, MM



Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary, where I work, is in the Cordillera Region, the home of indigenous peoples belonging to several ethno-linguistic groups in Northern Luzon, Philippines. This is a mountainous bioregion with natural resources of gold, silver and copper as well as rivers and forests.

For centuries, local people provided communal sanctions to care for these natural resources through indigenous practices such as the muyong in Ifugao where families tended the watersheds for the rice terraces. Today, since most of the Philippine forest is considered to be on public land, it is the government that decides mainly on its use. A more aggressive government development strategy opened up mines and carved dams for hydroelectric power. Local residents cut forests to make way for kaingin (swidden farms) and to avail of timber products. Tree cutting has caused deadly landslides, claiming lives and property.

A tropical typhoon in 2006 caused more than 60 landslides in Baguio City and claimed the lives of two children.In urban areas, fast increases in population prompt developers to gouge more hillsides and build upscale residential villages. Cutting trees, scraping slopes lead to soil instability. More residents also add to the litter in the city and contribute to heavier ecological footprint.

Maryknoll Presence in the Region

In 1928, Maryknoll Sisters arrived in Baguio City and set up a residence for missioners who needed respite from the heat in the lowlands. Upon request, they also taught children in their convent until a new school building was constructed in 1961.

In 1990, a killer earthquake struck claiming hundreds of lives, countless homes, and business establishments. Because the Sisters’ convent was irretrievably destroyed by a landslide, the Sisters decided to have it demolished. At the time, I was part of the local Maryknoll Sisters community of four. Two of us were attending a meeting in Mindanao and were shocked upon our return to see a ghost town that exuded the stench of dead bodies in Burnham Park awaiting more coffins.

With the earthquake came the mind quake. The Sisters in the Philippine Region realized the urgency of responding to the ecological devastation caused by the earthquake and decided to shift our ministry focus from elementary education to Earth education. Phasing out the school, the Sisters phased in the Maryknoll Sisters’ Center for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (MSCJPIC) or Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary, its popular name.

Replacing the demolished convent, the Sisters built the bio-shelter, as home for the humans on the eco-trek called “Cosmic Journey,” a creative 14-station walk that shows the gradual unfolding of the universe. In this way, the Sisters showed a significant shift in consciousness from anthropocentric to cosmic, from human-centered to Earth - or universe-centered perspectives.

Why an Ecological Focus Is Needed Here

The Philippines is losing its forest cover at an extremely fast rate. In 1900s, many areas were already heavily damaged in the Central Cordilleras when the total forest cover in the country was still 70% of the total land area (21 million hectares). The arrival of the Americans introduced logging for export and this had great impact on the forest since the demand for tropical woods made the export of timber profitable. At the present rate of deforestation due to persistent logging, mining licenses and claims, Environmental Science for Social Change report predicted that our remaining forests are expected to dwindle down to 320,000 hectares of primary forest by 2010. (ESSC, 1999)

Government policy incentives contribute to forest loss and degradation. Market forces fuel the government’s aggressive development strategy, making large scale extraction of precious metals from inside our Earth’s surface a priority even though the ill effects of the chemicals used in mining pose grave danger to our rivers and humans. Development aggression is the term used by those who disagree with this strategy which only benefits the country’s elite. Unfortunately, government has now opened forests to mining operations through the Philippine Mining Act of 1995. About 23 priority mining projects have already been identified, and these include, among others, areas in the Cordillera Region in Luzon and Surigao, Davao and Zamboanga in Mindanao, Leyte and Palawan. Some of these areas are part of protected areas and ancestral domains. (Haribon Papers, 2005)

Agricultural crops carry toxic chemicals from inorganic fertilizers that invade the human body, poisoning body parts and causing life-threatening illnesses. Women who engage in vegetable farming in Buguias, Benguet are very vulnerable to such illnesses. The sure effects of damaging ecological systems demonstrate themselves in the illnesses caused by toxic chemicals not only in humans but also plants, other animals, and the soil itself. The latter, when saturated with toxic materials, becomes useless for agriculture, a leading livelihood in the Cordillera.

