By REV. LUNA DINGAYAN
www.nordis.net

“Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother.” — Matthew 12:50

Time for family reunions

The month of April has been designated as the time for our family to have an annual reunion. All my uncles and aunts, nieces and nephews would come together to worship as one family, share each other’s experiences and eat together. We do this every year to get to know each other better, to strengthen our bond of love and care for each other especially in times of need. Members of the family would take turns in hosting the activity. But this time, it will be held in a beach in Luna , La union.

In the reunion activities, we try to remember our parents and grandparents who have gone ahead of us, sharing with each other the lessons learned from their lives that would inspire and motivate us even more to live our lives worthy of their expectations. We also share with each other our failures and successes in life as well as our future plans. At a time when Filipino families are facing various challenges financially and morally, family reunions are very much needed to strengthen family ties.

With the phenomenon of Overseas Filipino Workers, Filipino families try to maintain and strengthen family ties through the cyberspace. Members of the family would communicate with each other through cell phones or through the internet.

Jesus and His Family

Now, Jesus Christ our Lord also lived in a culture with strong family solidarity. Jewish parents are supposed to be responsible in shaping their children’s character and in teaching them skills to earn a living. Children are also expected to respect and to care for their parents. As a matter of fact, the Jewish people believe that a person who is disrespectful to his or her parents will be cursed and will not live a long life.

In our text for reflection, Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters were looking for him. Apparently, since Jesus started his ministry, he would seldom come home; no wonder his relatives were quite worried. There was even a rumor that he was already out of his mind. And so, they had to look for him. When Jesus Christ our Lord was informed about it, he pointed to his disciples and said: “Look, here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother.” [Mt. 12:50).

Beyond family solidarity

Sociologists are saying that the family is the smallest unit of our society. Hence, a strong family would mean a strong nation. However, Philippine experience would show us that families can be very selfish and greedy. Look at the few families who rule our country and control our country’s wealth and resources – the Marcoses, the Aquinos-Conjuangcos, the Ayalas, the Lopezes, the Arroyos, the Sy’s, the Tans, just to name a few. As we all know, the concentration of the greater wealth of a nation in the hands of a few families will economically deprive, indeed, thousands of other families.

Hence, Jesus Christ our Lord talks about a bigger family beyond our family solidarity. It is a kind of family relations based not on blood but on faith, hope, and love for others. Jesus said, “Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother”(Mt. 12:50). What the Father in heaven wants has been concretely manifested in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ our Lord among the poor, the sick, the sinners, the weak and oppressed.

Family reunions, therefore, are not only meant to affirm our family solidarity in terms of blood relations, but rather to affirm our family solidarity in terms of our ministry to other families, especially those who have less in life. # nordis.net

By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

The Cordillera, with its land area of 1,821,691.58 hectares, is considered the watershed of Northern Luzon. Even the regional office of the DENR acknowledged that the region is the biggest source of irrigation water for the provinces in the neighbouring lowland regions. Because of its water, it has five hydro electric power plants where electricity produced is loaded to the main transmission grid of the country.

One of the reasons why the region has remained a watershed area is the indigenous forest management practices of the native peoples inhabiting the region. The communities here have existing indigenous forest management systems which adopts sustainability on resource use and utilization.

The region is basically threatened by state policies on resource utilization which are very extractive in nature. Timber license agreement were issued to state-backed corporate interests which logged our forests without enough in return or programs for reforestation projects over the logged areas. Mining concessions were issued which contributed, not only in the destruction of the water system, but also of our environment.

Presently because of the liberalized mining industry, mining applications in the region covered 1,111,995.4351 hectares of the total land area of 1,821,691.58 hectares or 61 percent of the total land area of the Cordillera. By this alone, you can imagine the magnitude of the threat to this region from these corporate mining interests.

And even the state declared protected areas are not safe from these corporate interests. Data from the DENR-CAR showed that the mining tenements within the region’s watersheds – which are usually protected areas – reached 817,380.018 hectares or 44.87 percent of the total land area of the region. The mining tenements are broken down as follows:

Mineral Production Sharing Agreement areas cover 13,167.12 hectares; Exploration Permit areas cover 10,522.02 hectares; Application for Financial and Technical Agreement areas cover 729,996.3086 hectares; and Application for Mineral Production Sharing Agreement areas cover 63,694.57 hectares.

The indigenous people can always invoke their free, prior and informed consent or FPIC but researches showed that their consent were always violated and transgressed.

Back to the reforestation efforts of the government over logged and destroyed forest areas in the region. Data from the DENR-CAR showed that from 1937 to 2008, reforestations by both government and private sectors showed a reforested 56,796 hectares or 799.94 trees were planted per year of that 71 years (1937 to 2008). The reforestation done was not enough to increase our forest cover where the ideal is 40 percent. The region’s forest cover is below 40 percent; in fact Baguio’s forest cover is a mere 26 percent.

Yes the Cordillera region is the watershed of Northern Luzon mainly because of the indigenous peoples sustainable forest management system. But the state treat it as simply its resource base as manifested by our history and the present applications on mining. As it is Earth Day on April 22, you can help address climate change though in a small way. Join the call against large-scale mining. And as we celebrate Cordillera Day on April 24, we will remember Kalinga pangat Macliing Dulag and those who opposed the destruction of our homeland by imposed state-backed corporate projects. In remembering, let us rekindle the struggle to defend our homeland from intrusive state-backed corporate interests. # nordis.net

By KATHLEEN T. OKUBO
www.nordis.net

One of the world’s top richest men could not spare a few hundred trees and an environment securing hillside for a community his corporate person claims to be their clientele or customers. Local society refer to him more as the owner of SM and very recently people in Baguio have described the corporate self in so many adjectives that sums into “a thief in the night”. Led by their children, moral leaders, mentors, middle aged hippies, natives, peers, and local business, people of Baguio declared that for many many years they have lived here and their city prospered without SM. So it did not “have it all”. Baguio can go on with their lives without “a supermall”, and keep freely nurturing a healthy and wholesome environment that clearly Baguio people can not live without.

