Celebrating Earth Day in Southern Philippines

Earth Day rally

Sean Martin, a Columban priest based in the Midsalip area of Mindanao in the Philippines, participated in an Earth Day rally and celebration there on 23 April. It involved around 500 people, many of them Catholics from the parishes of the area who have been active in trying to stop large-scale destructive mining in the region.

The following letter was handed out at the rally and read out from the platform:

Beloved Subaanen people, Muslim and Church People, especially those who are conserving creation. Today, 23 April 2012, we celebrate Earth Day.

We join with the whole world in celebrating and expressing solidarity in preserving the Earth, particularly Mt Pinukis in the Sugar Loaf Mountain range, the sacred mountain of the Indigenous Subaanen People. We are part of the ecologically aware community. We celebrate our actions for the good of the poor especially those who strive to preserve nature, which is extremely vulnerable.

This is a special day for nature and the world, which gives us life. The destruction of nature is our own destruction and that of future generations.

Our efforts to preserve nature in the last 18 months - through peaceful pickets, prayer, liturgies, petitions and the three-day march for life last December 2011 - was heard and amplified in other parts of the world especially in England, United States, and Hong Kong. We admire all the efforts to preserve nature, because we are blessed with clean air and fresh water which is essential for fish in the sea and food from the land. Many of us are the real heroes of this country and indeed of the world, through daily struggles in fishing, farming, and commerce, especially safeguarding trees which are the source of water for irrigating rice fields. All will die if no one takes care of the land which is the hope of future generations.

It is true that many who are active in this great activity of conserving nature have been harassed by people blinded by money and power. Still, we have succeeded in overcoming this great obstacle, even when we have been falsely accused and brought to court for being active in protecting the environment. This sacrifice is reflected in a deeper awareness for future generations.

We note the following quote from the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987: "We borrow environmental Capital from future generations with no intention or prospect of repaying. They may damn us for our spendthrift ways, but they can never collect on our debt to them. We act as we do because we can get away with it: future generations do not vote; they have no political or financial power; they cannot challenge our decisions".

Where will the birds - especially the Philippine Eagle - live if there is no forest, no streams or productive land and the climate becomes too hot?

We hope that the day will come when white-collared employees of the Government will follow and implement the laws that are given to them to safeguard nature for the good of the majority so that there will be an abundance of products from nature. We are very fortunate in the Zamboanga peninsula, especially Midsalip, because we are protected by many laws supposed to preserve the biodiversity, forest reserves. We have the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, recognising the ancestral domain of the Subaanen Tribal People. Where would the poor people live if their mountains were destroyed by mining? Last 16 August 2011, the Supreme Court of the Philippines granted a Writ of Nature (Writ of Kalikasan) that commanded our government officials to preserve the environment from destruction by mining.

The task of safe guarding nature globally is the most important task facing humanity now. It is right that we should be happy and proud that there are still so many trees left in the hills and mountains because of the picket against Logging back in 1987-88. We remember the recent devastation caused by hurricane Sendong which so forcefully struck the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro and which killed over a thousand people and destroyed thousands of homes and rice land, and it was an area heavily deforested. We are not waiting for the same destruction the happen to us because we are actively protecting the source of three huge intertwining river systems of Labangan, Sibugay, and Sindangan, which have their source here in the heart of the Zamboanga Peninsula.

So we publicly give witness to the bounty and beauty of our natural world, which preserves us all. May almighty God, Creator of Earth, bless us all.

Long live the Philippines, Pearl of the Orient.

See also: Mining Campaign of the Working Group on Mining in the Philippines:
www.columbans.co.uk/what-we-do/mission-in-britain/justice-peace-jpic/campaigns/mining/