Eco-feminists show the close relationship between women and ecology. Women are most affected by the worsening condition of the ecosystem because they must ensure that there is potable water to drink and clean water with which to cook and wash. Women walk to sources of safe water that are kilometers away from their homes in the mountainous areas. Of course, children are also obliged to haul water.

In this bioregion, although decisions are made communally, decision makers, often the community elders, are mostly male. Sustainable development requires free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) on the part of the community. This implies the full cooperation of its members. So-called development projects that potentially benefit communities should be subject to the scrutiny of those who will benefit as well as those who may suffer.

Taking Action

In April 2007, Maryknoll Sisters led the formation of Green Initiative Network of some 20 organizations, to assess the commitment of political candidates to environmental concerns. We invited mayoral and congressional candidates to present their platforms for the environment. The network covers Baguio City and neighboring towns in Benguet Province: La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, and Tuba, known as the BLIST area.

Clean-up of the Balili River in La Trinidad is a project by the Baguio Regreening Movement (BRM). Cordillera Green Network (CGN) implements a forestry-and-organic agriculture project in Kabayan, Benguet. Particular groups are responsible for specific watersheds. If taken seriously, a better scenario is predicted to increase forest cover up to 19% based on the key role of the community in forest management.

Baguio City is also plagued by poor solid waste management. Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary participates in meetings of Alay sa Kalinisan (Offer to Cleanliness) of the City. Green Initiative sponsored a workshop on solid waste management in August 2008. Recently, there was a call for the city mayor to conduct a feasibility study to determine the viability of converting the open mine pit in Itogon, Benguet as a site for the city’s engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) project. It will be another disaster if this project is implemented.

Each of Baguio’s 128 barangays aims to establish a material recovery facility (MRF) that stores non-biodegradable waste materials for recycling. At the World Environment Day Forum held in Baguio in 2008, only four were reported to be fully functional; it is taking other barangays longer to organize their members for proper solid waste management. This is a big task because Baguio City is a tourist city and there are thousands of transients every day who may not feel responsible for the cleanliness of the city.

Earth Day celebration on April 22, 2008 was a call to people to heed warnings about the dangers of environmental neglect and the importance of ecological vigilance. As lead convener of the Green Initiative Network, Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary had a major role in the planning of the parade using slogans for a healthy planet based on UN ecological priorities: Climate Change, Biodiversity, Food Security, Solid Waste Management, Population/Human Settlements, and Renewable Energy.

There is a growing consciousness in the Philippines of the need to focus on protecting the environment. “Signos” (Fatal Signs) is a DVD on the threats of climate change narrated by Richard Gutierrez, a young actor and Greenpeace advocate. Another TV program in Tagalog on climate change anchored by woman Senator Loren Legarda was recently aired and is now available to the public.

Ecology and Spirituality

If faith is “the search for deeper meaning, the journey of opening our hearts understanding the mystery within which all life is held” (O’Murchu, public lecture, 2009), then it has much to do with the care of ecological systems. These systems make up God’s creation, the universe which is the primary revelation of God among us.

As human, I am part of these ecological systems and a manifestation of the unfolding of the universe. In fact, I am the universe that has become aware of itself. Because of this, it behooves us humans to care for this locus of revelation for us. I feel and experience God’s grandeur in the beauty of creation and terror wrought by environmental devastation and extinction. Caring for the Earth’s ecological systems is an imperative for us who believe that it is a Christian responsibility. Caring for God’s creation is a way of giving praise to the Creator who has gifted us with these. An eco-spirituality calls us to develop right and just relationships with these ecological systems.

Global warming, climate change, and environmental devastation are upon us. It is in light of these innumerable problems on a global scale particularized in different specific bioregions that our work for integral Earth education was conceived. The 1990 earthquake was a wake-up call to address massive environmental destruction that ripped mountains, brought down our buildings, and claimed more than a thousand human lives in this country. The environmental clock is ticking. We must respond with serious purpose so that we can bequeath a healthy Planet to our children and the next generations.


Teresa Dagdag, MM, is the Directress of the Maryknoll Sisters Center for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary in Baguio City. She has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines.

Reprinted from the March-April 2009 issue of NETWORK CONNECTION, pp. 10-11. http://www.networklobby.org/