I AM WORRIED

I am worried. I am worried about my "ragang rinaranga", our beloved city. In less than two months, its centro has experienced inundation due to heavy rains described as 'freak" by my colleague in the Public Information Office. Yes, freak but not totally strange and unexpected if viewed in the light of the perils pictured by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth. I am worried because meteorologists and climatologists have warned that global warming will make typhoons stronger and rainfall frequent and heavier; and hence, more ruthless and destructive flooding. I am worried because my city grew from being a sanctuary for flood-weary natives who found in it a refuge; hence, the city's name. Today, the land, the raga, is now buragrag, tubrag and ragrag, vernacular vocabularies and adjectives which are onomatopoeic and resonant of the looseness of the earth to which they trace etymology. No wonder, the earth and the volumes of water just let loose during the last flood. Our mountain, described by a Haribon Foundation member as the "most commercialized" of Bicol mountains, does not have much tree cover to hold the soil which absorb the water. They're almost nada.

Blame that on our land registration laws way, way back which even had areas on 18 degrees slopes titled. One such land title, which spanned the slopes in San Pedro, had it registered under a certain Dolores Bowler, which perhaps was a wife of one of the early American employees of Alatco. The other big lands were registered under the names of Spanish left-overs who established haciendas planted to abaca, then later coconut; and lately, corn. Blame that on early loggers of the area who practically razed the mountain. I have a 1900 photo taken by a Harper's photographer showing the thick forest of the mountain; and seeing Mt. Iriga today makes you puke at the greed of those who made the mountain the picture of baldness today. Blame that on the poverty of the people, on the futility of the government and its agencies which enforce environmental and forestry laws. Blame ourselves for spitting at the sky.

But it is not time anymore for finger pointing. The recent flooding is an omen of things to come if nothing concrete will be done to at least mitigate the flood or avert a possible recurrence of a Ginsaugon. It's good that Mayor Gazmen has formed a team which will reforest the most affected part of the mountain. Yet, I hope there will be more local community participation in the program so that they will have a sense of ownership of the program. Most DENR reforestation programs actually failed because of this lack of communal involvement and stake. It's also good that a rainforestation approach, as opposed to just plain, reforestation, is being pursued in the program. We now know that a Gmelina doesn't hold much soil nor water. It depletes water and with the coming of the typhoons, they usually yield easily, like a loose girl to the advances of a handsome young man. It's time we re-seed the mountain of its old inhabitants: marabikal, amurawon, akle, abibling, langyow...The list is long if only we have a germplasm inventory of indigenous and endemic trees.

I have my own idea of reviving the mountain. In the Bible, they often talked about the cedars of Lebanon which are now absent in that country. In the ancient town of Olympia, Greek culture ministry officials will reforest the cradle of the Olympic games by looking at the testimony of ancient writers; ie., history. In this historical approach at reforestation, I plan to present historical evidence of the prevalence of a certain tree mentioned by a French traveller during the Spanish time which can be used to reforest the mountain. It can easily be propagated, typhoon resistant, holds water very well, and can be a source of an alternative high-value rural economic enterprise. That will be my next blog entry.