The corporate retailer–wholesaler has just proven that “the customer is not always right”, or is it “has no rights”? Its declared commitment to the environment was practically demonstrated when it started construction earlier in the decade. Monitoring environmentalists say it totally destroyed the established biodiversity of the hill and a principal aquifer in the area. And now, at this time that this environment is trying to recover, the area is going to be disturbed again to give way to the mall expansion.

Playing hide and seek or playing ignorant of the court’s Temporary Environment Protection Order (TEPO) has only illustrated the degree of defiance the corporate person will afford and the preference for bad taste.

The TEPO could have allowed both pro and cons enough time to think things thru and bring the issue to the table instead of feeding tempers, drawing bad public relations, exposing collaborators and politicians. May the public continue to dig deeper into the corporate person and enlighten us all if this big time reconstruction is really what the people of Baguio need. This is their City, the Baguio people’s city and they have the right too to free, prior, informed consent.

“Sugod mga kasama huwag matakot! Ang gulong ng kasaysayan ay umiikot…”

Some creative writing

Reading the placards and banners at the Baguio people’s protest march was as colorful as their outfits, their orientation and political spectrum – beautiful as a rainbow over the city. I kind of listed several here to share:

“Boycott Treekillers; Don’t support corporate greed!; Cut The Greed Not the Trees. Police should protect the People of Baguio Not SM; Save Our Trees, Join the protest against uprooting of trees at SM Baguio; All we are saying is give trees a chance; Cut your greed not our trees; Titikim ka ba muna ng sakuna bago magiisip? Pls. join me and save my future, from mom and dad; Back off Luneta Hill road is a public road; Baguio can survive without malls, but not without trees!; Save the 182 trees, greed has poisoned our souls!; Keep your coins me want change; Wag niyong putulin mga puno! Ipolong kayo kinni Apo Dios.”

International Igorot Assembly

And, while the protest was going-on at Luneta Hill the Igorots based and living abroad were convening a powwow in town. Like tourists we welcome, these balikbayans are allies too who could identify with local community issues like the uncalled for cutting of trees at Luneta Hill. Several of these guests live in first world cement jungles still they come “home” and also reminisce how Baguio used to be. One can bet besides the “used to be” in their stories about Baguio and their towns all over the Cordillera is the word “sayang” …ayanan ti saleng. To them, welcome and tell us your stories too about living in the first world cement jungles. # nordis.net

By ALDWIN QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right-to-work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining… We demand this fraud be stopped. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the last few weeks, news spread among members of a labor union in one of the two largest mines and longest operating mines in the Cordillera about individuals convincing their co-workers to sign a petition for Certification Election (CE, a process where the workers decide through an election whether they want to form a union and what their union’s name and affiliation will be) in a bid to disaffiliate members from the existing union considered progressive and militant.

In the previous years, these same people were members and even officers of the incumbent militant union. They were the union officials then who were silent during important meetings and activities of the union but were with their members and co-workers years ago battling to protect their picket lines as they staged a strike to assert for their rights and welfare as workers. They were there when the workers collectively aspired to transform their union into one genuine, militant and nationalist.

Local Elections (a process where members elect their officials) and CEs passed and these individuals were with the other union officers and members who convinced their companions to stick with the principles of genuine unionism and not to select company-supported candidates. They even joined many union activities upholding the true essence of unionism and various mass mobilizations fighting for the democratic rights of every people.

According to rumors in the mine site, these few individuals were offered a price they can not turn down by parties who want to bust the progressive union and bring back the old glory of the yellow unions. “Nakaradap da,” (they were bought in the middle of the night) as some described them.

What they did according to the rules of labor unions and their Constitution and By Laws, these individuals can be charged for disloyalty, and can be penalized by the union, and their actions can have an impact on their employment.

Falling to the pressures of the exploitative system and poverty, it is sad and can be disheartening to listen to stories about union leaders turning coats or falling prey to bribery and pay-offs especially those of exemplary leadership and dedication who stood by their constituents and co-workers. They suddenly turn up different one day spreading misinformation and bad mouthing the union and start convincing their fellow members to disaffiliate. They even go to the extent of maligning some of the officers who remain loyal to their members. Some of them even try to misrepresent the genuine and militant union by making it appear as the cause of the retrenchment or the difficulty for the workers claim to legitimate benefits.

Before the union chose to be a progressive one, the workers were already experiencing retrenchments, unpaid accident insurances and unfair labor practices. Most of the workers then were not really compensated well. But when the union members decided to stand up for their rights and shun away from years of silence and adopt the principles of genuine unionism, the company became unhappy. It is does not mean that when a union chooses to be militant, the company will give in outright to the workers’ legitimate demands. The union will still have to struggle and negotiate for the rightful wages, back wages, or benefits from the company. The company does not want to be fair with the workers so it instigates actions to divide the militant union, and recruit leaders to bring back the old yellow union or create another one it can collude with. In order to weaken the incumbent union, the company will retrench many of the workers most especially the members of the union.

In every struggle, there will always be arguments within the union to refine and settle questions and to resolve problems, to reach higher unities and better decisions to the benefit of the members. The workers must be on guard, stick to facts and their data from scientific studies of their conditions. Who will they believe, who is the true union? Are members always the priority? Are their collective decisions made through general assemblies and meetings respected? or is the coming back of the old union where only the officials and the company management decide on the content of their Collective Bargaining Agreement? # nordis.net